Episode 010 - Green Screen and Sex Appeal

Roles are reversed Tim and Josh are actually takes their jobs seriously while Ryan procrastinates... well, more like takes over the town with Emily. Plus, Ryan goes over how to use a green screen and how to light it properly. Finally, Ryan highlights the 48 Hour Film challenge in Orlando, Florida.

Episode Run-time - 10:03

Green Screen
To get started you need a green background. Ryan uses a wall that he painted chroma green. It can get pretty pricey to buy chroma-green paint, then spending time painting a wall in a garage so Ryan offers some alternatives.
 * Chroma_green.pngculty: Medium
 * Needs:
 * Green Background
 * Editing or effects software
 * Lighting
 * Cost: ???

A green fabric of any kind, such as a blanket, should work just fine as a green screen. You will need to suspend the blanket on a wall or stand of some sort.

Lighting the Screen
It is important to get as much even lighting on your green screen as possible. Too much variation in lights will make keying in post production almost impossible. Ryan lights his green screen by having two lights on either side of the green screen and a soft source, such as a soft box, to fill in the middle.

Next, you want your lights to fall within a cool color temperature. If you are using soft white or bright white bulbs, you will want to use a color temperature blue (CTB) gel to cool it down as yellow and orange light reduces contrast between the subject and the green screen. You can get around using CTB gel if you use bulbs that are rated cool white or day light.

Shooting your Subject
Bring in your subject and have them stand as far away from the green screen as possible. This is to avoid light spill, in which light reflected off the green screen falls on the actor and casts a green light on them.

You will then light your subject using the same three point lighting setup as seen in Episode 8. Your final lighting setup will depend on the kind of environment you decide to put your actor in.

Seperation
"One of the main keys to good green screening is seperation, and one of the biggest components of seperation is your back light. The back light creates the rim around your actor that helps your software to determine which is the screen and which is your actor." -Ryan

For more about post production on green screening, check out Film Riot's Facebook page.

Quick-Tips: Cutting Dialogue
Cutting dialogue can be tricky. If not done right, it could be boring and unnatural. Slow exchanges can really bring down a comical and/or realistic scene. To get round this you need to shorten the time between your actors' exchanges.
 * 1) Trim the time it takes for the actors to respond to one another.
 * 2) Cut the audio so that one actor starts talking before you actually cut the footage to them. Overlapping the audio like this creates a more realistic exchange.

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