NEWS - Green screen workshop

Green Screen workshop

We were assembled as a class in studio two to take part in a workshop regarding green screen, or Chroma-Keying, or Keying, for short. in this workshop we were given the opportunity to set up and work with two different methods, traditional green screen, and retro-reflective.

previous to this workshop I had worked with traditional blue and green screen chromakey, in one instance using traditional, non-digital methodologies, quite literally cutting the red waveform from a colour video signal using an old fashioned video mixing device. more prevalent in my experience has gbeen the use of chromakey blue, and green screens, with the colour information removed in post-production, often using a (then) plugin for premier pro and Final Cut called 'Keylight'. this experience included lighting the subject for minimal shadow.

the elements covered in  the workshop for which I had no previous experience in were binary,

A, setting up the specific equipment available from this course's store,

 and B, Retro-reflective chromakey.
in retro-reflective chromakey, instead of using a green screen, you use an especially treated screen, designed to reflect light only from certain angles, those angles being that of the camera lens.
a green-light casting, halo-shaped emitter is fitted to surround the camera lens, this produces light that is reflected by the screen, back into the lens. The  effect of specific reflection allows only the camera to pick up the green light, and with the proper application of white balance, allows the subject to be lit separately, and not be tinged green.

I prefer traditional chromakey as to my mind its less fussy about at what angle the screen is at in relation to the subject. I am also used to the workflow of traditional chromakey and this may play a part in my opinion. another downside is that you have to be careful how you light the subject using redheads, errant reflections upon the screen can be disadvantageous to the process of chromakey.