Why travel across the globe for a video shoot when you can achieve the look you want without all the hassle? Also known as color keying or color separation overlay, chroma key is the process used in film, video, and still photography where you replace some portion of your image with something that wasn’t there during principal photography. Achieved with the help of a green screen, this process gives you the option of putting your actors in front of any background without having to go on location or custom-build something.
By removing the limits of your video production, chroma key enables you to create your ideal scene without leaving the studio.
Why a green (or blue) screen?
With the miracles of modern technology, we can chroma key in post-production as well as in real-time. In post-production, your editor adds background images while putting the finishing touches on your video. In real time, an operator simply integrates a customizable backdrop into live footage. For example, think about the weather report on the nightly news. The background screen giving you the weekly temperatures is created by a color separation overlay. In the studio, the weather person is simply standing in front of an empty screen.
When shooting footage with a stand-in screen you’re planning on replacing in the final product, you have to make sure the background color doesn’t appear anywhere else in the shot. Since the green (or sometimes blue) tint to the screen is a rarity in clothing/set dressing, it’s ideal as a backdrop color. This ensures no other element in the scene is altered during the chroma key process. Only the chroma green or blue registers during editing!
Visit exotic locations without leaving set!
Chroma keying allows you to take your video anywhere you want without having to travel there. If executed correctly, this yields huge cost savings! But, in order to achieve a professional, realistic look, it’s important to have an expert team guiding you through the shoot. ECG Productions has years of experience shooting green screen footage in-house. With a hand-crafted cyclorama screen, there won’t be any wrinkles or seams to your background to damage the effect. Using Adobe After Effects, Primate, and DaVinci Resolve, we always achieve a clean key.
We’re able to replace everything but the talent in a shot, or just green-out a small portion of the scene. Using this effect, we can take our talent to Paris, the moon, or even your corporate office! In short, wherever you want your video to “take place,” we can make it happen.
Adding the extra touch with complete service
As a full-service production company, ECG goes the extra step to make your “stand-in” background look real. By selecting images before setting up the shoot, our experts can match the studio lighting with the lighting in the background you’re adding. This gives the video a more realistic and cohesive appearance, raising the quality of your footage.
To learn more about our custom green screen and chroma key capabilities, contact ECG Productions today.