Digital Commons at Penn State

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Lighting for a Greenscreen can be tricky and it is important that you have a very even light on the screen behind your subject. If you do not have an even amount of light on the screen it will make it much more difficult to key out the green color.

Block out any unwanted light.

Lower the green screen.

Next, light the green screen separately from your subject. It is important to create a soft even light over the entire screen. Use at least 2 lights and try to avoid hotspots by diffusing the light with an umbrella or filter.

Once the screen is lit, place your subject at least 4 – 5 feet away from the screen. The further away the better. This way it will be easier to light your subject without casting shadows onto the screen or having your subjects light hit the screen.

Always Setup your project in Final Cut Pro by using this Tutorial.

First import your footage and background (image or video to be the background) into Final Cut Pro.

Now lets bring our background down into the time line by dragging it in.

Now we want to create another video track for our other file, to do this click Sequence > Insert Tracks a dialogue box should pop up asking how many tracks and of what type. Type in the number 1 in the Video Tracks and click OK

This bottom track will be the background of your video, you can use still images or movies as a background. You should now have two video Tracks that look like this.

Now we want to add our green screen clip to the top Video track, the reason we want it on top of the other clip is because Final Cut Pro works in layers, the top most track is always the displayed or top layer.

This workshop centers around having the participants edit a pre-recorded Video in Final Cut Pro. Initially the presenter will verbally go through an outline of Final Cut Pro and the steps to digitize footage from a tape, afterwards a work shop pamphlet will be handed out to each participant stepping them through editing and creating a video in Final Cut Pro. The presenter will at this time be available to answer any questions and solve any problems the participants have.

Duration: 120 Minutes
This Training can also be broken down in a two part series lasting 60 minutes each.

Area's Covered in this workshop

• Final Cut Pro Interface
• Setting up and Saving in Final Cut Pro
• Digitizing & Logging Footage
• Using Bins
• Importing Assets
• Editing with Mark In /Mark Out in the Viewer Window
• Dragging and Dropping Footage into the Timeline or Canvas
• Editing in the Timeline using the Razor Tool
• Using Multiple Video Layers
• Keying Green Screen Footage
• Exporting Video Footage

The Digital Commons offer’s an array of great technology; one of the things available at the Digital Commons is Green Screen technology. Green Screen Technology is a process used at almost all levels of Video and Film production, it is a technique in which a subject is shot with an even colored background, usually chroma blue or green, and in post production that background can be taken out and replaced with one of your choice. In this tech update I wanted to talk about a product that simplifies the process of using green screen technique is a video or film production.

If you’ve used a green screen before then you already know how powerful the technology can be, but you also know how difficult it can sometimes be to control. When using a green screen the screen itself must be lit almost perfectly even with no shadows or spots that are dark or brighter than the rest. If this happens then it becomes difficult and sometimes impossible to key those spots out. Another big problem that we run into when shooting green screen is that the light can reflect off of the screen and hit our subject. This spill will also make it difficult to key out the screen in postproduction. You may of even seen this spill on television, for instance I saw an episode of Frank TV the other day and I could see a green outline all the way around Frank in some of the shots they used. Immediately I knew they had trouble with lighting their green screen. I want to talk about a product that has and will continue to change how many of us use green screen technology. That product is called Chromatte, created by Reflecmedia; Chromatte is a somewhat new and exciting way for us to get perfect Green Screen key’s with few drawbacks.

This workshop centers around having the participants Key pre-recorded Green Screen Footage in Final Cut Pro. Initially the presenter will verbally go through an outline of Final Cut Pro and the steps to Key Green Screen footage, afterwards a work shop pamphlet will be handed out to each participant stepping them through how to key in Final Cut Pro. The presenter will at this time be available to answer any questions and solve any problems the participants have.

Duration: 90 Minutes

Area's Covered in this workshop

• Final Cut Pro Interface
• Setting up and Saving in Final Cut Pro
• Importing the Green Screen Footage
• Placing the footage into the Timeline
• Keying the Green Screen Footage>
• Exporting back to iMovie

Materials used in this training to come...

Digital Commons Orientation

Duration: 40 Minutes

Equipment Safety

• How to handle the lights including heat warnings and not touching the lamps (Use Sand bags to prevent lights from falling over)
• Camera Lens Cover
• Tripod Quick Release (Click or Lock into place and test before letting go)

Equipment Overview

• Camera uses and limitations
• 3 point lighting setup (we can set this up prior to the training and just show them how it works)
• Function of the Podcasting microphones
• Functions of the Editing Systems

Time Management

• Pre-Production
• Production
• Post-Production