In the 1970s, when chromakey technology debuted, it was mainly used in television newsrooms, to project images into a monitor behind the local weatherman, allowing him to interact with animated maps, graphics, and scenes of the local community.
In that role, chromakey did its job reasonably well, but when first used by Hollywood for television special effects, it almost always looked cheap and hokey (four simple words: Land of the Lost.)
But in the decades since, chromakey has shed many of its negative connotations. Combined with computers, sophisticated software and high-definition video, it's the first step to giving films such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sin City, 300 and the Star Wars prequels their distinctive look. But Hollywood has zillions of dollars to spend. What can you do on a shoestring?
All sorts of things, to be honest.
What Can Chromakey Do For You?
For the budding Tarantino, it can provide a backdrop for your actors on the cheap (or strange new worlds, for the budding Roddenberry). Take a look at this clip, in which three actors running around the beaches of Normandy with a skeletal video crew and some green screen material are digitally composited and multiplied into the '82nd Airborne.
Check out the material shot by the Trekkies at Starship Exeter, whose second online effort stretches shoestring production values into an overall look rivaling that of Desilu's craftsmen in 1966.
Or scroll through the archives of Michelle Malkin's "Vent" clips from her Hot Air.com site. You might not be simpatico with Malkin's politics, but there's much for someone new to online video to learn from her video clips. The best of them boast production values (courtesy of blogger and video technician Bryan Preston) that would allow them to cut into any network nighttime news broadcast.
But getting started with green screen isn't for the faint of heart. At a bare minimum, it requires a blend of software, camera, lighting, the green screen itself.
Also note that while so far I've been calling it green screen, blue is still frequently used as well. In fact, in the past, the main color for both chromakeying and film special effects was blue screen, but beginning in the late 1970s, there was a slow film industry flip-over to green-colored screens for chromakey.
This article credits the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie as spawning the change for obvious reasons–Superman's blue suit risked him appearing invisible in front of a blue screen! This is because digital cameras retain more detail in the green color channel. Additionally, green screens typically require less light to properly illuminate. However, both of these colors share a similar trait: unless you're videotaping an Andorian or an Orion, flesh tones don't contain blue or green. Which is why they remain the two most popular colors for chromakey, even though many of today's chromakey programs use a Photoshop-style eyedropper to set their keys, and can key from almost any color.
Learning The Keys To Chroma
John Jackman's Bluescreen Compositing, published by Focal Press, is a great place to begin to learn the keys to chroma. Jackman, the head of an independent film production firm with over 30 years experience, starts the reader out at the beginning with the technology of yore–Hollywood's blue screen film effects of the 1950s through the original 1977 Star Wars, and the first green screen chromakey systems for video in the 1970s. Jackman's book then quickly moves on, to the various software keyers built into today's popular video editing programs.
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