Green Screen

Act in your own movie! Our directors will guide you through your acting scenes in front of the green screen. When you watch the playback with the digital backdrops in place, you’ll be the star of your own movie!

Green screen (also known as blue screen, color keying, or Chroma key) is a technique frequently used in the film and television industry to achieve special effects. Using computer technology, one image is superimposed on another. The two images are blended, and a color is removed from one image to reveal the other image behind it. For instance, an actor standing in front of a green screen in Hollywood could be made to look like he’s in a Roman coliseum.

This technique is commonly used for weather forecast broadcasts— though the weather announcer on the six o’clock news appears to be pointing to symbols on a large map, she is actually standing in front of a blue or green background in the TV studio.

Blue is generally used for both weather maps and special effects because it is complementary to human skin tone. However, for most other purposes green is preferred, because digital cameras retain more detail in the green channel and it requires less light than blue.

Clothing is important when using the green screen. If the person being filmed wears clothing similar to the chroma key color, the clothing may be replaced with the background video. This technique is sometimes used intentionally— as in the Harry Potter films, to make Harry's cloak invisible.