What was once a standard in news broadcasting and video game production has now found a new home in classrooms. Students and teachers have embraced the teleporting powers of the green screen which adds addition layers of engagement and perspective for school projects. The best part, for schools budgets, is this is a very inexpensive set up and there are several programs or apps that are free! Inexpensive and or free… Intrigued yet?
When using green screen’s you can be teleported to the top of the Great Wall of China, swimming 20,000 leagues under the sea, standing inside a piece of art, or in a sophisticated news media studio.
Technical Stuff
Color Keying (Chroma keying) – is a special effect allowing layering of images or video to replace part of another image or video.
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Why Green? Well it doesn’t have to be green. The screen could be blue (also popular), red, gray etc… However, in the case of a red screen, it is possible that the red may match a natural skin tone such as lips and after keying they could be removed. That would just look weird. Green is a common choice because it is a bold color, that reflects light well, and isn’t often match t a natural skin tone.
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Programs/Apps – There are lots of different programs, however I choose to focus on common or free programs/apps.
WeVideo – One of my favorite video editing programs. The free version is decent. I would check with your school as they might have an upgrades subscription already. Compatible with iPads/iPhones/Macbooks/Chromebooks. I have had great success with the camera’s on all the devices.
Touchcast – is a new program to me. Although it is starting to win me over. You can annotate video, collaborate, and communicate as well as film on a green screen. Check out the Touchcast tutorial
iMovie – For a long time this was my goto video editor. Standard on Apple devices and straight forward to use.
Check out the iMovie tutorial
Projects
- Creative Green Screen Projects – some great topics and examples.
- Mini Me
- Green Screen Weather
- Ellis Island News Report
Green screens add a bit of fun to projects. They also can make very professional looking broadcasts. There are lots of options in screens to meet you project ideas. Amazon has a great selection, with some as low as $20 bucks. Give it a try.