I’ve done a fair amount of green screen video over the past could of years. It’s cool because it allows you to remove the green parts using software (using an effect called chroma key), and use anything you want as a background – either video or still image. You can do the same thing with blue screen (though that’s more common with film than with digital video). Do you remember the scene in Wayne’s World when they get a blue screen and put various locations behind them? Wayne explains that a new thing called “chroma key” allows them to travel anywhere in time and space.” They put up cool location backgrounds like New York, Hawaii and Texas, with Wayne and Garth playing along and acting like they are really there. Though when one of those background locations Delaware, Wayne just says, “Umm, hi. I’m in —Delaware.” It’s funny. Meh, I guess you had to be there:). Anyway….
One problem many folks have when doing green screen video is having too small a screen. I had this issue, and thought the only way I could deal with it was to zoom in far enough that the edges of the green screen (and the stuff behind it) were not visible in frame. But this limits you to close-up shots. When I tried to get further away, the edges of the screen and all the stuff behind it became visible.
But there is a way – a pretty easy way – to have a small green screen (even MUCH smaller than mine), and still have shots that are further back. It’s called using a “garbage matte.” Garbage matting is really just another way to say “masking out everything beyond a certain distance from the subject.” Yeah, it’s quicker just to say “garbage matte,” isn’t it?
Anyway, most video editing software can do this. All you need the program to be able to do is:
- Stack multiple video tracks – like layers in Photoshop, and
- Create masks on video tracks – again, like you might do in an image editing program like Photoshop
If you don’t use image software, that’s OK. The video below will explain all this stuff and how cool it is.
Basically, this is kind of obvious to people who do video editing all the time. But for those of us who don’t, the lack of this knowledge can be frustrating and lead to poor video. And we don’t want that! This site is all about making better video! Hopefully this video will be a great help to you.
Your demo of creating a garbage matte in SONY Vegas is REALLY NICE…. really easy to follow.
Suggestion: I saw that you are using incandescent photoflood lights with aluminum reflectors… okay for monochrome but not so good when working in color. May I suggest that you buy some quartz-halogen fixtures at Home Depot or other similar store? Construction workers use them to brightly illuminate their work areas. You could bounce the light off your ceiling for nice, even, soft illumination. Such lights cost MUCH LESS than the expensive quartz halogen fixtures we (pros) use in video studios and are 3200 degrees Kelvin like our lights… perfect color temp for studio work… although a bit hot… necessitating in-studio air conditioning; the illumination would be better for you than the floods you are using now. 🙂
Please keep making your tutorials.
Ernie,
Thanks VERY much for your suggestion and your kind comment! sorry it took over a year to respond:-P. I actually did purchase a set of those lights for lighting awhile back, but the problem I had (I use them to illuminate the green screen) is that the reflectors in them have hard creases from the corners to the bulb, which then cast themselves onto the green screen as giant X marks. Do you have a suggestion as to which brand/type to get? Also, those work lights take up a huge amount of space. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with that? Right now I can just clamp those aluminum reflector shells onto anything – mic stands, etc. And they stay out of the way for the most part until I’m ready to make a video.
Thanks again for your comment. I think I’m ready to start working on this site again.
Cheers!
Ken