Wednesday, 6 January 2010

TV Production and Green Screen

By Phillip Guye

The arrival of satellite television has seen the virtual explosion of TV channels, broadcasters, production houses and content producers. This is because satellite TV and direct to home platforms have indeed pushed the frontiers of TV broadcasting beyond all conceivable boundaries and onto a global scale. It is no wonder that TV networks across the world make use of the use of a Green screen.

One of the common methodologies that are utilized in TV program production is that of employing a Green screen in the background of the studio where a particular program is being shot. This is a component of the strategy of chroma key which deals particularly with the removal of certain photographs in the background of the shot and superimposing this with some other image, which is more suitable for the production. For instance, one can use a screen that is green in color behind a broadcaster who is reading out the weather reports. When viewers watch the program, the green or blue screen as the case may be , is replaced with a weather map or scenes of certain cities or satellite photographs being shown instead.

A Green screen is very helpful for chroma key uses, on account of the fact that the normal human skin tone has little elements of green in it. This assists in high standard of image superimposition as well as the replacing of background, without interfering much with the general view of the broadcaster who is standing in the foreground. If there had been any green tint or tone in human skin, parts of the body would became invisible when using the other colored screen, making the effect quite peculiar and highly indecorous and incongruous.

One of the main advantages of using a Green screen is that it is fairly easy to execute as well as being inexpensive. If one were to use a huge plasma or HDTV screen behind the broadcaster, the effect could be marvellous, but the cost would be far bigger than using a green screen. In these days of recession, where cost management is the key, the dice is loaded in favour of using less expensive options.

One can simply make a Green screen that may be used in TV program production. For this, something as straightforward as a table cloth may be employed. This cloth must be frequently painted, so that there are no smudges or uneven areas that would stand out when the show goes on air. One can also employ a plain wall that's uniformly painted in green to form the coloured background. One of the suggestions to remember when using such a screen is if the background image is one of trees or forests, green is a better colour to use than blue for the background, while if the image is of the sea or the sky, green wouldn't be so good. Using a green screen is therefore an efficient method of employing chroma key technique in television programme production, which is favored due to its simplicity and inexpensiveness.

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