Using Green Screen For Making Videos- Part 2

Hey, guys. Here it is... part 2 of using Green Screen in the art room. And again... you'll hear about what worked, the near misses and what I would have done differently.

First up... here's the near miss. As the kids were working with the Plasticine clay, I let them chose what colors they would use. Sophia decided to use green for her alien character. Oh, geez!  Was I ever not thinking...

Once we were about to start filming we realized we had to change up the color of the green alien. Otherwise, he wouldn't show up once the Green Screen came into play. So Sophia had to quickly remake a new alien. Which she did, with some white Plasticine clay. Whew! Close one. Not having the alien show up on screen would have been a problem!

Next up... Backgrounds.  

Before we went to the DoInk Green Screen app we had to choose our backgrounds. We decided we would use two. One of the Milky Way and one of the planet Jupiter. We found these by doing some research on Google images.

We used the image of the Milky Way for when they were travelling. And the image of Jupiter's landscape for when the spaceship has landed.

The kids wanted to try and do some special effects in the video. We decided we would have the spaceship break apart after it lands. Also, we would have the alien fly through the air to fix the spaceship. Our solution for this to happen was to use green string attached to the space ship and the alien. We figure we could manipulate the objects with the string.

We kept our fingers crossed that the green string wouldn't show up once we started using Green Screen. And I'm happy to say... It worked! In the video you can see the spaceship break apart and the alien flying to fix it. all done through the magic of green string, tape and Green Screen.

Every thing has a learning curve! Here are a couple of things I would have done differently.

I would  use more lights while filming. I think it would be easier for me to manipulate the chroma filter and sensitivity on the app. You can see some fuzzy green in the background and sometimes the alien appears transparent. No matter how much I tried to adjust the chroma, I just couldn't fix this. We were in a room with no windows. And all we used was the school ceiling lights. So I'm working on getting some mobile lighting I can bring in in the future.

The other thing I would do differently is to hold my I pad in landscape mode. While we were filming it was held in portrait mode. Big problem! DoInk Green Screen app is in landscape mode. We filmed all the character dancing around in a circle after the alien helps them. It looked great. But none of that shows up on the final product. UGH!!!

So there it is... I'm really proud of what the kids did with this and how much effort they put into this film. Me? I'm still a work in progress when it comes to student film making.

Here we go. Check it out: The Kindness Of Aliens (with Green Screen)

I hope this will help you if you decide to try Green Screen. Let me know in the comments below if you've tried DoInk Green Screen. I'd love to hear about it.