Green Screen From the Comfort of Your Home

What you should know is that the single most important aspect to successful green screen is lighting.

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When setting up your lights the first thing you should do , is lighting your background. Background lights are perhaps most important lights if you want to achieve best results. The most important part here is to light the background as evenly as possible. That is why it is always better to have at least two lights to do this job.  These lights should be pointed toward the green screen at approximately 45° angle. Typically, these lights should be about 6 feet away from the green screen, although the material of your green screen and the type of lights will determine how close you need to position them.

Remember that the goal is even lighting so move the lights around until you find a good, balanced light value across the entire green background.

Avoid hot spots whenever possible. 

After you finished setting up your background lights, next step would be to light your subject. To do that you will need a minimum of two lights : Key Light and Fill Light. 

I am using only 3 lights in this course. But to achieve even better results it is recommended to use 4. Two for the background and two to light your subject.

In this lecture you will learn why green is the most commonly used color in Chroma Keying; and about different materials that you can use as your backdrop. 

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The process that replaces a solid-colored background from behind the subject of a video or a photo with a new background is called chroma keying. This technique also known as green screen or color keying.

When you watch the weather forecaster on TV standing in front of a map, what you are seeing is Chroma key photography at work! And there two most common colors used for Chroma key, it is Green and Blue.
And if you are wondering, “Why use a green screen or a blue screen? The answer is very simple.  Separating a background from a human subject in a video is much easier if the background is made of a solid color which is not found in human skin tones, like the colors green and blue.

Today’s cameras (in particular video cameras) have digital sensors highly sensitive to the color green. The green channel is the cleanest on digital cameras and therefore the sensors deliver less noise.Green also is less common in clothing, so that is another reason why would you want to use green.

There are many different green screen backgrounds on the market today, so before you buy one, carefully consider how you’ll be using yours. For an occasional fun shot? or as a frequently used tool for your business? For studio shots only, or mostly for outdoor sessions? 

Whatever you choose, stay away from glossy or shiny materials since one of the issues with chroma key is the bounce-back color from reflective backdrops. 

Sound! How many people neglect the importance of a good quality sound?! In this lesson you will learn about different types of microphones that you can use in you home studio.

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Sound is very often one of those things that beginner video producers or content producers neglect, although many filmmakers will tell you that films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. And sometimes sound even overplays the visual. People can tolerate if the video quality isn’t very good, but if you hear bad audio quality it will irritate you and distract from the video. Which will eventually can make your audience or prospects not only loose interested in what you have to offer, but also leave a negative comments and feedback. I see a lot of people who are just starting to produce online courses, very often don’t take this element of video production seriously, and then get surprised why no one wants to buy their courses , or want to watch them till the end. 

So if you are serious about producing great video content, then remember, even if you are using $20 000 dollar camera, but your audio sounds like you recorded it in the bathroom, your audience will not care if you use most fancy camera to record your video , or you have done it on your smartphone.  

When filming you need to make sure your audio sounds crisp so your audience can hear you loud and clear. The easiest and cheapest way to achieve this is by using built in microphone in your camera. The sound you receive from this option often appears a bit echoey, distant, hollow and what’s worse, it usually picks up all the other noise in the room and outdoors which is very hard to fix in post.

There are many different types of microphones available on the market today. Such as shotgun mikes that are most commonly used in film production, handheld mikes that you normally see on the stage at the music concerts, and of course the lavalier or wearable mikes. Main differences in these microphones is not only in their sizes and design, but also how they pick up sounds. Some microphones pick up sound equally from all directions; others pick up sound only from one direction,  or a particular combination of directions.

Market is over-saturated with different brands and models of digital cameras, and at times it makes it difficult to make a choice. After completing this lecture you will know exactly what features to look for when buying your camera. 

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There are so many cameras out there today that you can spend hours and hours choosing the right one for you. I am not an advocate for any particular brands, since I have experience working with Nikon, Canon and Sony cameras, and they all do a great job. Once you understand basic principles of shooting videos with DSLR cameras, things like aperture, iso settings, shutter speed and white balance, you’ll be able to achieve great results with the camera of any brand. 

In this lesson we are going to discuss how to achieve great results without the high-end expensive cameras. Yes, many professionals will tell you that when it comes to green screening it is very important to have a camera that has lower compression rates, better chroma subsampling and all that. But these cameras can be priced at $2000 all the way to $30 000 dollars and more.Yes they are more sensitive to colours, making it easier to separate green pixels from not green, which makes it much easier to work with the footage in the post. But not everyone have the budget to spend $2000 just to shoot green screen videos.

A decent DSLR camera for up to $500 that shoots HD videos will be just fine for what we are trying to achieve. And remember, lighting plays a huge role how easy it will be to do your keying. The camera that I use to shoot this course is Canon 550D , also sometimes referred as canon Rebel T2i. It is a great little camera and it can be purchased second hand for under $300.  It shoots 1080p videos at 24/30 fps , it does pretty good job in low light, also it has hdmi input , so I can connect my tv to the camera and use it as a monitor , which Is very helpful to frame your shot and adjust focus. And that pretty much what’s most important for me in camera, when it comes to shooting green screen videos.

So, if you already own a DSLR camera that shoots HD videos, that’s great. But if you still looking to buy one, then watch this lesson to find out more...

Do you want to know where to buy the most affordable green screen kit and all the other gear?! Then watch this lesson. 

Welcome to module 2.

Now when you have all your gear ready it is time to put everything you learned in module 1 in action. In this module I will take you behind the scenes in my studio where I do all the editing, and green screen work. In this module you will learn how hot set everything up in your room to achieve best possible results by using just 3 lights.

After going through this lecture you will know exactly how much space you will need and how to set up your own studio.

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• Step number 1 is to put up the screen. For this purpose, I am using 1.5-3 meters cotton green screen which I attach to the wall with the masking tape. If you are planning to use a support stand and the clamps to set your screen up, just make sure that you have enough space in the room for your lights and your camera. By attaching the screen to the wall with the masking tape, you save yourself about 2-3 square meters of space in the room.

• After you’ve set up your green screen you need to light it.
  
• Once you are happy with how you lit your background. Next step would be to light your subject. It is much easier task If you have someone to help you. 

Once you are happy with your lighting, the next step is to adjust all your camera settings. To learn more about camera settings, please go to the next lesson.

Once you built your studio, you need to make sure that all your in camera settings are right! After going through this lectures you should be able to correctly adjust your ISO settings , Shutter Speed , Aperture and White Balance. 

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Few tips before you hit that record button...

Want to know how to read your text word for word without looking away from the camera? It's easy! Just build your own telepromter and start presenting your content as a professional TV host. Watch this lesson to learn how.

Okay, so now when you have everything in place, you are probably eager to jump right in front of the camera and start shooting your videos.  But, I don’t recommend to do that until you have done enough prep work and know exactly who's your target audience, what message you want to deliver, how you want your videos to look, and what action steps you want your viewers to take. Watch this lesson and you'll know exactly the formula i use to brainstorm ideas for my videos. 

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So before you dive in. Make an outline of everything that you want to say on camera and make sure to read it out-loud several times until it sounds natural and most importantly fluid. If you are using teleprompter , try to be relaxed and don’t just stare at the text , move your head slightly from side to side , don’t forget to blink and  smile, and  do all the natural facial expressions as if you are having a conversation with your friend . Don’t forget to use your hands if they are included in your shot. Remember that 70% of conversation is non verbal , and the way you use your hands , tone of voice, and facial expression all have a massive impact how your message will be perceived by your audience. 

Don’t expect to get everything right from the first time. The more you practice, the better results you will get, and more confident you will feel in front of the camera. Do as many takes as you need until you get it right. Sometimes you may get it right the very first time, but sometimes you will need at least 10 takes before you will achieve desirable results. And make sure you have plenty of batteries , because they run out very quick.

In this lesson I demonstrate you how I record everything by myself. I found an interesting article  about the importance of Video Marketing. It’s called The Top 10 Stats from 2015 that Show the Importance of Video Marketing by Krystal Overmyer. I thought It would a good idea to turn it into a video presentation. Later this video will be used in module 3 as a case study to show you how I work with the footage once It’s been uploaded to my computer.  I’ve shortened the original article to save time. So without further do let’s get right into it.

I've been in video production for over 4 years, and I can confidently say that Adobe Premiere Pro is Number 1 software for all you editing needs. I see a lot of people recommend to use iMovie, Camtasia or Movie Maker, which are good software to start with. I remember when I was 14 and couldn't afford Premiere Pro, I would use Movie Maker on Windows, because it was free. But now, after I had experience with Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro, I can assure you that the best time and money investment that you can do, to take your video production to the next level, is to start learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro. There are hundreds of free tutorials on Youtube to help you with that. 

In this lesson you will learn how to import files into the project folder and how to create your first sequence. 

After watching this lesson you will have a better understanding of all the windows that you will see when first launching Adobe Premiere Pro. 

In this lesson you will learn how to syncronise your in camera audio with the audio that you recorded separately. 

Adobe Premiere Pro has a lot of useful shortcuts that will help you to speed up the editing process. After watching this lesson you will be able to work with your video in a quick and effective way. 

Color Correction is an essential part of video editing process, especially when you are shooting green screen videos. Making sure that all your colors are right, that you don't have any over or under exposed clips, that your skin tones look natural, are all very important factors to consider if you want to achieve best looking videos. 

A while ago, removing green screen background was a very difficult task that only professionals could do, by using powerful computers and very well lit footage. Today, anyone who has an Adobe Premiere Pro is capable to remove green screen background in less then 10 minutes, and in this lesson you will learn how. 

In this lesson you will learn how to replace green screen with another background, so that it looks realistic. 

There are several ways how you can cover up those ugly cuts in between the shots. My favorite way, which I call Jump in Cut, is discussed in this lesson. Watch this lesson, and you'll never have to think again how you can make a smooth transition between two shots that have been filmed in the same setting. 

Want to know how to add titles?! Just watch this lesson and you'll know how. 

Who likes static titles? Definitively not me!  Of course it depends on the situation. But If you are like me, you probably pay attention to little details, and when you see titles that appear out of no where, without any animation, it probably makes you feel that there's something missing, or could have been done better. That's why I made this lesson, so that you could start creating more interesting and aesthetic titles.

Adding dynamics to your video is always a good idea. Watch this lesson to see the solution that i came up with, to make my titles look a little bit more visual. 

You can copy/paste your titles to save yourself from the hustle of creating a new title from scratch. Watch this lesson to learn how. 

There are few audio effects that I like to use to enhance my audio quality.
They are : DeNoiser , EQ , Mastering and Vocal Enhancer.
I never use them all simultaneously. My approach is rather experimental; I like to apply them one by one and then listen to how each effect impacts the quality of my voice, or the whole audio track. In this lesson you will learn where to go to find these effects and how you can apply them in your work.

Adding soundtrack can add a whole new emotional layer to your video, and when appropriate, I always recommend to use one. 

Exporting video can turn some people into a panic mode. But it is easier than many people think it is, especially with all the Adobe Premiere Pro presets that will help you in the process. Watch this lesson, and you will have no problems exporting your video in the right size and format ever again. 

Still find that Chroma Keying is way too complicated?! No problem. Watch this lesson, and you will be able to create great looking videos from your home without the need of any backgrounds. 

Find out which 12 videos you can start creating today to build and promote you business.