So in the midst of the Great Rearrangement of the Room, I noticed that I have a very interesting situation on my hand. See, one of the walls in the room is not so much a wall as it is just one giant sliding door, so I theoretically could open up my entire room to the living room if I so desired. While I don’t see much of a need to put this into actual practice, I did keep the area in front of it clear just in case.
All of a sudden, an idea bulb went off in my head, and I got to thinking: What would it take to put a green screen here? A green screen would permit me to superimpose myself over any image I wanted, something frequently used by filmmakers for special effects and by news stations to put maps up behind the TV meteorologist. Plus, I have a PC with FireWire so the camera wouldn’t be a problem, and I have some rudimentary video editing stuff that appears to have an option for this. Finally, I found a place that sells 40×10 yards of the green screen fabric for a shade over $100. Expensive, to be sure, but that’s a lot of fabric. I may look into something cheaper, though (and paint is NOT an option!)
But yes, combine all those…and I must say, having a personal test lab would be mighty useful when I get into my video production courses in a semester or two…
Discussion of Crazy, insane idea, that I just might do is now closed
Well you could always paint paper and just staple/tape it to the wall… I’ve done that before. I’ve got a 3-foot wide roll of brown construction paper out in the garage. I’ve used it on many occasions, including using it as a white board, though brown, it still works, it just doesn’t erase.
I think that would be a pretty fun project, and I can see you doing some crazy stuff with friends and such, too. I’d say it’s definately worth the investment.
LOL.
Do it!
Open it up to donations if its a problem. The Jared W. Smith Green Screen Fund. ;)
Jared… this is a wonderful idea! As per Nike says: JUST DO IT!
One thing I forgot to mention, that a friend of mine at LiveJournal pointed out, is that I have to make sure the lighting is absolutely right — a very important thing when ensuring the consistency of the color of the screen. So, I may have to spend some in that area as well. Should be fun. :)
By the way, Tyler, WCBD changed their music package today. No more SA there. :)
Consistent light is the key. Get three or four cheap lamps and place them all the same distance from the center of the screen and space them out to eliminate any/all shadows. Optimum lighting arrangement is such that you only create a shadow from one light, so at the worst, you have n – 1 lights lighting up all areas of the screen.
Hope I explained that easy enough. It works in my head, but getting my fingers to say it is a little difficult.
Yeah, that’s one thing I never thought of…the lightning must be perfect. But, if you think about just how many lights are inside TWC, or even local stations – so lighting is indeed a key element.
Jared – I called it. :P S.A. upped their prices, and most stations can not afford it. Makes me wonder if TWC, in January, will drop their Evening Edition theme by S.A.
Yep, you were right on. I didn’t think it would happen as soon as it did, that’s for sure. Great call as usual Tyler. :)