What is Green Screen Technology?
Green screen technology, also called Chromakeying, is when the image of a person or people is superimposed on a virtual background. This allows us to create videos set anywhere in the world (or even the universe!) without traveling to the location itself. Instead, all we need is a picture of the location or locations we want to use for our background.
Chromakeying singles out one particular color in an image and makes it transparent. This allows another image to show through. In our case, the color is green, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, many "green screens" today are actually blue! The trick is to use a color that will contrast with the colors the people are wearing in the video. The actors in the video can't wear the color green or they will be transparent and not show up in the video. This happened to my husband on a recent trip with our son and I to New York. We posed for a picture in front of a green screen and the image of the Empire State Building was inserted behind us. My husband had worn a green t-shirt that day and the finished picture showed my son and I, along with my husband's head floating in the air! Needless to say, we didn't purchase that picture, but here's another example of what happens when the actors in a green screen video wear green:
I wanted to see what the set up of a green screen room would look like in a school, so I went to visit my friend and colleague Colleen LaSalle at the Joseph J. Catena School, where they recently installed a green screen. Here are a few photos of the space:
As you can see, it looks great, and the students are already having a blast using it. I was able to watch as students created videos to use in their second grade show.
Rather than using a screen, the Catena School has painted an entire wall green, and also has some green boards for the floor. They also hung lights from the ceiling, as good lighting is so important in filming a video. On the table in front of the green screen area a TV displays the video as it is recorded, so students can see themselves in relationship to the digital background.
Students are using an iPad to record their video, in an app called Do Ink. You can find more information about this app HERE. This app is very user friendly. In fact, I went back to Catena a few days later and used it for the first time while training some of their staff members!
How would this work at WFS?
Now that I've gotten to use the green screen at Catena, I want one here at WFS! We will also be painting a wall green in what was our computer lab, and setting up part of that space as a green screen recording area. It will look very similar to what they have at Catena. Setting the space up is the easy part though - next I needed to find some ideas for integrating this area into classroom lessons in grades K-5.
Fortunately there are plenty of other schools using green screens and sharing their ideas online. I can't list them all in this blog post, but here are some of my favorites:
- Artwork as a background: These fourth graders used drawings from art class as the backgrounds in these pictures. It actually looks like the students are inside their artwork - amazing!
- A variety of grade level green screen projects are featured on this blog post, including first graders describing landmarks of countries they were studying, and fifth graders putting themselves on the cover of Time magazine!
- Tricia Fugle has tons of great ideas for using the Do Ink app and green screen technology on her blog.
- Scholastic has great information about how green screens work, the Do Ink app, and project ideas.
I'm so excited to start working on the green screen space here at WFS. Stay tuned for updates and pictures as it evolves, and of course - videos created using the space!
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