In the beginning film was experimental, an artistic medium explored by early visionary's. The Lumiere brothers are credited for the first commercial, public screening of ten short films debuted in December 1895 Paris France. Shortly after the Lumiere films could be seen all over the world with the cinematographe. Film studios and production companies were established all over leading the first decade of motion pictures. Cinematic techniques would advance opening up limitless possibilities for special effects. Technical improvements added length to features and went from black and white to color and eventually adding sound.
This presentation will focus on industry achievements and notable visual effects that have pioneered modern Green Screen effects.
1896-1898 Georges Méliès Split Screen
French born Georges Méliès an illusionist and film director created the first precursor to the modern green screen effects. In 1898, looking for ways to depict a man removing his head, Georges Méliès developed a meticulous technique that involved combining multiple frames of film in multiple exposures. By blocking parts of the camera’s lens to leave it blank, then superimposing these blank frames onto alternative takes of the same sequence filmed with a clear lens, he was able to create a surreal special effect that certainly lived up to his reputation as a master of illusion. Georges Méliès directed over 500 magical film acts for his Théâtre Robert-Houdin. Notable Film: 1896 The Vanishing, 1898 Four Heads are Better than One, 1901 The Man with the Rubber, 1902 A Trip to the Moon.
1903 Layered Film & Double Exposure
The Great Train Robbery film in 1903 features one of the first uses of visual effects. Edwin S.Porter uses black mattes and double exposure to create the background through the windows. The film makers pulled off their desired effects, by cleverly layering footage on top of each other. To do this, they simply took the route of double exposing a negative. They recorded a scene first with the windows blacked out. Then they rewound and replaced the negative and recorded the same shot, but this time the rest of the room was dark and the windows were exposed to show a train passing by. Its was basically two exposures on one negative frame.
1920's Walt Disney White Screen
Walt and Roy Disney start the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood CA. Walt Disney starts shooting scenes over a white background. He later passes the film through an animation camera to bring characters and backgrounds to life. They released several short films with Virginia Davis who played Alice in 1923. Notable Film: Alice Comedies. The studio started to create an all cartoon series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927. This eventually lead to the famous Steamboat Willie cartoon known as the first appearance of Mickey Mouse in 1928.
1930's-1940's Blue Screen & Traveling Matte
Larry Buttler develops an early traveling matte process in. The blue screen and traveling matte method were developed in the 1930’s-1940's and were used to create special effects. Blue screens have technically been in use since the era of black and white films like 1933 King Kong. The British Technicolor film The Thief of Baghdad started in London and was completed in California 1940 due to World War II. Notable Film: The Thief of Baghdad.
1950's-1970's Disney The Yellow Screen
In what is sometimes called the “Yellow Screen,” renowned film innovator Petro Vlahos developed the sodium vapor process for technicolor film production. This process, which utilized a very specific light wavelength as a backdrop, would effectively “key” out certain colors through a very special camera, which Disney used heavily in the ’1950s and ’1960s. Disney used this on several films like, 1961 The Parent Trap, 1977 Pete's Dragon and Notable Film: 1964 Marry Poppins.
1980's Blue Screen Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
Minicomputers are introduced to control optical printers. This saved money and increased efficiency. The blue screen worked better with current film industry camera's. This movie utilized blue screen film and computer techniques along with detailed models. Notable Film: 1980 Star Wars Empire Strikes Back.
Why Blue to Green?
Blue screen was more popular at first because it worked better with celluloid film. The most notable movie filmed with blue screens is Star Wars Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Both blue and green screens became popular among productions studios and broadcasters. In the 1970's News broadcasters begin to use green screens instead of blue screens. The popularity is evident with weather news casters and emerging computer effects due to digital cameras. Chroma Key uses digital technology to replace the green background with another source, such as a weather map. The key to this working properly is that the weather person cannot wear a similar color as the background screen.
Weather Broadcaster's
This is an example of a weather person giving a forecast over the green screen. The green screen became the popular choice over the blue screen due to the technical advancements of modern cameras. Some film cameras still work better with blue screens although they are eventually replaced with digital cameras. Digital camera's are capable of capturing a wider spectrum of colors and are sensitive to the popular green used.
Green screen studio's come in all shapes and sizes!
The green screen continued to be a trailblazing technology throughout the 20th century and beyond. In 1988, green screen was used to combine live-action with animation, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit which won multiple awards for its special effects and marked a new era in film making with actors interacting with ‘invisible’ cartoon co-stars. Multi-million-dollar blockbusters achieve amazing effects using this versatile technology. Today low-budget productions can all benefit from the miracle of the green screen.
There are several terms used in Green Screen filming. Color Keying, the less commonly used color separation overlay. Compositing is a description of blending elements and footage together included Chroma Key footage. Green or Blue screen is used as a solid background color, ideally as different as possible to the foreground subject of object. Mainly used in Film and TV as a way of reducing the cost of building sets, moving expensive actors and crew to exotic locations. Green Screen technology has increased the possibilities and reduced budgets and can add such depth and dimensions to simple corporate pieces too.
The video below demonstrates the DIY affordability and creativity of modern Green Screen techniques we know and love. MAKING OF - BeeldBuis Film Festival video ident and trailer Created by Douwe Dijkstra
Green Screen Definition: Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on color hues (chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video particularly the news casting, motion picture, and video game industries. A color range in the foreground footage is made transparent, allowing separately filmed background footage or a static image to be inserted into the scene. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production.
We have learned about the effects and refinement of film techniques that have lead to Green Screen studios. The next chapter is currently underdevelopment emerging once again with popular shows like Disney's + The Mandalorian. The first live-action Star Wars television series uses new technology called the Volume, a curved cocoon of glowing LED screens.
The Future of Screen Compositing...
2018 Disney's + LED Volume
Jon Favreau, executive producer Dave Filoni, and Director of Photography Greig Fraser joined forces with Industrial Light and Magic, Epic Games (maker of the Unreal Engine), and production technology partners Golem Creations, Fuse, Lux Machina, Profile Studios, NVIDIA, and ARRI to unlock this innovative achievement.
2019 Disney's + LED Volume
Behind the scenes of Disney's + Television show The Mandalorian. You can image the technology and collaboration involved to move away from green screens. LED Volumes provide a high detail of accuracy and lighting. This creates an immersive environment for the actors in real time.
2019-2021 Disney's + LED Volume
The curved cocoon of glowing LED Volume screens are ready to transport the actors and viewers anywhere. The LED's are the same technology used on the football stadium Jumbo Trons or the large LED screens you see in Times Square. This technology is the culmination of decades of film effects and adaptation. The LED Volume enriches the performance of the actors and experience of the viewers creating fabricated imagination.
Since the beginning of film directors and visionaries have sought after magical effects to enhance storytelling. Each new technique and technology has added to the history of film making. Each new method introduced ground breaking tools that add life to storytelling.
What's next for the future of storytelling?
2019 Unreal Engine The example above demonstrates how real-time technology is transforming the art of filmmaking, with next-generation virtual production tools coming to Unreal Engine. At SIGGRAPH, Epic Games partnered with Lux Machina, Magnopus, Profile Studios, Quixel, ARRI, and DP Matt Workman to demonstrate how LED walls can provide not only virtual environments but also lighting for real-world elements, so the entire scene can be captured in camera in a single pass.
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