How to Light a GREEN SCREEN in 4 Minutes

Hey what's up guys, welcome to Formative Film School, today we're here with Carmichael. Carmichael is a filmmaker working with Corridor Digital, they have over 4.5 million views on YouTube, they shoot stuff really fast and cinematically, and today you guys asked for it so we're going to teach you guys how to properly light a green screen. So when lighting a green screen there are five things to consider, what's the first one? Alright so the first thing you want to consider when lighting a green screen is what is your green screen made of, ideally it's a painted wall, a green psych wall with matte paint because you don't want it to be reflective, correct, most of the time you're not going to have that luxury, so you're probably going to need a fabric, whether it's just a loose fabric like what we used or just a pop out circular or oval shaped green screen, I like the oval shaped ones because they don't have many wrinkles and they're very portable, right but they're most often reflective, indeed they are most often reflective and they're very small, they generally tend to be small, and is there anything about the color too? Usually you'll be using a green screen, the only reason why you'll probably be using a blue screen is if your actor has to wear something green, normally even if you're wearing just off green compared to your green screen depending on your camera, it doesn't matter, use a blue screen, problem solved. Now one thing that I will say about blue screens is that they tend to be less reflective, the color blue is one third as reflective as the color green, and human flesh tends to be red skin toned, so having them on a green screen tends to make for a better contrast, no matter what race you are. Second step is you want to light your subject, lighting your subject has to come first before the green screen because you want your subject to match the scene you're keying them into, you want that to be your primary focus, if your focus is spending time on perfecting your green screen, you're putting your work in the wrong place, lighting a green screen is super easy, super quick, you want your subject to match the scenario they're going in. For instance if your character is going into a scenario where they have a really strong backlight, remember to give them a backlight before you green screen them, you can't just do three point lighting on a character in front of a green screen and then throw them into that space, it won't match. It won't. Let's just stop for a second and think, why are you green screening them, did you mess up on the day, was the actor not available? Do you need them in somewhere special effectsy or a different world? Spend time and think about the space you're putting them in, how would you light them if they were in that space, that way when you do light them on the green screen, it's going to be more accurate and just that much more believable when you're looking at the final image. So when you're lighting your green screen, what do you keep in mind? You've got to keep in mind that you want a balanced amount of luminance all over the green screen. Think of a green screen as a color picker, you want to pick just one color, you don't want to say all green has to be removed, you just want to get rid of that one hue and that one luminance value of green. What if you just have one light and you can't light a green screen with two lights? Put the light on the ceiling, shoot down and hit the background, the green screen. You want to use a flag, an envelope, or whatever you have from spilling onto your actor, that way you stay in control. Indeed. So when you're lighting a subject on a green screen, how are you looking at the distance between your talent and your subject? Primarily you want your subject to be as far away as you possibly can. And what is the reason for that? You don't want the green from the green screen to spill onto the subject, this is more work that you have to put into post. Are there any tools that can help us achieve a consistent luminance value across the green screen? Most cameras don't have this built in, so you'll probably want to get an external monitor or something like that, but you want to use false color. False color gives you the ability to see the luminance value in different shades of colors, so that it's just an easier way to visualize your lighting. If you can't get your full green screen perfectly lit, make sure the amount of green screen that's outlining your subject or your actor is consistent, because then it's an easy key just around them at least. And that's the most important part. The rest of it, if your subject isn't touching that part of the green screen, you can always garbage mat that out later. The fifth tip about lighting a green screen is lighting gigs. It's an extension of the second tip, which is lighting your subject. Once you've lit your actor, and you've lit the green screen, yes they will fit in the scene you're comping them into. But there might be elements in that scene that's producing moving lights. Those elements are moving lights that can appear on your subject in front of a green screen to better put them into that environment. And once you've got all this, you're good. So there's the episode of 4 Minute Film School on how to light green screens with Carl or Michael from Corridor Digital. Leave us a comment below with a scene from a movie that is green screened that most people don't know is green screened, but actually is. We'll be picking the best scene, giving out a V-Screen VS5, which is our new Momdur false color waveform vectorscopes. There's my plug. And keep watching 4 Minute Film School, subscribe, and we'll catch you guys next time. Peace! Boom!