Almost everything on TV is filmed with green screen
Even the most mundane scenes these days are filmed with the magic of green screen technology. (Props to Kottke.org)
8:47 AM * PERMALINK * 6 comments
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Even the most mundane scenes these days are filmed with the magic of green screen technology. (Props to Kottke.org)
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Comments:
Who would've thought? I bet The Amazing Race is all done with green screen on the back lot somewhere in Hollywood.
It's no longer magic if you know how it works. Nevertheless, I can see why green-screen is so popular. Why film on location with all the hassles of flying the entire crew to location when everything can be done in the studio? Pretty clever...
Wow...incredible. Never realized how widely used it is. Once you point it out it's a little easier to notice. I don't watch enough TV anymore to realize it but I have to imagine it's used for every sitcom and drama today.
What is the song that plays throughout the video? -- Aplesause@gmail.com
Are you kidding me? These are some of the LEAST mundane shots I've seen. What did you expect them to do-- declare the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial off-limits to the public (1:54)? Cart the entire film crew to the top of a snowy mountain -- in L.A. (3:21)? Set up and pay for the electric bill of an entire carnival when it won't be able to pay for itself through rides (2:10)? Make the actors perform in front of a burning boat and hope everybody got everything right the first time because you can't do a second take (1:04)?
Even the city-street scenes (which I suspect are what most people consider "mundane") are incredibly complicated. You'll have to close off all pedestrian traffic, to avoid filming people against their will, and to avoid discrepancies if you cut between different angles of the same scene. This will also close down any and all businesses on either side of the street. For the safety of your light crews and camera operators, you will also want to close the street to vehicular traffic. At this point, you have ruined a lot of people's days, and you do have to pay the city for expected loss of revenue! If you're going to be using a certain external location frequently, do you really want to do all that every single time you need to film there? Of course they build sets.
"Mundane" is an interior shot. "Mundane" is two people sitting still and having a conversation. "Mundane" is, in other words, every sitcom, talk show, or news show ever.
This stuff-- this stuff is spectacular.
Eloriane - some of these shots are mundane. I know what you're saying about closing off streets etc., but at the end of the day it is just Ugly Betty bumping into a bus-stop, or some snowy Manhattan street that we see and recognise from day-to-day life.
Of course it's easier to shoot it on a green screen, but that doesn't make it any less mundane!
Pretty cool to see this though from a technical point of view. Thanks for the post!
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