Blue Screen Studio Hire Manchester
When it comes to chromakey there’s really only 2 games in town. Green Screen and Blue Screen. Yet what are the reasons you’d choose one over the other? Basically, as with all things, it’s what suits your project better.
Blue Screen Filming
Galleon Studios is widely regarded as the best green screen studio in the Northwest. We use the correct Rosco green screen paint that’s specially formulated to give you an excellent finish where green screen filming is possible. So, with the live keyer we have the means for you to preview your key as you shoot. With the chromakey treadmill you can bring the outdoors indoors and literally add pace and movement to your shoot. Furthermore, with the motion control rig you can flawlessly repeat the same shot multiple times and each time change your virtual background accordingly. Moreover, our 4k cameras deliver the correct 4:4:4 color space to ensure your project is shot in high enough quality for keying to become a lot easier. Additionally when it comes to post production we have the latest software to help merge your background with your studio shot foreground.
And guess what? When it come to blue screen all of these tools can be adapted to work just as effectively.
Why Use Blue Screen?
The answer is quite simple. Something you intend to shoot is green. If that’s the case you simply can’t use green screen. Yet fear not! Rosco also produce the equivalent blue screen paint to match their green screen and we are happy to repaint the studio to suit your project. Examples of where green screen can’t be used are many.
Christmas Commercial Filming
So if you’re filming a Christmas advertising campaign you almost certainly will feature a Christmas tree to film. If you’re filming a Christmas tree you can’t film your seasonal commercial on a green screen as the tree will vanish. So the solution is blue screen. With blue screen you can key out the blue background and leave you with a clean shot of a Christmas tree. From there you can work with it in post as you would chromakey green.
Gardening Product Filming
If you’re filming a gardening product or anything involving greenery then you must use blue screen. Using the blue screen studio we filmed the opening sequence of the Cbeebies Mr Bloom TV Show as well as the 2018 Cbeebies Christmas pantomime Thumbelina. In this production many of the colourful characters were green and the backdrop for the story itself took place in magical garden.
Green Car Filming
Our studio is large enough to fllm vehicles but if those cars happen to be green then a repaint is in order!
Green Clothes
Sometimes we’re asked to film entire clothing lines and if these products are green than they can’t be shot against green but instead choose another colour. But why are the major options Blue and Green?
A Brief History Of Keying
The first film to use blue screen was The Thief Of Bagdad (1940), there the Genie was required to be an imposing threat. In that moment special effect were revolutionised and people pushed the envelope further and further. Blue screen was exclusively used despite its shortcomings. Blue is a natural feature of the world; daylight contains blue (which is why the sky is blue). As such if you use daylight balanced lights to light your subject you’re already adding blue.
Yet it wasn’t for this reason primarily that green overtook the use of blue. It was Superman (1979) where the film makers had to shoot green screen as the main character’s costume was, of course, blue.
The Science Part
On the spectrum blue and green are at the opposite end than oranges and reds. Oranges and reds are the colours closest to human skintone. Hence blue screen and green screen are the best colours to use in order to remove parts of the shot to replace with others. In the colour spectrum green operates in the widest bandwidth having a wavelength of 560-520 nanomneters. Blue conversely has the smallest wavelength of 490-450 nanometers.
Furhermore, anthrolpoligists believe that man learned to identify different colors within the green spectrum in order to identify predators when we lived in trees!
Green Screen vs Blue Screen
The debate has raged as to which is better. Since 2010 we have been primarily a chromakey studio so we can certainly offer our advice.
Use green screen if you’re filming;
- Anything blue
- You’re background after you’ve finished filming is daylight or a bright colour
- You’re camera isn’t high end (see below)
Use blue screen if you’re filming:
- Anything green
- Filming something where the blue background will be replaced with a dark colour
- You have A LOT of light
- Your filming someone who has light or blond hair (see below)
Advantages of Green Screen Over Blue Screen
You need less light to film green screen. This is why green screen is better for most cameras. Modern digital cameras are able to reproduce green the cleanest with very little grain. As such it’s easier to “pull” the green out a shot. So, if you’re camera isn’t the highest spec film on green screen.
Advantages of Blue Screen Over Green
Green actually creates more spill on your subject. Blue, due to it’s temperature, actually creates a limited amount of spill around your subject. It does however require MORE light to light a blue screen than green. What’s more in order to successfully key on blue screen you’ll have to increase the light by up to a stop.
Blue is ideal if you are shooting someone blond. Because of the lack of spill blond hair, notoriously difficult to key on green, is actually a lot easier to work with.
Galleon Studios for Blue Screen
As well as the ability to repaint the Manchester studio blue for blue screen filming we can offer you blue screen curtains, blue screen colorama and blue screen pop ups. This means you can use both green and blue screen in the same production. This is what we had to do in the Cbeebies series SpotBots where the green skinned aliens meant that green screen could not be used.
Overall then if you need to film blue screen and you’re looking for a studio to use then speak to Galleon Studios. We have the experience in chromakey and the skills to help you light and shoot your project. Call us today to discuss your blue screen video production.
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