Star Wars. The Matrix. Indiana Jones.
Spiderman. Superman. Batman. X-men.
A list of really good movies? Yes. But besides that, they also have tne other main thing in common.
The Chroma Key.
"Cromagna Wha-?"... The Chroma Key. The Blue Screen. Or, more commonly now, the Green Screen. It's the one skillful tool that sets the
pros apart from the amateurs. Every professional uses it. Not just for super hero flicks or surreal movies. It's used in the
news, in sit-coms, in documentaries. In fact, even more wedding videographers are using the chroma key.
Imagine a world where you could decide which sunset or blue sky to have you bride stand in front of. A world where you can control the
wind, weather and lighting in any environment. Let's face it, as skilled as you are you can't change the bride from not looking at the camera during her ceremony. You can't remove Uncle Larry from dozing off in the background while the groom reads his vows. You can't always get the bride and groom to smile their best with
50 other relatives surrounding them. But, with the use of the chroma key, you can be light years closer to creating the perfect
wedding video.
Any wedding videographer can use the Flexdrop, which is a very portable chroma key, to capture the bride and groom at separate times. They smile, pose, read their vows, and just plain look great while the videographer captures it all. With the Chroma key, you can now put those perfect shots of the bride and groom in any environment you want. You can even use shots of the bride and groom that we filmed separately and place them both side by side. You can re-time the shots so that the bride and groom are now only smiling their best smile, looking exactly the way they'd want to be remembered.
Anyone who hasn't advanced to using this vital tool is missing out on a higher caliber of product. You can finally outshine all your competition by using the tricks the professionals have used for years. And with prices being lower then ever, you can do it
cost effectively and without any hassle.
Let’s Talk About the Flexdrop
The flex drop reminded me of those fun car
sun-visors you place in your windshield to keep your car cool during the summer. In it’s package, it’s a 3 foot round disk which folds into itself, just like those bendy sun-visors.
But, rather then simply folding out to the size of a windshield, it becomes a huge 5x7 foot portable reversible chroma key. It’s blue on one side and green on the other. It’ll fit in any trunk with ease, and is a great lifesaver for any shoot. Be sure to keep this with all your other necessary filming accessories,
because it’ll very soon become a vital part of your movie-making collection.
The Flexdrop, like any chroma key, should
be well lit. Because it’s portable, you can take it easily outside and use the cheapest light there is: the sun.
Here is a picture I took on a sunny day using
the Flexdrop. It was very easy to get a clean chroma key shot with little hassle. The sun can produce harsh shadows or soft ones depending on many factors. But since the Flexdrop takes less
then 3 seconds to set up, you can capture those perfect lighting moments very easily.
I wanted to see just how versatile the Flexdrop
was in low light situations. Having used many chroma keys, I know that lighting is one of the biggest key factors. Below is a shot using the blue side of the Flexdrop using just a dim kitchen light for lighting. You’ll see that although it’s not a very clean key, it came very close to eliminating all of the background.
Once the poorly lit footage was dropped into a scene, it became even easier to blend the bad shot. So, with the Flexdrop, even the worst footage can be usable. That was a high point for me.
Almost every higher end editing software
has it’s own built in Chroma Key editor. I decided to use Pinnacle Liquid Edition since the learning curve is very easy and simple. Had I used a chroma key-specific software such as
Serious Magic, I would have been able to choose multiple colors on my chroma key and even made the poorly lit shots look good. Still, even Pinnacle Liquid Edition comes with a very good Keying Editor built right into the program.
Keying a shot becomes very essential when
in certain situations. When creating a video portrait of a family, you can use a chroma key to capture each person individually. Then, at your convenience, you can place each member where you like in the shot, and time them all so that only their best smile or pose is used. For me, I was working with many child actors
who couldn’t remember their lines. I decided the best thing to do was to film each person saying one line at a time, and then layer them in proper sequence. It was so much easier because I could use everyone’s best lines and time them for perfect believability. I was able to use my editing skills to make even the most mediocre actor perform like a star. Plus, I could get shots like the one below, and place my actors in all sorts of places, and resize them so that the environment was believable.
The Real Solution.
There are three things every dedicated videographer should carry the trunk of his vehicle. An emergency road kit, a camera ready to capture life as it unfolds, and the Flexdrop. Being raised as a Boy Scout, I've been trained to always be prepared. The emergency road kit has helped me through flat tires, dead batteries, and all sorts of other car failure. The Camera has helped me capture
every amazing sunsets, each late-breaking news story unfolding during rush hour around me, and those awesome shots during my travels which I've added to my personal stock footage library
and have saved my projects on many occasions. But the newest addition to my traveling arsenal has been the Flexdrop.
The Flexdrop is a two-sided chroma key (blue on one side; green on the other). It's stored in a small 2-foot round and flat vinyl bag, and folds out to be a 5x7 foot chroma key. When I'm filming movies and need to remove background elements, I use the Flexdrop.
When I'm getting a close up of my actors in a stationary vehicle and want to give the illusion it's moving, I use the Flexdrop.
When my session's about to end with a bride a groom, and I want to get a melee of shots to use "just in case", I use the Flexdrop. Since receiving it here at Guy Graphics, there has
not been a single project I've filmed where I haven't used the Flexdrop. There is no reason any videographer, professional or amateur should not have a Flexdrop. It's the most reasonably priced and easy to use chroma key. At only $175, it's the perfect addition to anyone's collection. |
