Considerations of the Green Sreen

The green screen is wonderful. It's used on rinky-dink YouTube videos and major motion pictures alike. The green screen, in all of its power, is a placeholder for any visual you can think of. But standing in front of a green screen and putting a galaxy behind you is not going to make the next Star Wars. Anyone can do that... and in order to create something impressive you'll have to get a little more creative then that. Today I want to take a quick tour around ways video effects have been created with and without the use of a green screen.

First off: The Great Gatsby. This movie went head-over-heals on the green screen. They saved millions of dollars with this strategy, although I'm not sure I fully liked it. Although it would have been incredibly more expensive I would have loved to see them create the real world of Gatsby and bring it to the screen. Check out this behind the scenes video, and realize how little of that movie really was practical.

(side note: god I'm in love with movie's soundtrack.)

Let's move just a couple months into the future with Pacific Rim. Obviously the bulk of this movie was made with visual effects, but they also incorporated many practical effects. Here is a video that details the filming inside the head of the giant robots the humans operate:

"It's like a giant theme park simulator" the director says. Giant simulator, indeed! That thing looks fun! Strap me in one of those, eh? Anyways, this is a good example of combining the practical and green screen effects to make a visually compelling piece.

My last example is a commercial that uses no green screen at all... which is what makes it so god damn impressive. First, check out the full commercial:

Impressive, right? I'm sure you're wondering how they did it. I know I was. The answer is a crap load of planning, measuring, and executing. Check out this behind the scenes video!