SFX CONVENTIONS Green screen examples + layering

Not performing IN a bar but ON the bar top!

Here's a simple example of the power of the green screen - one from 30 years ago, long before you could achieve instant green screen keying on a Mac as you can now (there's a term for that, a very important one, linked to digitisation: CONVERGENCE).

Once you have green screen footage - especially if it incorporates full body movement (as opposed to the maximum MLS dictated by using a single sheet unless you're very careful) - you have incredible creative freedom over how you use it.

LAYERING - which isn't always through green screened footage - is one of the fundamentals of music video, a very common device but not one seen much in TV drama for example.

I'd welcome your suggestions (as blog comments) on useful examples to add to this post from your own knowledge/research.





Here's a simple example from a Thai dance-pop artist.
...

DANCE EG: Tata Young - I Believe (2004, Thai)

1st shot: walking towards lense, stays in MS. Semi-revealing costume

Tata Young -

I Believe.

Dir: unknown, 2004.

Dance-pop/R&B.

Lyrics. YT Channel.

SUMMARY

The track is dull and tedious, and it gets the video it deserves! Its all proficiently done - the green-screened CGI is fairly impressive, the dance routines are slickly choreographed, the male performers are suitably tight-lipped and moody, the shirtless male provides eye candy for a female gaze/audience, a wind machine adds that dramatising touch, some aerial shots are set up well.

Nonetheless, it suffers from a lack of shot variety; the studio setup and the cliched basic romance setup both fail to hold the attention. Britney Spears shot to fame by fusing signifiers of innocence and sexuality in a polysemic promo that be read as raunch or innocent; this video appears to be attempting a comparable blend, less successfully blending these binaries - although this Western-centric reading may be misinterpreting Thai cultural signifiers.

It is worth working through all the screenshots for the final shot, which is beautifully lit and very well executed.

For quite some time we crosscut between this shot (graphics colour changes) and that below

Final Cut Pro X video tutorials

IzzyVideo's free tutorials will help with using FCProX!

There are many online sources, including Apple itself (any YOU can recommend, please pass on a URL as a comment below), but I've found this (FREE!) one very useful. The vids are a bit longer than they need to be, but they are very clear. Some aspects of the layout are a little different (FCPX has been updated since it was launched), but that shouldn't pose a major problem.
IzzyVideo FCPX video tutorials
(or you can spend £30+ on books!)

I've copied in the full list below. Here's an Amazon link for books on Final Cut Pro X - make sure its for an up to date version.

I'll be adding some tips here. There is also a Final Cut tag on this blog.

Here's a short vodcast on using the green screen tool:

Final Cut Pro X Tutorial Contents

1. Welcome
2. Getting Started