h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi X,
I saw your question in Youtube Gems about green and blue screen. Generally speaking video (that is to say standard definition video) has used blue screen because it has a shorter wave length than green so there is less *tearing* on the edges of the lower resolution video foreground. Film has used green for some time now dating from when it was mostly used for exterior mattes that could excuse some green *bleeding* given that the inserted background was usually green.

Since the advent of high definition video the two are interchangeable so video productions (like most series in NA and increasingly feature productions) use either- BUT the film crews have access to green screen from rental houses more than blue. And old habits die hard I guess.

Btw, the examples shown by the Stargate video (they shoot next door) are traveling mattes, which are what we use in the studio for news here, albeit with *smart* camera heads and lenses that tell the computer where to move the background and even to mimic lens depth of field.

I hope that answers your question.

Here are some sites that might interest you-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw1q3_er2YU (We use this system)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key (Simple explanation)

http://www.eefx.com/

Hey, that´s pretty cool. I remember my brother and I playing around with bluescreen at this science museum years ago.