[Chris Santucci]

I thought you couldn’t/shouldn’t under any circumstances try to shoot greenscreen with DV also, until I checked around and read Chawla’s piece “Chroma Key Basics for DV Guerrillas”:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/chroma_key_part_1.html

After I read that article I shot a music video on green with an XL-1 and an XL-2 and it worked “great.” I had the luxury of about 20 feet between the green and the subjects which is important, and I think I had about 1 to 1 1/2 stops less level on the green, from the key level. Keep the level on the green as even as you can and even though most gaffer’s and DP’s insist upon putting soft rims on the subjects to counteract the green spill/reflections on the subjects, you can instead tease down the green behind the subjects.

The key job is NOT perfect, BUT, it’s close enough. AND, I used flat green paint from The Home Depot that I had mixed based on a piece of real Chromakey green paper I had.

I used Final Cut Pro 4.5 ONLY and it was WAY easier than I thought it was going to be. That was the very first keying I ever did and you can see the video here (then tell me it doesn’t work):

https://www.santucci-cinematographer.com/workmain.html

It’s the “Saturday Morning” video…