Even though many people associate green screens with big-budget film productions, it’s no secret that they’ve made their way into your favorite TV shows in recent years. Many shows have utilized these backdrops for years, but as budgets increase, so does their usage. If you’re curious about how green screens are used in your favorite TV series, this blog post is just for you.
Location Hopping
One of the more common things that TV shows use green screens for is location hopping. Many shows tend to take place in a single city to avoid having to travel for shoots like movies do, but some shows have become a little more adventurous and delved into the idea of changing scenery often through the use of green screens. Granted, they usually only do it for smaller bits, but a professional green screen and a cyclorama wall system make the background convincing.
Set Dressing
Another popular use for green screens in shows is for various parts of set dressing. Set decorations were quite intricate back in the day, but that took a lot of time, especially if sets for the show constantly changed. These days, green screens help take out a lot of the grunt work since it allows them to put in the finer details during post, saving a lot of time for the studio. This allows shows to have shorter production turnarounds than in the past.
3D Imaging
Of course, TV has used those two examples for years. A more recent development that uses green screens has to do with using 3D imaging for various shows. An example that everyone remembers is the use of dragons throughout the run of Game of Thrones. Granted, it might not have been perfect, but it paved the way for other studios to put more money into the TV show budgets to pull off amazing feats such as that.
Doing the Impossible
No matter how far we come as a species, there are some things we can’t do ourselves that superhumans and other fictional characters can. Soaring through the sky, turning invisible, and running at supersonic speeds are a few of those things. The big screen has done the impossible for a long time. However, due to the increase in popularity of superheroes, some of these actions need to happen on the smaller screen. Green screens paired with higher budgets have helped make convincing superhero shows a possibility that we used to rarely see.
It’s kind of crazy to see how green screens are used in your favorite TV series these days. Hopefully, their usage will lead to bigger and better shows in the years to come.
