If you feel like your corporate presentation, school project, classroom lecture, webcast, or other project is missing an audience-pleasing feature, consider using a greenscreen. Greenscreens are an easy way to create eye-catching effects and graphics that can entertain and educate all types of viewers, from clients to students and more. Even if you don’t consider yourself tech-savvy, using a greenscreen is easier than you think. All you need is a camera, editing software with a chroma key feature, and a green backdrop. To help inspire and get you started, here’s a list of the advantages of filming with a greenscreen.
Anything Goes
One of the biggest benefits of greenscreen is that you can bend reality to your will—or at least make it look that way. A greenscreen lets you provide a fantastical backdrop to whatever you’re talking about. You can present from anywhere in the world, or even from space or a fictional world! Make it look as if you’re speaking from the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, Mars, or your favorite video game world. You can also stand in front of a projection of your presentation and interact with stats, graphics, and animations. Much more exciting than doodling on a whiteboard or clicking at a PowerPoint presentation, isn’t it?
Save Money
You could hire a production company to set up, shoot, and edit your presentation, commercial, or project, but know that doing so will cost you. What’s more, you’d be dependent on them to rent out studio space if they don’t have their own facilities. With a little financial outlay—buying a digital camera, chroma key software, and a greenscreen background—and some practice, you can create your own film studio. Down the line, you’ll save on reshoots, editing, and updating projects. You can also save on other live shoot expenses such as traveling to locations, dealing with weather, paying for filming permits, and more. Additionally, with a portable greenscreen background, you can take your greenscreen studio anywhere.
Keeping Your Brand at the Forefront
When delivering information, an explanation, or simply establishing your professional credibility, a greenscreen helps keep your, your company, or organization’s brand in the viewer’s mind. Presentations can feature your logo, official brand colors, website, and the like as backdrops. Wherever your presentation appears, viewers will instantly know who it is coming from and how to connect with you.
No Surprises
If you’ve participated in a film shoot, you know that Murphy’s Law applies—anything that can go wrong will go wrong. As mentioned, when you film live and on location outdoors, you’re at the mercy of the weather and sun, wind changes, traffic noises and other loud disturbances, passersby wandering through the set, and much more. Dealing with sunlight while filming is especially frustrating since you need to keep lighting consistent, and the sun and clouds won’t always oblige. With a greenscreen it can be a beautiful, sunny day any time you want, and you won’t have to worry about the weather or changes in light and shadow.
One Set Means No Sweat
There’s something to be said for physical set dressing and props since they lend the scene a more realistic and physical feel. But they also come with their hassles and expenses. Are you planning a multiday shoot, or coming back to film on a later date? You’ll probably need to take down and erect sets many times over. Greenscreen sets are fully portable since they fit into a laptop or thumb drive. Storage costs are nonexistent, and you can rely on your set looking the same year after year, which means greater continuity and thus greater professionalism.
Visuals Aid Memory
You could deliver the greatest speech of your life, covering every point and stressing every aspect of your subject matter, but that’s no guarantee your audience will retain it all. Storytelling is the best way to instruct others, and a story backed up with stimulating visual effects and memorable graphics will stick with people and give them a story to tell others. Even better, a particularly memorable project can be uploaded and shared online by others. Create a story with greenscreen that others will want to pass along!
Greenscreen Presentations Are Participatory
If you’re using greenscreen at a live event, you’ve opened a hundred ways your audience—online and off—can participate. As you speak, a greenscreen can run real-time images of people interacting on social media (be sure to create a hashtag for your event so others can comment on the talk, interact with other attendees, and alert folks who aren’t on location about what’s going on.) With audience response apps, you can conduct and project polls, quizzes, and surveys during an event. People like to feel as if they’re part of something, and this way they really and truly are as they see their comments and votes recorded and tabulated onscreen. Engaged attendees will feel more connected with you, your organization, and your subject. They are more likely to follow up and contact you later.
Bring on the Fun
Let’s say you’re not planning to deliver an address or pitch a client and are just looking for something fun to do. Whether you’re minding children, working a convention booth, or running an attraction at a community fair, greenscreens can provide a silly and flexible way to entertain anyone and everyone. Run a photo booth with all sorts of outrageous props and ridiculous backgrounds. Create a storytelling video featuring kids in costumes and simple special effects. Provide convention and seminar goers with a memorable photographic keepsake of themselves or their group—conveniently embellished with your branding, logo, website, and contact info, of course.
Messaging
When considering the advantages of filming with a greenscreen, don’t forget a key feature: greenscreens lend professionalism to any production and can communicate messages that can’t be expressed verbally. You may have a very nice office space, but is it well-lit, and does it permit easy filming? Greenscreens can create backgrounds that communicate professionalism and reliability. Neutral backdrops, or ones featuring the type of people you’re trying to reach with your messaging, can also be helpful in communicating a sense of equality, fairness, and openness about your organization that might not be expressed through live-action shots. Let imagination be your guide!
