The Process

 If I had to do this project all over again, I would do it differently. I made the initial mistake of treating this in a way I would treat a normal music video: grab the footage, sync all performance shots, pick the best cuts then overlay with B-roll and extra shots for the pizzaz (Amen). The problem with this method is simply the amount of cuts. For a fast-paced song like No Holding, cutting lots of quick shots together happens naturally. It’s not a problem for regular videos, but with green screen, each every one of those cuts need to be individually edited with CGI. For a three minute video with over 20 green screen cuts, the process was horrendous and isn’t something I would recommend doing without at least one (or three) other person(s).

One of the coolest things about green screen work is just how versatile the footage can be. Besides the obvious removing and replacement of the background, there are a couple of other things you can do. My favorite right now may be adding camera movement to a shot. You can shoot green screen with a still camera and so long as the subject(s) stays roughly the same distance from the camera, you can essentially do anything with the footage. You can place them in any setting and move the camera in almost any way you want, and even cast CGI lights on the real life footage within your designated program. For moving green screen shots it’s dramatically more difficult because now you have to track the shot first (hence all the pieces of tape typically placed on the physically green screen).

No Holding was a combination of both types of shots.