Have you ever lived in one location, but wanted to visit another, well with a Green Screen you can do so. The many wonders of the Green Screen is you can have the illusion of actually going to any location in the world or universe within a few seconds with Green Screens, without actually going to that location.

You can do many many things with the Green Screen, but why the color green, why can’t we use blue or even red. Well you can use other colors, but green is the best color to use for it beats blue, one of the more common screens, because green isn’t a color that is worn everyday by actors, so you could put green spots on the actors clothing and there’s be a hole in there body when you added the background.

Some of you may be asking “What do I need to get for a Green Screen” well I can tell you that you’ll need a Green background, bright even lighting and a tripod to lock your camcorder in place. For the Background you could either get bright green cloth (straight and flat) or you could paint a smooth wall with a gallon of dinosaur green from the kids section. For the lighting it could be tricky to get bright even lighting, but as long as you have two different lighting sources that are moveable you should be all set.

For more information please read the article How Does Green Screen Work by Chuck Peters. http://www.videomaker.com/article/17026-how-does-green-screen-work

Images from http://i1.creativecow.net/u/171549/01.jpg

The issue for the article I’m doing a review on is the March 2014 issue of Videomaker magazine.  The article was written by Chuck Peters.

In this article it talks about the different apps you can now get to make videos.  They’re all different from each other, because they each do different things. Some of the apps it talks about are ones such as, Lapse it.  This app allows you to make a time lapse video where it takes different shots over periods of time and then puts it into a cool video.  Another one of the apps it talked about was Montaj.  In this app you can take multiple 5 second shots and then add music to make a music video, there is also the option of different colored filters, etc.  There was a couple more apps that were for video in which they help you find your footage easily without having to search for a long time.

Another one is really good for editing.  I learned from this article that it’s easy to get apps for video making and what some helpful ones are.  I can apply what I learned from this to class by, if I were to get any of these apps I could use them as practice before doing projects.
Here is the link to this article: http://www.videomaker.com/article/17246-mobile-apps-for-video-producers-montaj-lapse-it-pinnacle-studio-for-ipad-and-movie-slate

Title: SOUND ADVICE: VOICEOVER TECHNIQUES  Author: Hal Robertson Date: May 2002

This Article talks about how with whatever you do for editing one time if not more you will need to do a voiceover for something and unless you have have money to buy professional voice actors and studio grade equipment, then the little things that could help.

First and foremost is to have a well designed script of what will need to be said. Like the article states “Not only is the script the blueprint for your video, it’s also the roadmap for those parts of the program that require a voiceover.” So it is extremely important to have it well written. Make sure that everything is grammatically correct, your phrases are easy to pronounce, and it sounds good. No mater if you perform the script yourself or use someone else, read the script out loud a few times and listen for clumsy words and phrases. Make edits to what you think would need to be changed. The reader of the script will be very happy you did so.

The voice is the second thing you are going to need, you first have to decide if a male or female voice is what you are looking for. Are you looking for an High-octane professional type of voice or a relaxed and laid back type of styled voice. Either type of voice you are looking for this article states how if you look around your area there are probably people who would be able to do this for and if your not wanting to spend money there are probably some who would do it just to get a copy to have a demo for their future endeavors or you might just to have to do it yourself and hope you are what you are looking for.

The rest of this article really just talks about equipment that you can buy cheaply but work well and that you don’t need $1000 equipment to make it sounds good even though its nice if you have that type of money and equipment. It also talks about how during the editing process of the voiceover the ability to cut out sniffles, coughs or awkward pauses and make it sounds so much more professional. Also the voice modifications that you can do like deeper voice or different things like that to change the voice to make it more of what you were looking for. Voice overs are bound to be needed no matter what and it just matters how you approach it and treat it just as important as everything else so you do a good job as bad voiceovers can ruin a film/video.

Picture courtesy of: Robertson, Hal. “Sound Advice: Voiceover Techniques.” Videomaker.com. Videomakers, May 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.videomaker.com/article/8860-sound-advice-voiceover-techniques>.

Title: “Video Editing: Go With The Flow” Author: Bill Davis  Magazine Issue: July 2002

This article talks about how a well edited movie can easily “hypnotize” your audience and cause them to just be focused on nothing but the movie just by having great editing even if the plot, acting and other things are not up to par.

The main thing this article talks about it how when editing and putting shots together and going from a moment to moment type of sequence that you can’t leave stuff out because what you see in your head might not what the audience is thinking in their head and thus changing the thought of how that scene progressed and possibly changing the story, but with like everyday things like opening a door, you could probably not have the one quick snippet scene of him/her opening the door handle as many people know what would be happening. Either way it would just make it simpler if you just kept all the little things even if it does take more time in the editing process because by making have a break in the action where certain things are not shown it my take the audience out of that “trance” they are in by amazing editing just by leaving one little things out that could of easily stayed in the film. Obviously though you don’t want a whole lot of unnecessary scenes. “The rule of thumb for scene pacing is the same as in all good moviemaking: if it doesn’t help the audience follow the action or help move the story along, get rid of it.” With what you do put it in make sure you trim and edit to perfection as the editing of a film is crucial to a successful film.

Picture courtesy of: Robertson, Hal. “Video Editing: Go with the Flow.” Videomaker.com. Videomakers, July 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.videomaker.com/article/8948-video-editing-go-with-the-flow>.

I recently read the article “Camera Lens Filter Buyer’s Guide” by Carl Zeiss in Videomaker issue October 2013.

This article is talking about using different filters and what ones are better to use then the others.

I want to use filters. “These can be fun for dream sequences!” “Diffusion filters are even dreamier, as they soften a subject and add a creamy-dreamy look to an image.” “Filters are essentially pieces of glass or plastic placed in front of a camera lens to change the look of a shot or add a layer of protection between the lens and the elements.” These are Some popular filter brands are Tiffen, Canon, Carl Zeiss and Nikon Page 32