Chroma Key Analysis By Jennie Potts

What Is Chroma Key? In the 1940′s the motion picture industry developed a technique for photography known as using “green screen” backdrops. At the time, the technique was not cost effective at all. Times have changed. Modern photography equipment, advanced techniques for photography, and new technology have brought this old craft back to centre stage for amateur and professional photographers alike. Today the technique has quite a collection of names including: blue screen, green screen, Chroma - keying and Chroma keying composting. It is used for a wide range of purposes including creating special effects for filmmaking, digital images, and it’s most common use for the making of some spectacular music videos. Even weather and traffic reports on the daily news channels are making use of this technology. The reason that blue and green are the most common colours used in this particular technique, is because of their placement on the spectrum wheel. These colours are farthest away and that makes them easier to isolate and remove from images in order to replace them with the preferred digital background.

Katy Perry .ft. Kanye West– E.T. Example You would think before Katy Perry’s and Kanye West’s music video ‘E.T.’ the imagination would be mentally impossible to create. The creativity put into this music video is extraordinary. Katy Perry the partner of this song, is almost transformed into appearing to be an ‘out of this world’ alien, but strangely stunning, which leaves the audience transfixed. Space, planets, exploding stars, and Katy herself being an alien, meets in the final minutes of the song a creature of which Katy brings to life from her touch to it’s ‘armour’ if so is outstanding. As the story you can see is obviously incredible as well as fascinating, you would not think that an ordinary ‘green screen’ could create such stunning and realistic scenery? Because of the imagination of this song, I feel Katy and Kanye West felt like creating an ordinary music video, although still relating to the song would not be of much impact, as the song itself is hardly on a small scale. Therefore a music video almost swamped with as much creativity, imagination, and skill you can think of combined created possibly the most ‘intelligent’ making of a video you could possibly find on the web. Although this is in personal opinion, opinions can differ. Overall, the making of this video is clearly successful with over 183,248,882 views on YouTube, and fantastic reviews, Katy and Kanye seemed to have made a very positive effect on there viewers/fans . To check out the full video go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Sd5c4o9UM .

Katy Perry – California Gurls .ft. Snoop Dog Consistently throughout her music career Katy has made such imaginative music videos, and it’s no exception for ‘California Gurls’. Although California Gurls is a fun, upbeat video, there is no narrative. Other than representing California as being a spectacular location, and the label it gives its ‘California Gurls’. I believe that Katy has used Chroma Key to obviously put across that she is an imaginative an open – minded artist, but to also express unusual experiences and emotions of which California makes you feel, therefore explaining the fact that she’s on a board game being played by ‘Snoop Dog’. I have researched and discovered video diaries of Katy’s film in the making, and she does express several times that the making of this particular video out of others was particularly enjoyable to create. She explains that herself being embodied with candyfloss, living jelly babies, a land of candy, and pink clouds is out of the ordinary, but defines it with saying, California is a place of which isn't describable, but adventurous and extraordinary, so she decided to express her ‘indescribable emotions’ for her hometown in a video she feels would compliment herself and also be fun for the audience to view. California Gurls is a very creative and enjoyable viewing, although I advise it to be for the open minded of people. To find the full video of ‘Katy Perry – California Gurls .ft. Snoop Dog’ you can find it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4 .

Overall Opinion Overall green screen, blue screen, however you look at it, has changed everything relating to Film and Photography. Although it did not exist years back, The music industry, Film industry and so on. Would if subtracted from then, be lost without it. The whole ‘film base’ scenario today revolves around Chroma Key, making a mood for everything they film, whether it be a dark backdrop in a horror movie, or the sunrise in a romance, or something that simply cannot be done without it, Space for instance in Katy Perry’s – E.T. Thank you for reading! 