FEB
17

Green Screen Backgrounds Can Take You Virtually Anywhere!

By Karen Vuranch 

Karen Vuranch is an instructor at Concord University in West Virginia.  In addition, she is an actor and owns her own freelance theatre company, WV Enterprises. 

When the pandemic first began, the world seemed to come to a screeching halt.  Suddenly, there were no meetings, no gatherings, no classes...  and no theatre.  But, gradually we became accustomed to meeting virtually.  And the theatrical world responded as it always does — with creativity and innovation.  Now there are plays and concerts and performances presented on Zoom and other virtual platforms.

But as our comfort level with online performances has grown, so has our audience’s expectations.  One way to raise the production value of your Zoom performance is to use green screen backgrounds.  With a green screen, you can easily establish an actor’s location by using a photo behind them to place them anywhere in the world.  More importantly, if two or more actors are supposed to be in the same place, having identical pictures behind them creates the illusion that they are together at one location, even as they each remain in their own home.

A green screen is simply a lime green cloth or panel that hangs behind the actor.  Some newer computers have the capability built-in and don’t need an actual screen.  However, the image is a little crisper with one.  Green screens are fairly inexpensive.  They are available online for under $20.  Even cheaper, buy a lime green plastic tablecloth at a dollar store.  Draping it over a frame so it’s two ply is a good idea, and it’s still lightweight enough to be easily hung.  Lime green is used because it is not a color on the human body, and it reflects more light than blue.  It’s also not a common color in wardrobes and costumes, which is important so your actor doesn’t disappear into their background and look like a floating head!  Really, be careful of even a green stripe in a costume — it looks crazy when even a small portion of the costume reflects the background photo!

Hanging the green screen behind the actor can be as simple as taping it to the wall or hanging it from a lightweight pole.  I use tomato stakes propped up with books and use binder clips to hold it on the pole.  Get creative!  We didn’t have a place to hang it in our dining room, so we opened the French doors halfway and put the pole on top of the doors, with the screen hanging down between the doors.  Building a frame from PVC piping is also cheap and easy.

Once you have the green screen, it’s time to figure out what your background should be.  You can either take your own photo(s) or find royalty-free ones online.  If multiple actors are using the same photo, simply email it to all of them.  Your photos can also be in the same location but showing different perspectives.  For example, we produced Pioneer Drama’s You’re Virtually Driving Me Crazy, a four-part play that takes place in driver’s ed vehicles.  We took a photo of each seat in a car — driver’s seat, passenger front seat, and back seat — and then emailed the appropriate one to each actor based on where they were supposed to be sitting in the car.  That way, it looked like they were all sitting in the same vehicle at the same time.

Once the actor has the photo saved on their device and are on Zoom, instruct them to go to the video icon on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.  Click on the up arrow next to it and then “Choose Virtual Background.”  In that window, there will be a plus sign to click to browse their computer.  When they choose the photo, it will upload onto Zoom.  Then, they will check the box “I have a green screen.”  The photo will now appear behind the actor.  The first time, they need to “true” the color.  This one is a little trickier because this button is not in the same place on every device, but wherever it is, it looks like a little green circle.  They should click on the circle, and they will see the green screen behind them.  Then, they click anywhere on the green screen color.  This is telling the computer with which color to align.

Actors can easily change backgrounds during a production if different scenes are in different locales.  Unfortunately, the stage manager can’t help them with this; each actor has to set and change their own background.  To change background photos, they simply need to turn off their video and choose a different photo to use as a virtual background.  When they next turn on their video, they will be in a different location!  For one production that we did, each actor had between seven and ten different locations, and they changed practically each time they appeared.  Many of the audience members commented later that it really helped them enjoy the play more.

The use of backgrounds really helps bring the play to life and connects the audience to the show.  Not only does it enhance your production value, it’s fun and adds a creative element for your actors as they choose their virtual backgrounds!

I wish you good luck in all your performances — both live and virtual.  For more tips and tricks for virtual theatre (written in part by yours truly), check out Pioneer Drama’s 22-page How-To Guide for Virtual Theatre that’s absolutely free to download!