TV News: Green Screen Set Design

TV News: Green Screen Set Design

For this project I had to really rack my brains to come up with a decent set to put in place of our green screen. I expressed some ideas to the rest of the group and they said as lead editor I should decide. While I would have liked a little more input from the others here I was far too flattered to say so and saw it as a challenge. 

I had a look at some of the other groups work, they seemed to be using there own graphics as a backdrop, which while I was fully capable of producing I didn't feel it was the best option. I had a look through youtube and other sites, and while I found a few templates that could work, none of them were 4K so quality would have been lost. Also simply downloading something from youtube didn't feel like a challenge. I had a look at last years work and none of them had an interesting background, apart from one project (Student Yak). 

I spoke to a third year who worked on the project about how they built their set and they were quite helpful. They pointed me to the programme they used and gave a rough explanation of the process.

The programme was called "Sweet Home 3D" I downloaded it on to my laptop and began work immediately. I have used slightly similar programmes in the past but not for a very long time, and this one had some very unique features and little explanation. 

Meaning I was practically going in blind. Speaking to Gavin to get a little advice he said it took him over a week to understand the software but I was able to teach myself in about two hours. 

The software basically had you build a room, change its wall/floor colors and lighting set up. You then downloaded models of furniture to put in the room. I carefully considered the "Carology" brand here and tried to build as relevant a set as possible while still having it look vaugly like a real studio. 

I downloaded appropriate models e.g. desks, lighting, mini cars, etc. And also kept to the "carology color scheme wherever possible.

I checked in with the group regularly to see what they thought, producing multiple drafts that acted on their input. The colour scheme was the main thing that had to be adapted to be a little less vibrant so as not to distract audiences. They suggested I place images of Tesla or our logo on the wall.

I think this would be a good idea but I have yet to figure out how to do this. 

If I have any more free time i will act upon this, but being so close to the deadline there is little time for improvement. In heinsight we should have decided what we wanted as a background sooner, but overall I am very pleased that I was able to throw together a professional looking set, in a matter of hours, using a software i had never even heard of before now.