How Green Screen Worked Before Computers

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Published 2015-02-04

tomscott.com/ - twitter.com/tomscott - For those of us who grew up in the age of CGI, green screen is just "a thing that computers do". But how did effects like this work before the age of pixels? With the help of some suitably shiny graphics, here's a quick summary.

Thank you to Matt Gray - mattg.co.uk/ - twitter.com/unnamedculprit - for sterling work getting the camera and lighting right!

All Comments (21)

@zerobyter 8 years ago

... okay, maybe two afternoons.
@Dixavd 9 years ago

As a jerk with a laptop and a copy of After Effects - I'm jealous of your ability to do that in an Afternoon.
@scottmanley 9 years ago

This is great. On a similar note you should read about how they restored the classic Dr Who series 'Daemons'. They had an official 16mm monochrome film print, and a fan in the US had recorded a colour version on U-Matic video tape which was much lower resolution. The restoration team rigged up a system where the luminance signal from the film was combined with chroma signal from the tape and produced the version we can now watch on DVD.
@ElDaumo 8 years ago

looking at doctor who special effects, they might still use that paintbox
@WayTwo 6 years ago

Wow that old tv effect was amazing
@patsmusic8011 8 years ago

I love how laid back he is! He acts like your just a friend!
@Larry 9 years ago

My friend owns that Quantel Paintbox that the BBC used in the 80s. One of them anyway, I think they owned three in the end as they were in such demand (mostly for title sequences).
@catfish552 6 years ago

A travelling matte... as opposed to the guy who sometimes accompanies Tom on his wild travels. That's a travelling Matt.
@p1nkfreud 4 years ago

Tom Scott: "These days, green screen is easy" Microphone Boom: "Are you sure about that"
@michaelwatson113 6 years ago

We called the television version Chromakey. In North America p, we started out using blue screen. With very careful lighting, proper camera angles, and well adjusted cameras it worked not half bad. Later, we shifted to green screen for chromakey, and that seemed to get better results. Occasionally we did work out moving both cameras in sync. In addition to these matting formats, film and television also used front and rear screen projection. Any one or more of these might be used in a movie or program, or even in one scene depending on the desired effect.
@FlorianEagox 2 years ago

It actually sounds super fun to watch a live, green screen performance, with two cameras actively filming scenes.
@ShakeTheFuture 9 years ago

Very cool!
@upengraden3792 4 years ago

Legend has it... The green screen is made with a blue screen...
@djcfrompt 5 years ago

Every time I heard 'traveling matte' I was thinking of Matt Gray on holiday.
@Finkelfunk 2 years ago

"Today a jerk with after effects can do that in an afternoon" Edited by: Tom Scott Well played sir.
@myfavoritemusic2428 7 years ago

i love these subtitles. You speak so fast! Thank you some Finnish guy who went through and translated this video! Kiitos!
@Flemtality 9 years ago

There it is: 2:01 I knew he couldn't get through an entire video without some kind of British mention. Tom Scott, professionally British.
@benashworth4474 3 years ago

The Disney sodium vapor process camera is still a step above modern green screen technology when it comes to mattes for gauzy or translucent materials. They only were able to make one as the prism inside of it that split the sodium light was never able to be duplicated correctly, but that one camera was used on a number of movies until the 90's.
@KayoMichiels 8 years ago

And then you had the complex process used in TRON....
@ZanderSwart 1 year ago

this video still holds up 10 years later. Tom has some special talent, thank you Tom.