ON THE GREEN SCREEN

You may have seen in the backgrounds of many of my pictures, but I haven't really talked much about it: The Green Screen.

For those of you who don't know, the green screen is the green fabric behind my dinosaur, Ray. Since the dawn of filmmaking, filmakers have attempted to increase the variation in the stories they told by means of special effect, not just to create fantastical creatures and vehicles, but to also take their person out of the studio and into another world, without ever leaving the studio. Most filmakers simply took their actors to obscure locations, or made artificial jungles and article wastes. But for those who didn't have the money, they used rear-projection, essentially the classic film version of filming your actors in front of a television, only with a projection screen and mirror. This is how King  Kong fought dinosaurs as human cowered in their presence, and how Superman flew. Still, people sought more creative ways, such as the matte, using blackened areas of two different clips as a proto green screen to form a compostite shot, and Dynamation, Ray Harryhausen's technique, which is essiantally rear-projection in reverse as the dinosaur is animated frame-by frame along with the live-action background, to be dropped into the human world. Smart, really. This technique was used (in some cases stolen) to create most stop-motion monster movies of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, where the technique was perfected by animator Phil Tippett, who replaced the animation board with a wire brace, shook the model between shots to blur the movement, and created go-motion. All these different breeds of composite shot were used to varying degrees of perfection, from excellent to B-movie level. Eventually, the blue screen was developed, most prominently used in Star Wars. A hybrid of the matte and rear-projection with digital technology thrown in, the green screen has your actors act in front of a large blue screen, and later a computer fills in the green with the background. This evolved into the digital age as green screen, and everyone from George Lucas to amateur filmakers use green screen. You can put your actor in a car, and put a moving background behind him to simulate driving,  animate your monster in front of a green screen to plop him into the real world, paint yourself green to become the invisible man, and all sorts of awesome techniques. But how do you do all this?

First, obviously, you need a green screen, which can be either a big green sheet, or green wall. As long as it's smooth and spreads past your camera's view, it's good.

Second, you need lighting. Light evens out the color recognition, without it, your green screen will look fizzy. I use a simple soft light, but if you want to get truly professional, use a real powerful light.

Third, you need a movie editing program that has green screen. It won't work without it. I suggest using FinalCut pro. It not only has green screen as an option, it works in more than one color, has a
range of options to a alter the way your characters interact with the world, and even erase
 fizzles should they show up.

I hope this has given you insight into the world of green screen. Enjoy!

Kelston Hubler

My tribute to Ray Harryhausen

I know it's a tad late, but here's my tribute to Ray Harryhausen, who passed away last year at 92. He was very influential on my career, so here's my tribute.

While I was a huge fan of dinosaurs, I never really knew who Ray was. Frankly, I wasn't sure there really were too many dinosaur films out there. I recently came into a fascination with Greek Myth, so mom rented Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts on Netflix. Coming from an era of CGI, I was a tad jaded, but, frankly, his creatures Medusa and Talos were some of the few monsters to ever scare me. They didn't even need to explode out of a doorway, screaming at the top of their lungs, the sheer mood and movement of the creatures genuinely creeped me out. This is coming from a kid who forced his Grandma to play Jurassic Park 3 every Friday, a film where Velociraptors pin down mercenaries and split open their skulls with their claws. A few years later, after a bit of research on the subject, I came across Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger on television. The death of Trog and the Saber-Toothed Tiger affected me more than any monsters death, even more than the original Godzilla.

Well, I didn't hear much about him until my old teacher put on a video on about him. I think that's when I was certain I wanted to make stop motion dinosaurs and animate them. I already had a stop motion program I got years before, but that video made me certain about what I wanted
 to do. I went through many trials and tribulations, from baked sculpey creatures, to pipe cleaner plesiosaurs, to plasticine Godzillas, to Patchy, to Malcolm, to O'bie, to Ray (get it?) . I eventually was able to buy the Beast from 20,000 fathoms, a beautiful movie with a fantastic monster, a combination of Ray Bradbury's short story and Ray Harryhausen's concepts. I also was able to record a strain of Harryhausen movies, and git to watch 20 million miles to Earth, First Men in the moon, and Earth vs the Flying Saucers. It was awesome.

When one of my teachers who also loved his work broke the news, it was terribly sad. But I'm happy to know that people still care about his craft and continue it to this day. Richard Svensson's working on his Lovecraft Projects, Phil Tippet's making MAD GOD,  ML Tharme is working on Wildlife on Mars, Peter Jackson recreated the Spider Pit sequence from the original KING KONG, and I'm working on MUCH TO FEAR ABOUT SUMMER.

His work inspired all of us. Thank you, Ray Harryhausen.