Green Screens Are Cool ...

Green Screens Are Cool ...

... in fact, they are kind of spooky ...

I got to the set a little earlier than I had planned for the commercial shoot on Friday, which gave me plenty of time to soak in the atmosphere of the studio and the entire production process.

Yes, I had to sit in the brightly lit room and get make up put on.

Yes, I had to go through wardrobe and have some one totally primp my collars and de-lint me.

Yes, I had to wait for the red light and be aware of the boom microphone at all times.

Yes, I had to repeat lines over and over again for an hour.

Yes, they actually sprayed my shoes with something so that they would not be shiny in the green room. In the whoodathunkit category I would not have imagined needing to dull my black shoes instead of shining them.

Yes, I had to take off my glasses.

Yes, it totally rocked.

See, when I walked into the actual studio from the make up chair the green glow of the green screen had me completely mesmerized. I also noted that the room was about as cold as I remember operating rooms feeling like, but that is a total digression.

The green is painted on the floor and the floor slopes up and there are no real corners per se. The studio ceiling was almost as high as a gym so until I really looked up I could not tell how deep the room went. Even then, it still seemed like it could be three feet or a hundred feet deep. The director joked that I should just run until I hit something if I really wanted to find the end. I ALMOST did, but that would have ended the thing badly and I was too interested to screw it up intentionally. I stood maybe five feet into the green facing the camera for the most part, but when I had to turn to walk around I genuinely felt like I could not tell where the floor and walls were. I have never been so momentarily disoriented in such a way. I was walking so gingerly that it could not have looked natural ...

... but it was still very, very cool.