Three Big Differences Between
Green Screen + LED

When it comes to filming, there are a few different shooting environment options you can choose from in order to get the desired effect. One of those is shooting against a green screen. This has been used for years in the film industry and is still popular today. However, there is another option that is becoming more and more popular - filming in an LED Volume with photo-realistic, virtual environments. In this blog post, we will discuss the differences between these two methods and help you decide which one is right for you!

Before we talk about the differences between the two, let’s define a green screen and an LED Volume.

A green screen is a large green (or blue) backdrop placed in the background of a shot to allow for digital effects to be added in later. In post-production, the special effects department will edit the background from green to anything desired with CGI (computer-generated imagery) or background footage called “plates.” The screen can take up the entire background or just a portion of it, depending on what needs to be replaced. An LED Volume is a production set that utilizes LED panels, a physical set and other digital elements to create a realistic, immersive experience for the audience and gives the production team the ability to change the background visuals in an instant via playback.

So what are the main differences between shooting against a green screen vs. inside an LED Volume? Today we’ll give you three: 

1) The first difference between filming in an LED Volume and against a green screen is the feel of the environment. When you are shooting in an LED Volume, the entire space is filled with LED panels. This creates a completely immersive environment for your actors to perform in. On the other hand, when you are shooting against a green screen, you will just have a green screen set up in front of your camera. This can be a bit more challenging for your actors, as they will have to imagine the environment they are supposed to be in.

2) Another difference between these two methods is the lighting. When you are filming in an LED Volume, the LED panels provide most of the lighting for your scene. Picture a large lighting box that allows for realistic ambient light and reflections and the actual environments being reflected on the talent. On the other hand, when you are shooting against a green screen, you can control the lighting in your scene easily; however, normally a DP will light only what’s in front of them. This can lead the green screen to be over exposed based on the lighting of the foreground subject(s) and can result in the need to recreate lighting in the background, which may not look right in post. With an LED Volume, what you see in camera is what you get.

3) Arguably the most significant difference between shooting on green screen vs. LED is the post-production process after filming. With LED, compositors who use the method of chroma keying in post-production don’t have to knock green out of reflections and put another artificial reflection on top of those green reflections. This often is something a compositor would have to do frame by frame, so filming in a virtual production studio can save a production valuable time and money in post.

So, which method is better? Ultimately, it depends on what you are looking for in your scene. If you want to be able to remove a subject from a background and add it to another background in post, then shooting against a green screen may be the best option. However, if you want to create a more realistic and immersive experience for your viewers and reduce time in post-production, then filming in an LED volume may be the way to go.What do you think? If you’ve filmed in both an LED volume and against a green screen let us know the differences in the comments below!