The utilization of bluescreen and green screen technology in film and video production is a common practice in the industry. These screens are used to create special effects, to replace the background of a shot, and to enable live-action and animation to be composited together. The primary difference between the two is the color used for the screen.
Hollywood has traditionally used bluescreen technology, while Zoom and other video conferencing platforms have adopted green screen technology. There are several reasons why this distinction exists.
The first factor is the difference in technology used in film and video production compared to video conferencing. Film and video production typically require high-end cameras and lighting equipment, while video conferencing relies on lower-end cameras and lighting, often found in consumer laptops or mobile devices. This difference in technology affects the chroma key process, as bluescreen technology requires a high level of color accuracy to produce good results, while green screen technology is more forgiving and can produce good results with lower-end cameras and lighting.
Another factor is the difference in the color spectrum between blue and green. Blue is a rarer color in human skin tones and natural environments, making it a good choice for a chroma key color in film and video production. On the other hand, green is a more common color in human skin tones and natural environments, making it a better choice for video conferencing, where the goal is to remove the background while preserving the subject as much as possible.
Source: “Chroma Key”, by Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key)
Furthermore, green has been found to be more visually distinct than blue, making it easier for the chroma key algorithm to accurately separate the subject from the background. In addition, green has a higher luminance value than blue, which makes it more visible in low light conditions and less likely to be affected by lighting variations in the background.
Source: “Green Screen vs Blue Screen for Video Conferencing”, by Zoom (https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/background-effects-chroma-key.html)
In conclusion, the distinction between bluescreen and green screen technology in film and video production and video conferencing is due to the difference in technology, the difference in the color spectrum, and the ease of separating the subject from the background. Hollywood uses bluescreen because of the high-end technology and the rarity of blue in human skin tones and natural environments, while Zoom and other video conferencing platforms use green screen due to the lower-end technology, the commonality of green in human skin tones and natural environments, and the ease of separating the subject from the background.
