Category Archives: blogs

Everything You Need to Know About Chroma Key and Green Screen Footage

Have you ever wondered why when recording a video, most people use green screen (Chroma Key)?

Green Screen: Technically, this term refers to the colored background you want to make transparent and remove from your shot. This is usually a single colored backdrop, which can be any color, but is usually bright green because it is the color furthest away from human skin tones. (Blue screens were frequently used in the early days with film, and might still be used in certain cases.) Sometimes the term is used as a fit-all for the entire process of keying (see below).

Chroma Key: This popular term goes hand-in-hand with green screen. It’s the actual technique of layering, or compositing two images based on color hues. Every color has a chroma range, hence where the terminology comes from.

Keying: This term is used to describe the process of removing the green screen background in post-production using video editing software. When the green screen background has been keyed, it will be fully transparent. Then you can fill in that transparent area with a different image or video. The goal is to get the cleanest key possible, meaning there are no digital artifacts left on your image where the green screen was original.

Spill: This often refers to the colored light that reflects back onto your subject from the green screen. When a green screen is brightly lit, the light can actually reflect that color back onto your subject. There are a number of steps you can take to prevent spill.

DIY Green Screen

Just slap some fluorescent green paint on a wall and you’re done, right? No, but that’s not far off from your DIY options for green screen. When you’re taking the hand-made approach, it’s all about getting the right material for the backdrop. There’s paint, muslin, nylon, poster board, and more. Think about factors like:

  • Portability – Do you plan to make a studio space, or do you want options on the go? Light, stretchy fabrics are the best for movers and shakers.
  • Patience – Do you have the patience (or time) to spend ironing or steaming out wrinkles from fabric? If so, you can opt for a heavier fabric that wrinkles easily but provides great coverage.
  • Coverage – Are you filming a whole scene, or an up-close subject? The amount of coverage you need will dictate how much material you need. If you just want to cover a small space, a poster board could fit the bill.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW_9FwBArDw]

4 Reasons to learn a new language

English is fast becoming the world’s universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign language? Linguist and Columbia professor John McWhorter shares four alluring benefits of learning an unfamiliar tongue.

First, To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truely get the culture. And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is that they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code.

Second reason: it’s been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker. And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. Bilingualism is healthy. 

Third — languages are just an awful lot of fun. Much more fun than we’re often told. 

And more to the point, we live in an era when it’s never been easier to teach yourself another language. It used to be that you had to go to a classroom, and there would be some diligent teacher — some genius teacher in there — but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times. You had to go to class. If you didn’t have that, you had something called a record. I cut my teeth on those. There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette, or even that antique object known as a CD. Other than that you had books that didn’t work, that’s just the way it was. 

Some thoughts about my first class this semester

I just finished my fist class this semester. This is an English class with kids with various English levels. Therefore, the implementation of differentiation instruction is critical. Overall, it was good, but I did spend too much time doing the icebreaker activity with the kids. It is a good way to build the rapport with them definitely, but I was a bit worried about was my boundaries too loose? Will these kids behave well later as I am more flexible and friendly than the ‘normal’ teachers they in their impression ? Let’s wait and see! Best luck to myself and all of my kids!

The TQE Method

As I dig into the assignment of my new semester, I learned the TQE Method. Let’s take a look of what is TQE

1. STUDENTS COMPLETE ASSIGNED READING AT HOME

2. SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS (15 MINUTES)

When they arrive in class, students get into small groups, where they have 15 minutes to share thoughts, lingering questions, and epiphanies (TQEs) they have about the reading. Early in the year, Thompson provides stems to help students generate these (see below), encouraging them to move from the more simplistic ideas on the left to the more complex ones on the right.

3. TQES ON THE BOARD

4. CLASS DISCUSSION OF TQES

Reference: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/tqe-method/

Happy Moon Festival

August 15 on Chinese Lunar Calendar is Moon Festival. It also called Mid-Autumn Festival because it is the 15th of the month. Traditionally, we eat moon cakes and BBQ with family and friends.