Q&A and a Tutorial -- How to do a Green Screen in 7 Easy Steps

Thanks for the positive response on my 3 Rs video I did with my kiddos! I did have a few questions that I thought I'd answer. Hope they help!

What did you use for the green screen?


I just used a twin size blue sheet. Any green or blue sheet will work. Or fleece fabric. Or even bulletin board paper! Just make sure it's free of wrinkles and hanging nice a flat.

How did you get the scenes behind the kids in the video?

I went to Google images and searched for the scenes that I wanted (ex: disco floor, grocery store). Possibilities are endless!  

What program did you use?

I used iMovie09. There is a green screen feature on there that is super easy to use.


Helpful tips:

• It's best if the kids wear brightly colored shirts. White does not work. 
• Make sure your 'green screen' is ironed!
• It's best to shoot the kids from knee up -- it will look funny if you do a full body shot because your green screen won't be on the floor. 

 How to do the Green Screen Feature in iMovie (for Macs)

1. Upload your video into iMovie -- one that you have filmed in front of your green screen.

2. Find a background image that you like. I wanted to be on a beach. :) Go to Google Images and find the picture you want and drag to your desktop.

3. Drag the image from your desktop onto your iMovie Project Library. Now you want to highlight your video clip and see how long it is. Mine is 4.1 seconds. I want to make my pictures 4.1 seconds as well. Both your video and the image have to have the same time. So click on the gear on your image and click on clip adjustments. 

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4. Change the clip to how long your video is. Again, mine was 4.1 seconds, so I'm changing the duration of the image to 4.1 seconds.

5. Now select your entire video clip and drag onto your image. Here you can see I'm dragging my video onto my picture of the beach in the project library.

6. A box will immediately pop up. Scroll down and select Green Screen.

7. *Voila!* I'm on the beach!

I hope this helps! It really is easy once you figure out how to do it!