History Main / ChromaKey

More commonly known as ''green screen'', the process by which a subject filmed on a camera can be seamlessly inserted into a scene generated by other means. It relies on filming the subject in front of a solid-color background -- usually green or blue -- and causing the editing system to replace that color with the background signal.

The technique is usually used to composite the subject into a computer generated environment, but other live action footage, matte paintings, traditional animation, or some combination of all can be used also.

The color used is now entirely arbitrary. Blue was a popular choice in the early days of color motion pictures, because it is complementary to the reds found in human skin. Green became popular because digital editing systems can isolate green with less light in the background, and because lime green is less common than bright blue in costuming[[note]] There were also a few actors who also had Blue Screen-colored eyes; ''Film/BrokenArrow1996'' offers an example, where an astute viewer can occasionally see special effects in John Travolta's irises.[[/note]] Magenta is sometimes used, as is black, but the latter is problematic, as it's almost impossible to shoot a person without having some black visible on their person, in eyes or shadows.

If any part of an actor or prop is colored the same as the background, that part will disappear. Thus, sometimes the background color is chosen because of the colors to be used in the foreground action. The original run of ''Series/DoctorWho'', for instance, used green or yellow backgrounds even when blue was the most common color at Creator/TheBBC, because a large number of its effects shots involved the TARDIS, a timeship that takes the form of a blue police phone box. The problem with using yellow was that foreground objects and actors always had a prominent yellow fringe around them. Normally, wardrobe and prop designers simply avoid using greens in the capture range, but this is not always possible; you'll occasionally see bloopers where weather forecasters have part of the meteorology map show up on their ties, for example.

The invisibility effect can be used intentionally to allow a performer, or part of their body, to interact with props while remaining unseen. A garment that can be used for this purpose is a one-piece jumpsuit in the background color, with a full-face mask, and a mesh eye piece, called a "gimp suit" or, in the case of a blue background, a "blueberry" in the trade. Performers in newer Creator/JimHenson Productions shows have used these suits to perform with puppets without having to raise them above their heads. The suit looks like a {{Ninja}} outfit, and that is not a coincidence, as it serves the same purpose as the black outfits traditionally worn by Japanese stagehands.

Almost all productions use Chroma Key at some point, but there are some standout examples. Also notable for causing occasional [[{{Narm}} unintentional hilarity]] -- when background and foreground are poorly matched, or the visual effects budget is low, [[SpecialEffectFailure the effect is anything but seamless]].

It can be fairly tricky to create a viable Chroma-Key effect, especially with amateur equipment -- often, it requires fiddling with hue and saturation, and even then, there is often a faint, tell-tale 'border' around the subject where the green-screen footage and the 'real' actor don't match up.

-->-- '''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mike Nelson]]''' on ''Film/ThePumaman''

The invisibility effect can be used intentionally to allow a performer, or part of his body, to interact with props while remaining unseen. A garment that can be used for this purpose is a one-piece jumpsuit in the background color, with a full-face mask, and a mesh eye piece, called a "gimp suit" or, in the case of a blue background, a "blueberry" in the trade. Performers in recent Creator/JimHenson Productions shows have used these suits to perform with puppets without having to raise them above their heads. The suit looks like a Ninja outfit, and that is not a coincidence, as it serves the same purpose as the black outfits traditionally worn by Japanese stagehands. See notes at {{Ninja}}.

Almost all productions use Chroma Key at some point, but there are some standout examples. Also notable for causing occasional [[{{Narm}} unintentional hilarity]] - when background and foreground are poorly matched, or the visual effects budget is low, [[SpecialEffectFailure the effect is anything but seamless]].

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Used in Nike's ''Advertising/TheLebrons'' commercials for the eponymous family based on [=LeBron=] James, as seen in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o7kyYZtKxk one]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Used as part of a StylisticSuck gag in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' with the main characters using the lead Gundam as part of a KitschyLocalCommercial that is about as well made as one would expect out of a group of high school students with zero movie making experience. The end result, apart from everything else wrong with the commercial, are obvious green screen artifacts around the edges of the machine.
[[/folder]]

* Used in ''WesternAnimation/TheMitchellsVsTheMachines'', where Katie is seen editing one of her films so that the green backdrop behind her brother Aaron is replaced with a shot of a highway in the dark. There is some [[SpecialEffectsFailure faint green outlining her brother after the edits]], however.

* The first film to use the chroma key process was ''Film/{{The Thief of Bagdad|1940}}'' back in 1940. It was invented by Larry Butler, who won an Oscar for it.

* The 1933 version of H.G. Wells's ''Film/{{The Invisible Man|1933}}'' used the black velvet effect in close-ups where Griffin removed his bandages.
* While on chroma key for invisibility, ''Film/HollowMan'' showed how many colors can be used for erasure, as Creator/KevinBacon wore green, blue, grey, or black (the latter two in scenes involving water). His castmates even admitted the biggest challenge was looking at this colorful figure and still treat it as seriously as such a thriller required.
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004) had almost no real sets or props, relying on Chroma Key in every shot. The reason for this was twofold: One, the studio in which they filmed was very, ''very'' small, restricting the use of wide shots, and two, the creators wanted the film to have a 1940's comics-esque noir[-/-]PulpMagazine feel to it, something they achieved quite nicely on such a limited budget.
* As did the film adaptation of ''Film/SinCity'', in order to re-create all those stylistic comic-book-style backgrounds and lighting motiffs.
* ''Film/MirrorMask'' does the same, in a very ''very'' trippy way.
* As did ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', in the "Chilly Down" sequence.
* ''Sin City'' auteur Creator/FrankMiller saw it again in the adaptation of ''Film/ThreeHundred'', filmed almost entirely in Chroma Key. [[Creator/ZackSnyder The director's]] next movie, an adaptation of Alan Moore's ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', used a combination of chroma key and traditional sets.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels helped pioneer the idea of minimal set design through Chroma Key.

* The opening scenes of ''Film/GroundhogDay'' demonstrate this -- the woman is wearing a blue blouse when she steps in front of the chroma key camera, and all that can be seen are her head and hands in front of the satellite picture.
* Quite possibly the best use of chroma key occurs throughout Creator/WaltDisney's ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople''. Two remarkable examples are the moments where Darby plays "The Fox Chase" on a fiddle to an audience of dancing leprechauns and, most notably, the Banshee sequence.
* ''Film/ThePumaman'' has some very unconvincing green screen work, but [[SoBadItsGood that's part of its charm]].
* Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' used this extensively. The sets seem to consist of nothing but green walls in the proper shape, along with platforms. Only things the human characters touched actually existed on the set, and most seemed to be green and were textured via CG (The Tea Table seemed to be an exception, due to the hatter walking on and knocking stuff off). The staff comments in the "Making Of" stated it was an "Odd Mix" of Full CGI (too many to list), motion capture characters with the actor's head pasted on, normal actors human (mainly Alice), and edited normal actors (the Red Queen and her giant head).
* The body-suit version was memorably used in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' to erase half of the actress playing the Borg Queen during her entrance-in-two-parts.
* At the Walt Disney Studios, Creator/UbIwerks developed the sodium vapor process, in which the actors were filmed against a white backdrop lit with powerful sodium lights. A special prism in the camera separated the image and exposed it simultaneously on two different film stocks: regular color film, which did not pick up the sodium light, and black and white film sensitive to sodium light, which created the matte. The process was used for most Disney productions, including ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'', ''Film/MaryPoppins'' and ''Film/TheBlackHole'', and was also used for ''Film/TheBirds'' and a number of Creator/RayHarryhausen's films. Although it provided better results than blue screen, and saved time by creating the matte simultaneously with the foreground footage, the process proved too expensive and was discontinued by the 1980s.
* Used a bit in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' when Eddie enters Toontown, as you can see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VnHAy1Vdc here]].
* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films, the invisibility cloak is, of course, created with a chroma key green cloak. Chroma key is obviously also used for scenes with {{Flying Broomstick}}s and so forth. As as far as sets go, the ''Potter'' filmmakers tended to prefer building real sets and just using chroma key to fill in scenery out a window, for example. However, there have been at least two all-CGI sets in the series, the Hall of Prophecy from ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' (because they couldn't do the scene where all the shelves crash down for real) and the Chamber of Secrets in ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]], Part 2'' (the original Chamber set from ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' was real, but wasn't saved after filming).
* As mentioned above, Creator/RayHarryhausen used the sodium vapor process on a number of his films. For instance, it's used to achieve some of the scale effects in ''The Three Worlds of Gulliver''. More subtly, in ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts'', in the scene where Jason is talking to Medea at the stern of the ''Argo'', you have to look closely to realize that they were filmed in the studio with location footage of the rest of the ship matted in behind them.
* In ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'', blue screen was obviously used for the FlyingCar scenes. Obvious because [[SpecialEffectsFailure you can see blue matte lines around the actors in several shots]].
* ''Film/TheAmazingBulk'' is filmed entirely in Chroma Key.
* In ''Film/StuckOnYou'', a 'blueberry' suit is used to keep Bob out of Walt's scenes on ''[[ShowWithinAShow Honey and the Beaze]]''

* ''Film/RepoChick'' was filmed almost entirely on a green screen. The actors were then composited onto model railways and toy cars instead of more realistic backgrounds.
* Almost 90% of ''Film/TheTimeMachineIFoundAtAYardsale'' appears to have been shot in low-quality Chroma Key.
* In ''Film/MetalstormTheDestructionOfJaredSyn'', this is used to insert flying machines above the landscape.
* ''Film/SugarHill1974'' uses this to make Baron Samedi materialize after Mama Maitresse and Sugar summon him.
* In ''Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues'', [[TheDitz Brick]] wore a green shirt and pants for St. Patrick's Day when he was hosting the weather forecast. [[https://youtu.be/d9_mnLfdLlo Hilarity ensues.]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Referred to in Creator/TomClancy's novel ''Debt of Honor'' as a ruse.
* ''Literature/TroyRising'': Tyler Vernon uses this and relayed broadcasting for misdirection to protect him against alien invaders that want him dead, while giving a televised interview.
[[/folder]]

* News folk use this technique when presenting the weather, often using a special pointing device which the computer can track to appear to interact with the weatherboard by drawing lines and arrows. One particular segment has a host who enjoys taking further advantage of the technique: he wears a blue suit skeleton costume on Halloween. The potential problems associated with this technique can be averted (as with Creator/TheBBC since its news department moved to Broadcasting House) by using rear-projection on a plasma screen instead of ChromaKey. There were, however, cases of news being filmed in green screen studios, especially during the 80s and 90s. One such example happens to be the BBC, which used chroma keying for an extremely elaborate design heavily featuring the BBC coat of arms that was used between 1993 and 1999
* When Harry Caray worked at WGN covering the Chicago Cubs, during the postgame show he and the play-by-play commentator would sit in front of a blue screen showing the crowd at Wrigley Field. Caray, whose catchphrase was "Holy Cow!", had a little plastic cow which had some blue dots on it, making it "holey" so you could see "through" it to the shot behind them.
* ''Series/ANTFarm'' uses this when Olive paints Chyna's bedroom wall green during a slumber party, Chyna uses StockFootage from a movie for her background while video chatting with Lexi, to prove that her slumber party is cooler than Lexi's. Everyone in the background is at least 10 years older than Chyna and are dressed like they're in a nightclub. [[IdiotBall It works even when Olive puts on a hoodie the same color as the green wall]], which blanks out everything except her head until Chyna covers it up. Lexi doesn't catch on until [[StockFootageFailure a ninja drops in and]] attacks the people in the nightclub.
* ''Drew Carey's Green Screen'' was an improv comedy show that expanded on the green screen antics used on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''.
* Creator/{{E}}'s ''Series/TheSoup'' (and its predecessor ''Talk Soup'') is videotaped entirely in front of a green screen. This led to a particularly memorable incident when a guest wore a pair of Italian flag briefs, which made it appear as if a portion of his pelvis was missing.
** This is also used by a number of networks instead of sets for each of their programs, to save money; instead they just leave one camera rolling and change the background. Game Network and Friendly TV spring immediately to mind.
* During one Academy Award ceremony, Ben Stiller came out on a full-body green suit to present the Best Visual Effects award, claiming that it made him invisible.
** In an earlier ceremony, Creator/SteveMartin presented the same award wearing a blue mask and his trademark fake arrow through the head. That time the effect was done properly, and the audience saw a headless Martin with an arrow floating over him.
* This is the method behind Shadow-Rama of [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] fame, by merit of how cheap the effect is to do.
* Used in just about every 'field report' on ''Series/TheDailyShow'' to relocate correspondents to Baghdad, London or outer space.
** [[LampshadeHanging Jon hung a lantern]] on this in the {{Crossover}} with Series/TheColbertReport, Indecision 2008. After Obama won, a Correspondent who was supposed to be in the Middle East appeared in the Studio. His answer was along the lines of "Who cares; Obama won!"
** The "field report" green screens have been lampshaded a ''lot'' ("You see, I'm in [[UsefulNotes/{{London}} Jolly Old England]], as you can tell by Big Ben behind me -- ''[looks over shoulder]'' sorry, the Houses of Parliament..."/"You know what I love about Sacramento? Their beautiful, [[MatteShot stationary]] sky"), but the best instance is probably the inevitable aversion, where Jason Jones proved he really was in Denmark by... walking over and shoving some guy who was passing by.
** In another a correspondent who had actually gone to the location had an argument with another, who interrupted their broadcast using Chroma Key to claim to be there as well.

*** The first GSC became awesome when one of the entries was a professional ''Franchise/StarWars'' job from a "George L." Stephen then had George L make an appearance: [[Creator/GeorgeLucas The L stood for Lucas]]. His entry ''lost'' to a cheap appeal to patriotism, in keeping with the spirit of the show.
* Spoofed in an early episode ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. Andy Richter was invited to a news set as guest weatherman. Taking off his jacket, he becomes an OracularHead as his blue shirt disappears into the chroma keyed backdrop.
** Continues to be subverted in more recent episodes, with guest commentators doing "remotes." When they inevitably anger him, Conan walks over and [[{{Slapstick}} clobbers them with a chair]], revealing the ruse as he "leaves" the studio and appears in the "remote" location, all within the same splitscreen.
* As mentioned above, old-school ''Series/DoctorWho'' used this all the time, and the new series is pretty fond of green-screen too. Since the revival in 2005, it has been lavishly budgeted. Back in the seventies and eighties though? ...Not so much. You'd ''really'' have to stretch your suspension of disbelief there.
** In an interview, [[Creator/JonPertwee Pertwee-era]] producer Creator/BarryLetts said that while the rest of the world calls it Chroma Key, "Creator/TheBBC always insists upon calling it [[InsistentTerminology 'Colour Separation Overlay']]". (This was probably a result of the BBC's general aversion to the use of trade marks and brand names.) Even today, ''Doctor Who'' fans tend to refer to the technique as "CSO" as something of a {{Shibboleth}}.
*** You'll hear this a lot on 70s ''Doctor Who'' [=DVD=]s. It's also referred to in an episode of Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus, in a shot where the frame is split between live action and a Creator/TerryGilliam cartoon.
---->'''Eric Idle:''' That's clever, how did they do that?\\
'''Creator/JohnCleese:''' Colour Separation, you cottonhead.
** Occasionally led to some staggering SpecialEffectsFailure. "Robot" used a yellow screen for the giant robot, which was an unwise choice as the robot is silver and reflective, so parts of it actually disappear. "Underworld" used CSO instead of sets, resulting in things like K9 going through a wall. "The Power of Kroll" was intended to use CSO to remove the sky to insert the miniature footage, but British weather made this impossible, so the screen was just chopped in half at the middle so bits of people's heads are missing when the Kroll appears.
** ''Doctor Who'' even developed some innovative techniques for using the technology, such as a particular way of mounting cameras that allowed synchronous camera movement between miniature footage and actor footage during live CSO (first used for the spaceship shots in "Meglos").
* The original ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople1973'' used chroma key for a lot of special effects. There were - a lot of failures.
* ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'' is shot almost entirely in Chroma Key. The actors and interactive props are filmed against a green screen and [=CGI=]-generated backgrounds are added.
* Seen from time to time on the ShowWithinAShow segments of ''Series/ICarly''. Relatively light on the StylisticSuck, considering they're supposed to have been done ''live'' by an amateur on a [[strike: Mac]] [[BrandX Pear]] laptop.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' has used green screens on occasion. In particular, most of the helicopter scenes in season 4 were done this way.
* Green screens are, of course, commonly used in TV weather forecasts. Woe be to the weatherman who [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CghAKgY4E#t=1m10s wears a green tie and finds Toronto on his chest]], though it can be done for a joke too.
* The early Creator/DisneyChannel shows ''Welcome to Pooh Corner'' and ''Dumbo's Circus'' were made this way.
* As mentioned above, it's a commonly used feature in Jim Henson productions. In the same way as ''Doctor Who'' can't use a blue screen because of the TARDIS, shows featuring Franchise/TheMuppets can't use a green one because of Kermit.
* The whole concept of ''Series/{{Knightmare}}''. The contestants wear a ridiculous helmet with instructions from their friends, because they would otherwise only be able to see a blue or green backdrop with a few physical props and people.
* Used extensively and to great effect (sometimes) in {{Creator/Filmation}}'s ''The Ghost Busters'' for the Ghost Dematerializer visual effects.

* The PBS astronomy show ''Series/JackHorkheimerStarGazer'' is done entirely like this.
* The Irish political debate show "Tonight with Vincent Browne" uses a ridiculously obvious blue screen. It shines on to the faces of guests or, in the case of the host, gives him a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzVLSn-96tE very strange blue afro.]]
* While a lot of the scenes actually were filmed on location, in some of the cosmic calendar and Library of Alexandria scenes in ''Series/CosmosAPersonalVoyage'', you can see this effect around Creator/CarlSagan. It's combined with motion control to make it look as if he's walking through model sets. Apart from a few full-size props the entire Library of Alexandria is actually a model, and the effect is highly convincing.
* When [[Series/MyNameIsEarl Earl's]] list item of the week involved a television news anchor, he and Randy went down to the studio. Randy wandered into the green corner, wondering why it was there, when he noticed himself on the monitor, standing in front of a weather map. When he unzipped his jacket to reveal a green shirt, he freaked out, seeing himself as just a floating head and hands. He later figures it out enough to do a VideoGame/PacMan impression.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' suffers from very bad chroma key in some of the early series, particularly ''Series/DengekiSentaiChangeman'' at the end and sporadically [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_011.jpg throughout]] ''Series/ChoushinseiFlashman''. By the time ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' aired, the production staff no longer used it (for the most part). More recent ''Sentai'' series abuse this for finisher attacks to give off that anime effect. Most of the explosions and sparks are overlayed through Chroma Key nowadays as well.
** Bad green screen is also [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_6956.jpg visible]] on other Toei toku shows like ''[[Series/KyojuuTokusouJuspion Juspion]]''.

* ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'' used this for Mister Conductor, keying him in at a smaller scale to give the effect of a miniature man. It worked quite well, too.
* ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' used to use it: an overhead shot of the Wheel, spinning automatically, would have hosts Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford (and of course, successors Pat Sajak and Vanna White) chroma-keyed into its green center at the end of the show. Although this shot was long retired, the center of the Wheel is still green.
* Some criticism of the third and fourth seasons of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' focused on less-than-convincing green screen sequences which became more prevalent due to the show's reduced effects budget.
* On ''Series/{{Cougartown}}'', Travis's college roommates have a green screen set up to make funny videos (and attract the chicks, somehow). It gets used by Bobby and Andy, and later Jules and Grayson.
* On Creator/ComedyCentral's ''Series/VivaVariety'', Mr. Laupin sings an ode to blue screen.
* One of the improv games in ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' was "Newscasters", in which one actor (usually Colin) would play a field reporter in front of a green screen. The other actors, who could see the background scene in a monitor, would play news anchors asking the reporter questions about the scene. Hilarity (and sometimes squick) frequently ensued.
* This is played with in ''Series/MythBusters'' when Adam was so drunk he hung a green screen to inspire him while he ran on a treadmill, then realized only the audience could see the effects. All he could see was green screen.
* On ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'', this visual technique is commonly used in the comic sequences with host Andrew, particularly in the openings of episodes.
* Some of the music segments on ''Series/TheBananaSplits Adventure Hour'' use this. In fact, one of their "songs", an instrumental called "Toy Piano Medley" was given a different name by the Creator/CartoonNetwork that lampshades this trope: "Chroma-Keystone Cops".

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': In ''{{Series/The Defenders|2017}}'', Misty Knight [[MythologyGag loses her right arm]] after it gets cut off by Bakuto during a fight in Midland Circle. Thus, for ''Luke Cage'' season 2, a mix of practical and greenscreen effects are used on Creator/{{Simone Missick}}'s right arm. For scenes where Misty is wearing her new [[ArtificialLimbs robotic right arm]], Missick is wearing an actual prop over her real arm. For scenes where she's not wearing the arm, Missick is wearing a special greenscreen glove with a sleeve that runs all the way down her forearm to her elbow.
* The final episode of ''Series/HowdyDoody'' (aired September 24, 1960) featured a scene where Buffalo Bob would stand in front of the empty "Peanut Gallery" and ask Sandra the Witch to make the kids appear in the gallery. This was a relatively early example of chroma key on television; there is a lot of blue noise on screen during that scene.
* In one episode of ''Series/ChewinTheFat'' Ronald Villiers, "the second-worst actor in the world", auditions to play an army officer in an insurance commercial (a parody of the real-life "Admiral" commercials) and is asked to deliver a monologue in front of a green screen. He thinks he's in a serious war movie, and assumes that the green screen is there because his footage is going to be used in a gory battle scene.
* Done extensively on ''Series/TheJimHensonHour'' as many of the backgrounds, particularly main room where Jim presents the upcoming program and Muppet Central, are chroma keyed in. In "The Secrets of the Muppets", Jim briefly goes into detail on how the technique works, as well as why he can't wear anything blue on set.

* The music video "Music/ShineOnMe" by Chris Dane Owens abuses the hell out of it. Or, as the page puts it, abuses it "like a free bag of heroin."

* Used in "Music/{{Friday}}", as Music/RebeccaBlack herself {{Lampshaded}} in her appearance on "Funny or Die". ("I'm talking about riding in a car with a 13-year-old driver, whether on the road or on a [[SpecialEffectsFailure windless]] green screen cityscape.")

* The video for Italian band Music/{{Verdena}}'s "Un Po' Esageri" inverts this trope by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6RxxYqQgHg having the members wear Chroma Key suits]] and showing normal footage of the band in their silhouettes.
* The video for Snow Patrol's song Called Out In The Dark has this exploited. A disgruntled band member wears a green shirt at one point, and, to mess up the [[ShowWithinaShow video clip being filmed]], replaces an actress who is to jump in front of the camera. {{Hilarity ensues}}, until the producer sees. Then, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome surprisingly realistic outcome]] occurs.
* This is used most likely purposefully obviously in the [[https://s26.postimg.org/8gboc2hbt/Piggy_in_Hutch.jpg music video]] by Music/WeirdAlYankovic for "Smells Like Nirvana" (parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Music/{{Nirvana}}) from about 1:55-1:57 when Yankovic himself walks by a crowd scene munching on a banana and then spits it out.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daler_Mehndi Daler Mehndi]]'s SurrealMusicVideo for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIIMJ9tUc8 Tunak Tunak Tun]]" makes copious use of this and TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects, inserting multiple incarnations of Mehndi in a computer-generated environment.

* Becomes a SpecialEffectFailure in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E It's Raining Men]]" by The Weather Girls. They used a blue screen for the effects even though Izora Armstead's dress had large blue sections that would disappear into the background.

* The [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] used the green screen back in the days of taped wrestling, giving the appearance that Wrestling/GorillaMonsoon and Wrestling/BobbyHeenan (and later Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/JerryLawler, Wrestling/JimRoss, Wrestling/JimCornette, etc..) were actually there in the building calling the matches, rather than just doing it in post production from Connecticut. The audio wouldn't be recorded until a couple days before the show aired, giving the announcers a chance to make (usually lame) jokes about something in the news, to further give the illusion that you weren't watching a taped show.[[note]]Wrestling/{{WCW}} was pretty notorious for not bothering with any of this, taping their syndicated TV in blocks that would span up to ''6 months'' of shows (the WWF would never tape more than 4 weeks). This would often play hell with their continuity, leading to stuff like the famous "[[http://www.thewrestlinginsomniac.com/2016/06/the-fabulous-freebirds-unique-wcw.html negative title reign]]", where the Freebirds lost the tag titles six days before they won them.[[/note]] Today WWE still uses the green screen for various pre-taped segments.

* Ethan Page of Wrestling/ImpactWrestling wrestled ''himself'' in a match filmed using this technique. As he says [[https://cultaholic.com/posts/ethan-page-says-impact-wrestling-lied-to-him-thinks-editing-of-hard-to-kill-match-was-hot-garbage here]] he was [[CreatorBacklash not pleased with how it was edited]], calling it an embarrassment, and he unsurprisingly left Impact for Wrestling/{{AEW}}

** Both ''Ride/EarthquakeTheBigOne'' and ''Ride/{{Disaster}}'' have entire segments dedicated to showing how blue screen effects are utilized in movies, with guest participants being used for the demonstration.
** In ''Theatre/AnimalActors'', this and a wind machine is used to give off the illusion of a bird flying across various locations.

* The FMV for ''[[VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger]]'' was filmed exclusively on greenscreen. As the game came out in 1994, it was one of the first times, possibly ''the'' first, that the technology was used to replace physical sets. Unfortunately, [[SpecialEffectsFailure the results didn't look good]], and ''VideoGame/WingCommanderIVThePriceOfFreedom'' shifted to actual sets.
* The ''VideoGame/JustDance'' series and its various spinoffs uses chroma-keyed footage of human dancers against themed rendered backgrounds that are usually animated to sync with the song and/or the dancers' movements. In the occasion where a dancer's outfit or costume must be green, such as a costume of Slimer from ''[[Film/Ghostbusters1984 Ghostbusters]]'', it is designed for the filming with a different color (usually blue) in place of the green and then recolored for the actual video.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' makes fun of this in the Strong Bad E-Mail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail153.html redesign]], where Strong Bad imagines what his room would look like if he replaced the walls with a green screen. It backfired when he imagined frolicking through the bread aisle of a grocery store, as due to his eyes also being green, they vanished ("Oh, bread aisle! Warm me with your enriched, bleached bosom! And please, give me back my sight"). It then freaked him out when he saw the green-clad Coach Z walk in, appearing as nothing more than a floating head.
** Technically, all of this is impossible, but keep in mind, this is also a series where computer viruses can bend "reality" by, presumably, spreading to the creators' machines and messing up the Flash file, not to mention Homestar states he's BehindTheBlack in almost every Strong Bad Email.
* In the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' machinima ''WebAnimation/HeavyIsDead'', the Engineer, Spy, and Sniper were all shown to pose together for a ReactionShot in front of a greenscreen after the Soldier's dramatic, ''VideoGame/AceAttorney''-esque announcement that the Heavy died.
* ''WebAnimation/SpookyMonth'': Used in-universe. Streber works at a haunted house in vampire costume, and to sell the illusion, he demonstrates that he has [[MissingReflection no reflection]] in a convenient mirror. The 'mirror' is actually a screen with an embedded camera, and Streber throws his green-lined cloak over his body for the camera to project onto.

* How the no-budget spoof series ''WebVideo/TheJerrySeinfeldProgram'' manages to take place in the apartment from the show.
* ''WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow'': Angry Joe uses it as his background.
* ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'': The Spoony One will bring it out every once in a while for their skits in reviews.
* ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'' uses lots of this, but [[SpecialEffectsFailure usually not very well.]]

* ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'' has one of those; used most prominently in "Live on Location", in which a newscaster discovers that due to budget cutbacks one of his reporters has been using greenscreen to fake his reports from Denmark, the Caribbean, ''space''... At the end he's relieved to hear from a real reporter:

* Creator/JeremyJahns uses this to provide [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color-coded]] backgrounds for his videos.
* The facecams used on ''LetsPlay/TheBowlingotterShow'' have greenscreens so the backgrounds can be removed.

* WebVideo/ElBananero has been one of the pioneers of doing the Chroma Key for Latin American youtubers, getting most of his videos made under a green wall he has in his house to make this effect.

* WebVideo/{{Kitboga}}, a scambaiter, uses this to show himself in front of the computer, or in various other settings such as a store hawking things like "Senior Perms $9.99" and Google Play gift cards, or a student in a class.
* WebVideo/MrBallen uses it to add in atmospheric backgrounds that relate to the strange, dark, and mysterious stories he tells.
* WebVideo/{{Failboat}} uses a green screen for his streams. He uses it to a more comedic extent during his playthrough of ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'', using it to make it appear like he's playing the game in first person, [[https://youtu.be/LEpFnWsOLTE creating some incredibly hilarious results]].

* This technique is used with real kids against a backdrop of clouds in the "When You Pretend" song on ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood''. Possibly with other segments featuring real kids as well.
* On ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', green-screen sometimes seen in the Dr. Scott the Paleontologist segments.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' had a couple web shorts with [[StylisticSuck spectacularly bad effects]], including very poorly done green screening.
* Done in a StylisticSuck kind of way, in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "Grandpa Moves Out", Grandpa sees an ad for a retirement center called Flushing Waters. During the ad, a man named Roberto Mazatlan ([[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed clearly a parody of]] Creator/RicardoMontalban) talks about this place as if it's some kind of luxurious resort rather than a nursing home. Throughout the commercial, it's obvious he's standing in front of a blue screen as the blue outline around him is clearly visible. This serves as the first indication that the place is a fraud.

* Used as part of a StylisticSuck gag in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' with the main characters using the lead Gundam as part of a KitschyLocalCommercial that is about as well made as one would expect out of a group of high school students with zero movie making experience. The end result, apart from everything else wrong with the commercial, are obvious green screen artefacts on the machine.

* The [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] used the green screen back in the days of taped wrestling, giving the appearance that Wrestling/GorillaMonsoon and Wrestling/BobbyHeenan (and later Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/JerryLawler, Wrestling/JimRoss, Wrestling/JimCornette, etc..) were actually there in the building calling the matches, rather than just doing it in post production from Connecticut. The audio wouldn't be recorded until a couple days before the show aired, giving the announcers a chance to make (usually lame) jokes about something in the news, to further give the illusion that you weren't watching a taped show.[[note]]Wrestling/{{WCW}} was pretty notorious for not bothering with any of this, taping their syndicated TV in blocks that would span up to ''6 months'' of shows. This would often play hell with their continuity, leading to stuff like the famous "[[http://www.thewrestlinginsomniac.com/2016/06/the-fabulous-freebirds-unique-wcw.html negative title reign]]", where the Freebirds lost the tag titles six days before they won them.[[/note]] Today WWE still uses the green screen for various pre-taped segments.

* The [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] used the green screen back in the days of taped wrestling, giving the appearance that Wrestling/GorillaMonsoon and Wrestling/BobbyHeenan (and later Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/JimRoss, Wrestling/JimCornette, etc..) were actually there in the building calling the matches, rather than just doing it in post production. Today WWE still uses the green screen for various pre-taped segments.

* In filming the first ''Film/{{Superman}}'' movie, the costume had to be teal in blue screen effects, and then color corrected after the shots were composited. In ''Film/SupermanIII'', there is a short instant where you can see him flying through a canyon sporting the teal outfit.

* When Harry Caray worked at WGN covering the Chicago Cubs, during the postgame show he and the play-by-play commentator would sit in front of a blue screen showing the crowd at Wrigley Field. Caray, whose CatchPhrase was "Holy Cow!", had a little plastic cow which had some blue dots on it, making it "holey" so you could see "through" it to the shot behind them.

* ''WebAnimation/SpookyMonth'': used in-universe. Streber works at a haunted house in vampire costume, and to sell the illusion, he demonstrates that he has [[MissingReflection no reflection]] in a convenient mirror. The 'mirror' is actually a screen with an embedded camera, and Streber throws his green-lined cloak over his body for the camera to project onto.

* On ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', this is sometimes seen in the Dr. Scott the Paleontologist segments.
* This is used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0qLzrOQjo0 the Amy Mainzer segment]] in the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' special "Back to Bortron 7".

* In the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' machinima ''Machinima/HeavyIsDead'', the Engineer, Spy, and Sniper were all shown to pose together for a ReactionShot in front of a greenscreen after the Soldier's dramatic, ''VideoGame/AceAttorney''-esque announcement that the Heavy died.

* Used a bit in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', as you can see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VnHAy1Vdc here]].

* Bad chroma key is deliberately invoked in ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', when the mayor appears in front of a freeze frame of the Baby Brent Sardines commercial to promote his unveiling.

* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films, the invisibility cloak is, of course, created with a chroma key green cloak. Chroma key is obviously also used for scenes with {{Flying Broomstick}}s and so forth. As as far as sets go, the ''Potter'' filmmakers tend to prefer building real sets and usually just use chroma key to fill in scenery out a window, for example. However, there have been at least two all-CGI sets in the series, the Hall of Prophecy from ''Order of the Phoenix'' (because they couldn't do the scene where all the shelves crash down for real) and the Chamber of Secrets in ''Deathly Hallows, Part 2'' (the original Chamber set from ''The Chamber of Secrets'' was real, but wasn't saved after filming).

* The 1933 version of H.G. Wells's ''[[Film/TheInvisibleMan1933 The Invisible Man]]'' used the black velvet effect in close-ups where Griffin removed his bandages.
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004) had almost no real sets or props, relying on Chroma Key in every shot. The reason for this was twofold: One, the studio in which they filmed was very, ''very'' small, restricting the use of wide shots, and two, the creators wanted the film to have a 1940's comics-esque noir/[[PulpMagazine pulp magazine]] feel to it, something they achieved quite nicely on such a limited budget.

* TheMovie adaptation of Frank Miller's ''Film/ThreeHundred'' was filmed almost entirely in Chroma Key.
* TheMovie of Alan Moore's ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' (by the same director) uses a combination of chroma key and traditional sets.

** Bad green screen is also [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_6956.jpg visible]] on other Toei toku shows like Juspion.

%%* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daler_Mehndi Daler Mehndi]]'s SurrealMusicVideo for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIIMJ9tUc8 Tunak Tunak Tun]]" makes copious use of this trope along with TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects.

-->-- '''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mike Nelson]]''' on ''Film/PumaMan''

* ''Film/PumaMan'' has some very unconvincing green screen work, but [[SoBadItsGood that's part of its charm]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/WaynesWorld'', when the ShowWithinAShow moves into a studio, they gain the ability to use Chroma Key, which Wayne demonstrates for the audience by "travelling" to [[BigApplesauce New York City]], [[AlohaHawaii Hawaii]], [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]], and... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Delaware]]. "Hi... I'm in Delaware."

** In an interview, [[Creator/JonPertwee Pertwee-era]] producer Barry Letts said that while the rest of the world calls it Chroma Key, "Creator/TheBBC always insists upon calling it [[InsistentTerminology 'Colour Separation Overlay']]". (This was probably a result of the BBC's general aversion to the use of trade marks and brand names.) Even today, ''Doctor Who'' fans tend to refer to the technique as "CSO" as something of a {{Shibboleth}}.

** The fact that only blue screen was available for ''Film/ANewHope'' caused Luke's squadron to be changed from Blue to Red to avoid problems with blue markings.
** Also in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the only reason Luke's new lightsaber is green is because the battle that takes place on Tatooine happens to have a bright blue sky. In some early trailers, Luke's saber is blue, but they chose to change it to green so it would show up against the sky properly.

** Occasionally led to some staggering SpecialEffectsFailure. "Robot" used a yellow screen for the giant robot, which was an unwise choice as the robot is silver and reflective, so parts of it actually disappear. "Underworld" used CSO instead of sets, resulting in things like K-9 going through a wall. "The Power of Kroll" was intended to use CSO to remove the sky to insert the miniature footage, but British weather made this impossible, so the screen was just chopped in half at the middle so bits of people's heads are missing when the Kroll appears.

* The original ''Series/{{TheTomorrowPeople1973}}'' used chroma key for a lot of special effects. There were - a lot of failures.

* The British version of [[Creator/{{MTV}} MTV2]] has a flagship show called ''Gonzo'', consisting entirely of host Zane Lowe sat on a brown couch in front of a blue screen. The show is "as live" and therefore no corrections are made when items like guests' clothing match the background and disappear.