eZedia World e-Newsletter

1. Zoom-ed Classroom Contest: WIN Apple eMacs!
Calling all educators! The eZedia Zoom-ed Classroom Contest deadline is quickly approaching. Enter now for your chance to WIN one of three Apple eMacs, as well as copies of eZediaMX for your entire classroom! The contest deadline is on October 31, 2002, and every eZediaMX project entered automatically wins cool eZedia Gear! Find out more about the contest and how to enter by visiting www.zoom-ed.com. Winners will be announced at the National School Boards Technology & Learning Conference (NSBA) on November 13, 2002, in Dallas, TX. Good luck to all entrants!

Learn More

Enter Now!

2. eZedia at CUE
The Computer-Using Educators Conference (CUE) is the largest and oldest education technology show in California, and is among the largest in the United States. Its mission is to provide leadership and support to promote the effective use of technology in the educational community. Thousands of teachers, administrators, students and parents, and other professionals will attend the three-day conference in Sacramento, California.

Come out and see a FREE eZediaMX presentation in the Learning Services Presentation Theatre - Booth 817, and at Ed Resources - Booth 203!

More info about CUE

3. eZedia Announces Co-Marketing Agreement with WorldClips
eZedia has partnered with WorldClips to offer great royalty-free digital stock video, from around the world, to its customers. A selection of WorldClips videos, ranging in length from 8 to 25 seconds, can be downloaded from eZedia's Zoom-ed Classroom Resource web site (www.zoom-ed.com), as well as available on every eZedia Plug-in Bundle for iMovie CD.

Check out these amazing FREE video clips today!
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4. From Hawaii, With Love: How to Shoot Blue Screen Video for iMovie
Blue Screen, also known as Chroma Key, is a technique used in video special effects to place an actor or object in front of a different background. It was used heavily in movies like The Matrix and Star Wars: Episodes I/II to place actors in digitally created environments. eZeScreen™ provides Mac OS X users with a simple solution for creating blue screen composites with iMovie.



So how does it work?
To start your blue screen project, you'll need to shoot video of your actor in front of a large, solid-colored backdrop or screen. While the color of the backdrop is usually blue or green, depending on the circumstances, it doesn't have to be. eZeScreen can remove the blue (or any other color) areas of the screen and layer the actor over any background video you choose.

Make sure your actor is wearing clothes with colors that are not too similar to the color of your screen, or they will become transparent with the screen when you apply the blue screen effect! This is usually the primary factor in the decision between choosing a blue or a green screen.

Lights...
The best thing you can do while shooting for blue screen is to make sure your backdrop has even lighting. To the camera, the backdrop should appear solid - no shadows, gradients, creases, or reflections should show up in the final take. Make sure that the lighting for the screen is behind the actor.

If you don't have a good broad light to evenly light the backdrop, try reflecting light onto the background by shining a spotlight onto something like white Foamcore. Be careful not to over-light the backdrop, because the color of the backdrop will reflect onto the actor, a condition known as background reflection or spill.

Light the actor separately from the backdrop. Move your actor as far away from the backdrop as possible, to avoid having foreground lights or shadows from the actor show up on the backdrop. Keeping your actor farther from the background also helps reduce spill.

If you have the resources, soft-lighting your actor from the sides or rear will help separate him or her from the background, and further reduce or eliminate the chance of spill. If you want the most realism, study your background footage and try to duplicate its lighting in your studio.

Camera...
Watch your background footage closely to make sure the camera angle didn't change during the film shoot. If it does, you will have to try to duplicate that movement with your own camera - which will be near impossible!

Make sure your actor is being filmed in a way that would suit the background. Some shots will work better with a close-up, others are more suited to a wider body shot. To simplify things, make sure the actor's feet are not visible. Full body shots are very difficult to composite realistically. It's also important to have the backdrop fill the frame, otherwise the edges will show up in your final composite.

If you have a camera that allows manual shutter speeds, try increasing the shutter speed past the default. With a higher shutter speed setting, you should get crisper edges, allowing for better background masking. Experiment with this to get the best setting for your scene.

Action!
Make sure your tripod is sturdy, and record away. The hard part is out of the way... whew! Now on to the fun stuff in iMovie!

Import your movie and background footage into your iMovie project using the standard method. All you need to do is apply your actor to your background clip as an eZeScreen effect. For more information on using iMovie, refer to iMovie's online Help.

For some excellent backdrop DV files from around the world, visit WorldClips. http://www.worldclips.net/	eZedia also provides 15 free WorldClips movies for registered Zoom-ed educators on the Zoom-ed web site. Download free WorldClip movies
Learn more about eZeScreen	The Blue Screen Page

5. What's New at eZedia
eZedia and Apple
For more than 25 years, Apple has focused on educational uses of technology.
eZedia featured on Apple

eZediaQTI
Sign up today to be the first to learn about eZediaQTI's official release!
Find out more

Royalty Free Video!
Digital stock video from around the world. Download some clips today!
Compliments of WorldClips

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Look for the next issue of eZedia World in November 2002.

eZedia World welcomes subscriber feedback, story ideas as well as editorial contributions to our monthly newsletter. Please e-mail us your ideas at ezediaworld@ezedia.ca.

© 2000-2002 eZedia Inc. All rights reserved. eZedia, the eZedia logo, and eZediaMX are registered trademarks or trademarks of eZedia Inc.

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