DIY Green Screen for $35

If you want an inexpensive green screen for your home office setup or to have a bit of versatility with video you shoot, here’s how to make one. It cost me about $35. I chose to make one rather than ordering one of the thin ones off of Amazon because a lot of light comes through the white and black backdrops I ordered.

Paint:
Sparkling Apple S-G-430 Behr premium interior 1300 FLAT (don’t buy anything but flat, it will be too reflective otherwise). You will also need a roller and extension rod for the handle so you can stand and paint it.

Backdrop

Drywall
Since I had a sheet of 1/2" drywall, I painted it as a test (before I painted an actual office wall) and it took the paint really well. If you are just doing some Zoom calls and want a green backdrop, you can paint a half of a sheet and attach it with screws to your wall so you can remove it later (attach to studs). Drywall doesn’t shine and works perfectly. Beware, if you paint a wall of your house this color, it will be amazingly green–I mean, shield your eyes, start a fight with your spouse because you didn’t ask permission-green! But you do feel a bit like you are making a Marvel movie, so I personally describe it as crazy awesome green.

Canvas Tarp
I picked up a 6’x9’ canvas tarp that is typically used as a drop cloth and painted it green as well. Iron the cloth before you paint it. I didn’t iron before painting and it is still wrinkled–I’m a little afraid to iron it with all the paint in it after the fact. The 6’x9’ drop cloth took up about 1/2 gallon of paint because it is so absorbent and some of it leaks through. Hang the tarp to dry. WARNING: Do not paint this on anything except a plastic tarp because this will bleed through as you paint it. Seriously, don’t do this in the house!

If you want to go all out you can attach grommets in the corners and in the middle so you can easily hang it on nails. I just clipped my screen up on an existing frame or to a bookcase with cheap spring clamps from Home Depot.

Lighting
Lighting is really important as it is in any video. I tried to record on the green screen with too little light and Screenflow 9 couldn’t pick up the green correctly for the chroma key. When there is enough light this isn’t a problem. In the pic you can see the lights I used, I bought 100W equivalent LED bulbs and put them in the clip lights. I also have some small LED work lights that I use to light the green screen itself. To eliminate shadows, make sure to use enough light on the screen and stand far enough in front of it so you don’t cast a shadow.


Have fun!

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Looks good but FYI Amazon and ebay have loads of $29.95 or cheaper premade chromakey green backdrops with included clamps. Less mess!

If you are on a budget and have a back wall behind you you could even use taped-together fluorescent green posterboard, which would run under $10.

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Holy :poop:!!! I didn’t even think about using poster board…OMG freaking genius :star_struck::star_struck::star_struck:

I can’t take credit for it, the idea came from this old video:

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Nope, you’re totally getting credit. Jumping in the car now heading to Walgreens LOL

Same here. I couldn’t decide on which green screen setup to order from Amazon (and ship from China), so I ordered 12 pcs of 22"x28" green poster board from the local Michael’s (craft store) at I think $1.09 each, with a 20% off coupon. With quarantine rules, they brought the order out to curbside when I got to the store.

I taped them together with that blue painter’s tape so I can peel the tape off without damaging the paper, and end up with a ~ 7’x7’ green screen for $11. Btw, the seams between the pieces haven’t affected the quality of the on-screen results either.

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Good to know. At home I’ve got a bookcase 6’ behind my chair in my home office so paper wouldn’t work. If I needed that type of bg I’d probably snag a green screen cloth and use it with a C-stand with boom arm I have, or just clip the screen to the bookcase.