| By way of introduction, chroma key may be said to be a process whereby the red, green or blue channel in a video camera is made inactive. In the early days of
television, blue was the background color of choice. This color was problematic, however, as most men wore blude suits; like the background, their bodies would "vanish" when
the blue channel was turned off.In 2020, green is the most comonly used background color for keying.
As yoy will see when you visit the Merchant of Venice discussion, the actors seen in the photo at the right will appear in a small model of the set once the blue channel is turned off. Our interest in experimenting with chroma key at the University of Washington School of Drama was driven by my interests as an historian in exploring the the impact of technologies on the arts, and by discussions over lunch and coffee with Jerry Morin, an imaginative and supportive engineer in the UWTV Division. There is an excellent Wikipedia article on the history and application of chroma key in film and video.
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