Chroma keying – separation of the subject and the background. Thanks to modern software, two different image sources can appear as a single image in a video. The example above shows the technique used in plenamedia.tv’s 2020 Christmas card.

Background colour – blue or green are the standard background colours used. Known as blue screen or green screen.

Image replacement – it is very important that the foreground image stands out clearly from the background image. The background image is replaced using modern software. This technique is also used for producing weather forecasts, for example.

Lighting – to achieve these special effects, it is vital that the background is lit without any shadows.

In this video, our aim was to produce an atmospheric Christmas film showing a crackling fireplace with snow falling in the background. Although we could theoretically have shot the film in a mountain setting, this would have been costly and time-consuming. It was easier to shoot in front of a green screen using state-of-the-art cameras and lenses.

The film and video-editing program is given the command to remove the colour blue or green from the recording and replace these areas with a new background.

It is important that the object to be replaced is monochromatic (either blue or green) and that the colours blue or green do not appear on the object or person being filmed.

Imagine, for instance, that you want to be interviewed in a dark-blue suit standing in front of a monument by the sea. In this case, the background used for the video recording should be green instead of blue.

This inexpensive technique can be used in the production of videos of any type.

The reason for choosing a blue or green background is simple: these colours contrast most strongly with human skin tones and therefore represent the most suitable background colours. The person in the foreground therefore stands out clearly from the background – provided that the right lighting is in place. By defining the foreground and background, the video editing software makes the background fade away.

Previously, blue was the most common background colour selected. Nowadays, a green screen is favoured as the colour blue generally requires stronger illumination. However, green has one important disadvantage, in that it reflects the light falling on to it more than twice as strongly as a blue screen. If, then, the resulting reflections fall on the subject in the foreground, the software struggles to distinguish the foreground from the background and then blanks out part of the foreground image. It is vital, however, that no foreground colours appear in the background. For this reason, it is important to consider the colour of the subject’s clothing before opting for either green screen or blue screen.

For our work, we use chroma key effects in promotional films, product films, commercials, interviews and virtual invitations. Additional realistic effects can also be created using 3D animation techniques. However, these are added on the computer after filming has taken place.

It is best if standard colours are used such as “Chroma Green” or “Chroma Blue”. These colours are standardised and designed to work with the software. Even with sub-optimal lighting, the computer recognises what it has to do.

The background needs to be lit at a constant level of brightness. It is important that any shadows are avoided. LED lamps should be used as light sources.
If the foreground casts shadows on the background or if the background reflects light on the object in the foreground, an unclean image is created. Any resulting colour spots are removed by the software during the chroma keying process. The aim must be to have a uniformly illuminated background when filming. It is therefore important to ensure that sufficient time is taken to set up the lighting.

plenamedia.tv – your professional partner in creatively implementing your ideas, planning and designing high-quality video projects for your company using state-of-the-art cameras of up to 12K resolution and green screen/blue screen technology.

plenamedia.tv: North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Bonn, Leverkusen, Mönchengladbach, Aachen, Münster, Bochum, Siegen, Wuppertal, Duisburg, Mönchengladbach, Oberhausen, Gummersbach, Paderborn, Troisdorf, Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Bielefeld, Germany and Europe.

Thanks to our extensive experience in this field and our use of the appropriate equipment, we offer both 4K livestreaming and full HD services at cinema and TV quality levels. We provide you with a total solution for your event. You simply specify the time and place, with no significant increase in staffing costs for you. We set up our equipment in the location you specify. In principle, any type of event can be broadcast live (such as an interview, training session, conference or meeting). This service is especially suitable for any in-person events you have had to cancel because of the current situation. These can then take place on your company premises (saving money on the costs of location hire).

Your livestream can be either for the public or exclusively for invited visitors given secure access. The event is broadcast on a channel specified by you. We use state-of-the-art microphones and cameras with resolution levels of up to 12K to stream your event online via high-performance interfaces. You can use the recorded material for subsequently producing a DVD, creating a podcast or event teaser, or for post-production purposes. It can also be used for advertising, marketing, internal corporate communications and as a reminder of particular company events. In addition, of course, the recorded video material can also be used externally at trade fairs, conferences, congresses and so on.

You can also make a live recording available to an audience of your choice later on.

Livestreaming is important in the digital world as you can quickly establish an emotional link with your viewers (your customers and prospective customers). You can give customers insight into the “back-stage” aspects of your company’s activities, showing them the areas of your choice.

Our fixed-price services include the cost of the technology used (lighting, sound technology, number of fixed and mobile cameras) and the cost of the production team (number of camera operators, lighting and sound technicians, time spent on set-up and dismantling, post-production, etc.). You are free to specify the technical equipment and staffing used to produce your livestream – at a fixed price, of course.

Feel free to give us a call or send us an email. Once we have your detailed information, we can provide you with a comprehensive quotation at a fixed price for the level of service discussed. plenamedia.tv: North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Bonn, Leverkusen, Mönchengladbach, Aachen, Münster, Bochum, Siegen, Germany and Europe.

A commercial should have a running time of between six and 90 seconds. The aim of a commercial is to give viewers a clear message that influences their buying behaviour after they have seen the film, making them more likely to buy the product or service afterwards. A wide range of stylistic devices can be used in a commercial – the key lies in ensuring that the promotional message can be understood by everyone. The intention is that the message activates, in every viewer, the same parts of the brain responsible for unconscious thought. In other words, the message should be formulated in such a clear yet emotional and targeted way that, in as many viewers as possible, it stimulates the parts of the brain that are not subject to arbitrary influences but that have a positive effect on purchasing behaviour.

The following short example shows just how easy it is to manipulate the brain.

The “Gummy Bear” brain study demonstrated that the quantity of gummy bears eaten in a randomised global study remained the same regardless of the size of the sweets involved. As the gummy bears increased in size, the number of sweets eaten did not decrease, statistically speaking. As a consequence, confectionery manufacturers started making chocolate bars that were smaller but thicker! This meant that, for the same number of chocolate bars, a larger quantity of chocolate was being eaten. A commercial strives to achieve the same effect, in that it can be used in any instance where the goal is to increase sales, enhance the brand image or simply transmit a general message.

The viewers should be convinced that they should buy a product and that their decision is the right one. Objective: an increase in sales. Commercials are designed to increase viewers’ awareness of the brand, maintain their attention, and boost awareness of the corporate brand or product brand in the market.

Commercials are always short films – with a typical length of six to 60 seconds. It is worth asking yourself the following questions before deciding how the commercial should be produced: what message do I want to convey with the commercial? How can I present the company/product positively to the viewer? How can I arouse the viewer’s interest and thereby enhance the image of the brand? What is the core message? What are the characteristics of my target audience? On which media would I like to run the commercial? What is my budget?

I can use the commercial in targeted ad campaigns, on TV or in cinemas, on websites, on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook, at in-house events, at conferences and on the exhibition stand.

What are the key elements involved in producing a successful promotional film or video? The film should transmit the brand identity defined within your business (the company brand or product brand) through visual language with the aim of strengthening your brand image with your specified target audience or raising awareness of the brand.

plenamedia.tv’s director has many years of experience from working at Arte TV in Strasbourg and at WDR in Cologne, as media director for a global corporation, and as a freelancer for ten years. She currently works with more than 1,500 companies, producing promotional films for medical practices, physiotherapists, tax consultants, investment bankers, lawyers, roofing companies, garden design companies and alternative energy producers; promotional films for charities, circuses and childcare facilities; and promotional films for SMEs, large companies and trade fair organisers.

Before planning the key stage of your promotional film, writing the script or storyboard, and starting to shoot your promotional film, you should think about some basic issues in relation to your promotional film. You should consider carefully which of your aims are actually feasible and what budget you have available. A detailed internal briefing will simplify the writing of your script/storyboard and save on unnecessary costs.

plenamedia.tv will advise you from the very start of the process. plenamedia.tv will draw up your script/storyboard based on your specifications and in consultation with you.

If you would like to have a more product-oriented promotional film, the film should be produced within your company. Interviews should involve you and your employees. You won’t need any foreign-language speakers or a translation into other languages.

Filming will take one day; you can arrange the production so that there are no obstacles to the filming process, the areas being filmed are well lit, all employees being interviewed are present on the day concerned and there is no need for aerial drone recordings or slide cameras. Your promotional film can also be organised cost-effectively using only two camera operators, with no studio hire, no additional lighting, no on-site sound technicians, no fees for actors or foreign-language speakers, no accommodation costs, catering, and so on.

Perhaps you would like to have a promotional film produced that is more similar in style to a commercial. Above, we have listed a number of factors that can influence the price of your promotional film.

The sad fact is that needlessly expensive prices are quoted for many promotional film productions.

plenamedia.tv can produce your promotional film in a cost-effective way with no loss of quality. After an initial discussion with you to establish all of the details, we calculate a fixed-price quotation for your promotional film production, based on the script/storyboard we have drawn up and decided in consultation with you. Any subsequent additional costs or special services not discussed before the start of filming and set down in the script will need to be billed separately. However, we will inform you in writing before providing our services and only carry out filming after gaining your written consent.

A promotional film is like a tailored suit. When you have been measured for your suit, specified the type of suit you want and the fabric and quality of cloth, then the work involved and the price for making your suit can be calculated.

The promotional film should be produced in 4K quality so that it can be reused in the future either in its entirety or in part. The image stabilisation and zoom levels, editing, type of dubbing required, integration of animations, effects and the length of the post-production process will determine the costs for your promotional film. plenamedia.tv uses royalty-free music. This means you incur no charges for the music used.

Simply give us a quick call at plenamedia.tv if you would like to start planning your promotional film. We’ll be by your side from the concept stage through to the completion of your film.

Again and again, we are asked by our customers why we produce the videos in 4K and not full HD, even though the device can only reproduce full HD quality levels. And the next question: why produce a film using a 12K video camera when it is then rendered down to 4K format?

ZEISS Cinema Zoom lenses are precision engineered within the tightest possible tolerances. This guarantees you excellent image quality with low distortion, high resolution and excellent colour rendition for crisp, striking pictures. High resolution and contrast; ready for 8K and beyond up to 12K. We produce commercials, promotional films, recruitment films and livestreams using the Blackmagic 12K camera and the above-mentioned lenses.

plenamedia.tv and its filming team can produce videos for all occasions, which you can also use again and again for the newest and most topical purposes.

Mobile phone videos are, at best, acceptable on the smartphone display and for use in still pictures the size of a postcard. The small image sensors used are hardly suitable for showcasing the subject being filmed, because of their low depth expansion. There is no option to change lenses or obtain detailed images with natural brightness profiles even in low light, and the colours are less faithful. Neither are there any high-quality cine lenses available for smartphone cameras.

With its 80 MP resolution per frame, the Blackmagic 12K, in contrast, can be used in scenarios ranging from film production for large-format projections to studio applications, special effects work, and scenic productions. We currently know of no other cine camera with this resolution potential.

With the Blackmagic camera, the 12K braw files can be accessed on a laptop on a 4K timeline. This is made possible by Blackmagic’s highly effective implementation of the RAW format. In addition, the colour science used is well balanced, enabling seamless matching with footage recorded on the 4.6K Ursa Mini Pro.

While 4K videos can be produced at low cost using smartphone cameras, this results in major shortfalls in quality. The mere fact that lenses can be changed on standard camcorders, combined with their larger sensors and higher luminance levels, make them a superior option. What’s more, they can be bought for a moderate price. But clearly superior – and an investment in the future – are videos shot in 4K to 8K quality using high-resolution, light-intensive cine lenses. These come at a much higher purchase price, of course. These are the reasons why we produce high-quality films using the Blackmagic 12K.

After studying languages (Germanic and Romance studies) and gaining a degree from the Sorbonne in Paris and San Francisco, I was trained as a journalist at WDR in Cologne. I then worked for several years in radio and TV at ARTE in Strasbourg and at WDR in Cologne as writer and director. As well as editing feature film scripts for a TV station near Munich, I worked as media director for an international aluminium group with a focus on film and video production.

In 2012, I set up my own company: plenamedia.tv. Since then, I have worked as director and producer covering the entire production process for more than 1,500 companies around Europe, focusing on promotional films, trade fair films, product and machinery films, commercials, explanatory films and recruitment films.

I gained many years of experience with regard to interviews thanks to my work as a journalist in radio and television, producing news broadcasts and features on current topics. The fact that I spent two years editing scripts for made-for-TV films for a Munich TV station is also of benefit to my current clients. Through this experience, I learned how to write a script, build tension throughout a story, but also to look through the lens for the essentials and emotions of the story – skills I have practised over many years. I was therefore amply prepared for the tasks involved in running my own film and video production company thanks to the opportunities I’ve enjoyed working in such varied media-related areas.

This background also gives me ongoing access to a pool of experienced camera operators – each of whom are ambitious while offering completely different areas of specialisation. Again, this benefits plenamedia.tv’s clients, as I can bring together a film crew in line with the client’s specific requirements and script, customised to the needs of the storyboard.

For our customers, I act as the direct contact and plan the film production in cooperation with you – often following an on-site meeting – before creating the storyboard for the film based on the information given by you and your employees. As a director, I am present throughout the shoot. Together with the editor, I start by viewing the raw footage before moving on to produce the preview and the finished film.

Throughout my many long years of experience, I have often been asked questions as a journalist, editor, author and director. Many of these come up again and again. Together with my team, we have developed thematic guidelines that should help you in planning and preparing your video and film production, as well as giving you a general understanding of the organic and technical processes involved.
Feel free to call or email me with any questions you might have.