The basic concept is of a picture which loads in the web page (the ‘set’), with an overlay of video (the ‘presenter’) that is crafted in such a way that the presenter looks to be ‘present’ in the scene set by the background image.

The technology employed is filming to green screen, using production processes to re-size the video, web coding to play it with the alpha channel intact and position it down to the last pixel, so that the desired degree of realism and ‘presence’ is achieved.

The process requires careful design, with interaction between the video crew, the web developers, and the web designer; every member of this team needs cross-functional skill sets so that each component can be accounted for from design through coding and production.

Lighting is extremely critical, as is the web coding for the video to deliver the type of interactivity that fits with the scene and nature of the content.

If you are interested in this type of process, drop me a line.

One of the challenges with this particular type of project is coming up with example code for the web developer, that provides capabilities such as: timed call-backs (different for different video clips), sensing actions in progress, or if the video had finished. The timed call-backs can trigger web page actions such as JavaScript functions.

I set up the Green Screen including lighting and selection of High Definition Digital Video Camera to achieve high quality, then designed and refined the processing steps to deliver consistent keying to exacting ‘clean-edge’ requirements for this type of web video.

I worked with John de Vere, an accomplished videographer, who has an ideal location for the setup of the studio – it’s quiet, has a high ceiling and enough space for professional lighting, sound, autocue, and High-Definition SONY EX-3 camera. John has since retired and let his website lapse.

This particular type of video relies on Flash, which has over the last couple of years been on the decline and is not supported by iPhone or iPad. The main use these days (for example) is for desktop-based website application training.