- 1). Have a person stand in front of a greenscreen and shoot a movie with the video camcorder. You can build a moderately-sized greenscreen that will let you shoot two people together from the waist up for about $60 in parts from a hardware store. See the Resources section for instructions on building the greenscreen.
- 2). Attach the video-to-USB connection cable to the video output of the camcorder. Attach the other end to a USB port on the Mac.
- 3). Run Final Cut Express. Go to "File" and select "Import Video" from the drop-down menu. Final Cut Express will automatically locate the video camcorder and ask you if it should be uploaded to the computer's hard drive. Click on "Yes." Disconnect the video-to-USB cable from the USB port of the computer and from the video camcorder after the video has been uploaded. Put the video camcorder away.
- 4). Drag the video clip you want to do a greenscreen effect on from the Library window into the V2/A3A4 layer of the Timeline. Click on the video clip. Go to "Effects" and select "Video Filters" in the window that appears.
- 5). Double-click to open the "Key" folder on the screen and select the "Blue and Green Screen" effect. Drag the "Blue and Green Screen" effect onto the video clip to isolate the image from the background.
- 6). Drag an image or video clip from the computer's hard drive into the icon of Final Cut Express that is in the Dock to the left of the screen or at the bottom of the screen. Wait for Final Cut Express to import the image or video clip into the Browser window.
- 7). Drag the image or video clip from the Browser window into the Timeline in the first layer (the V1/A1A2 layer). Drag the edges of the image or video clip's screen to match it to the greenscreen video clip.
- 8). Go to the "File" menu and select "Export," "QuickTime Movie." Name the greenscreen video you are making in the open column at the top of the window that appears. Click the "Save" button to save the greenscreen video to the computer's hard drive. Quit Final Cut Express once the QuickTime video has been saved.
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