Working from home has many advantages. But it can have disadvantages as well.

For example, this week I needed to produce some short video clips from my home office.

Problem was, the entire top floor of our house is being repainted, including my office. And it's a mess (painters, ladders, buckets, drop cloths, fans, etc.).

Still, even with painters in the house, I needed to get the clips produced.

And that's when knowing about the magic of green screen saved the day.

Instead of shooting with the painting mess in the background, I placed a green screen behind me and shot the video.

Then in my video editing program, I replaced the green screen with a background graphic, which created the illusion that I was sitting in a professional environment, instead of a construction zone.

Creating green screen magic in your own videos can be extremely easy. In fact, after shooting the video, I created a short two minute tutorial showing how easy it can be.

You can view my green screen video and the 'how to do it' at Green Screen Magic - the two minute guide to chromakey with Sony Studio.

Or just watch the greenscreen video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8dCiEvBZ0w