When I met with award-winning compositing and technology pioneer Jonathan Erland at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), he showed me his technologi cal testing stage for lighting and backgrounds at the Pickford Center (www. oscars. org / academy/buildings/pickford. html ). He dubbed this studio the Esmeralda stage in honor
of the center's namesake, silent film actress Mary Pickford, who played the role in the 1915
feature of the same name. On this stage, Mr. Erland can test for the purest background and lighting combinations while extracting a broad range of foreground colors with various cameras and devices. In Figure 2.4, Mr. Erland describes the various color chips and focus targets placed around the frame of the stage with the green screen background, in addition to the blue and red backgrounds used for testing.