BlueScrnHeroes

A “Blue Screen,” also known as a “Chroma Key,” gives movie makers the ability to film their characters in front of a large blue (or green or black or other solid color) screen and then add other footage later to the background without endangering their actors. They can add explosions, space battles, wars with aliens, gunshots, or just about anything they want to the scene without the actors having to actually take part in it. They can do this by programming their equipment to “see” every color except the “key” color, which in this case is blue.

We live in the age of the Chroma Key - a time when movies can have “dangerous” scenes in them without actually being dangerous. We can watch our favorite stars take incredible risks without actually getting involved directly. The main message of this poem is that real life can be very deadly, and because we have grown up in “videospace,” the dangers of real life don’t seem so real.

It’s easy, in my opinion, to start thinking that you are invincible in an age when “reality” on the movies is just make-believe.

Blue Screen Heroes

You grew up in video space

Where danger was nil

Almost anything could happen

And nothing could kill

A hero suspended

By wires could fly

Through explosions and fires

And never die

And now you and your cell phone

Can walk through demolition