Not that Blue Screen Again! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Windows

Appearing since the Windows 3.1 operating system, the Blue Screen of Death is the notorious, blue error screen that makes itself visible when the PC performs an 'illegal operation'. Essentially, the computer literally cuts itself off from its activities to ensure that no irreversible harm comes to the unit.

The error itself usually generates with improperly-used hardware or software. When the computer performs this operation, a core dump is performed to ensure that not all memory is destroyed with your activity. All of this depends on the operating system though.

Answer: Weather report

This may not be noticeable from a home television screen, but the 'moving map' placed in front of the news' meteorologist really doesn't have that image on it. Whether live or pre-recorded, the meteorologist uses a screen for reference and performs the entire report in front of a blank green or blue screen in the studio.

The maps, weather fronts, temperatures, and graphics are all added in as the news program goes along. Weather-specific networks often employ round-the-clock technicians to update their projections via digital systems.

Answer: Green

If you happen to be wearing a colour of clothing which somewhat matches the tone of the screen (ie. green clothes in front of a green screen), you've screwed something up. When the image is put onto the computer and the background needs to be filled in, any green colours will be removed.

This makes an effect kind of like an invisibility cloak. Any green-garbed part of your body will be invisible on the screen as that tone has been digitally replaced.

Answer: Both colours did not match skin tones

This ties into the 'invisibility feats' achievable with this technology. Since green and blue don't match normal skin tone, their use as chroma keys is integral since it ensures that people themselves aren't removed in the digital replacement process. Red screens, if used, may be too close to skin tone.

In cases where people are not meant to be onscreen, but blue or green screens must be used with inanimate objects, magenta screens are occasionally used. In addition to the fact that blue and green are far enough from red on the visible spectrum to avoid blending with skin tone, both don't require much light in order to be utilized (green requires less light than blue).

Answer: Drew Carey's Green Screen Show

While only moderately successful, "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show" was notable for the approach. Created after "Whose Line is it Anyways?", the show utilized many of the cast members and games already known to viewers of Drew Carey's improv comedy shows. Comedians perform their games in front of a live studio audience and in front of a large green screen.

After production of the show, digital effects are added for home viewers, so if the skit is about pirates, the characters may appear to be on the sea, dressed in pirate garb, when really they're not. Only thirteen episodes of the show were made before it was canceled. Carey later made more episodes of "Whose Line" before hosting "The Power of 10" and replacing Bob Barker as the host of "The Price is Right".

Answer: Comic book adaptation

In order to give the cel-shaded, unreal appearances that are commonly seen in comic book movies such as "Sin City", "The Spirit", "Watchmen", and "300", actors film nearly the entire movie on green sets, complete with green props, costumes, and setpieces.

In doing this, otherwise impossible or infeasible sets can be achieved through computer graphics. Action movies also make use of green screens. Again, this is used to take the viewer into an otherwise unobtainable environment. Most of James Cameron's "Avatar", set on the planet of Pandora, was filmed on green screen and digitally included after years of work.

Answer: OK Go

Off their third studio album, "Of the Colour of the Blue Sky", this was the first single for the band in nearly three years. The first track on the album (and with a more offensive chat acronym as its name), it introduces the new style of the group which (oddly) is more ubiquitous than their earlier work. Having won a Grammy for 'Best Short Form Music Video' in 2007, the band has had a streak of single-take, continuous shot music videos.

Their first was a choreographed dance on treadmills, their second (for the song "A Million Ways") was filmed in a backyard, and the video in this question is in front of the green screen the entire time.

The band uses dollar-store products and delayed cameras (and their own creativity) to affect their environment.

Answer: Larry Butler

Originally seen as a 'traveling matte', the green screen was developed by the head of special effects at Colombia Pictures, Larry Butler, who had worked on the effects for "Casablanca", "The Caine Mutiny", and "House of Usher". Larry Butler won the Academy Award for 'Best Special Effects' in 1940 for "The Thief of Baghdad" which implemented the green screen.

He would later be nominated for three other 'Visual Effects' awards in proceeding years. In 1976, he won the 'Technical Achievement Award'. Later visual artists improved upon the technique with different lights, colours, and technologies.

Answer: The Matrix

In the film, this is referred to as the matrix itself. From the ships of Zion, operators are able to read this code and dissect the elements of the matrix to locate their crew, ensure that the agents aren't attacking, or to find escape routes and pull people out of the computer world.

This text style is also seen in the opening and closing credits of each film. In most scenarios, the text is always seen falling down the screen and it consists of letters, numbers (regular and reversed) and kanji/katakana characters.

Answer: Xbox 360

While the Blue Screen of Death is reserved for Windows PCs experiencing fatal errors, their home console, the Xbox 360, has a characteristic Green Screen of Death that usually appears in older models in which specific chips required for video display are damaged and in need of replacement. Similarly, TiVo units also experience a Green Screen of Death when a hard drive error is in progress. Linux-based PCs have a tendency to give a black screen while older consoles have been known to produce green, grey, and red screens to indicate that something bad has occurred within.

Some handheld devices even display a white screen when software issues arise (ie. GPS units, MP3 players, etc.).