Will this effect work?

[jijhh]

I'm working on a project right now that has a scene in which a boy comes flying out of a freestanding doorframe in the middle of a field. My idea is to build a sturdy freestanding door and take two shots:

 

Shot A: shoot the door (from somewhat far away) very close to sideways, so we can only see into it a sliver. So in the master shot, all we basically see is a kid running and jumping through a door frame. Then...

 

Shot B: Shoot the field without the boy--an empty field with a door--no camera change whatsoever

 

Then, crop shot B, and overlay it onto shot A, so that it covers the whole frame right up to the edge of the door. So, the boy is under the overlay as he runs up to the door, but then as he comes out of the door, is uncovered. It will look like he just comes flying out of a freestanding door--sort of like a portal I guess.

 

I'm really just concerned about the edge of that cropped overlay. We are most likely shooting anamorphic 35 and going the DI route. Theoretically if nothing in the frame changes, it should work, but are there any issues that I will run into with this sort of effect?

[David Mullen ASC]

No, it's a pretty simple split screen effect, easier to do digitally because you don't have to hide a line. Just make sure that the camera is really locked-off (to avoid tracking) and has good registration (to avoid restabilizing) and that the two halves are shot at the same time of day so that the light doesn't change. Your worst nightmare would be some sort of rolling cloud formation causing a constant light-dark fluctuation.

[jijhh]

No, it's a pretty simple split screen effect, easier to do digitally because you don't have to hide a line. Just make sure that the camera is really locked-off (to avoid tracking) and has good registration (to avoid restabilizing) and that the two halves are shot at the same time of day so that the light doesn't change. Your worst nightmare would be some sort of rolling cloud formation causing a constant light-dark fluctuation.

 

 

Is it possible to do this effect optically? Because right now this shot alone is the only thing making a DI necessary.

[Will Earl]

Is it possible to do this effect optically? Because right now this shot alone is the only thing making a DI necessary.

 

Sure it's possible to do optically, you'll have better control doing it digitally.

 

I'm not sure I understand the last part of your problem - regarding the DI. Are you saying because of this one shot your worried your going to have to put the whole thing through a DI process? You should only need to scan in this one shot, comp it and then get it filmed out again to be cut in with the rest of the film.

[Alessandro Machi]

The boys actual energy from running through the door will probably cause cloud dusts, perhaps door vibration, and even the changing of the ground layout as he either crashes through or runs by the door real fast.

 

By the time the boy runs completely through the shot, and the shot has completely resettled in every way, perhaps anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute will have gone by, which just might be enough time for something else to have changed in the shot.

 

What might work is too simply make sure the boy is entirely clear of the locked off frame, let the camera roll for 15-20 seconds without the boy in the frame. During those 15-20 seconds pay close attention to make sure nothing in the frame is changing, then without stopping the camera, the boy runs completely through the shot, then in post do a split screen offset, the camera rolling with no one in the shot is seen on both sides, then the moment the boy "appears" through the door, that emergence is put on the half of the frame you want it on while the beginning of the shot with no boy in it remains on the other half. This procedure probably creates the least amount of time between your two takes, which in this instance is a good thing.

[jijhh]

The boys actual energy from running through the door will probably cause cloud dusts, perhaps door vibration, and even the changing of the ground layout as he either crashes through or runs by the door real fast.

 

By the time the boy runs completely through the shot, and the shot has completely resettled in every way, perhaps anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute will have gone by, which just might be enough time for something else to have changed in the shot.

 

What might work is too simply make sure the boy is entirely clear of the locked off frame, let the camera roll for 15-20 seconds without the boy in the frame. During those 15-20 seconds pay close attention to make sure nothing in the frame is changing, then without stopping the camera, the boy runs completely through the shot, then in post do a split screen offset, the camera rolling with no one in the shot is seen on both sides, then the moment the boy "appears" through the door, that emergence is put on the half of the frame you want it on while the beginning of the shot with no boy in it remains on the other half. This procedure probably creates the least amount of time between your two takes, which in this instance is a good thing.

 

That's exactly how I planned to do it actually.

 

If I just DI to filmout this one shot, will there be a difference in quality?

[Will Earl]

If I just DI to filmout this one shot, will there be a difference in quality?

 

Will your audience see a difference in quality? Nope. You may be able to spot the difference because you know the history of the shot, but unless the scan and comp was done really badly then the audience (and possibly yourself) are never going to spot the difference.

 

Also this sounds like a fairly simple shot for a compositor to do (note: sounds simple, I haven't seen the shot so it could be tricky), even if the lighting conditions vary, the clouds move across the shot or any other random occurance that may have happened.