2 motion speeds on screen simultaneously - method?

[Matt Wells]

I may be shooting a music video soon which involves the band sitting in a room as a variety of characters walk past - we think that it would be good to have the characters movement as a timelapse whilst everything else is normal speed.

 

I have thought about shooting the band first and then clearing them off the set and then backwinding the film and re-shooting at 2fps (we are shooting 16mm).

 

However, can anyone name any software capable of this - is this something a typical NLE package could handle?

 

Be grateful for any thoughts and experiences on this - are there any other ways of achieving this?

 

Many thanks,

 

Matt

[Guest Frank Gossimier]

Well if you wind back the film and shoot again in either RT or TL you'll have a double exposure, is that what you want?

 

You could shoot the band RT against a blue screen. Then leave the camera locked in the same position and have people mill about the room while you shoot in time lapse. Minus the band of course.

 

This would give you two separate elements you could easily composite in any NLE system.

 

Problem is all of the people will have to walk behind the band in time lapse, as that will be one "layer".

 

You could shoot a third layer of people to go in front of the band, also with blue screen. Now you'll have three plates, just bring them all together as a multi layer key.

 

One way I can think of, other smarter people here may know a better way :-)

 

Frank

 

PS: Time lapse is not 2fps, it's one fame every two seconds :-)

[Chris Keth]

That's what I was going to suggest. You could shoot footage of people moving behind where the band will be with no band as a base for the composite. Then shoot footage of the band in front of a green screen placed the depth you will want them in the finished scene. Then also shoot people moving in front of where the band will be in depth, in front of a green screen. Then it can be composited together so there'll be time lapse of people behind and in front of the band. Pretty cool stuff B)

[Glenn Hanns]

Why dont you get a dat audio version of the song at 2fps and run the camera at 2fps with the band and actors in the same shot and have the band play in "real-time slow motion" to the synced 2fps audio and then your foreground will be speed up with motion blur and you Background will be "normal" speed.

Glenn

 

Could also try something a little less severe like 10pfs.

[Jeff Brown]

Why dont you get a dat audio version of the song at 2fps and run the camera at 2fps .... <deletia>

 

Although that would create the desired look, it seems like to many steps and too much effort (on behalf of crew and talent alike). Changing the time, and hence feel, of the performance dissipates the "suspension of disbelief" (yeah, very relative in a music video ;) ) and detaches the viewer from the content. The focus is the band, and you want the viewer to relate to them. As soon as the motion becomes unnatural via altered time, the effect is lost, and the viewer sees a spectacle, and not a "visual entity".

 

Its a fine distinction, but greenscreening would be the way to go in this instance. With a little thought to the setup, and maybe a little roto-work to help integrate the elements, it would pulloff quite nicely.

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

Although that would create the desired look, it seems like to many steps and too much effort (on behalf of crew and talent alike).  Changing the time, and hence feel, of the performance dissipates the "suspension of disbelief" (yeah, very relative in a music video ;) ) and detaches the viewer from the content.  The focus is the band, and you want the viewer to relate to them. As soon as the motion becomes unnatural via altered time, the effect is lost, and the viewer sees a spectacle, and not a "visual entity".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Changing the playback speed is probably the standard way of doing a shot like this. I'ts done all the time, usually running the playback faster to get that dreamy look. It would be the way I would go, to me the greenscreen would be the harder more involved way to do it. You have to light and shoot twice, not to mention you'll have a limited range of movement. Changing playback speed would allow you to make virtually any move you wanted.

[Michael Nash]

For relatively short, simple shots you can do some of this effect in camera. Shoot at a low frame rate and have the band simply hold still or move very slowly while everyone else speeds and blurs past. It becomes difficult for the performers who are "slow" to keep this up for very long, and anything other than simple movements can become a challenge (so no lip-synching, for instance).

 

I saw a clip recently on one of these home-remodeling shows where they were trying to illustrate how lazy someone on the crew was. So they did an in-camera time lapse of him eating a slice of pizza while everyone else scurried around him. The effects was obvious, but in this case it was pretty funny.

 

As far as green-screen and compositing, I remember there was a Spice Girls music video several years back that did this effect, with the girls performing real-time in the middle of an "undercranked" city. There was motion control as well as compositing and interactive lighting, and the whole thing came of pretty slick. Not easy, but it looked good.