I need help

[Guest ryan]

CAn anyone tell me how to make it look like one actor is playing two roles at the same time?? Like let's say they are twins but you don't have twins to play the role

any help is greatly appreciated

thanks

[Adam Frisch FSF]

1. Split screen. Easy with a static camera as long as they don't have to interact or touch eachother.

 

2. Cast twins?

 

3. Some stuff can be achieved with lookalikes. Like the old we-see-the-twins-walk-away-from-camera-from-behind-but-the-only-one-turning-and-really-showing-his-profile-is-our-single-actor-trick and so on.

 

If you want to do it with a moving camera, then it's not so easy anymore. That's motion control-land. And they cost lots of money and need proper support and VFX supervision to work as intended.

[Michael Nash]

It helps to mix up the techniques depending on the shot so that the audience doesn't have as much chance to "catch on" to the gag. Look alikes, split screen, motion control, mattes, and so on.

 

Check out Dead Ringers. There was also some pretty good stuff in the last Star Trek movie with dual "Datas." I was impressed by the crane-over shot that went from one Data's face to the other when they were strapped in back-to-back chairs. No doubt they used motion control for multiple passes on that shot.

 

My favorite gag is when one character hands a prop to the "twin" in a single shot. I remember seeing this in a Star Trek:Next Generation episode where they blended a split-screen shot of "twin" characters by having one set down a glass of champagne on a table, and the other twin then picked it up in the same shot.

[David Mullen ASC]

I did a low-budget 35mm feature shoot where it turned out to be cheaper to find a guy with an optical printer to do it the old-fashioned way, with split-screens. The shots had to be locked off and it helped to have a vertical line in the set to hide the split. There only ended up being about three shots, the rest were done by using a double and shooting over-the-shoulders. Pretty conventional. I shot the split-screen shots on 100 ASA film because I wanted to offset the increase in grain from the optical process. It worked but I didn't quite match the contrast which also increases with duping; I should have used a little more fill light or slightly flashed the negative or something. Didn't matter because it was a straight-to-video movie (although it had to be completed to film) and I was able to tweak the shots in the telecine.

 

Here were the three opticals:

 

 

 

 

The troublesome thing with lock-offs is that you can't touch the camera until the actor comes back dressed as the double, which got tricky as their make-ups became more different as time went on (the story was about an evil twin who kidnaps and locks-up his brother and takes his place.)

[Frank DiBugnara]

Another thing that is easy to overlook when doing the split screen lock offs is lighting. You can be completely happy with the lighting when shooting the first half of the shot only to find that when you shoot the other half of the shot that the "second" actor interacts unfavorably with the lighting. Maybe he casts a shadow that you had not anticipated (one that crosses the area of the frame that will serve as the split) or bounces light in a strange way. There can also be some unfavorable compositional dynamics that occur when you put the second person in.

 

So it is important to use similar stand-ins to very carefully look at both sides of the shot before you shoot the first to avoid shooting yourself into a corner. It can be tempting to want to change the lighting for the second set-up when you get to it, yet doing so can ruin the potential for a cean split screen.

 

If you have the luxury, having a lap top with something like Final Cut or After Effects on it (with a dedicated operator) can be an easy way to give you the assurance that you have what you're looking for before you leave the set.

[Mark Allen]

CAn anyone tell me how to make it look like one actor is playing two roles at the same time??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you don't have motion control and you really want to move the camera - there are a couple tricks - but make sure you have a competant visfx supervisor before you do them - or do tests or you'll be very unhappy.

 

1) If the motion is subtle, shoot your main plate - actor in background. Then fly a greenscreen to cover the foreground actors area over the background and shoot the foreground character - the track and composite him in.

 

2) If the background character is distant enough use a double with a track marker on his face and do a face replacement on him. You might think thiis would work best if the character is perfectly still - but it actually works best if the character is moving - but not twisting his head too much. obviously you need to have the main actor do the exact same head motions and then timewarp it to match. now... unless you have a really close double, you'll ideally have someone with a smaller head (bald guy) so that you more easily replace the whole head. My company actually has a shot like this coming up in a few weeks.

 

lastly - don't assume you can't afford motion capture until you price it against the extra cost of fx work.