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Gun barrel shot


SimonLL

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Hi,

 

I'm doing a short film in a couple of weeks and the first scene has the main character cleaning his gun and preparing for a hit.

 

The first shot of the film is from the inside of the gun barrel, the cleaning brush slides out which lets the light in and the eye of the character looks down the barrel.

 

I don't want it to be like the classic James Bond one. I don't need to clearly see the grooves inside the barrel although it could be nice. I'd like it a bit more "natural looking" by just seeing the grooves at the end of the barrel, with the interior completely black.

 

I am contemplating different ways of doing this shot. I tested a Scott-Towel roll and it felt a bit big. The other problem with cardboard is it can bend and sometimes little pieces of it lift up making it obvious. A 1" pvc pipe might do it if it's long enough. I could try to get a post house to add the grooves on it in VFX. My challenge is to cover the lens with it.

 

I know the classic James Bond used a pinhole lens to shoot it. I might want to try that with the actual prop gun we are gonna be using, but the cheap pinhole lenses I've seen on sale at B&H seem to be quite soft.

 

If it can help, we are shooting with a Sony FS700+Odyssey 7Q. Most probably Cooke mini S4 with uncoated front elements.

 

Any ideas how to achieve that shot?

 

Thanks!

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You say the original Bond opening was shot with
a pinhole. Are you sure? I'm inclined to think
it was a graphic element comped over the

live action. In any case, you will probably
get the best results using CG.

No lens I know of can give you the extreme
depth of field at the magnifications you would
need for such small props. Plus, lighting the
interior would be tough, to say the least.

If you're going to go the practical route,

you should consider a much larger prop.

I wouldn't bother, though. CG can do it all.

Edited by dan kessler
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You say the original Bond opening was shot with

a pinhole. Are you sure? I'm inclined to think

it was a graphic element comped over the

live action.

Yes, it was clearly animated.. The composite used to be pretty dirty as well until the recent restorations.

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That's what I read on Wikipedia.

"The sequence was created by Maurice Binder for the opening titles of the first Bond film, Dr. No, in 1962. Binder originally planned to employ a camera sighted down the barrel of a .38 calibre gun, but this caused some problems. Unable to stop down the lens of a standard camera enough to bring the entire gun barrel into focus, Binder created a pinhole camera to solve the problem and the barrel became crystal clear.[1]"

 

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_barrel_sequence

 

Thing is I do not want that james bond look. I don't mind not seeing inside the barrel and assuming the fact that it's dark. If one were to look down a barrel in such a way, only the end of it would be exposed to light. After a bit of thinking, I think I might just go with a pvc pipe glued onto a perforated lens cap.

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