Light Blur Effect

[Brandon Adams]

I'm trying to figure out how the light blur effect is done. If anyone has any insight, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

What I'm talking about can be seen in BMW Film's "Beat the Devil" http://usa.bmwfilms.com/clap.asp?template=...lm=beatthedevil

 

And Claudio Miranda's commercials

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/alpinemute.html

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/MotorolaMoto001.html

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/AmericanAirlines001.html

 

Thanks,

-Brandon

[David Mullen ASC]

Different things going on in these spots.

 

Some shots in Tony Scott's short undercrank the camera (like to 6 fps) to increase exposure time and motion blur.

 

The Alpine Mute spot was shot with anamorphic lenses, which get you that blue line flaring from bright lights.

 

The Motorola spot seemed to have used a mistimed shutter to get bright highlights to streak, but since these are normally vertical streaks, I believe he turned the camera sideways, shot with the mistimed shutter, and then rotated the image back 90 degrees to a normal orientation in post (or shot with a sideways movement format like 8-perf 35mm VistaVision but I doubt it.)

[Brandon Adams]

Thanks for the response David.

Does mistimed shutter mean the shutter is opening as the film is advancing? How does this not cause the entire image to be blurred? Is it properly exposed at some point before the mistimed shutter?

[David Mullen ASC]

Thanks for the response David.

Does mistimed shutter mean the shutter is opening as the film is advancing? How does this not cause the entire image to be blurred? Is it properly exposed at some point before the mistimed shutter?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, but because the film is only in motion during the last percentage of the frame exposure, just before the shutter closes (instead of waiting for the shutter to be closed before moving), only the brightest areas of the frame get blurred; the dark areas are too dim to blur in such a short time.

[Brandon Adams]

Can a camera be temporarily modified with a mistimed shutter? Is it something that must be done by a professional? Sorry to keep asking the questions, can you point me in any direction to learn more about it?

[David Mullen ASC]

Can a camera be temporarily modified with a mistimed shutter? Is it something that must be done by a professional? Sorry to keep asking the questions, can you point me in any direction to learn more about it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, it's something a camera tech should do for you. I've heard that some of the newest cameras can be programmed for a mistimed shutter, but I'm not sure.

 

The only time I've gotten that effect was by accident on my first feature, using a crappy 35mm Ultracam. Learned the hard way what the effect was, years before "Saving Private Ryan" did it...

[Rolfe Klement]

Some of Claudio's work is very VFX heavy and he might have been able to use anbother approach. There are some sparks (Plugins) for inferno from Genarts that can track light sources and create these FX - there is even an anamorphic blue one :) Check out the images near the bottom of the page at http://www.genarts.com

 

So if you have VFX budget you can do some of it in post - it is slightly more controlable

 

thanks

 

Rolfe