Letting an actor float in empty space?

[Twan Peeters]

Hi there,

 

For a new film I'm shooting we need to shoot a 'limbo' scene, where one of the characters in our movie is essentialy floating through empty space, nothingness.

 

Now I'm new to visual effects cinematography, and my question is: how do you do it? I have two possible scenario's in my head:

 

1. We hang the actor in a theather in a special harness, and we film him infront of a white screen / green screen. We use a steadycam to float in a subtle way infront of the actor, so it will seem like he is floating.

 

Problems: Our actor is quite heavy, and you will probably see it that the actor is hanging?

 

2. We put the actor on a green cube/table on the ground n front of a green screen, in a laying position, with his legs and head free above the ground. We will then film him from the side, maybe with a steadycam so we move the camera in a subtle way, so it looks like the actor is floating. The actor will have to be quite strong for this I guess to sell the effect.

Problems: Will this sell the effect of a floating person? He doesn't have to look like there is no gravity, but the character is just floating there.

 

 

Hope someone here can give me some tips and advice!

 

Cheers,

Twan

Edited June 17, 2015 by Twan Peeters

[Carl Looper]

You could suspend the actor from the roof, but put the camera underneath them so that the actor's body is hiding the wire, ie. so no need to post remove the wire, and therefore no need to employ green screen. The roof is painted in whatever colour is to signify nothingness (white or black). If white you'll probably want to have hot lights on such to burn out any details of such.

 

Green screen solutions can be too much of a pain.

 

One may want to make use some sort of hairspray that stops the hair from falling down over the actors face - whatever US politicians or 50's housewives use to turn their hair into 3D sculptures.

 

C

Edited June 23, 2015 by Carl Looper

[David Mullen ASC]

What's the background? White or black limbo? Outer space? A room?

[Twan Peeters]

Thank you so much Carl and David,

 

We ended up choosing a green screen studio since we needed to change a lot of the background. We figured that a white limbo would have not be sufficient.

 

I put the actor on a green cube, slanting a little bit, and filming the talent from a high angle. This way he could let his arms and legs float, and it does seem like he's actually floating. So the solution was quite simple after all.

 

@David: The background needed to be a cloudy enviroment. Grey, like an endless foggy nothingness.

 

Thanks a lot for the advice!