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Garden State


Tim J Durham

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There is a scene in Garden State where Zach Braff is sitting on a loveseat, drinking a beer, and the rest of the party-goers are moving in and out of the frame as he sits back watching them.

I really loved the motion effect used in this scene and wondered if anyone knows how it was done and more importantly, how it could be recreated with a 24p video cam?

 

Thanks in advance.

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If I remember correctly, there's no compositing, the whole shot is sped up, including Zack's character; he's just trying to hold as still as possible while everything around him moves fast. I could be wrong. They would've just undercranked the camera (low frame rate) which looks fast played back at 24fps.

 

In video, you'd just put the camera on a tripod and shoot normally, then speed it up in post. Slo-mo would be a different story.

 

If you wanted to have the subject hold absolutely still or make it obvious that he's normal speed and everyone else is fast, you shoot a plate shot of the people behind the couch and speed that up, layer a greenscreen shot of the couch in front of that at normal speed, and then greenscreen some more people going by in the foreground on top of that sped up.

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If I remember correctly, there's no compositing, the whole shot is sped up, including Zack's character; he's just trying to hold as still as possible while everything around him moves fast.  I could be wrong.  They would've just undercranked the camera (low frame rate) which looks fast played back at 24fps.

 

In video, you'd just put the camera on a tripod and shoot normally, then speed it up in post.  Slo-mo would be a different story.

 

If you wanted to have the subject hold absolutely still or make it obvious that he's normal speed and everyone else is fast, you shoot a plate shot of the people behind the couch and speed that up, layer a greenscreen shot of the couch in front of that at normal speed, and then greenscreen some more people going by in the foreground on top of that sped up.

So to account for the motion blur- slow frame rate + slow shutter speed. I need to investigate whether that can be done on the SDX-900. I know the Varicam will go down to 4fps. Hmm.

 

Thanks

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If you're working in video, the frame rate is somewhat irrelevant, because speeding it up in post is a piece of cake. The trick is getting the motion blur, and the SDX does not have a slow shutter in 24p (I shoot with it every day). I don't know about other cameras in this league, except that lower-level PD-150s and such DO often have slow shutter. Keep in mind that the exposure goes way up when you slow down the shutter, so you'll need NDs and such.

 

I'd be half temped to shoot it with a 35mm still camera and create an image sequence out of it. . .

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If you're working in video, the frame rate is somewhat irrelevant, because speeding it up in post is a piece of cake.  The trick is getting the motion blur, and the SDX does not have a slow shutter in 24p (I shoot with it every day).  I don't know about other cameras in this league, except that lower-level PD-150s and such DO often have slow shutter.  Keep in mind that the exposure goes way up when you slow down the shutter, so you'll need NDs and such.

 

I'd be half temped to shoot it with a 35mm still camera and create an image sequence out of it. . .

Yes, the motion blur is the trick.

 

Renting a varicam for the day is probably what I'll end up doing and the increase in exposure works to my advantage as it will be shot in a bar using practicals (mostly). I don't want to end up liking that Varicam too much.

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