jasonsing

Stephan,

 

Did you ever attempt to mimic this effect? I still cant figure out how to shoot the plate B which should be on the green green of the mirror. Sorry im new to this, but should I put markers on the green screen of mirror ?

thanks for the reply Stephan. I attempted this today and figured this out as well that just placing the camera in front of the mirror doesnt work.

That's just good choreography and rehearsal. A good actor will be able to figure his natural movement out, and replicate it well. Also note that in order to pull off a good mirror scene, you have to measure and mark avery thing perfectly, including your lens height. You'll have to measure from the focal plane to the mirror, back to the actor's face; That will be your measurement for the turn around. When you flip around, stay on the same side of the actor (in this case, it's the actors right side), then flip the image horizontally in post to get a mirror flip.

Alan,

Could you elaborate on the measurements required. I quickly attempted this today and it came out very shitty.

Good day

Please see the following link to a scene out of the 2009 film Mr Nobody filmed by Christophe Beaucarne.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CpBg7J-DY

 

I would like any advice on shooting a shot similar to the following scene: A character walks towards a mirror in a room, the camera follows from behind. We see the character look at himself in the mirror. The camera tracks into the mirror and it moves to show a full frontal POV shot of the character looking directly into the camera, as if he is looking at himself in the mirror. The camera then follows the character out of the room, even though it appears as if the camera is moving further into the direction of the mirror.

I was able to work out that the character is looking into, what was on set, a green screen. By excellent blocking, the actor was able to mimic his movement that was taken on another shot almost perfectly (a very small delay is seen in his head movement when looking towards screen right).

My question to the forum is whether anyone has advice for a cinematography student shooting this scene for a short film on how to pull this shot off.

• How is the shot taken that was masked in the green screen? i.e. the “reflection of the mirror” shot. Was the camera in a static position until the movement took place where the camera moves around to face the character directly face-on?

• Did the production designer have to “flip the set” in order to make the shot in the mirror look like an actual reflection?

• How does one block an actor that well when he is only looking into a green screen and has no reference point?

I have a cricket dolly and steel tracks as well as a steadicam available to shoot this shot, so either piece of equipment could be used to pull off this shot.

I apologise for the long post but there are many questions that I am asking myself, and for the life of me I cannot exactly figure out how this shot was achieved so seamlessly.

 

Regards

Stephan Guldenpfennig

 

Stephan,

Did you ever attempt to mimic this effect? I still cant figure out how to shoot the plate B which should be on the green green of the mirror. Sorry im new to this, but should I put markers on the green screen of mirror ?