Person moving normally in fast-paced environment

[Dan Stone]

I want to shoot a spot where someone is moving at normal speed while everything around him/her is moving really fast. I'm trying to describe it to the client but they can't visualize it.

 

You know, where a guy is walking normally down then street while everyone else is in "fast forward" and a blur.

 

I've seen it a million times but can't seem to remember where. Does anyone know of a sample of this?

 

Thanks!

[Trevor Greenfield]

in Garden State they use both motion control, non motion control, and also selective ramping.

 

With the non motion control, they had Braff sit as motionless as possible while the party goes on around him at maybe 8fps? 4fps? I don't know.

[James Erd]

The Matrix also used the mixed time metaphor, but it was more subtle. I think it's the scene where Neo is riding in the the car on his way to visit the oracle.

[Max Jacoby]

If you can't do motion control, the next best thing is to shoot slower (like 6fps) and have the person that's supposed to move at normal speed also move correspondingly slower. When you play it back at 24fps, the person will move normally and all the other people will move faster.

[Nick Mulder]

Does anyone know of a sample of this?

click on the showreel link here: http://www.mrmoco.com/

 

At least one of them will have this effect (;

[Allen Achterberg]

Shooting at lower frame rates while the main subject is walking slow is a good way to do it, but to get that person's motion to MATCH a normal movement is another story. It's quite tricky to do this, and have it look natural (in my experiences at least). I'd recommend getting your hands on an HVX200 (12fps) and do much testing, so you know how the talent should move and train them to walk slowly but without unnatural movements.

 

it really depends on what you expect to get from this effect as far as motion is concerned.

 

TEST TEST TEST

 

 

All the Best,

Allen Achterberg

[James Steven Beverly]

Dan this should technically be posted in our brand new special effects section. B)

[Bryan Darling]

This was used to great effect in a music video for Orbital. I would do a search on youtube.com for The Box music video. You probably will want to get slower than 12 or 6fps depending on the effect. Being able to shoot a frame at a time can help a lot to get a motion blur shutter effect for night shots. You could figure out the speed of the subject by timing their normal rate of walk then multiply it by the increased length that using a slower frame rate would bring. Then use something like a metronome, rehearsing and some tests. This is where the ability of certain film cameras can really be of help. A Bolex with a cable release or a time lapse motor would do the job.

[Alex Haspel]

i remember seeing this in "requiem for a dream", really good movie by the way....

[Luke Prendergast]

i remember seeing this in "requiem for a dream", really good movie by the way....

 

Where Ellen Burstyn's in the doctor's office for the second time. The behind-the-scenes or director's commentary discusses how they achieved this shot.

[Alex Haspel]

Where Ellen Burstyn's in the doctor's office for the second time. The behind-the-scenes or director's commentary discusses how they achieved this shot.

 

i also remeber one with her walking on the sidewalk, with blurry pedestrians dashing by...

[Keneu Luca]

It is humanly and logistically impossible to have an actor walk in slo mo and then have it look "normal" when sped up, as you say you want.

 

When we walk normally, there are tiny bodily vibrations that occur as our body weight moves up and down on the ground. This cannot be reproduced when walking at significantly slower speeds.

 

There will be occasional tell-tale signs of unnatural movement (ticks, twitches, jitters, etc) in the final porduct. It can look quite interesting, taking on a life of its own, but it will not look "normal"

 

The normal example we've seen professionally done most likely demand green screen.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Keneu

[Michael Collier]

http://www.isotacmovie.com/demoreel.wmv

 

Not the first part (thats just a montage of ENG stuff) but the middle there is a title sequence I did with that exact effect. No greenscreen needed, we just started out our shot by zooming out from the clock (much slower than it is there) locked off once we found our frame, then once the crowds died down, I (yes thats me staring in that title sequence) ran to the end of the path and shot my part in one take. Then we just needed a lot of rotoscoping work. The clock hands are also animated.

[grantsmith]

I worked on a low budghet music video (can't remember the name of the band unfortunately) but they used a trained dancer who specialised in carrying out 'slow motion' routines. The camera was undercranked and when speeded up in post it worked really well. If you can get a trained person to do it it will work, otherwise it does just looke like someone walking normally with ocasional jerky movements.

[Stuart McCammon]

Low budget, no muss no fuss version=green screen the actor on a stage, undecrank the street scene, voila!