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Making it look like immobile cars are moving


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I've seen many films where the characters are driving in a car and what's going on outside the windows is blatently unreal and created by the crew. How is this illusion created? My old cinematography teacher mentioned something about it, comparing it to a complicated dance involving the whole crew. How exactly does one create these moving images outside the windows?

 

Thanks a lot for any input.

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Are you taking about process photography, where the background is projected or added in post? Or "poor man's process" where there is no background, only moving lights around the car at night?

 

Poor man's process involved moving lights past the car in a pattern, dimming lights up and down, panning them past the car and over the actors, etc. bouncing the car and the camera a little, throwing the background out-of-focus, sometimes having two little distant lights simulating a car in the background. Having something obscuring the background, like rain, can help sell the effect.

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I saw this PMP done once. Needed to be really well coordinated to be pulled off well. And you need a few people. It's kind of goofy the first time you experience it though. The director will yell "BRAKE!!" and someone will uncover a red light in front of the car and the talent has to immediately jam their foot and act like they've just screeched to a halt. It works well but definately needs a few practise runs before everyone is in sync.

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I worked on an Amtrak commercial a few years back, and we did poor man's process with a train. We had a 60x60 (if memory serves me) green screen hung outside the train's windows about 20 feet away from the side of the train. This was done inside. There were about ten grips and electricians with flags and mirror boards doing a very specific routine, bouncing and blocking light in a specific sequence. There was a P.A. with a stopwatch counting 1,2,3,4....1,2,3,4....and each of the g & e guys had there specific que. It was really cool to watch grips on ladders swinging 4x4 flags over there heads and electricians swinging mirror boards around sweeping light past the train. It was a like a well choreographed dance. I saw the commercial and it looked great. I had my doubts about how it would turn out when we were shooting, but the final product proved that this was a great way to do the shot.

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This is totally unrelated to PMP or this topic, but I just heard something about this today and didn't want to start a new topic.

 

What's the difference between DVCAM and MINI DV? is there a difference at all? I heard something like the Sony PD-170 uses DVCAM where the Canon XL1s uses MINI DV. What's the difference? Are they different cassetes?

 

Thanks a lot.

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Hank Parker: This has been discussed in the past. But, so as to get this topic back on track ASAP, I'll sum it up for you real quick:

 

The video format that gets put onto MiniDV and DVCAM tapes is identical. The difference is the way it gets put onto tape. MiniDV packs a certain amount information into smaller space than does DVCAM, thereby increasing the risk of dropouts.

 

Imagine each line, / , as data:

 

MiniDV:

/./././././././././././././././././././

 

DVCAM:

/.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../.../

 

 

Search the archives or Google for additional details. Hope this helps!

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I spent all of Friday and Saturday night doing lots of Poor Man's Process- don't forget the stagehands rocking of the car! Most amusing on telephoto close up are female "riders" bobbed about violently by the runners rocking the vehicle (any Brits familiar with the Christian Aguilera bobbing joystick chair commercial will know the effect I'm refering to)!

 

A big black drape backing with NO LIGHT LEAK is crucial for nightime stuff.

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Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

The cars either in a blue screen room, of they have a back projection. Most likely a back projection if the falseness is blatent, since as they still use the blue screen technique today, and it?s very convincing.

 

(MIB, the scene when they are in the tunnel, blue screened)

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