Jump to content

Some questions about old effects


Recommended Posts

Why did front screen projection never replace rear screen?

 

How do/did you keep the screen from being washed out by the movie lights?

 

I've read that part of the reason blue screens were used for travelling mattes was that the film recorded blue with the highest fidelity, so its removal left the fewest artifacts. But travelling mattes would have been done with tungsten balanced stocks, so the blue layer would have been the fastest, right? Was I misinformed or do tungsten stocks really record blue with the highest fidelity, because ______?

 

How was this/this done? (One of two "2001" effects, that I don't yet know.)

 

How were the prisms done? (The other "2001" effect.) Also, how was it composited?

 

At what frame rate was this shot at and was the film pushed? (2.5...)

 

How was this done?

 

Many thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Blue was mainly chosen because it is the farthest color opposite from skin tone. Blue is also one of the sharper layers in color negative, being at the top. Most color negative film was tungsten balanced until the 1990's so it's not like there was much choice, and most sets were lit with tungsten back then. But yes, blue can be somewhat grainy which is one reason why 100 ASA film was preferred for blue screen work and the negative was well-exposed.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_motion_picture_film

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

That last shot was from "Blade Runner" -- I believe the landscape miniature (which had the fireballs double-exposed into them by doing a second pass on the miniature but with the lights out and white cards placed behind some of the towers of the model, and then the fireball was projected onto the card) was projected onto a dome to create the fish-eye lens curvature, and then that image was optically printed over the ECU of the eyeball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

The trippy landscapes were created by making b&w color separations from the color original and then recombining them through incorrect color filters. Hi-con b&w film might have been used for some of the separations. I don't know if any solarizing was done too. Perhaps some switching of elements from positive to negative might have allowed the glowing colors in the black areas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Camera and front projector are set at 90 degrees to one another looking through a 45-degree mirror so they are on the same axis. The projected image is reflected straight back into the camera lens by a retro-reflective screen material. Stray light from the set reflects off the screen at the angle of incidence, not into the lens, so it doesn't interfere with the front projection. The retro-reflection is many hundreds of times brighter than off-axis light. The actors exactly cover their own shadows.

Agel's book explains it well IIRC.

2001 didn't use any travelling mattes at all. All the mattes were hand-drawn.

Edited by Mark Dunn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...