Advise on VFX shot, miniatures and distance.

[David Mullen ASC]

One can imagine a lower angle where the feet of the actors and the rocket platform are on the same horizon line with no extended plane between them. Then perhaps the miniature ground could run right under their feet and you wouldn't have to see their shadow on the ground.

 

Or the opposite a higher angle where there is a big flat field with the rocket in the distance -- make it all miniature but matched in color to the ground under the actors, and then use the Schufftan Process to scrap away the mirror where the actors would be seen through the glass. But the whole rig would have to be built onto scaffolding.

[Phil Rhodes]

 

 

you might also try a sheet of glass reflecting a card that goes from black to white at the top for a graduated haze.

 

Didn't someone make a device that worked that way, using a TFT display panel for programmable filtering? I can't believe that's an original idea.

 

P

[Doug Palmer]

I was just imagining something fairly simple like this

 

[David Mullen ASC]

If you actually wanted to see that miniature road, i.e. the camera is higher than the tabletop, you'd need to cut away the top left corner of the table top in order for it to not block that actors in the background (meant to look like they are in the foreground.) Maybe you indicated that in the drawing, I can't read the writing quite.

[David Mullen ASC]

 

Didn't someone make a device that worked that way, using a TFT display panel for programmable filtering? I can't believe that's an original idea.

 

P

 

In retrospect, again, it would be better to do that graduated haze in post color-correction unless this project is for photochemical finish only. No need to mess with large sheets of glass just for a haze effect that can be easily done in a color-corrector.

[Jay Young]

Well I'm glad I have generated some interest on the forum.

 

I would love to do a photochemical finish. However, it may be that I just need to composite the whole thing in the computer.

 

I whacked up a quick cardboard/Styrofoam model about 12" high, put it on a table and took a picture of it with me standing down the hallway - It needs to be larger, and I think the camera will need to be a good distance away also.

 

Somewhere in the world (Universal Studios Florida? Kings Island?) there is a fun park that has scaffolding, with the space shuttle mounted on top. Then there is a "camera rest" where you put a camera, and

marked on the ground is the place to stand - this has the effect of making the shuttle look like its in the background, far away. If I could find the ONE print I have of this, taken when I was 10 or so, I could show you.

 

There doesn't need to be a road. In fact, you don't need to see much of the launch tower, just - rocket off in the distance. The actors will be standing on a... parking lot? or something. Location still to be determined. Anyhow, I still like the hard dividing line horizontal across the frame. Although I guess it actually needs to be closer to the camera to go all the way across the frame.

[David Mullen ASC]

Anyhow, I still like the hard dividing line horizontal across the frame. Although I guess it actually needs to be closer to the camera to go all the way across the frame.

 

Or bigger.

 

You can work backwards from the focal length and depth of field charts to figure out the size needed based on the distance focused on.