114 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
114 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
Tricks with a video camera
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Newsgroups: rec.video
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Subject: what to film with your video camera
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The volume of the response to my last article was underwhelming :-(
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8*(
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I had asked:
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Do you rich people with movie collections edit "stock"
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Hollywood footage into your home movies? Do you ever
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produce "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" or "Zellig" movies
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where you play opposite some famous movies star(s)?
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Only one respondant, Don Pavlish (ag167@cleveland.Freenet.edu) replied.
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He sent me some great ideas for special effects and lots of info about
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in-camera editing. Here are some of his hints.
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1. SPLIT SCREEN:
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Get a small (maybe 9" x 9") mirror (WITHOUT A FRAME/BORDER)
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and hold it so it takes up about half of the picture:
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---------------
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| :mirror|
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| :mirror|
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| :mirror|
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---------------
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Now, hold the mirror at a 45 degree angle to the camera:
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TOP VIEW:
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_________
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|camera |-|
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| | |
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|_______|-| ` <---- mirror
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`
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The screen will appear split, the half with out the mirrt(or will
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be on the left, and on the right you will see whatever is directly to
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the right (from camera's point of view) of the mirror. This can
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be used for one of those scenes where someone is speaking on the
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phone to someone else, and you see both of them via split screen... etc.
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2. SUPERIMPOSE A GHOST on a SCENE:
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Use the same setup as the mirror trick, expect:
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a) use a block of glass instead of a mirror
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b) instead of covering the screen halfway, cover the ENTIRE screen
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with the angled mirror.
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Aim the camera at say, a long shot of a room (dim lighting works
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best). Now the camera is shooting through the angled mirror:
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TOP VIEW:
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|camera |-| `
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| | | ` <--- glass ROOM
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|_______|-| `
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`
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PERSON'S
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FACE
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Position a face up close to the glass so it reflects in the
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glass (light the face with a flashlight). The camera will see the
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room normally through the glass, and a reflection of a large face
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on the glass... Your face will be superimposed over the room.
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This can be used, for example, to have a huge face in a window (
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(the window is where the ROOM is in the above diagram, and make sue
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sure you do it at night so the window is dark, since the reflection
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will show up best against a dark background.)
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3. WHIP-PAN:
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Ever done a "whip-pan"? This is a trick that, when used properly
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in a movie, will signal a change of location.
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At the end of a scene in location A, when the last shot is
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finished and you are about to hit the record PAUSE/STOP button,
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suddenly 'whip' the camera around to one side, fast as possible,
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and while the camera is in motion, hit the PAUSE/STOP button. Then,
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move to your new location, and start the camera 'whipping' to
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begin. A second or two later, stop the camera on your actor.
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You will have to fool around and figure out how soon your camera
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waits after you hit the button to start taping, but this trick
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is pretty good.
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It can also be used to show a man throwing a spear, for example, then
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the camera whips over to show a guy with a spear in his chest.
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The whip itself should be fast enough so everything is blurred during
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it. And, keep the direction of the whip steady during the cut.
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If you whipped the camera right for the first half of the blur, keep
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it going right in the second half with the new scene. A view
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viewer will NOT be able to see where you stopped, it will look
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like one continous whip.
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* * *
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Don, by the way, is 15 years old!
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If this type of posting is in the wrong newsgroup, please direct me to
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the correct group.
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