Effect Recreation - need opinions

amunioz wrote on 8/18/2004, 5:38 AM
Hi everybody,

A question, I'm triying to recreate an effect I'm seeing frecuently.
Starting with a closeup of a face, the whole background moves like the camera lens changes picture size aperture, while the face stays without changes.

I'm testing with an VV5 bezier mask, while appliying an spherize effect on a copy of the event in another video track.
I cannot do the same whitout using 2 tracks. Is that possible? Applying an effect on a masked event looking for the effect applies only to the masked section and reminding the rest unchanged, all using a single track ?

I hope I could explain myself.
Any ideas ?
Thanks

Comments

JonnyMac wrote on 8/18/2004, 5:54 AM
Have you considered shooting your actor against a green-screen and doing it that way?

Or, with a bit of proactice, you can duplicate this shot in camera. What you have to do is dolly in while zooming out. I have a small skateboard dolly I use on my projects, and a zoom controller with a speed setting helped out. It took several takes to get a nice version, but we ended up using it in our project.
amunioz wrote on 8/18/2004, 10:48 AM
Thanks, but that's too much for me :-(
RafalK wrote on 8/18/2004, 11:53 AM
Hi Amunioz, Believe it or not, the zooming out while dollying in would be much easier and faster to do that bezier curves. But other than that, maybe shoot your person on a green screen or completely white background. shoot a zooming shot of the background scene and composite the two video tracks.
Good luck with your project.
musman wrote on 8/18/2004, 12:33 PM
I just tried to do this shot on my last short. We call it the Virtigo or Hitchcock shot. The project was designed to get me some experience with film and experiment with dollies.
Maybe it's different with a set speed zoom, but I can tell you it was f***ing impossible to do right. We shot about 25 times and practiced probably 50 or more times on top of that. Everything has to be perfect and if it's not then the shot falls apart. So, the dolly has to move back at the same speed as you zoom in- which creates the possibility for human error all over the place.
I'd be very curious how other people do this more easily.
Chienworks wrote on 8/18/2004, 12:58 PM
Musman, you can correct slightly in Vegas by using track motion. Find the spot in your best take where the face is the largest and use that as a reference frame. Perhaps it would be useful to capture that frame as a still image, export to a photo editor, draw an outline around the head, and delete everything else. This outline could be placed on a higher track with compositing set to "Add" and you'll now see the outline around the base video in the preview window. Scroll through the take frame by frame and use track motion to enlarge the image wherever the head is smaller than the reference frame. If your take is smooth enough you should be able to get by with just a few keyframes.
mjroddy wrote on 8/18/2004, 3:00 PM
Usually, to reduce the amount of potential error, I've seend this done on a dolly with a zoom puller. But you can do it without the special additions. The method described above is correct; dolly in while zooming back at a speed that will keep the subject aproximately the same size in the frame (or, more, if you'd like, dolly out as you zoom in, but I find that harder to keep focus - it's a different feel, so whatever looks best for the mood). Hitchcock did indeed invent this method for Virtigo. It's called the Double-Reverse-Zoom (probably without the "-").
amunioz wrote on 8/19/2004, 4:38 AM
I'm really sorry not have a dolly.
Thank for the data.
Andres
JonnyMac wrote on 8/19/2004, 6:41 AM
Then it sounds like your best shot is to put a solid color behind your actor and shoot him/her static, then shoot a separate backgound plate with the zoom. Using the chromakeyer you can replace the colored background in the actor shot with your background plate.
BrianStanding wrote on 8/19/2004, 11:58 AM
For a hand-held shot, wheelchairs make fine dollies on a low budget.

Otherwise, it's not too hard to build a tripod dolly with a sheet of plywood and a few industrial casters.