shooting a scene about a drug induced trip

[spskaya]

I am shooting a scene and was wondering what setting on my hpx170to use to create a drug induced trippy look with trails and massive motion blur. Any ideas?

[wgzn]

slow shutter speed (1/24) will achieve that.

[spskaya]

I was thinking of playing with the shutter angle but I was wondering if there are any other settings I should use?

[xqzt]

overcrank? 720pn.

[wgzn]

overcrank? 720pn.

thats just going to give you the capability to do slow-mo. and you can do that just as easily a few different ways.

really, the safest and most effective thing is going to be a slow shutter speed so you get motion blur. but unless you KNOW thats the effect you want, i might suggest just shoot it normal and do all the effects with filters in post.

[xqzt]

I meant to exagerrate the motion blur...

[kevin baggott]

my 2 cents - someone with a lot of drug inducement in his youth - maybe find the effect in performance and in the writing not in the camera - I never saw vapors and such.... Last show of madmen had a scene where there was an acid scene - I thought it pretty good - no vapors or slow motion stuff. But I hear ya..... just my 2 cents as I said. Good luck.

[spskaya]

Thanks everybody. I do have the ability to play with this in post but I do want to capture as much in camera as possible. thank for all the suggestions and I will be trying them

[Kyle Fordrung]

You don't need any over-the-top, "Altered States" sort of camera work to acheive a convincing trip-out scene. In fact, going over the top like that will ruin the scene, in my opinion. Go instead for subtlety. Let the actor carry the scene, and try to achieve minor spatial and perspective distortions in post. Maybe even add small cues (objects / people/ etc) in the background of the scene that don't really belong there - just don't make it too obvious, or draw too much attention to them.

Another thing to keep in mind is audio. Hallucinogens (from what I've read) can cause aural hallucinations that are just as (if not more) intense and surreal than visual hallucinations, and some subtle auditory cues / distortions could really add to your scene.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "SLC Punk!" had some good trip-scenes. They went over-the-top at some parts, but there were also some very good examples of using subtlety to achieve your goal.

Just remember not to overdo it.

-Octopod

[spskaya]

Excellent point. Def don't want to overdo it. I agree completely that subtly is the key.
-spskaya