Fight Club

S

SixPalmPro

Member
I'm considering filming some short how-to web-docs for energy efficient upgrades to residential and commercial buildings. Since I don't have much of a budget, I need to add some spice and flair to the visuals, and one of ways I think this can be done is with an effect similar to the IKEA catalog shot in Fight Club. You know the one, where the camera pans across Edward Norton's apartment and descriptions and prices spring up. Yeah, awesome shot and I'm hoping to piggyback on some of that awesomeness. My question is: what would I need to do/get to accomplish that? Thanks guys! :thumbup:
 
depending on the place if it's a small room or a big area, a tripod with a nice fluid head or a dolly or a steadicam guy and controlled environment.
 
Oh haha, I'm sorry. Some poor wording on my part. What would I need to do/get in order to generate words on screen in post?
 
Getting words on screen is easy - it's getting them to exactly match the camera moves that will be difficult. The smoother your camera moves, the easier the post-production will be.

Hmm, could even be worth considering faking the camera moves in post too - i.e. use a really hi-res still and pan across that in post, the pan will be perfectly smooth - but that depends on exactly the shots you intend.
 
Clang, that seems reasonable. Would I also need a fairly intensive CPU and/or graphics card to render those effects (either w/stills or w/fluid pan)? I'm wondering if my 2.53 Core 2 Duo MBP with integrated graphics cards will give me a reasonable estimated time.

I've also looked into Motion and After Effects, but I can't seem to find that function. Is there a specific name for the effect, or some useful key words for search engines? Thanks for the help guys!
 
it's not CPU intensive at all - in effect all you're doing is adding titles but making them move to match the onscreen movement of your video so that the eye is fooled into thinking the titles are 'in' the video, if you see what I mean. The trick is matching those two movements - if not done well, the illusion is broken. That's why an ultra-smooth pan (or even better, a pan faked in post) will make matching those two movements easier.

I believe Fight Club did this rather fancier, actually defining the room in 3D space and doing 'Match Moving', which helps the words look like they're hanging in 3D space. They probably also had computer-controlled camera movement.

But presuming you weren't wanting to spend hundreds of thousands (or hundred of hours), I think a simpler 2D version as described above will still give pretty much the same effect.
 
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