Forced Perspective

J.R. Hudson

J.R. Hudson

Spirit Animal
Alright; Still ailing with some kind of Hiv Virus. Was thinking of the shot in DOTD 04 and thought "That's gotta be forced perspective." so decided to enlist my son to stand in. Not an actual recreation of the shot of course but emphasis is on the FORCED PERSPECTIVE part. Now that it's over, I'm wishing I did try and recreate the shot.

As you may have guessed, the pieces are actually spread out over 3 1/2 to 4 feet. I'm satisifed with this first effort and can see where this kind of 'trick' can be used dramatically in a piece.

Come on little man; be like Ving.

forcedper1nv.jpg


Inspired by Ving

ving0ol.jpg
 
Ahhh ... I like the DOF, but it looks like you get that grainey effect, too. I can't seem to shake grain when I'm zoomed in trying to produce shallow DOF. Any ideas?
 
It's because the aperature is f4.5 instead of f1.8 or f2.0 or whatever at full telephoto if you're shoting wide open (or something, I forget the exact numbers.) Add more light; you're underexposing.
 
Well, I love grain. And there is some color correction and other stuff going on in the grab. No ideas.

EDIT

Yeah, more light would be key. I'm not exactly using the right set-up here. Damn cheap ass brooders.
 
Guessing you probably tried a whole bunch of different positions, but from first glance I'd say the only real difference is Ving is a little closer than your son, but, as I stated above you may have had him try a whole bunch of distances and this one looked best... I'm thinkin you are gettin your kid ready for an acting career... getting him comfortable in front of the camera early on, good idea!(retirement plan?)

i'm a little disappointed you couldn't find a bandana for your kid, get him more in character.(insert smiley)
 
LOL

Totally. In hindsight I would want to this outside, with him in a black collared shirt and a little beanie on; he wear's mine all the time; thinks he's a cool cat. I much rather would have had a horizon of sky behind him and used natural daylight. He is my little filmmaker.

The thing is getting him to CHILL and sit still for .02 seconds. That's half the battle.
 
John_Hudson said:
The thing is getting him to CHILL and sit still for .02 seconds. That's half the battle.
Click to expand...
****, if you can pull off .02 with him, you should be set for a career directing "real actors"... guess this is training for you too!

Thinkin for that shot, if you had done some sort of a back light to creat a bit more seperation it may have increased the overall look(this coming from a guy that couldn't dop his way out of a wet paper bag).
 
great test and i agree: this can be really used in certain scenes. only don´t know one yet lol.
 
John_Hudson said:
the pieces are actually spread out over 3 1/2 to 4 feet.
Click to expand...

ok, so then forces perspective is getting what you want the audience to concentrate on in focus and other things not, right? ( basically a shallow dof )

I"m guessing then that it wouldn't be possible or the effect would have been as nice if the chess pieces were placed on the board in the normal places. So you spaced them apart enough and got the angle right to achieve that. Did I get that right?
 
Forced perspective can be used for a lot of things, and everything can be in perfect focus.

Suppose you want to change the front of an existing building. You can build a little model of the façade you want, or maybe make a matte painting of it, put in front of the camera while you shoot the building, and if you get the perspective right, voila! The building has new front.


You can also use it to make, say, a bridge or a tunnel miniature look much longer than it is, by making the rear of the miniature much smaller than the fore.
 
good stuff john. I commend you for practicing and showing off your practice- it's actually encouraging to see someone try a specific technique. It's cool that you like grain instead of stressing to get rid of it. Nice.
 
Nice example John.

I wonder if, in the second photo, they used playing pieces that were different sizes? Decreasing the sizes a little bit the farther back they are.
 
this is all very interesting. When I was watching that part, I wasn't even thinking about it. I would have thought that they typically lowered the camera and zoomed out all the way and focus on the nearest piece... shows me that even when doing techniques like these it's gotta be unnoticeable.
 
So what was done exactly in that second picture? DID they use different sized pieces?
If they didnt then how does spacing the pieces out like this effect the viewer?
Is it just a subtle way of emphasizing certain things in a shot?

I'm gonna give it a shot anyway...

ving0ol.jpg


My interpretation is that this technique just puts the viewer in an abnormal viewpoint, meaning that it's as if you are very small; smaller than the actually chess pieces, which let's you see things from a 'cooler' perspective. right? A totally different effect than just shallow DoF and lowering the cam.

Just a way to make your shot have a different look to it
 
Thanks for the feedback guys; I know its not high art. Just trying new things for future reference. Honestly, it was a ***** setting it up; alot more time consuming than I thought it would be.

Here is an interesting definition

» What is forced perspective?

Forced perspective is a way to create an environment that appears larger than it truly is. The use of different sized objects and variations in distance between them gives the illusion that things are in correct perspective. Forced perspective is also used in models of cities, miniature train sets, and dioramas. In forced perspective, the image the photographer sets up is the only scene that the viewer can see.
 
..looks good john . really close to the sample pic. and it doea look like it be a while to set up.. specially working with the little guy. i tried working with mine once.. and never again... well at least for a while :)

on a side note theres a great use of forced perspective in that "shot of a lifetime" 5 sec film for the cadillac contest that was entered by a dvxuser.. cant remember his name though.. sorry. bad with names. but it made a model car look lik eit was lifesize really well ..by just using forced perspective.
 
My son is the little filmmaker.

Remember that dolly footage I had with him chillin at the glass table and the light coming from underneath? When I was cutting that little Dolly Film together I was playing some spooky music during that scene and Jared got all worried and asked:

"Daddy, what's gonna happen to me?"

"Nothing buddy, it's just music"

"Is that the bad music?"

"Yes. But it's just music"

And then I put on some jazz style and he was like "Okay."

LOL - He is totally into the filmmaking so far; I always tell him "It's Halloween with cameras."
 
Look nice :). I'm not entirely sure what effect you are trying to achieve with FP but you might try shooting the same sort of scene but stopping down as much as possible. The deeper DOF will make the guys in back look like they are really on the same plane as the things in front (one possible use). I don't know if you have a tele extender but if you do throw that on. Should help with the effect quite a bit :) 90% of the footage in Lord of the Rings was forced perspective work.
 
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