girl disappears behind small tree?

[Randall_Oelerich]

Is there an easy way (without green screen) to create the illusion of a nine year old girl (actor) able to hind behind a e.g. six inch tree trunk in the woods? Maybe even play peek-a-book from behind the tree, a tree that normally would have a trunk of too small a diameter to hide her? Would it be as simple as filming the scene without the girl in it, then having her "hide" behind the tree trunk (but obviously exposed on say the left side of the tree), peek out on the right side of the tree trunk, then in post mask out and overlap the footage so that the left side of the tree (with her body showing) is replaced by footage of the woods without her in the footage? This is for a short film I am filming next week. Any help appreciated, thank you.

 

[smelni]

you asked the question and then answered it - that will work perfectly if you lock off the camera and be careful about editing with motion in the leaves

 

[Jordan_S]

If I understand your goal correctly, it seems like it would be easier to give the trunk the appearance of being tiny during the establishing shot. Then, during the CU of the actor and the tree, the viewer will naturally assume that everything is in its proper perspective.

 

[Cassius]

If you mix two shots, which is how I would do it, be careful of wind and overlapping foliage in the background.

 

[Neil Rowe]

so that you dont have to worry about the moving leaves not matching up where you mask/or garbage matte around her body, just mask that whole half of the shot out running the mask up the center of the tree trunk which does not change at all. that way the leaves on either side can be doing whatever, and youll still get what your looking for.