How Can I Get These Shots?

T

twisted

Member
Hi i'm working on my first short movie and i need a little help. There are a few things i want to do but i'm not sure what would be the best approach. The first is i would like to do transitions like in HOT FUZZ or PAN'S LABYRINTH where you're dollying or trucking and you pass something in the foreground that is completely dark, ex. person walks by right in front of the camera or you pass a pillar. when you come out the other side past the object you're now in a different shot. how would i go about this, as the object passes is when we reveal that we're somewhere else so would i have to mask it frame by frame??? What would be the best approach. second is a pedestal shot, i want to pedestal down and through a table to reveal a knife under the table. i don't know how to go through the table or make it seem that way, so would i have to cut a hole in the table and physically do it or could i do this in post???? thanks for any help you can offer and the more detailed the better.
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twisted
 
Well hot fuzz had some of the best editing I've seen in a long while. And that's all it is - editing. You do two tracking shots at the same speed. When you cut them, you tack the one onto the part where you pass the pillar and add a 'whoosh' sound effect.

As for the table stuff...i dunno.
 
Hi:

The table shot sounds like CGI to me. A lot of it will depend on how much of the table you need to see in the foreground?

Can you have the camera on a jib at the edge of a table and arm down to reveal the knife or is it important that the shot look like the camera is passing through the table physically? These sorts of visual tricks can be addressed in several ways but if you do it with CGI, it will be expensive. If it were me, I would do it practically in the method I described above and use a jib on a dolly, start over the table and as the camera booms down, move the dolly back enough for the camera to clear the table then dolly in quickly to put the camera back to the same type of framing.

Ot you could do a pseudo X-ray sort of look where the audience and the camera both view the knife "through" the table.

Guess it just depends on how realistic or how fantastic your film/script/idea is.

Best,

Dan
 
thanks puredrifting, those ideas sound good. to give a bit more detail on the table shot i'm talking about. someone's hand is stabbed, but the knife is stuck through his hand and into the table. i wanted to pedestal down, go through the table, not even 1 sec. just a few frames so it seems like we went straight down throught it. and on the other side is the tip of the blade sticking out, just to give a sense of how violent the stab was. i thought that maybe i could do what you said, also i'm thinking that his hand is going to be in the middle of the table so dolly in/out is going to be too obvious. and i don't know about cutting a hole in the table, how well that would work.
 
what about using a table that has a leaf in it? that way you could remove the leave, but leave the table extended. Then drop the camera down through the table, and keep the edge of the table really close to camera so it's out of focus as it passes the lens.
 
djsmackmackey, you got it that's exactly what i want to do. but i don't know what a table that has a leaf is??? but that's the shot that i'm going for, i dont know if those are the tables that fold in three pieces cuz that's something i thought of too. i could just unscrew one of the sides. but let me know what you mean DJSMACK
 
Many dining room tables have a leaf (sometimes two). Its just a center section that lifts in and out. The two main outer halves slide apart on rails and can leave a decent sized gap in the middle. Go to any normal furniture store and they'll have a dining table with a leaf or two.
 
My wife has a really expensive Ethan Allan dining room set that has two removable leafs in the center for expansion. You will usually find these on big expensive dining room tables, not so much on cheapo Ikea-type stuff. Sounds like doing this shot as a practical might be a lot less expensive than CGI. The only challenge would be that it sounds as if this would need to be a really quick and precise move that would start and stop precisely and quickly. Not impossible but you would want to rehearse it several times to nail the timing down.

Good luck,

Dan
 
yeah exactly it's a quick move, i think i know what you guys are talking about leaf tables but im still not 100% but if like you said the good ones are expensive i just need a crappy table cuz i'm gonna be ramming a knife through it. it's suppose to just be a small round table to play poker on you know. if you guys know where i could get a table like that, i'll do some research around places but any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. and thanks for the help so far.
 
buy a really cheap table from a second-hand/thrift shop, cut a big hole in it (or just cut a hole in one edge, that would probably make your pedestal pan easier), that way you don't have to worry about damaging the table coz you know it's going to be firewood afterwards anyway.
 
^^

Yeah. Sounds to me like the easiest way to do it would be to buy the table you want for the shot, and then cut/saw/mutilate the table however you need (after you have done all of the shots where the table needs to be whole). Tables with leaves aren't usually used for poker...
 
This is pretty easy you can achieve this in After Effects if you are still interested in doing it in post. If you are interested PM me ill tell you how to do it
 
hey thanks enge that pic was perfect, that was basically wat i was thinking of doing, using one of those. i might still just have to get a table and cut a hole in it thought since the shot i want is in the middle of the table, meaning im coming up to it on it's side (longways) instead by the leaf parts that come off. if anyone know of a table that has leafs on the side that would be perfect but as soon as i get the money too i'm gonna start hitting up thrift shops like you guys suggested and see if i can find this. I've read in a few books, "...work with what you got..." but the idea i have unfortunately doesn't represent that and what i've got ain't much so this first short of mine is turning out be a real production u know.
 
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