How do I do the "Kylie Minogue" music video effect.

G

Gang_Green

Active member
How did they do the effect in "Being John Malcovich" where you saw so many malcovichs' in the same scene. Dont they just keep the camera on a computerized track so the path is duplicated exactly and then do it over and over with Malcovich in a differnt spot and then you (somehow) put it all together in the computer?

Can anyone explain to me how this is done? I think it was also done in the Micheal Gondry Music video for Kylie Minogue, where she walks down the street and there are like 4 of her walking together. How can I do this effect - with a camera not moving...?

Tyson
 
there are several whays of doing it.

the ghetto way, or cheapest way, is to mark half your screen and only the character work one half of it. then do it the same take but with character on the other half. then in post you do the split screen thing like when you see two sides of a phone conversation, only since it's in the same room it looks like one take of a single scene only with the same character on both sides.

of course you can't move the camera, needs to be lockoff. you can also do it with 3 or 4 splits so long as none cross the line. or you can hire quadruplets as your actors :)
 
The Kylie video was kinda sloppily done considering it was a professional project, but yes she was rotoed out (although her curly hair got all ****ed up when it overlapped with something that was moving, like another version of herself)

You would either need to do a tracked dolly type of rig that is run by a computer to do the same move every time (they used a rig like this in the American Idiot video for Greenday) or you will need to use tracking elements and shoot in similar circumstance (as vague as that may seem, I really am not too keen on the latter of the two methods)
 
No the magic is the motion controlled camera and making sure that lighting, etc. is consistant. Roto is pretty simple, as long as each take they don't occupy the same space. Then you have to decide which is in front.

You thought the Gondry video was sloppy? Hmm maybe I should rewatch it.

Also with a locked off shot you can have the people cross the "line" and just rotoscope where they intersect or there is problem. But yes the imaginary line is the easiest way of doing it.

Motion controlled cameras are being replaced with 3d motion tracking in some circumstances. :evil:
 
I love the shot in Back To The Future 2 where Doc Brown meets himself on the street in '52, setting up the lightning wire.
They have a conversation standing either side of a light post - which is the boder of the split screen (for most of the shot). At one point Future Doc reaches over to the other side to pass over a wrench, and if you look carefully you will notice his arm doesn't match (as it's the arm of an extra from another take). It is one hell of a shot. :) It also has a dolly push in and pull out, 2 pans and a huge number of focus pulls.. and it all looks perfectly like one take. ..Except that one arm that gives away the trick.

doc2.jpg


- Mikko
 
Esco

Sloppy might have been too strong of a word, as it's freaking difficult to make a perfect roto, perhaps even impossible - as I know well enough after doing tons of it for my last project - however, watch it again, not on the internet but on DVD.

I love the video and the idea and the final product but I felt in some places it stuck out way too much
 
I agree with the posts above, but if you want movement, the absolute must is getting some type of motion control on your camera, and having a highly experienced motion control tech. Otherwise you end up having to not only do good roto work to make your shot happen, you also have to do roto work to fix your mistakes, and thats where you get some of that sloppy blur action that was mentioned above. To do these shots precisely is quite a challenge, and takes a great deal of planning, but they are great when done right.
 
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