How would you plan, shoot and edit this...?

C

Crye

Member
Hi!

I'm very angry.


I want to condemn someone in a very deep dark hole and zoom out from him at very high speed... to look like it were kind of an endless pit. So basically...

Main desire: Very deep pit, ultra-fast zoom out, kind of twirling heat wave or sth (I know you get the picture).

I'm thinking of putting the actor in a shallow hole floored/walled with green screen, shooting from say a ladder directly above him as he looks up to the cam... and then of course the editing magic later??

But I think you might have a trick. Thanks in advance.
 
Crye said:
Hi!

I'm very angry.


I want to condemn someone in a very deep dark hole and zoom out from him at very high speed... to look like it were kind of an endless pit. So basically...

Main desire: Very deep pit, ultra-fast zoom out, kind of twirling heat wave or sth (I know you get the picture).

I'm thinking of putting the actor in a shallow hole floored/walled with green screen, shooting from say a ladder directly above him as he looks up to the cam... and then of course the editing magic later??

But I think you might have a trick. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Just take a regular photo camera and take a picture from above. Could be on a green floor, but since it's just one picture you can easily do it without. One picture will work just fine since it's a very fast zoom and you can add camera rotation - the illusion will be perfect.

Go to turbosquid.com and find a model of a pit - probably will cost you around $60-70. Use Adobe AE with Element 3D plugin to compose the scene - zoom can be done using a moving camera in AE. Use another plugin, heat distortion, or turbulent displacement (the latter comes with AE) for the heat wave. The project itself from zero to finish can be completed in 3-4 hours. Plugins cost money. If you don't have E3D it's $200 or so I believe.
 
Planning first.

What does this hole look like, how big a diameter, are there torches or something of the sort at the bottom to illuminate the person down there, what type of budget do you have, how are your 3D skills, you get the idea.
 
I'd test it this way, especially if I didn't have a great 3D modeler available...

Camera rig overhead that can be moved straight up and down, at least 10 feet of travel...

Subject on green screen, lit to match final plate. Plenty of tracking markers. Preferably a 4K camera.

External monitor. I'd start right on the subject's eyeball and pull up while racking focus have him scream, react, whatever with exaggerated slowness.

Shoot the move 24 or 30p and fairly slow, no motion blur for tracking.

(it's much easier to speed footage up - you're just throwing frames away to some degree vs. slowing down which has to create frames. Add motion blur with your speed tool. AE's included Timewarp would work fine).

Stabilize that (if you don't have markers for the full clip because you started right on his eye, you'll deal with that later.) Your comp for that clip may need to be much bigger than the 4K frame since stabilizing will enlarge the subject as the move goes up.

if I couldn't get a good 3D guy I'd build a model, maybe 1/4 or 1/2 scale, including the floor above the pit if it's not endless. Add tracking points that can be cloned out or hidden, use the same rig and do the move. Sometimes models beat the hell out of whatever 3D you can afford.

Stabilize that, composite, and then manually scale or camera move the layers so the shots align time wise. Might have to use timewarp here and there. Since this will be a really fast and motion blurred look, you should be able to pull it off. You could even use a still plate aerial shot to extend the surface if you want the move to go from extreme close to 100' in the air.

Then do your final speedup and motion blur.
 
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