Shooting "Clones"

H

Harry Frishberg

Member
Hello -

I'm currently working on a short here in Los Angeles. For several days, we'll be attempting to do a few scenes involving the main character and his "clone" (think "Multiplicity" but more serious or that scene with two Ewan McGregors in "The Island") .

I'm trying to avoid the usual tricks ( lock off the camera and shoot the same actors on different takes, then blend them together in post with a split screen).

What are the best ways to go about accomplishing a trick like this? If it involves a lot of complicated green-screen work or ('gulp') motion control rigs, I've posted a similar thread in the "jobs" section:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1335999#post1335999

But if there are some tips and tricks you can contribute here, I'd really appreciate it - thanks!
 
We did this on a film I recently worked on. We had a body double for the actress and we shot twice. Once with the real girl playing one part, then swapped over so she played th eother part. The camera was on a dolly so we marked opsitions and put tracking markers all over the set. These were roto'd out in post.

Looked good, I know it was done with after effects but I dont know much more than that...

You can always just do over the shoulder shots and use a body double...
 
What you can do is plan for 720p delivery and shoot lockdown 1080i. Film the actor twice, roto the second character in. Use the over scan to virtually move the camera to create a handheld look. Then stitch in scenes from background plates you can shoot separately using either high rez stills or video. Tie those in to create pans between characters, add motion blur to match cameras shutter settings.

If you storyboard it well you can get excellent results and it will be a lot cheaper then renting a mocap rig.

Good luck.
 
Really good ideas so far. Thanks guys.

hoarp - the part about tracking markers sounds interesting. If I put tracking markers on the set, could I use Motion (the application) to line up both takes?

emretufekc - I like your solution as well. Do you have a specific plugin that would give it a "handheld" look?

Thanks again
 
You could i suppose, im just learning motion but im sure if you knew enough about it you could do it. I know that it was done in aftereffects...
 
if you use track markers on the set I would use realvis od buju to track them. another option is to grean screen everything well at least the actor once for every double shot, if the camera is moving just mae sure no feet are in the shot then you can fake the match move. or get a moco rig shot on set with the moco rig twice and split the screen, if the clone is over lapping shot once on location, once on the GS,

another option that actually works great for true pans, (i.e make damn sure the ccd is directly over the center of the pivot point. to kill all parralax) shoot the pan multiple times, track the shots in realvis, take all the shots into maya, and blind the cameras into one camera. then the same camera is shooting each sequience, there was a music video a while back, some female singer I don't remember her name r the name of the song, but she was walking from one side or the street to the other, over anf over again in a circle around the camera, they used this trick, and every time she would walk around once, another version of her would appear waling running or dancing around, it was pretty cool, but be ready for a lot of roto.

I think the moco rig is your best bet.

Jason
 
I once again appreciate all the feedback.

I'll look into the RealVis software in particular, Jason, as well as your suggestions for a MoCo rig.

I'll try to dig up that music video too, if anyone knows the artist, that would be helpful!
 
-If you use RealVis or any other stiching software you have to calculate optics compensation.

-You do not need a plugin to create handheld look in AE, there is a built in tool called wiggler or you can do it by hand. Make sure to add rotation as well to make it realistic.

-Record all data from your camera, lenses used, filters, # blades on the lenses, fstop...etc. you will need it to match shots. Use a DOF calculator, dont just guess.

-Always shoot clean BG plates for your post people. They will send you cards on your birthday.
 
Thanks for the link Nomadic (and great Avatar)!

emretufekci, thanks for your input as well. I will keep everything well detailed and shoot plenty of clean BG plates. Do you have any advice about trying to accomplish the same kind of RealVis Stiching in a program like Motion? Can it even be done, or more importantly, should it?
 
Here is a link to stiching techniques:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/casestudies/6503.html

Here is a sample for multiple cloning with optics compensation:

http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/cactusflower/

You can find more articles on cactus flower if you ggogle it. There are plenty of blogs and reviews covering how they put it together.

I dont think I would rely on motion for stiching, you can try photoshop or AE like cactus flower video. In my opinion they are geared a little better.

Also trapcode has a new plugin for BG plates, but I have not used it yet. I dont know if it is relevant to what you are trying to do.

http://trapcode.com/products_horizon.html
 
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