Shooting in reverse

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BryD959

Member
i am wondering if anybody knows any good tips or tricks in regards to shooting in reverse. I would like to shoot a scene in which an actors moves backwards, then reverse the footage in post. Any tips or previous vids on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
What about just having them walk forwards, can you give an instance? Like is it a CSI kinda thingy?

More info. plz i wanna help
 
Thats a great video. thanks for the link. That type of reverse movement is exactly what i had envisioned, however just a lot more subtle. Almost to the point of it becoming unoticeable, so that the short film will have a weird feel to it. The music video had a lot of sequences speed up very fast in reverse. however for the majority of the film, to create that effect, did the director shoot the characters walking backwards, then reverse it 100%percent in post(the same speed as if they were in realtime)? Or was it slower? thanks
 
I'm not sure on the speeds, but he did have them perform in reverse. He even brought in a linguist to teach them to rap the song backwards! Go pick up the Directors Label Vol 1 DVD, it's got a making of on there, plus other classic videos.
 
Just so it's clear the Pharsyde video is Spike Jonze not Spike Lee. It is detailed on the Spike Jonze director's series and it is amazing. The Pharsyde guys had to learn how to rap the song backwards so their mouths matched when the footage was backwards but the song is playing normally. Jack Johnson did this with Sitting, Waiting, Wishing which turned out pretty cool also.
 
Jazz Dog said:
Just so it's clear the Pharsyde video is Spike Jonze not Spike Lee.
Click to expand...

WHOA!:eek: I can't believe I made that mistake...It's Spike Jonze, I own the whole Directors Label series and messed it up! Woops, typing too fast here at work!

Thanks Jazz Dog!
 
If Spike Lee directed it there would have been a gratuitous love scene with him and some hot chick in it no doubt. Would be funny to see backwards though.
 
BryD959-

I would be real interested if you shot some test footage and posted it up with your settings/speed. What NLE are you using?

(sample footage from anyone else who's done this?)

If I can manage it this weekend, I will give it a go.
 
NLE is Avid. i would like to see your footage and others as well too see the possibilites. I wont b shooting the short yet, however I will shoot some test footage of large crowds and character movement backwards and play with the reverse speeds.
 
The coolest shot I ever did in reverse. I filmed the actor walking backwards in a large area of people walking forwards. You play it backwards and you can actor walking forwards in a street full of people walking backwards. You wouldnt know how well it works drawing focus to the person, it looks odd it must be used for a purpose.
 
That's exactly the technique Spike Jonze used in the Pharcyde video...it's pretty cool and it takes a second to realize what's going on for the unexpecting.
 
haha that was great. Reminds me of a movie I saw...mmmm...

let me ask you how you got the blurred look over the womans face while she was sitting down. Can you tell me how you directed the woman:what her motions were in front of the cam and what u did in post. thanks
 
This technique is also used in one of the final shots of DePalma's CARRIE, when Amy Irving is walking toward Carrie's house.

For something really interesting, see the no.1 issue of the new quarterly DVD called WHOLPHIN. A video artist taped himself singing "Stairway to Heaven" backward; the video plays in reverse, so he ends up singing the song beginning to end.
 
The light was just enough so you couldnt really see her face. I just told her to walk away from the camera but as slow as she could without falling. Since I was going to spurratically speed it up She could make little mistakes and i would just speed those parts up. I think I sped up the jumps in motion to about 1000% which basically made 2 minutes of footage play in half a sec. Thats about it. I shot the scene with the mask on separately since it was going to jump to it fast.
 
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