shooting into mirror for dreamlike effect

[lambert]

Read an interview with Gaspar Noe and he talked about his favorite film, an early 80s serial killer Austrian flic. Anyway the film was shot into a mirror attached to the front of the lense at a 45 degree angle. It was flipped in post and gave a dream like quality. Was this technique used in any other films and would you today be able to duplicate the effect in post.

 

[Greg Smith]

I don't get it, really -- if you shoot into a 45° mirror and then flip the image left to right in post, you'll have exactly the same picture as if the mirror hadn't been there in the first place (minus a very small amount of light loss). Only if the mirror itself were bent, dirty or otherwise distorted would it have any effect on the image. I have built several scientific camera rigs that used high quality first-surface mirrors as a "periscope" to allow the camera to fit into a tight instrument package, and there was certainly no "dream like" effect created. There must be something more to the story, some distortion or modification to the mirror to alter the look for the effect they were after in this movie.

I will say that operating a camera rigged like that takes some getting used to. You're facing 90° from the subject, and the direction of all the pans is reversed in the viewfinder, so all your instincts about camera movement get thrown off. Like steering a car in reverse using only the rear-view mirror to navigate.

- Greg