Special effect -- revolving camera?

T

Tom Henderson

Member
In several films and commercials I've seen an effect where the camera revolves 360 degrees around a subject, sometimes quite rapidly, and often makes several complete revolutions. Apparently, the subject is revolving as well because we don't usually end up looking at the back of the head of the subject. I only remeber this being done with solo subjects. Never a group as far as I can remember. Of course, we see the backgroud streaking by as the camera revolves.

Obviously, in these shots none of the grip equipment appears, script clerk, or etc!

Is this a special rig? Green screen?

I'd appreciate any insight you might have.

Thanks!
 
There are several ways to achieve this effect (and most likely more that I haven't thought of)

1. Lock camera down and have subject on a large wheel and spin them around.

2. Dolly around the subject, adjust speed in post

3. Use a bullet time circular camera set up and greenscreen out cameras or background

4. CGI

I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in and add other methods, but I think the most common is the dolly around and adjust speed in post.

-Jeremy
 
I don't know how they do it, but it could be done with greenscreen, which is probably the most logical way of doing it. It can be done with a rig too, which would probably cost more, but would be much more fun (and dizzying).

With a greenscreen you would just have to shoot your actors and imply any motion unto them if the shot calls for it, then take your camera out and get a background plate (which would require some sort of rig) and then comp them together.

I would think the pro's use motion control as well, but I'm not 100% sure.
 
The best and most professional way is probably going to be #3 on Yankee's list. That is one of the reasons why The Matrix got so much recognition. It is a tough shot that requires a lot in order for it to look right.
 
SexyPants said:
The best and most professional way is probably going to be #3 on Yankee's list. That is one of the reasons why The Matrix got so much recognition. It is a tough shot that requires a lot in order for it to look right.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't need a bullet time type effect for this. Read here:

tom henderson said:
Apparently, the subject is revolving as well because we don't usually end up looking at the back of the head of the subject.
Click to expand...

The camera only looks at the front of the subject, never sees the back, therefore excluding the need for the camera to actually move around the subject. #1 on Yankee's list is the best way if you don't want to chroma key it. Depending on the scene, you can just go to a park and put the subject on one end of a merry-go-round and the cmaera at the other end facing the subject. Spin the merry go round and voila, you have your shot. Since the subject and the camera are locked down, you could easily roto your subject in post if need be.

MERRY-GO-%20ROUND.jpg
 
In his post, Yankee mentioned (suggestion #3) something called a "bullet time circular camera". What the heck is that and how can I find out more about it?

Thanks.

Tom
 
Tom Henderson said:
Apparently, the subject is revolving as well because we don't usually end up looking at the back of the head of the subject. I only remeber this being done with solo subjects.
Click to expand...

In that case I think you might be refering to a snorrycam, as seen in "Pi".
The camera is mounted on an extension arm to the actor´s body, the field of view is locked on the actor´s face.
If he turns, maybe looking around 360° or more, the camera moves with him, but he´s always centered in frame and apears somehow "fixed", the BG of course changes heavily...
oneinfiniteloop´s hint is maybe the easiest way of emulating the look, if you´re location independent that is...
 
This would also work with a snorri-cam like setup. The subject has a rig attached to their torso which is then hidden by costuming. The camera sits at the end of the rig and the subject spins around. The camera quickly whips around the subject but always focused on their face, isolating the subject from the spinning world. All lighting is hidden in the set as is the crew.
 
Tom Henderson said:
In his post, Yankee mentioned (suggestion #3) something called a "bullet time circular camera". What the heck is that and how can I find out more about it?

Thanks.

Tom
Click to expand...

The bullet time cam is a special system developed by John Gaeta for the Matrix movies, it's basically how they achieved that super slow mo look. A bunch (read 100 or so) of Canon dSLR's were mounted in a circular spiraled fashion around the subject. They were then timed to go off incremently taking snapshots at precise intervals. The background was keyed and roto'd out in post and a new bg inserted.

Bulletrig.gif
 
KyleProhaska said:
You guys wondering how to do this on the cheap will love this:

http://whiterabbit.ryan-w.com/

A basic bearing set up with camera pointed inward. Ryan Wieber is a cool guy and very creative. Give him credit if you use this lol its brilliant.

-Kyle
Click to expand...

It doesn't really capture the movement in "true" bullet time motion. He is basically just slowing down normal speed footage. The beauty of bullet time is that you can slow down your footage to an equilavent of a few frames per second and have perfect clarity, that is the benefit of using stills. Slowing 24p, 30p, or 60i to those sort of speeds will not give you the same results.
 
They used video cams in that Beastie Boys video, didn't they? All running the same time code, then you just select the frames you want from each cam.
 
ive seen it done this way. a camera is pointed straight, with a special rig that has a long narrow rod basically shoots directly up from the center of the lens, and then at the end is a 1/2 sphere mirrored ball. the camera is taping a full 360 of the whole scene... then in post the image is repulled to be able to side anywhere in the 360 degree range even durring a pause in the video.

now that i think of it, this is not at all what your question was about.. dangit.

sorry, i still thought it was cool.


p.s: dont ask how they rework the image in post, that seems to be really hard

-matt
matthewconrad.com
 
For many "go-around" shots, especially where the full body and ground is seen (ruling out rails) Steadicam is used.

It's prety simple, and normal, for a good operator to run circles around a subject. In fact it's almost considered a basic staple shot of Steadicam operating.

It's also much easier to acellerate and decellerate a Steadicam much faster than a big dolly if the shot includes starts and stops.


Also, at NAB, technocrane, as part of their booth demo, where dooing little roundy-rounds around a small ball on the ground. - Off topic as you could see the base in part of the shot, but hot damn it looked impressive keeping a fixed level shot around a subject with a fixed crane. Cool tech.

- Mikko
 
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