Thriller style computer screen shooting

indybones

indybones

Well-known member
Hi peeps...

Not sure where this really belongs feel free to move if appropriate, but I could really do with a bit of help.

I'm after shooting a scene that one would usually find in films/programs such as Bourne/24/Enemy of the State (any Tony Scott films).

The scene is some one is searching on a computer, going through pictures, photographs, small videos, satellite imagery. It's a close up with shallow DOF usually.

Now this is the problem, I have noticed in these types of films that the person at the computer usually clicks on one image, or email or something and then this triggers off 6-7 new images, videos, that automatically come up.
The screen is constantly moving with new things that are triggered.

I have done things like creating mug shots in photoshop, using you tube cctv footage, getting google earth and zooming in and out of a location. However it still doesn't look quite right because I haven't got multiple things being triggered off.

I am using a MAC and FCP and HVX-200.

Hope all that makes sense, I'll try and find a scene on you tube see if that makes it a bit clearer but hopefully you know the kinds of things I'm on about.

Thank you so much.

Indy
 
Not quite sure EXACTLY what you are asking but this is what I would do:

I would create a fake desktop/computer screen in Adobe After effects. I would then create a short film that had a fake mouse cursor go through all of the actions. This would allow you to "trigger" more complex and sophisticated actions and create fake programs otherwise unavailable to you if recording normal computer actions in real time.

When finished making the fake computer screen with actions and prompts, render it out and play it back full screen. Have the actor fake along with the video.

Since the actor and the screen will very rarely share the screen simultaneously, I wouldn't worry too much about timing.

My $0.02
 
In the past the bits of After Effects footage would be tied together with Macromedia Director to create a fake interface that works. I'm not sure what they use now, but you could easily do it in Flash or even simple HTML with a full-screen browser.
 
Do it all in After Effects.
Type in a screen of numbers and use that as one layer and scroll it up or down and then bring the mugshot in as another layer and play with opacity.
 
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