Whip Pan: Right or Wrong way?

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
Is it two different shots seamed together in an NLE? Or is it literally whipping the camera about? It seems as though literally whipping the camera 180 degrees creates really messy imagery?
 
I've always used the term referring to an actual camera move - a very fast pan. I have seen it used as a transition though where you whip pan at the end of a take and whip pan into the next and transition during the whipping. Our local fox affiliate does it in the field alot and it always makes me laugh when the camera whips and the reporter magically transports to a new location.
 
Well what I am thinking of is:

A) On subject 1, pan 180 degrees to

B) wide.

Am I using the wrong term for it?
 
a conventional whip pan is a very fastl, blurred horizontal pan. they are commonly used in post in a variety of ways for transitions. but the term refers to the camera movement itself.
 
Awesome. Thanks dudes.

That's what I thought: you whip at the same speed (similar) for each shot then put-em together in the NLE or in After Effects.

Horraaaay.
 
Make sure you whip pan very fast on the wide angle, in order for it to cut with the close up.
 
Watch the Charlie Sheen film "The Chase" -- the whole thing is stitched together with whip pans (or so it seems)... quick pans that blur the image, then blended with going into the next shot (starting from the whip and stopping on the action).
 
Just shoot each one at 3 or 4 different speeds, so you will have the options in post.

-j
 
Kholi said:
Same if you do Medium to Wide whip?
Click to expand...

Slower whip speed, and faster for wide.

The wider your shot, the faster you will have to move the camera to get the same blurred effect. So a really tight/long shot will get blurred much easier than a wide one.
 
i've only used them at the end of shots. The next shot can be a static shot and it looks great. I've never used any additional effects.
 
here's a trick, depending on the shot you are transitioning to, you may want to shoot the second shot backwards, (if possible)

benefit? When you reverse the shot it will seem as if you incredibly, magically, somehow stopped on a dime while violently flinging your camera about violently, and the new shot is framed perfectly

Obv. it's best for a landscape or people sitting about to talk. Moving cars, etc. blow it.

We used a whip pan once to place a house that was blocks away from the actor seemingly across the street from him. He gestured to the building that was across the street (which again wasn't really there) and the we whipped right to the imaginary house. We cut it with a whip to the other location, then used the same technique to whip back to the actor. It looked like the cameraman just panned over to see what the actor was pointing to and then back to the actor.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
here's a trick, depending on the shot you are transitioning to, you may want to shoot the second shot backwards, (if possible)

benefit? When you reverse the shot it will seem as if you incredibly, magically, somehow stopped on a dime while violently flinging your camera about violently, and the new shot is framed perfectly

Obv. it's best for a landscape or people sitting about to talk. Moving cars, etc. blow it.

We used a whip pan once to place a house that was blocks away from the actor seemingly across the street from him. He gestured to the building that was across the street (which again wasn't really there) and the we whipped right to the imaginary house. We cut it with a whip to the other location, then used the same technique to whip back to the actor. It looked like the cameraman just panned over to see what the actor was pointing to and then back to the actor.
Click to expand...

Ah! Very nice, Jack! Thanks for the advice. I'm glad you mentioned the moving cars thing, though, because there's someone running into frame from behind camera left when the wide stops.

I'll have to practice a few times on the tripod to get it down.

Grea tips mang. Thanks for chiming in everyone.
 
to be clear, moving cars only goof up the revers shot whip pan, not a standard one, sure that's obvious but just in case.

but this backwards way of shooting can be applied to lots of early Sam Rami style camer work where you want the camera to move very quickly and stop precisely.

I used it to push in on the zombie's eyes in Shed. I could not do the kinetic push in the way I wanted and have it land on the extreme closeup just right, so shot it backwards. - start to pull back, actors eyes open, reversed it looks like push in to ECU and land just as the eyes pop open.

Also Freidken used backwards magic in French Connection. He could not really crash two subway trains together, so he shot the POV of one train backing away from the other train as quickly as it could, shot undercranked, then played back backwards it looked like it moved into the final position very quickly.
 
So as long as everyone is standing pretty still in the shot and there's no indication of things moving backwards it could work. I'll try it out.

Ty.
 
whip pan

whip pan

Doing the whip pan with a slow shutter can yield a groovy effect with a lot of motion blur. Use sparingly, though! Same with slow shutter and rapid zoom in/out. Can be easily overdone, though.

Cheers,

Mike from Shreveport
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top