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opening title sequence of the movie Contact
This might be the wrong forum, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Does anyone know who and how they created the opening sequence for the movie Contact with Jodie Foster?
It starts with a view of Earth from space and the camera pulls back through our galaxy and beyond as we hear short sound bytes of radio broadcast over the course of human history. It ends as the camera appears to come out from the eye of a young girl who is trying to contact people through her ham radio.
Why? I’m researching how I might produce a similar sequence. Although, yeah, I certainly don’t have the budget of a feature film.
The Visual Rabbi
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10 Replies
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money…lots of money.
Depending upon your audience, you may be able to accomplish this with a dissolve sequence. Find appropriate still photos at a large enough size and zoom out from the center of each, dissolving from the end of one to the next. You could shoot video of actual eyeballs for the beginning and end.
After effects may help, as programs like Premiere tend to choke on really large images.Mike Cohen
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Check out the 60’s classsic COSMIC ZOOM at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMV_zDQaq9o.
The techniques used now are essentially the same, but better and far easier to achieve.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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here is another version – I remember this one from school
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw
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Funny you should mention this sequence. It was featured this month in 3D world as an outstanding moment in 3D in films.
https://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4402&page=2
“Sequence supervisor and amateur astrologer Jay Redd handled the 199-second, 4,710-frame shot, taking viewers through the known universe into the eye of a small girl.”
That segment was produced by ILM or Sony.
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Rick Dolishny
Discrete Editors COW Leader
http://www.thecreativeprocess.ca -
Watching that movie — and watching the special features on the DVD — was one of the moments that I can point to and say, that’s why I want to do this.
They go into the creation of that sequence — and a lot of other effects shots that you might not notice — in the special features. It’s very, very dry and techy, but I thought it was fascinating. I don’t remember the specifics of how, though. Go rent the DVD. You might be surprised at how some of the other shots, like creating the crowd outside the congress building, and such.
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In my opinion the “Impossible steadicam shot” when young Joide Foster runs up the stairs to get her fathers medicine is one of the most creative design and storytelling I have seen in the last 10+ years. I love that movie and have probably have seen it 20 times.
But yes, money money money. Layers and layers of CG, compositing and creativity. They do explian in the original shot they used the young actress with contacts to match Jodie Fosters eye color for the pull out but she ended up looking like children of the corn. They went back re-shot the scene and created a CG face replacement.
Emre
http://www.productionpit.com
Boxx Tech PC, dual-dual AMD 2.0,4BG ram,Avidexpress HD w/Mojo,UVW-1800,DSR-25, Adobe Premium CS3.Gspeed ES.Steadicam OP/Owner.“Creative cow is udder madness.”
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The exteriors with the Machine in the background over the shoulders of reporters are flawless. There is a looong aerial helicopter at Canaveral which is just outstanding.
I’m going to rent that this weekend (again). Man it was free on TBS this past week too!
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Rick Dolishny
Discrete Editors COW Leader
http://www.thecreativeprocess.ca -
There was a fantastic COW article about how to do a whole-earth zoom-out/in, which is hard to do because you have to meld quite a few different images; there is no single image that shows the entire earth and the locality that you want to zoom into. The article went into a lot of detail about parenting, different scales of zoom, etc. I just looked for it to give you the link, but couldn’t find it. You may be better served by posting this question in the Adobe After Effects forum. If you find it, please post the URL back here.
Then once you get to the whole-earth end of the zoom, there are a number of tutorials on navigating planets and solar systems using 3d cameras in After Effects. Happy hunting — the information is out there… somewhere in the solar system.
Bob C
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That can be found at http://www.videocopilot.net
Emre
http://www.productionpit.com
Boxx Tech PC, dual-dual AMD 2.0,4BG ram,Avidexpress HD w/Mojo,UVW-1800,DSR-25, Adobe Premium CS3.Gspeed ES.Steadicam OP/Owner.“Creative cow is udder madness.”
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[Emre Tufekci] “That can be found at http://www.videocopilot.net“
Thanks Emre! It’s called #40, “Earth Zoom.”
What a great website.
Bob C
MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650
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