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Question on an editing technique for a special effect
This is not quite the right forum for this, but I couldn’t find a forum here regarding effects filming techniques and the editing is done in Vegas so i figured I’d try here.
Imagine this scenario.
A character opens the fridge and takes out an orange. He puts it on a plate on the table infront of him and pretends to draw a light saber (the saber effect will be added to the footage later) and he slices the orange into two halves. He retracts the saber, grabs one of the halves and eats it.
A second footage of the orange is shot separately, precut but put together on the plate. In this scene the two halves are separated using two thin knifes which are then edited away from the footage leaving only the orange going into two halves.
At the keypoint in the movie where the imagined light saber slices the orange, the scene is cut into half and the footage from the second clip of the orange replaces the footage where nothing happens.
This works very well and can be used for many basic special effects. Here comes the problem however. How would you make it possible for the character to grab one of the halves and eat it since the orange is still in one piece in his scene? I could split the scene much earlier and basically work in the first clip with the halves there already (from shooting the 2nd scene first) but this wouldn’t let my character to bring the orange out from the fridge and put it on the plate.
A second idea is letting the character move out of the picture frame entirely before going in and grab the half, but that would look horrible and give it all away.
A third idea would be attempting to pause scene 1 after the orange is sliced, film scene 2 and them go back to filming the remainder of scene 1 trying to reposition the character in the same position or at least similar enough to get away with it with some frame mixing / blurring etc. perhaps it could be done during motion to further make it invisible to the viewer.
Remember that the character seemingly is putting a WHOLE orange on the plate, slicing it and grabbing a half in the very same scene making things tricky. Any ideas on how to do this? I bet there is a given way that I just don’t know about as an amateur!
Kristian
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2 Replies
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After he cuts the orange in half have him reach for it. Cut to a close up of him bringing the orange to his mouth to eat. This would obviously be another shot and you would not have to worry about the whole orange actually being cut at the same time it is not thing. Viewer still thinks the orange was cut in half with a lightsaber.
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
That is actually a very simple solution to it that I didn’t think about. The reason why it never crossed my mind is the effect it would have on the viewer. While this solution is a typical movie-like way of doing it, in a budget production it loses some of the “wow factor” as people are looking for cheap-looking effects and solutions. So while it would be perfectly fine, it would probably give more UMPH doing it without a cut. The best thing I’ve figured out so far is making two shots and mixing them together in a motion that is blurry on it’s own, making it (hopefully) virtually seamless. Maybe there’s a better “non-closeup” solution, I’m not sure. Thanks for bringing my attention to the classic way of doing it nonetheless.
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