Special Effects

[AlexGfromUK]

one cool trick I've heard of is filming a busy street or crowd backwards, while having your main actor walk backwards. this way in the final piece your actor will be the only personwalking forwards in an entire crowd of people walking backwards.

[ulrichsd]

I would think that if you do your own film to video transfer (via projector-camera setup) most projectors can play in reverse. I would think that places that do transfers could probably do a roll of your film this way if you asked, but I don't know.

I also thought the writing the words backswards was a great idea. Why are the simple solutions usually the best. I was also thinking that you could film off of a mirror pointed at the text.

As for the squibs, I don't know, but they have to be out there somewhere. I came across this great movie-stuff site that seemed to have just about everything movie set related. I'll try to look around and see if I can find it again.

Later,
scott u.

[mato]

Thanks Scott. How about posting the link to that movie stuff site?

[AlexGfromUK]

I think there is something on the motion picture section of kodaks site's motion picture section, called the prop shop or something?...

[eddie]

Film a shot through a large pane of clean glass, if you move the glass so that it is at 45 degrees to your camera lens it will pick up all sorts of reflections, and overlay these over your main subject. With some experiments and carefull planning you can do simple overlays (kind of double exposure effect) without backwinding.
This effect was used by many Victorian Theatre companies, producing an effect called Peppers Ghost (dont know why its Pepper - maybe he invented it...)

[AlexGfromUK]

check out www.mandy.com. Its a massive directory of all types of film services all over the world, you should be able to find a special fx company near where you live and then maybe ask them if they will sell you some squibs?

[eddie]

another of my favourites is a sort of faked perspective. Hitchcock used this technique (I cant remember the film though) He wanted to end a film with a P.O.V. shot close up of a hand holding a gun, and turning the gun on the camera. But all the time he wanted the background in focus. He coudlt get the angle or lenses right to acheive this, so he got his props department to make a big fake hand and gun. That way it looks closer to the camera lens than the background, whereas it really isnt.
You could do a lot with this idea, such as effectivley the opposite. For example put an object in the foreground, and an actor in the background, such that these two both look like they are a distance away, then freak out the audience by having the actor break the perspective by moving.

On a similar idea the theatre sometimes use a thing called a ramped, or bevelled stage, where the front of the stage is at floor level, but the back of the stage 'floor' is raised up, and the scenery painted to emphasis the illusion of depth. As an actor walks from the front of the stage to the back he appears to get bigger. It can look very odd.

Hmmmm, my favourite special effects are these theatrical ones, many can be applied to film making.

[eddie]

me again, just thought of another.

Using a pane of glass, filmed straight on (so its parallel to the lens), you can alter the opacity of the glass simply by using lights. Ive seen this done, a huge peice of glass looking like a book shelf, then by altering the lights above ever so slightly the glass turns transparent revealing a street scene behind it.

Damn clever

[eddie]

as far as the condom of blood is concerned, you could loop some fishing wire around it and have someone off camera pull it to break it.
Sounds cheesey, but with a sound effect and suitable acting, it could work.

[Nigel]

Nylons, over the lens!!! I have used them to make a "Grad" in a pinch and used them to soften the picture when I was interviewing a guy who was to worried about the way he looked. Good Luck