Scott's airplane effects shot

[Actor]

In the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind there is a scene of a ship in the middle of the desert. The ship in the foreground is a model. The helicopters, trucks and such in the background are full size.

I think the CEOTTK DVD refers to this as "forced perspective", although I believe forced perspective covers more than just foreground models.

[MovieStuff]

The ship in the desert is a foreground miniature, not a forced perspective shot. I see the two terms confused all the time. Forced perspective is where you build a set in various scales to make things seem smaller the further they are from the camera. The dock scenes in Key Largo with Borgart and Bacall are all forced perspective shots. The yacht in the distance is actually only about 5 feet long and is quite close (sometimes obviously). The "runway of lights" in Close Encounters at the end of the movie is forced perspective. They actually had the lights get close and closer together to create an artificial perspective.

So, in actuality, forced perspective is just the opposite of foreground minatures. Foreground miniatures use something small up close to make it seem big in the distance. Forced perspective use things small in the distance to make them seem even smaller in the disance. The two techniques are totall different. A REALLY good example of foreground minatures is Honey I Blew Up the Kid. All the shots of the 8 foot kid were done in camera. Totally flawless and very funny, too.

Roger

[MovieStuff]

Okay, here are some more of the behind the scenes of work on the airplane. Here's a test fitting of the props.



The radial engines made incorporation of electric motors a bit dicey. Some mods were made to allow for the shafts to protrude. The props will be epoxied into place when finished. A humorous side note: These are actually 10,000 RPM motors. The first time we cranked up full speed on them, the props flew out of the brass tubing and sailed across the room. Yikes! I have to wonder if this sucker will taxi when everything is permanently attached. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The intricate framework of the cockpit made masking a real bugger.



The finished masking prior to painting.



I'm currently awaiting his majesty Scott regarding some markings on the side of the plane.

More to come.....

[Paul L.]

Wow... this is really cool.... Keep the photos coming! I can't wait to see the finished product!

[Greg Crawford]

I'm impressed!

[Jon P]

do you have to force the perspective of the foreground models?

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Jon P:
do you have to force the perspective of the foreground models?</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, that would actually destroy the illusion. For instance, if you needed a shot of a wall that was in disrepair and you had access to a real wall but could not afford to damage it just for the shot, you could build a miniature section of the wall as a miniature and place it in front of the camera. Aligned correctly, it will "connect" with the real wall in the distance and seem like one continuous wall. For this effect to work, the miniature wall needs to be build very exactly to scale. If you
forced the persepective (making the far end of the miniature wall smaller than the near end) then the natural perspective of the taking lens would not affect the real wall and the miniature wall the same. That is why I say that "forced perspective" is not the same as "foreground miniatures". Forcing perspective is used at the back of a set to make it seem deeper than it really is. Foreground miniatures are used at the front of a set to augment elements within the set that would otherwise be too expensive to build full size.

Roger

[MovieStuff]

Dang thing landed in the street, Martha!



This image was shot as a combination foreground miniature and composite. The plane was positioned on a white surface in front of the camera with the street in the background. One shot was taken of the plane in the foreground and then another was taken with the plane and table top removed so the street would be visible. The two shots were combined in Photoshop with the plane's natural shadow overlayed on the real street using a multiply filter.

Here's the full thing from a different angle



I should have an MPG of the props turning pretty soon. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 23, 2002 08:40 PM: Message edited by: MovieStuff ]</font>

[Scotness]

We are not worthy......we are not worthy.....

(just found my new wall paper too)

:-)

Scot M

[MovieStuff]

For those that are interested, here are the two shots used to create the foreground miniature composite.



As you can see, the model was VERY close to the camera; about 6 inches or so. Digital cameras often only go down to about f8 so depth of field was pretty iffy but it worked. I'll need a sunny day for K25 and f11. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Roger