Background Freeze

[Cinemaster]

Hey, haven`t been here for a while, (saving internet money to buy a DV).

Anyone out there tell me how to freeze background and characters while the main character speaks?

Thanks in advance

[Dal]

Bit difficult this one.. most obvious answer is to chromakey - shoot the main character agaibnst a plain blue/green/whatever background and in the edit place a still of the background against it..

[johnny16mm]

tell the background actors and birds and trees to stand REALLY still...

[titoo]

Johnny16 idea s not that stupid if you can have enough with only controlable items on the background (no clouds, no tramway, nobody but actors and extras,..)
It can gives a good shot, kinda surrealistic. It s sometimes used in theaters plays.
Otherwise, if you can t afford the chromakey device but have a decent still phtograph projector and a lot of time to fix the different parameters, you can try to shot everybody indoor in front of a white wall while projecting a still photograph of the frozen background on the wall (or even retroprojection through a white bedsheet).
And so on..

[johnny16mm]

I agree...I was half heartedly joking but as a theatre guy myself this is used alot. It's the easy way out if you dont feel like dealing with all of the CHROMAKEY and stuff.

[johnny16mm]

but remember...the easy way out always ends up looking like....THE EASY WAY OUT!