Ghost Walking Through Door

[enigma2472001]

I'm making a short film based aound special effects, but the one i have a problem with is a ghost walking through a closed door.

I don't intend on using 3D Studio FX, but can if necessary.

Would blue screening or just overlaying with transparency work?

Any other ideas?

[eddie]

try with a crossfade or double exposure.
film the closed door.
Then open the door (away from camera?) film actor walking through doorway.
Overlay the two of them, fade the actor a little to make them look transparent.

[enigma2472001]

I was waiting for some more replies, but day by day i notice my question rolling down the board and thought i would reply anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion eddie, i kinda had about four ideas of how to do it, but my brain is fried from finishing college, writing scripts and planning films, that i can't think properly, i just needed a refresher

thanks

[Yammeryammeryammer]

I just did something exactly like this in a short a while back. All I did was basically the same as eddie said, we filmed the door closed, then had the actor walk in from offscreen and into the door and bang his head. Then we had the clip of him walking fade quickly to the closed door. Worked out well. Except we had to have another actor in the frame, so he had to keep as still as the background. Still ended up well enough.
Good luck

[Esparto]

hmm, this got my mind ticking.

Ok, in the early 19th century in london, magicians created the illusion of a ghost on stage by placing a sheet of glass on the stage at a 45degree angel. an actor would stand off stageso that the audience could see his/her reflection but could also see the background behind them, thus creating the illusion of a ghost.

then i started to think about how to addapt this to the screen.

putting a sheet of glass infront of the door and placing the camera so that it films the actors reflection would almost capture this.

choosing light clothes for the actor and lighting the actor would make them show up more, and placing a black screen behind them would prevent the background from showing up in the reflection.

when the actor moves too far to one side, they will no longer be in the reflection, giving the illusion they have passed through to the other side.

you might need to experiment with the position and angel of the glass and camera to see how to get it to look right.

hope this helps