Camera facing a mirror??

[dr stilly]

I have a scene where we dolly into a mirror - through it - to the other side. I want to dolly in head on but it's obviously impossible to make the camera invisible yet I have see films do it. I assume they use camera tricks, I would guess green screen the mirror however the mirror is in a nightclub so lighting will be clubby (i.e, strobe lights etc) so lighting the greenscreen would make things difficult right.

Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[jax_rox]

If you have time and allowance to build a dolly track and perform a dolly shot, do you not have time to light a green screen...?

 

[Caidh Mor]

Yeah, the easiest way might be to take a couple of extra moments to green screen it. Alternately you could be looking at either building a more elaborate set, or altering your vision for the shot.

 

[dr stilly]

Yeah, the easiest way might be to take a couple of extra moments to green screen it. Alternately you could be looking at either building a more elaborate set, or altering your vision for the shot.

I just figured with the different colours of the club lights it would effect proper lighting of the greenscreen.

 

[PaulGriffith]

The best looking thing to do would be to fake a mirror and move a camera through to the other side of a set, basically a big, frames hole in the wall.

If you go the green route, placing a few marks on it for camera tracking will save you a lot of headache in post. Just be sure they're far enough away from each other and the edges that they're easy to mask.

 

[Caidh Mor]

I just figured with the different colours of the club lights it would effect proper lighting of the greenscreen.

If you flagged off some of the light that's hitting the green screen, it shouldn't be much of an issue. Alternately, thinking on PaulGriffin's post beneath yours, you could just put some tracking points onto the mirror, get the tracking data on your dolly in, corner pin a mask to the corners of the mirror, and transition into the next shot that way. That would also give you some handy assistance in lining up the second shot visually, and should have a nearly identical effect as green screen, without any of the hassles of needing to flag off the colored light.

If you go the green route, placing a few marks on it for camera tracking will save you a lot of headache in post. Just be sure they're far enough away from each other and the edges that they're easy to mask.

Good call on the tracking points.

 

[jax_rox]

Shoot the 'other side' stuff and then stick some green on the mirror, and light it properly. Or, if you're inclined to do more work in post, you could simply shoot it anyway, and just motion track the mirror area, and replace it with the 'other side' shot in post.

But back to my original point - you couldn't really be building a dolly and performing dolly moves in a nightclub full of people, so why wouldn't you just get the club lights switched off for x amount of time whilst you do your shot. Or if the other stuff needs to be shot in a club at night full of people, do the dolly shot earlier before the club opens so you can control the light.

 

[dr stilly]

Shoot the 'other side' stuff and then stick some green on the mirror, and light it properly. Or, if you're inclined to do more work in post, you could simply shoot it anyway, and just motion track the mirror area, and replace it with the 'other side' shot in post.

But back to my original point - you couldn't really be building a dolly and performing dolly moves in a nightclub full of people, so why wouldn't you just get the club lights switched off for x amount of time whilst you do your shot. Or if the other stuff needs to be shot in a club at night full of people, do the dolly shot earlier before the club opens so you can control the light.

Yes makes sense, there is no real need for green screen is there. Just tracking points as mentioned and get a dolly shot from reversed angle, match them up, presto. Duh.

Yes the club will be ours for the eve so we'll have lighting control.

Thanks for the advise, sometimes simple things evade's ones grasp.

 

[knightly]

tracking points... if it's a simple shape, don't bother screening it at all, just cut it out with a matte that is keyframed with the dolly move. Use the tracking marks to put the "other" side in there... perhaps some sketchy 80s pop stars.

 

[dr stilly]

The mirror is big and oval so yes should be easy. What I am considering now is the footage of the reflection; to get a good mirror effect I'm considering just shooting through a piece of glass, like a large picture frame. I feel light will bounce from it and give the effect of a mirror.

Sound about right?

 

[knightly]

As you push into the mirror, it'll act as your frame and eventually disappear as the camera pushes in and "through" it. Just shoot the reverse raw and make sure that the dolly move there is at the exact same speed as the push on the front side of the mirror. That way when you comp them together and the mirror leaves frame, the only thing left is the "reflection" shot of the other room. You won't need the frame or the glass at all as you'll already have it from the first shot where you're facing the actual mirror.

 

[dr stilly]

As you push into the mirror, it'll act as your frame and eventually disappear as the camera pushes in and "through" it. Just shoot the reverse raw and make sure that the dolly move there is at the exact same speed as the push on the front side of the mirror. That way when you comp them together and the mirror leaves frame, the only thing left is the "reflection" shot of the other room. You won't need the frame or the glass at all as you'll already have it from the first shot where you're facing the actual mirror.

When I mentioned picture frame I understand that it made it sound like I'll be using the frame but that's not what I meant. I meant just using a big piece of glass to shoot through instead of just a raw shot of the room, just to give that glossy finish that a mirror has. Otherwise it could seem like it's just a hole in the wall once it is super-imposed on if you get me.

 

[knightly]

got it... what you can do is get a reverse shot from the view po0int of the mirror of the first room, then put that as an intermediate layer and reduce the opacity to give it a slightly reflective looking surface, rather than just a portal. The multiply blending mode works well as it only lets the bright parts show, and makes the dark bits invisible.

 

[jax_rox]

When I mentioned picture frame I understand that it made it sound like I'll be using the frame but that's not what I meant. I meant just using a big piece of glass to shoot through instead of just a raw shot of the room, just to give that glossy finish that a mirror has. Otherwise it could seem like it's just a hole in the wall once it is super-imposed on if you get me.

Glass will reflect the things on the side you're shooting from. Nothing in there actually looks more like a mirror.= than glass in there.

 

[knightly]

that would bring us back to having to do roto work to remove the camera from the mirror. The mirror will look like a mirror so long as the physics are taken into account (distance to the object = distance from camera to mirror + distance from object to mirror). As you push forward, the distance changes at the same rate as the mirror itself as it's the only part of the equation whose distance is changing... once you pass through the mirror, the continuation of that push will be what sells the effect.

Run some tests to see what looks the best.