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Steve-F

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
43
1
UK
You know the sort of shot... a person stood fairly still in a street scene with all the others rushing by.
I'm guessing options include getting the person to stand as still ass possible, filming for xx minutes and then speeding it up; or masking the person out of the background, keeping them normal and the background speeded up; or shooting person green screen and street scene separately and then matting;
What's the best or any other options????

I have a DSLR to shoot this (can do as video or as time-lapse stills) and FCP to edit.

TIA Steve
 

handsome pete

macrumors 68000
Aug 15, 2008
1,725
259
All of the methods you listed are viable, but it really depends on what you want your shot to look like.

Is there camera movement in your shot? Does anything/anyone interact with the main subject? Does anything/anyone cross in front of your subject? Is your subject doing anything at all, or just standing absolutely still?

Those are just a few of the questions you should ask yourself first.

But without knowing what your framing looks like, I would say greenscreening would be the worst of the 3 options.
 

Steve-F

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
43
1
UK
I did find this example on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/31207336
So I'll probably lean towards their method of just standing still, use a stills camera, a slow shutter speed and probably shoot about 1 frame per second. This would mean I could do a zoom effect in FCP as the frame size would be larger than final sequence.
Any other ideas appreciated.

Steve
 

alph45

macrumors member
Jun 2, 2010
87
0
I did find this example on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/31207336
So I'll probably lean towards their method of just standing still, use a stills camera, a slow shutter speed and probably shoot about 1 frame per second. This would mean I could do a zoom effect in FCP as the frame size would be larger than final sequence.
Any other ideas appreciated.

Steve

i would use that method as well for a static subject, but i don't know if the vimeo project used stills or just speed up 24/30 fps footage, hard to tell on a non-HD stream.

the extra pixels are a big deal as you noted and give a lot of flexibility for fake camera moves in post. The biggest factor in my mind would be the shutter speed as it's optically locking in a look in terms of motion blur, but a few tests should set you right. I would also check out burst mode (assuming a 7d or similar) if you plan on playing with framerate.

If you use a remote timer you can get a precise interval without touching the camera and even make changes to your focal plane in between shots.
 

eatmydiction

macrumors newbie
Sep 10, 2013
1
0
Need help guys, thanks

Hey, I have a similar problem. I have to create a music video and came up with a cool idea of having m character walk down a dark road while people, cars and clouds and all time lapsed and sped up. The character is in normal speed and is walking so the camera will move with the person.

Any ideas to how this could be done?

Thanks
 

linuxcooldude

macrumors 68020
Mar 1, 2010
2,480
7,232
Hey, I have a similar problem. I have to create a music video and came up with a cool idea of having m character walk down a dark road while people, cars and clouds and all time lapsed and sped up. The character is in normal speed and is walking so the camera will move with the person.

Any ideas to how this could be done?

Thanks

Some kind of green screen effect? Have the time-lapse video as the back ground and film the person walking through the green screen normally. May not look natural though.
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
Hey, I have a similar problem. I have to create a music video and came up with a cool idea of having m character walk down a dark road while people, cars and clouds and all time lapsed and sped up. The character is in normal speed and is walking so the camera will move with the person.

Any ideas to how this could be done?

Thanks

One option is to have your actor move/breathe/blink/etc., in slow motion while everyone else moves at normal speed. When you speed up the footage in your NLE everything else will appear fast and your actor will appear to be at normal speed.
 

handsome pete

macrumors 68000
Aug 15, 2008
1,725
259
One option is to have your actor move/breathe/blink/etc., in slow motion while everyone else moves at normal speed. When you speed up the footage in your NLE everything else will appear fast and your actor will appear to be at normal speed.

I second this recommendation. It will probably yield the best results without having to deal with issues of keying, color matching, etc.
 
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