Special Effects
- Jul 20, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 25, 2023
Special effects was crucial, to allow us to add realism to our film.
In the planning process, we decided as a group that we wanted an element to our film which was unique, and could act as a wow factor for viewers. The two shots which required "special effects" were the shot where the chess piece moves itself, and the shot where Sam is getting pulled by a ghost down the hallway.
Here is a video of us testing the green suit costume.
More information about this planning was covered under props and costumes in pre-production.
The chess piece shot:
This shot was relatively simple. When filming, we tied fishing line to the King (chess piece) and we pulled it along at the speed that we liked. Then, we removed the King and string entirely and let the camera capture the scene.
Here is Matthew's explanation about the editing behind the special effects:
In Premiere Pro, I found a frame without the King and the string, and I froze it. I then extended it out and put it BELOW the clip of the piece being pulled by the string. Then I selected the shot with the string, and created a mask around the string. I then keyframed this, frame-by-frame to ensure its accuracy. Then all I had to do was add some feather, and nest the two clips as one so that Asher could colour grade it as a single clip.
The shot of Sam getting pulled by the ghost was far more complex. For filming, Eva was getting pulled by Oscar who was dressed in a full green suit costume.
I spent time ensuring the scene was lit adequately, and as much as the smoke machine would've been nice to use, it would add difference between a clean slate and the actual video (you'll see what I mean in a sec).
We positioned the camera outside the front door, opened the door and let the camera capture the empty hallway. We then shut the door (taking extra care not to shake the camera at all) and let the scene play out.
Then, I had to do the post production work on it.
Initially, I tried using Keylight in After Effects. Keylight is After Effects' tool for keying out a colour, and is pretty similar to the keyer available in Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, only with a few extra advanced tools to get a cleaner result. However, Keylight simply didn't work. This is because the green was quite dark, and started to blend into the dark hallway.
So I tried a second option, Rotoscope. Rotoscope worked a lot better. Rotoscope goes through frame-by-frame and automatically selects and creates a mask around a moving subject. It's designed for times when you don't have access to something like a green suit, however because we used a green suit, it made the Rotoscope's job easier, as it created a more definite outline.
Once I had rotoscoped Oscar (green man) out, the effect looked pretty convincing. I just had to go through and create a few manually key framed masks to fix shadows, and clean up the rotoscope in general. And then yeah, the effect was done!
(Sound design... Post - Production)
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