Visual Effects
- Jun 5, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 25, 2023
We had many visual effects we had to incorporate, like the tap turning on by itself, and the chess piece moving. In order to create the look of a ghost a lot of planning was involved behind the scenes.
Additionally further down on this post I cover the planning behind achieving the green screen effect!
Step 1: Buy some fishing line
On the way to the shoot, Matthew stopped by Bunnings Warehouse to buy some fishing line. This would prove essential, as it's stronger than regular cotton string while also being clear. And this alone was enough to turn on the tap.
Step 2: Focus
There are two points where we need to use string to simulate the ghost. The tap turning on, and the chess piece falling off the board. For the tap, we just had Asher standing on the kitchen bench just out of frame. No post production will be required as the shots looked perfect straight out of the camera. This is because we utilised a low F-stop (F2.8) to ensure that the tap (and the fishing line) were out of focus and hard to see.
Step 3: Post Production
For the chess shot where the king gets pulled off the board by an invisible force, we will not be able to utilise focus to hide the fishing line. This is because it is a very tight shot, and the focus needs to remain on the chess piece at all times, unlike the previous shot where the tap could be out of focus in the background.
To fix this, we set the camera on a tripod and filmed a 'clean slate' much like with the green screen shot. We then made sure not to move anything except the chess piece. This means that when Matthew is editing, he will be able to mask around the fishing line.
The Green Screen:
To be specific, we plan to use a 'green suit' which acts like a green screen, only it can be worn by a human. This will allow us to have a human pulling Sam, and then in post production the human will be able to be removed. You may have noticed I covered the green screen costume in props + costumes post, as well as explaining the idea of Sam being dragged in my concepts post.
Matthew's summary of suggesting the green suit concept:
"When I first explained this concept to the group back at the start of May, they asked a valid question. If the film is 2D, how does the camera know what was behind the person in the green suit costume? The answer to this is that we need to teach the camera. We do this by creating a 'clean plate'. The clean plate will be a still image, taken just before the camera starts rolling, and the image is what the green suit person will be replaced with. The only major caveat to this method is that we must leave the camera 100% still. Even bumping it by 1/5th of a millimetre could make the removal of the green suit person look bad."
In planning, we didn't know if we would want the camera to look fixed, or handheld for this shot. However, because it is not possible to film it handheld (because of the technicalities behind the green suit), if we wanted it to look handheld, we would need to zoom in on the clip in post production, and then add some random key-framed movement to it.
Here is the video again, of us testing it out.
(BTS Photos... Production)
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