How Filmmakers Make Cameras Disappear | Mirrors in Movies

[Music] you know how there's that one pretty important rule in filmmaking don't show the camera in the shot you know what doesn't give a damn about that rule mirrors most of the time they make specific shots like these impossible but wait if these are impossible where's the camera well turns out filmmakers found out a way to make cameras basically disappear and said screw you to mirrors in the process [Music] before i get into the video i want to explain why i'm making it in the first place so there's one mirror shot that i saw recently that had me totally stumped it's this one from the first episode of criminal united kingdom have a little watch [Music] uh [Music] i really wanted to work it out so i thought let's go break down some other mirror shots that we know a little bit more about and see if something lines up so that's what we're gonna do so let's dive into some pure movie [Music] magic let's start with contact probably one of the most famous mirror shots in existence mainly because of how absolutely seamless and effortless it feels it's seamless but totally bemusing at the same time so how is it done let's break it down so it's blue screen but it's not as complicated as you might think it's basically comprised of two different shots the tracking back shot of the daughter running and the shot of the cabinet with the same actress pulling open the cabinet door with a wee little hand the shot of the daughter is all real it's where the daughter reaches the cabinet the two shots become one so how did it work well what you're actually seeing is shot one being superimposed onto shot two where it has a blue screen instead of a mirror looking at the two individual shots from above makes the technique a little easier to work out with shot one the camera tracks jenna malone as she runs down the hallway into the bathroom and towards the mirror in this shot she's basically acting as if she's reaching for the mirror when in reality it's just a giant camera lens in front of her face in shot two they'd flip the camera around some 200 degrees they'd get the camera tracking backwards to mimic the movement of shot one call action and have our actor reach and open the cabinet but for real this time you combine the two match their timing and boom you've got one of the greatest shot transitions in film history but is this what is happening in this show well we're this far into the video so you tell me this one's really cool so the camera starts here and tracks all the way to the other side of the mirror so what kind of witchcraft is being so publicly displayed here [Applause] unlike contact there's no vfx in fact this technique is essentially the same as the one used in that mirror shot from t2 and this mirror shot from peggy sue got married what you're actually seeing as the camera moves is the shot transitioning from one side of a duplicated set to the other with an invisible cut spliced in there very sneaky sneaky and a duplicated set means a duplicated cast when this character sits down what you're really seeing is two cast members trying their absolute best to sit down at the same time matching their movements to sell the idea that there is in fact a mirror there and notice all the small touches throughout the shot to help sell the effect like these photos stuck in the mirror that have their own reflected versions placed perfectly behind them they've even matched this vine type decoration with its own double not to mention all the props on the table it's really impressive stuff as for that invisible cut well it's no accident that this actor's head conveniently cuts the frame in half yeah they've actually used her head as a stitch point to connect two shots together allowing them to seamlessly transition from the fake mirror shop we started with and into the version of the set with real mirrors so the shot can finish with the actors real reflections also that's jenna malone from well contact how has that happened how did that has the question is is this what's happening here looking at this scene closely the movements of each of the characters they're too perfectly matched to their reflection so unless we've got some cloned wolverine type shenanigans going on here it's definitely not for me though [Music] what's so cool about this technique is just how it does its thing like it's nothing [Music] it's a it's a lovely shot but it takes some eagle eyes to realize it should technically be impossible there should be a camera right here yeah well it's much simpler than you'd think you think maybe it's there's some blue screen involved like in contact or we've got some doubles doing their thing no they just built the camera into the wall and then they just removed the lens sticking out in post pretty simple but uh is this what is happening in our little mirror shot here well let's find out [Music] although the shot here is locked off on a tripod we're kind of locked off in a wall i guess hey you aspiring filmmaker do you need something to keep your camera stable when shooting no not a tripod you in fact get tripod look we need to get the hell out of here help there man no don't wait for us man [Music] you don't need that what you need is something better introducing the wall never be stuck for a place to put your camera again if you've got a wall you're good just punch a hole in the closest vertical surface and you're good to go it's the most convenient piece of gear you'll ever own oh my god tim so we might be comparing a locked off tripod shop with a moving dolly shot but when you put them side by side there's no doubt that they share some visual similarities which is why my gut was telling me that the technique they used in this shot had to be similar but i still wasn't 100 sure so i started doing a little digging q montage so i started where anyone in my position would start imdb but there was nothing no pictures no videos no nothing i checked cast instagram accounts and their posts from around the time of production nothing i checked crew members their socials nothing [Music] all i wanted was a single bts picture of that particular shot a hint at the setup but there was nothing nothing from the director nothing from the dop the first assistant camera operator no one had a publicly available photo but just as the last ounce of hope i had began to fade i see this credit for this bts photo in an article on bbc.com okay promising so i follow the jose trail to his website to his instagram account and lo and behold nothing i had lost the will to go on food had lost all taste even this video where this man's dog poops at the beach and then rolls in the poop as his owner pleads with his four-legged friend to not roll in the poop failed to make me laugh tell me what you doing dog joby that's the nastiest thing i ever seen you doing bring your ball this gonna get on your ball bring it on back oh boy though you're making a me oh good night now crank that car up girl crank that car give me up so i did a thing i wrote up an email to a crew member credited as the b camera operator from the first episode that was shot in madrid and guess what [Music] nothing nah just kidding he replied jonathan tyler thank you [Music] and monta so how'd they do it well it really is the force measure technique minus the hole in the wall so there's no blue screen no no doubles work in sight according to jonathan it was a combination of well choreographed camera work and vfx to quote jonathan's reply it was basically a painter of the camera what we did to simplify this was use a dolly with a stabilized head that i operated remotely this meant that the paint out was just the equipment and the grip moving the dolly all covered in black fabric it kept the rotoscoping as minimal as possible rotoscoping as in manually tracing around the camera gear and the grip frame by frame and then removing that from the shot to replace it with a clean plate of the wall [Music] really the most literal example of making a camera disappear and it's a pretty cool example of a perfect harmony really between our b camera operator jonathan tyler cinematographer jamie carney and show director jim field smith to help produce an almost faultless mirror shot and one that sets up this dynamic between the two rooms in the show and the mirror between them pretty [Music] perfectly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thanks for watching guys that was that one was really fun i yeah i had a lot of fun until the next one i'll see you around now you're making a man oh good night now crank that car up girl crack that car get me all out of here i ain't taking that shitty dog out with me

Channel: Paul E.T.

Views: 5,104,490

Keywords: movies, paul, thomas, Paul et, Paul e.t., paulet, films, Mirrors in movies, How to make a camera disappear, Movie doco, Mini documentary

Id: VASwKZAUVSo

Length: 13min 5sec (785 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021