Effects help required!

[Khizzy]

Hello,

I am considering making a short effects based movie with a few of my friends. We've got together, listed a few ideas and I was hoping to get some help and ideas as to how these effects could be filmed.

Here's the list below:
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Pretend you're bored and start playing football with your head, after about 20 seconds grab the head and put it back on again

Stretch your arms and get a weapon from the air and kill yourself with it accidently and then explode

Take a coke can out of your bag (or something) and make it turn into your mobile phone, make a call with it and morph it back into the can and drink out of it..

Morph your hair from short to curly just by pointing at it

Interact with a couple of clones of yourself - make the shots more complex so you actually are able to touch each other

Have a scene where you are talking to the camera and something falls from the sky and flattens you. When you manage to get the weight off you, you jump back into shape but you're thin as paper but when you point to yourself, you manage to get back into your 'real' shape!

Have a scene where you have multiple arms and you are doing about 3 things at once - i.e. combing your hair, speaking on the phone, eating some food.....

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My own role in all of this is to bring everything together, write the script, pool all the ideas, and I've done some video editing before, but nothing on this scale - so this is quite an exciting experience for me!

Anyone else have any ideas about how else the ideas can be produced with the equipment mentioned above?

I spoke to someone a while back and they suggested using floor markers (i.e. duct tape) for certain effect shots, although I didn't quite understand!!

If anyone can provide some examples i.e. shot breakdowns, useful links, anything like that, I would appreciate it!!

[thirddan]

hey khizzy,

since it is your first atttempt at something like this i would say start with a simple shot, do it well and then work up to harder shots...

also, i would suggest not having a shot where you kill yourself (outside the context of a proper story) as it might offend or at least put off someone watching your reel...

as for the duct tape on the floor it was most likely used for tracking the shot because there was a camera move...

good luck...

[snarkle]

For the coke can / mobile phone morph, what you could do is film yourself with the coke can in your hand and then film yourself with the phone in your hand and then you blend the coke can layer to the phone layer. You might have to mask out the phone on the phone layer.

Is your camera going to be moving or is it going to be stationary?

[Gautch]

For the shot with several versions of your self.. you can do body doubles. That way you can interact. Then just composite your head inplace of the body doubles.

For the idea with many arms, you can make a shirt with a couple extra sleeves. Have your friends put there arms in from behind you. Then key-out any part of them that shows up.

Lock your camera off, so there is no camera movement. That will help for your first attempt at an effects shot. Read some toutorials, or figure out how your going to do it in post. Basically plan like crazy, not only will this help you in these little shots, but it will get you ready for bigger projects.

[Khizzy]

Thanks guys - some excellent pieces of advice there.

For the Coke/Mobile phone morph - I was thinking of having an overhead close up of the hand (locked off camera shot) - so you can see the contents of the hand and once the morph has taken place the hand would close...

Would that be difficult to do?

I think I'll have to do a lot of camera locking as I am beginning to realise how difficult moving shots would be!!

Can anyone recommend some DVDs where I can find some good 'making of' featurettes or similar things that would help me plan some shots or provide me with some inspiration?

Thanks again guys!

[snarkle]

Your Coke/Mobile phone morph idea shouldn't be too hard. It should take about 6 to 7 months to do (just kidding).

[Khizzy]

So you think I am making it too complex? :D I suppose the closing hand shot could be too hard - or maybe it could be done as a cut away shot...

Anyone else have any good ideas I can use? You guys have helped immensely so far!!!

[snarkle]

Sorry, I was just joking about the hand shot. It really shouldn't be too hard. You should have no problem doing it.

[Khizzy]

Sorry, I was just joking about the hand shot. It really shouldn't be too hard. You should have no problem doing it.

Haha!! Sorry - I thought you were being serious...

Then again when someone said to me that all this stuff could be shot and edited in four days, I chuckled and almost believed them!

[LFGabel]

Producing a good visual effect is often much more time consuming and complicated than people expect. The only way to realize this is to try and do it, which you're doing, and that's great.

Good luck!

[Gautch]

Do keep us posted! Id love to see what you end up doing and be sure to tell us how you decided to go about it!

[Khizzy]

Thanks for your support, guys! I really appreciate it.

Keep those suggestions coming - I am slowly getting somewhere!!