Planning and shooting for cloning and masking

This week we’re working on a guerrilla version of crowd replication, which MPC mentioned previously. You’ll find out how to take three actors and turn them into a large number of on-screen characters. This can dramatically increase the production value of your films.

As you’ll see, sometimes great VFX are reliant on mundane things like ‘Gaffer’ tape on monitor screens!

Seriously, planning is essential if you are trying to build a crowd. Fussy audiences will spot any replication or incongruous behaviour. Justin Hunt of Ember films shows how you need to be organised and shoot your takes in a methodical way if you want to have all the elements right.

As you’ll see when you get to try some of this footage in our HitFilm exercise, there are two important things about the shoot which any VFX artist compositing this shot would appreciate; firstly the camera is ‘locked off’- it doesn’t move in any of the takes, so it’s easy to combine the ‘plates’ or layers. Secondly, the actors don’t stray from their assigned area- this reduces the embarrassment of one actor digitally intersecting another on screen!

If you are planning a shot like this, you might also want to factor in the weather and time of day. As we shot this scene the sun moved and the weather changed- meaning the background tarmac changed imperceptibly as we filmed. Shadows shifted and surfaces got drier and less reflective. So, try to minimise the time you spend on these shots and check the weather forecast too. It’s not wise to shoot at the end of the day in case you fall behind schedule and the sun starts to go down…

In the next section we’ll be seeing how you can use HitFilm to mask and composite your version of what we’ve dubbed a ‘post apocalyptic’ shot. Don’t worry though, there’s not a zombie in sight. However, IF zombies are your thing, we’re sure you’ll like this next technique!