Our favorite filmmakers cheat, oh, how they cheat. Truly, all with good intentions – to hear the viewer say “I do!” Read about sugar glass, paper snow, drug substitutes and other cinematic tricks in today’s selection.
Chromakey
The undisputed leader among all cinematic techniques is the famous chromakey. Ever since this technology gained popularity, the viewer should never rely on his or her own eyes. Especially when it comes to spectacular fantasy blockbusters. Virtually all fairy tale backdrops with castles and waterfalls, exciting battles in space, and encounters with magical creatures are not the product of set designers, costumers, and artists. They all appear on our screens thanks to filming against a green or blue screen background (as these colors are not found in human skin tones) and then combining them with computer graphics or another frame.
The use of backgrounds allows special effects masters to add any image. Chromakey’s offspring unequivocally include all the films of the Marvel and DC Universe, as well as fantasies like “Alice in Wonderland” and the like. Most of the scenes in Life of Pi (2012) were shot that way.
Glass of sugar
Action heroes fearlessly fight on the roofs of rushing trains and dizzying high-rises, and also jump into windows with full confidence, breaking glass with their own bodies. Such footage can be seen in the new parts of the franchise “Mission: Impossible,” as well as in the movie “Star Trek: Revenge. If you think about it, shooting such a frame can be traumatic even for an experienced stuntman. That’s why the glass in the frame is very rarely real.
Previously, filmmakers mainly used special glass sheets of peeled sugar. By the way, the same “glass” comes in handy for making glass pieces, which should crumble in the film or smash against the head. Today it is not uncommon to use a fragile synthetic mass.
Wax Grim
To portray a serious bodily injury to, say, the main character, a team of makeup artists works on him for hours. And what to do if the “killed” and “wounded” in the picture hundreds of half an hour of timing? Of course, not to stop shooting. For such cases use the easiest and cheapest way to portray a wound. On the skin of the actor made a wax slick in which you can then make, for example, a bloody hole from the bullet. In general plans such a trick is unlikely to be noticeable. There are numerous examples in zombie horror movies like “The Evil Dead”.
Miniatures
Another famous trick, which was used by almost all the famous directors of our time – the creation of miniatures. Despite the development of digital technology, miniatures are still quite popular. Thus, in scenes of large-scale fires, landing of spacecrafts or, for example, attacks of huge hostile creatures, diminished copies of objects involved in the frame are most often used.
Examples abound, both among classic films like “King Kong” (1933), and among the new generation of action movies. For example, chase scenes in “The Dark Knight” were filmed using miniature models.
Drugs
A separate talk about the use of drugs in the frame. This is a fairly common theme, but for all the doubles for the actors drugs are not enough, and not very useful. Therefore, for such cases have come up with a plausible substitute. For example, the “double” cocaine more often becomes dried milk. That was the case in the movie “Insufferable Bosses,” where Colin Farrell’s character sniffed the white substance in large quantities.
In some cases, and it has to be replaced. For example, when the actor suffers from lactose intolerance. And the creator of the cult picture “Scarface”, in which you can see a mountain of cocaine, from dried milk refused and still refuses to say what exactly he used, so as not to destroy the magic of cinema. Presumably it could have been powdered vitamin B.
Changing Backgrounds
You’ve probably seen the backdrops behind the main character change quickly in some of the flashy game pictures. Hard to believe, but this effect is often achieved without the involvement of computer graphics. Most often, it uses a special rotating platform on which the camera and the main actor are installed, and around placed the necessary scenery. For “departures” and “hits” the camera uses special straight or circular rails. Both techniques are kept in his working arsenal by director Wes Anderson.
Artificial snow
In the Hollywood hills, the sun shines almost year-round, and the presence of snow and ice is often required in the frame. Like in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “Bridge of Spies” last year, or just about any Christmas movie. Basically, this shooting is not conducted on natural locations, because for a few takes clothes and decorations get wet, the equipment can break down, and the actors risk going down with a cold.
This is where the company Snow Business comes to the rescue. The indispensable company makes and delivers to venues (just think!) more than 170 types of artificial snow. The most popular one consists of finely cut pressed paper. Frosting, icicles and even ash are also handled by these snowmakers.
Imitation Sounds
What tricks filmmakers do not have to go to in order to portray the necessary sounds in the movie. For example, the mass shooting in war movies like “Saving Private Ryan” is successfully replaced by harmless fireworks. Flocks of birds taking off in front of the voiceover microphone are portrayed by flipping through ordinary book pages. Watermelon is also an indispensable assistant of the sound engineers. After all, with the help of this large berry you can depict the sound of a split head, a massive blow to the face or the cracking of a large dragon egg.
Clouds
For clouds to thicken over a movie town, Hollywood moviegoers don’t run around the set with a shaman’s tambourine. The patented Cloud Tank machine is responsible for the appearance of clouds and clouds of varying degrees of density and colorfulness, injecting paint or milk into a tank of water. In “Independence Day,” where you can see a flying saucer between the amazing clouds, the role of the flying machine is a Frisbee dropped by and shot in the Cloud Tank.
Road trip footage
Gone are the days when a movie character’s car (like in Hitchcock’s “Psycho”) was filmed against a screen with a moving road panorama. Now those scenes are really filmed on the road. But the car out of the frame does not go by itself, but is attached on a low trailer to a special trailer. The shooting equipment is also mounted there. This technique allows the actor to concentrate on the game, and not to watch the road traffic.