does anyone know how you do that?
 

theres this effect I've seen in quite a few movies, comercials etc.. where a character is walking or doing something in slow motion in the foreground and the background scene is sped up. is green screening the only way to achieve this? thanks

Greenscreening is the practical way to do it. It sure beats painting a mask frame by frame!

Or you can do it the indie down and dirty way. Have your actor move in super slow motion, than when you speed up the footage, they appear to be going regular speed and the background is speeded up.

David,

Are you reffering to the INSURANCE commercial, where the commentator is walking around and THROUGH an accident in progress? Yeah, that's a really nice effect. Can't remember the name of the insurance company though... so I'm not so sure it's a good AD.

I think that's an Allstate commercial.

thanks
 

yeah I figured the background and foreground would have to be layered. this isn't for anything specific, I just wanted a chance to mess around with it. I think I'm gonna give cody's suggestion a try. I guess its time to practice slo-mo in front of the mirror haha. thanks

Yeh that ad caught my eye because of that effect--and it's the opposite of what was originally discussed here, the background is in slow motion while the actor is at normal speed.

Somewhere on this board there was a short, filmed in a Paris subway that had the effect that you're talking about. Two actors were moving regular speed, while the rest of the subway people whizzed by. It was shot with the two actors moving super slow, then sped up, so that they were appearing normal. It was pretty cool.

I'll try to find it.

Old-school time ramping...
 

Anyone seen the music video "The Box" by Orbital? Shot on film, it´s an epic (and award winning, if i recall) little music video of a woman walking through a ´future´world, and it races away while she creeps through it all...

Testament to the power of a dedicated actor and intelligent framing...