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November 5th, 2009, 12:24 PM | #1 |
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The Epileptic Spider
In horror movies, sich as the ring, there is a common effect that I have termed the "epileptic Spider". This is when someone is crawling on thw walls or ceiling, but the movements are choppy and unnatural. How is this effect best achieved?
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November 9th, 2009, 01:55 AM | #2 |
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I think you might be thinking of a speed ramping effect. If you don't do it in camera, then try speeding up small amounts of frames in post, perhaps chopping out a few here and there to taste. Coppola used this to great effect in his version of Dracula, worth checking out if you haven't seen it already.
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November 9th, 2009, 09:50 AM | #3 |
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Adrian, is it that simple?
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November 11th, 2009, 03:13 AM | #4 |
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The choppy movement part is either shot in camera with a variable framerate or as I said can be done in post by just speeding up a few frames and/or chopping some out. At least that's how I'd go about it, if I understand correctly the effect you're talking about?
The wall to ceiling part isn't so simple, I presume it would be either a tilted set or even a mechanically tilting set, not cheap! |
November 19th, 2009, 11:13 AM | #5 |
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I haven't heard of speed ramping being used for this effect, but one tried-and-true way to make an actor's movements appear strange and unnatural is to film the shot backwards. The actor performs their actions (walking, crawling, whatever) backwards and if there's a camera move it's similarly reversed (e.g. a push in becomes a push out). On a professional production shot on film the camera is run backwards, but on a digital production I'd imagine you'd just film it normally and reverse it with your NLE software.
This technique was used in Tarkovski's Solaris and Soderbergh's remake of that film, and I think I recall it being used in the remake of Ring but I haven't seen it in ages. |
January 10th, 2010, 10:17 PM | #6 |
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That's pretty interesting Nic. I'll have to keep that in the back of my mind for future use.
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January 17th, 2010, 04:23 PM | #7 |
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I've also seen this effect used with great results, especially when combined with the above mentioned speeding up on certain frames.
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