Special effects can be done on a budget

• In this shot, we are looking at the driver in a moving car. The camera position slowly moves round him in a complete circle. Magic?

HOW? With a long length of wood. At one end the camera, and at the other end, a balancing weight. At the fulcrum point, in the middle, it was fixed to a firm platform which rested on the roof of the car. It swung with a gentle push. The weight was important, so it would keep going long enough to get the shot. The camera was focused on the driver as the car moved. Simple really!

• Car draws to a halt. As the driver gets out of the door, the camera follows him. The shot takes you through the window on the passenger’s side and out at the other side as the driver is walking away - and kept in focus, of course!

HOW? For this effect we used the dolly. It had to run smoothly, so it was on two planks. The camera was fixed to the end of a long length of wood. This had to be level with the window. (Something like a “WorkMate” is ideal on the dolly.) The driver got out, we followed him with the camera through the window and out at the other side, then an extra bod pulled focus.

• The man walking towards us, seen from a high up position. Looking through tree branches, the camera moves down as he approaches, ending on a BIG CLOSE UP of his face.

HOW? The camera was held high in the trees, in a cage, and suspended from a strong line round a pulley. This was fixed to a branch and another line was fixed behind the cage to keep the camera facing the correct direction while it was gently lowered. Then focus was pulled to BCU. I do remember cries of “That will never work!” But it did, with practice and some wasted film stock!

• The man sits on the bank of a river and starts to fish. Then an underwater shot of the line catching a fish The camera follows the fish on the line as it is pulled out of the water and we see the man with his rod.

HOW? With a watertight box made from perspex to house the camera. It was weighted and had no top, which worried me! With my camera fixed firmly in the box, then standing in the water while the camera was raised on a contraption, it was a matter of pulling focus on the man fishing as the camera was raised after first being focused on a fish on the fishing line.

 

• We see a man leaving home, catching a bus and going to work. He is walking normally, but everybody else is walking backwards. And so the story goes on.

HOW? Simple! The actor had to do everything backwards. The result was very effective. Bit of an acting challenge!

• What about this trick? The picture is behind low grass, then we travel up and over the subject, until they are upside-down and the picture goes behind rocks, a wall or shrubberies. From the darkness, we emerge upwards as before into another place. A gimmick seen in a TV advert.

HOW? This is certainly possible and would work very well, but a special frame would have to be constructed. An arm fixed to a fulcrum point at the bottom, made with a protruding piece at the top to hold the camera away from the arm while it is swung up and over the subject whilst making sure the light is not casting a shadow of the arm. This would be an interesting experiment. But did I say it would be easy?

John Woolmer