Hi,
For a new film I'm working on, I'm trying to create the illusion that I used a helicopter to get the shot....
The shot is of a guy standing infront of a hotel window looking out (at night). I want the shot to start wide (as in only seeing the hotel) and go to a medium shot (from the waist up) of the guy.
I kinda want the shot to look like the helicopter shot of the river moving up to the bar in "Mystic River."

Thanks!

Joel Iliff,
Harbor Breeze Pictures
Harbor Breeze Pictures - Website

“The theme, what's behind the emotion,
the meaning, all that comes later….”
Stanley Kubrick,
US film director & writer

Hi Joel, I don't know if this is within your expertise, but could you do a matte painting of the hotel scene with the guy in the window. Given a little time and experimenting you could probably get something to look half decent. You'll just need to find pictures of a hotel you like.

Buy a helicopter....Or go with Jorens idea.

Joren,
What software would I use to do the matte? (Photoshop, After Effects?)

Joel Iliff,
Harbor Breeze Pictures

“The theme, what's behind the emotion,
the meaning, all that comes later….”
Stanley Kubrick,
US film director & writer

ok, i'm expecting you've never done serious 3d work, or you'd have thought of this, so you'll need someone who's really good at 3d that you know.

it'd be pretty simple to film the shot directly across from the window, waist height, and all that, and then model the immediate city in 3d, mapping all the buildings with photos of them from each side. then you model the hotel in greater detail, make a super hires map with the window shot overlaid on it, and do your move

its insane sounding, but if you know a good 3d artist it wouldn't be that hard. a weeks work maybe.

I was thinking more in the realm of pseudo-3d. Get a high rez pic of the hotel from the perspective of the helicopter (so either from above or head-on). Then, get a picture of the ground (hopefully it won't have any high vertically rising objects). Then get some pictures of high-rise type cityscape stuff. All of these elements, you'd isolate and clean up in Photoshop. Then, in after effects (or another compositor), start putting your scene together. You should work in 3d space. Put the hotel image in. And composite your live video in. Then put the ground in, rotating it on the x-axis so it lays in front of the hotel. Then put in the cityscape and sky and make sure to put it much farther down the z-axis. Then move your camera. If your camera moves slowly, you may need to have a very high rez version of the hotel immediately surrounding the live video. If you're taking the photos yourself, stitching together multiple photos in photoshop may be the way to go. Also, if the hotel has balconies, you may have to cut them out and move them foreword on the z-axis to create the 3d parallax effect. Once you have all the elements gathered, it would only take hours to build the scene and animate the camera.

That's just what I had in mind. Perry's way would probably yield you better results, but 3d mapping and such is a lot more involved and time consuming.

Edit: Why don't you ask your friends over at 1972 to help. They claim to have all the resources to do this type of shot.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joren,

Maybe hire yourself a crane, and a grip.

Hey,

I dont know if this is at all what you want to hear, but why dont you just rent an R-22 for an hour with a pilot and actually get a helicopter shot? I would sertainly be easyer then a 3D shot, it might cost a little more though.

Mike

Ya'll,
Thanks for all the advice! I'm shooting my lead infront of a blue scene Tuesday night. We'll combine the blue screen with the city skyline with Motion and After Effects.

Joel Iliff,
Harbor Breeze Pictures

"The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."
Stanley Kubrick,
US film director, writer

cool. can we see how it turns out when its all done?