I was wondering if anybody knows how the effect was done in fight club, where brad pitt is being filmed at head level and the whole backround/foreground is sorta progressively shaking worse and worse? like the film is about to fall off the reel? (I think they use the same or a similar effect in the butterfly effect...) If somebody could provide a detailed description of how this was done it would be greatly appreciated...
(My aim is to re-create the effect as accurately to the film as possible, and not some cheap similar imitation)

There's a camera mount (I think it's called the 'doggie cam') where rods are connected to the actor's shoulders and waist and the camera is suspended a few feet in front of the actor's face. As the actor moves around, the camera stays still on the actors head, but the background moves all over the place. I think that's what you're referring to. It's a production technique, not a post effect.

You could build a one-time-use doggie cam with some sort of rod (dowl-rod) and a lot of gaffer's tape. You could even make a trick camera platform using a piece of scrap plywood. IF you do make one, take some pictures and post them--I'd like to see how it goes.

all the best,
joren

well if you wanted the character to stay still and let everything else move then do this. Record the background then put the character in front of it on green skreen. Set up and shoot your shot. Then in post take JUST the bavground and shake it using keyframes and put maybe a motion blurr on it or something. That way the person is still but the bacground is shaking. Now i have never tried it but if I WAS gonna try that would be my first idea.

No way, I think the effect desired from butterfly effect is to crisp and to complex to have been done on a "doggie cam." That was used is Requiem For a Dream for sure though. There are ways to do this effect in After Effects but it would be really hard and time consuming using a lot of the effects, key frames, and matting.

of course you could just use the horizontal earthquake effect in iMovie and let the effect fade in. If you really want to get technical about it, you could use a green-screen and separate the actor and the background, make the background shake violently and the actor shake just a little. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden didn't exactly stay still, he just didn't shake as much.

I was a Key Grip on a music video in May where we did the effect you're talking about (I haven't seen the footage yet, so I don' know if it worked perfectly).

Our means were to undercrank the camera and have the steadicam operator do little jerk-swings around the subject and return to the same foreground distance. Our subject wasn't really moving much, so we had it a bit easier.

They may have used a body harness like Joren described, with a horizontal swing mechanism, but I don't know for sure.

Doggicam does make body harnesses, and some other cool things. They aren't credited on "Fight Club", but I'm sure other manufacturers make them as well. We made a crappy one for a music video I shot several years ago.

Nota "Sgt. Rigs" Mono

quote:

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We made a crappy one for a http://www.halfelement.com/busdriver1.mov I shot several years ago.

Nota "Sgt. Rigs" Mono

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Not crappy....very good. Energetic video.

Actually joren, Ashton Kutcher WAS shot separate from the background (which may have been completely computer-generated, I don't remember). Post all the way.

I'm not sure what was done in Fight Club, but it was definitely NOT just a simple cam trick. There was a huge presence of computer-generated magic there.

why do you people ask if you're just going to argue?

Hey...sometimes the best ideas can come out of arguments.

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't see any arguing.

Sorry. That was completely off-topic.

Now we bring you back to the main topic....

Right, I totally forgot, or I woulda said something sooner, that he's going for the effect in the scene of Fight Club in Jeff Ray's profile. I think it was a green screen effect. If I remember correctly they don't show Tyler's feet in that scene at all, that's usually a good hint. The Butterfly 'Effect' (oh, pun) was CGed and explained in length on the DVD, so to find out about how they did it just rent the DVD.

-Elliott

thanx for the input guys... I have fight club but only the single disc version(no Brhind the scenes) and I rented the butterfly effect also... it only came with one disc as well? maybe my videostore just sucks? hehe.

Man, the extras included with Fight Club are awesome...I highly recommend trying to track a copy down. Sheesh, even every Blockbuster in my area has it I think.

Rent Butterfly Effect again, if I remember correctly it's double sided DVD with the special features on the opposite side. When New Line releases their Infinifilm DVDs they're usually one disc, double-sided or not, filled with special features.

-Elliott