Film Practice

This is one of the ideas I had for my Teaser Trailer. My basic thought process behind it was that I wanted my actor to flicker in and out of existence. Initially I wanted him to appear and disappear rapidly but after several attempts I felt this did not give the effect I was looking for. It was also very difficult to edit it so that it looked like one fluid motion.

I made this short sequence by taking two shots – one with my actor on the swing and one without him there. In Final Cut Express I layered both shots one on top of the other and changed the opacity of the top one so when playing, bother were visible. I then found a point where the swing is in the same position on each of the shots – essentially where the two shots join together. I then cut them so that the shot with my actor ended at that point and the shot without him started at that point. I then changed the opacity back so that they were both at 100%. Watching it back, the transition between the two shots was a bit sudden so I added a cross dissolve transition between the two and it worked really well giving the perfect effect that I wanted of him simply vanishing.

I chose to film this shot of my actor on a swing because I felt it would give a really good effect if it was done well. It also mirrors the fact that my film is about a child and my actor is a child therefore still young enough to play.