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Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Production Notes: Forced Perspective
Nevada Film Office: In filmmaking, forced perspective is a visual effects technique that makes things appear to be farther away or closer than they actually are. It can also be used to make things look larger or smaller than they really are.
I am always so intrigued when I learn about new ways that films are created. Although I already knew what forced perspective was, I didn’t expect to hear that it is used in so many different shows and movies, like the Lord of the Rings. I think that forced perspective may be possible in theaters, but it will also be harder to get away with it since the audience is a lot bigger than one camera angle. I do think, however, that the skills that scenic designers and props people have, could be used to create the smaller models that are used in forced perspective because they’re so detailed and need precision that those jobs hone in on. If a play like Alice in Wonderland took place, that would be really cool to use forced perspective to give the illusion that she’s growing and or shrunken. I think the possibilities with forced perspective have a huge range that can impact the entire entertainment industry.
I think it is pretty genius all of the things that creative people can think up to fool an audience. Perspective itself is such a cool concept, and then understanding it enough to be able to bend and manipulate it is just really impressive. At my high school, we did some plays involving forced perspective. For our set of "The Comedy of Errors," we had a town built out of flats that were sloped at the top to give the illusion of a city street going into the distance, and at the end, we hung toy boats on a blue curtain to make it look like a harbor. The effect was quite nice, and not really meant to be literal or exact, in fact there were times were the actors would stand upstage by the tiny buildings and intentionally give away the gag. Also, when we did "Godzilla," we built a tiny village out of dollhouses that were bigger in the front and smaller in the back that Godzilla was then able to come through and smash and tear apart in a really cool looking way.
2 comments:
I am always so intrigued when I learn about new ways that films are created. Although I already knew what forced perspective was, I didn’t expect to hear that it is used in so many different shows and movies, like the Lord of the Rings. I think that forced perspective may be possible in theaters, but it will also be harder to get away with it since the audience is a lot bigger than one camera angle. I do think, however, that the skills that scenic designers and props people have, could be used to create the smaller models that are used in forced perspective because they’re so detailed and need precision that those jobs hone in on. If a play like Alice in Wonderland took place, that would be really cool to use forced perspective to give the illusion that she’s growing and or shrunken. I think the possibilities with forced perspective have a huge range that can impact the entire entertainment industry.
I think it is pretty genius all of the things that creative people can think up to fool an audience. Perspective itself is such a cool concept, and then understanding it enough to be able to bend and manipulate it is just really impressive. At my high school, we did some plays involving forced perspective. For our set of "The Comedy of Errors," we had a town built out of flats that were sloped at the top to give the illusion of a city street going into the distance, and at the end, we hung toy boats on a blue curtain to make it look like a harbor. The effect was quite nice, and not really meant to be literal or exact, in fact there were times were the actors would stand upstage by the tiny buildings and intentionally give away the gag. Also, when we did "Godzilla," we built a tiny village out of dollhouses that were bigger in the front and smaller in the back that Godzilla was then able to come through and smash and tear apart in a really cool looking way.
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