Monday, 6 May 2013

Front Projection Effect

Invented by Philip V. Palmquist and made famous by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey, front projection is a tenique that, as the name suggests, projects a pre-filmed image onto a large, highly reflective screen. This allows an actor or subject to stand in front of this screen whilst being made to look as if they have been transported into the scene.

The set up requires the projector to be at 90 degrees to the action, reflected onto the screen by a two way mirror thats placed at a 45 degree angle in relation the actor and projector. The camera is placed in front of both the actor and mirror, hence the reasoning behind the necesarry two way properties of it. 

 
The method was invented in 1943 and used right up until the early 90's until the advancements in digital compositing rendered the technique out dated. Kubrick was so experienced with the tecnique he decided to use in in his last film, Eyes Wide Shut for some of the scene were the actors were required to walk down streets. It's even been suggested that its with the use of this technique that Kubrick was asked to stage the moon landings, utilizing his experience from working on 2001.
 
 











 



 
 

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