American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 99

Here Comes Christmas !

frames-per-second 'pulldown ratio differ¬
ence' that has to be resolved. You have to
compress or expand your shot so your video
frames are discrete and clear.
"There are various tricks to mak¬

and
here

are

two

great gift ideas in one!

ing a matte for a blurred image. You can cut
soft matte with an airbrush. Generally

a

with

Special Effects-Wire,

blur, aberrations in the matte are so
fast, they're not going to jump out. On this
job, the safest way was to cut into the blur. If
you froze the matte for the frame of Agnes
Moorehead swinging the axe, that matte
a

Tape and Rubber Band

Style
by L.B. Abbott, ASC

$29.95

would be smaller than the axe. We found
that it looked better that way. Each shot is

different; each matte

was cut one

(Sorry. What makes reindeer
fly is not covered here-but
just about every other effect is
explained. A fascinating gift
for any film buff.)

way or

the other.

"It's electronic rotoscoping, real¬
ly. You do it in a stencil mode. The line you
trace is actually inside or outside the con¬
tour, the reason being that the distinction

The

between the white area and the black area
should be the same as the distinction be¬
tween the character and the background. If
the line was drawn right on that boundary,
one of those two would have an edge - the
outside would have the edge of the figure,
and the inside would have the edge of the

background! John provided a matte for the
horizon, allowing us to marry each land¬
scape to the sky. First we laid down the sky,
then the landscape, and then the figure."
Harvey stresses that everything
done in video special effects has its parallel
in film opticals. "What we did was create a
graphic world, as it would be done on an
optical printer. Logistically, it's about the
same. There's a matte for every element.
The editor has to line the video image up
with the matte, just as in film. He does it
with time code numbers; they're on the
tape. The difference, of course - aside from
the superiority of film resolution, especially
in dark

areas

-

is that

we

can see our

composites instantaneously. There is no
processing, no waiting for dailies. Plus we
can tighten mattes or soften them electron¬
ically, if they're not quite correct."
Preparation of the elements was
done on the Kaleidoscope mover. Once the
figures were matched to their backgrounds,
the ADO was used to move the landscape
behind the figures. Senior editor Bill Weber
was in charge of that.
He had

a

"Bill did the famous Cars video.
lot of problems to solve in the edit.

Most of the

figures were married to their
backgrounds. Some were not because we
had to do multiplaning or a background pan.
So various shots were left incomplete. Then
we

had to choose various clouds from the

Light

on

Her Face

by Joseph B. Walker, ASC and
Juanita Walker

$19.95
(Fifty years of behind-the-lens
Hollywood history packed into
one great stocking stuffer.)

SPECIAL
If your

film buff has been extra good this

books for

year,

why not get both

$40.00?

Happy Holidays!
The ASC Press
P. O. Box

2230, Hollywood, CA 90078

The

Light On Her Face
copies @ $19.95
Postage and Handling $2.75 ($3.00 foriegn) per cpoy. Sales tax $1.20

Special Effects- Wire, Tape and Rubber Band Style
Postage and handling $3.50 ($5.00 foriegn) per copy. Sales tax $1.95

(California residents only).

per copy

copies @ $29.95
per copy

(Califonia residents only).

Special Offer

Both books for $40.00.
Postage and handling $4.00 ($6.00 foriegn). Sales tax $2.60 (California residents only).

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American Cinematographer - December 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 1988
