#MediaMonday: Cinema Magic
Good Morning Everyone,
I truly hope this email finds all of you well. As most of (if not all of us) are now back to school, I wish all of you the utmost in health and a good, solid year ahead of you.
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Okay, now to today's lesson: Cinema Magic
As legend would have it, illusionist and Parisian grandfather of film, Georges Méliès, was once shooting film on the streets of Paris in the late 1800s when his camera jammed. After clearing the obstruction, he resumed the same shot without changing the framing. After coming back to the dark room, he noticed something that blew his mind.
In the original shot (just prior to the jam), a man was crossing the street. Then, as the camera jams, the man walks out of frame. After the jam is cleared and the film resumes, an incredible effect is created: the man disappears! For an illusionist like Méliès, this was real magic; He determined that film can be used as the vehicle for achieving realistic illusions and thus, special effects were born.
This effect can be seen in one of his short films, The Vanishing Lady (1897).
This special effect was even used later in TV shows like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.
So here is the challenge: Give your students an assignment to make something disappear out of frame on camera.
This can be a person or an object
Make sure your students have a "motivated reason" for something to disappear (i.e. a magic wand, a ghost, etc)
The easies way to teach the student to do this is to:
Hit record on a camera stabilized by a tripod.
Act out the scene until the object is supposed to disappear.
Then, everything freezes in place.
Remove the person or object with everything else remains absolutely frozen in place.
Hold for another second or two and then resume the scene as if the object has disappeared.
Have the actors react to the missing object.
Hit Stop.
Then, in the editor, carefully blade out the "disappearing time" and leave in a hard cut. A classic disappearing effect should be achieved.
Every time I watch Méliès, I am always filled with an awe that only film can achieve. It reminds us just how much film is a visual medium and how much fun it can be to manipulate a camera to make magic happen for you audience. Enjoy teaching your students how to perform real magic and have a great week.
Talk to you soon,
Josh Cantrell