Greetings children, Captain Disillusion here, and tonight we are going to have fun. I won't give you my usual lecture on the morality of creating and believing in fake imagery because I want to make it clear, special effects are, above all, a source of entertainment and when they are used for entertainment purposes I love them. Enjoying cinematic puzzles and then trying to figure out how they were created is good for the brain.
So tonight, let's take a look at a well known video by a group of inventive kids calling themselves neverhidefilms. You have probably seen it, it feature is two funny guys and one of them is able to catch sunglasses right on his head in like totally radical ways. Of course, many smart kids posted partial theories on how the tricks were done but there is never been a definitive explanation because there is no singular answer, it was a combination of techniques.
So since the video has been around a long time and I am sure the creator's wont mind lets break it down, captain dissolution style. Alright, there are seven scenes with effects in the video. The intro is a combination of two seamlessly combined shots. The first is played back in reverse and the glasses are not thrown at the catcher but pulled towards the throwers hand by an incredible invention, the string. So it's all played back in reverse until this switch pan during which there is an invisible cut to a straightforward shot where the characters lean.
In the roof scene it's the opposite, the first half is straightforward then there is a seamless cut, see upside down, right side up, upside down, right side up, and the second half is performed in reverse with the glasses once again pulled off the catcher by the trusty string.
The overpass scene is done exactly the same way. The elevator is single reverse shot with the glasses pulled by the string as soon as the doors opened.
Now the skateboard catapult shot is a vary fancy transition between two shots, as the glasses are launched they seem to have been isolated and guided to fly towards the catchers face whose side was filmed separately and actually he is wearing the glasses the whole time but for the brief moment that he is on screen before the fake glasses reach him a frame of this face without glasses is superimposed over his actual face. The glasses from the other shot and the fake face disappear on the frame where the catching is supposed to occur, nice and clean.
The skateboarding is a simple reverse shot using the string and they left you a clue, listen to the sound of the wheels on the pavement, it's backwards. That sounds great, hey impressive backwards skateboarding skills. I want to see the outtakes. Now even though the guy's movements are a little weird in the beginning of the car scene no reverse playback was used. This is a fancy version of a split screen effect. Look at the car dimensions here, the post and everything after it is a separately filmed portion.
The gag is that the thrower doesn't actually throw the glasses at all and for a few frames a face with glasses is once again pasted and tracked on top of the catchers face until the split reveals a shot where the glasses really are on him. The close up insert was done separately using the same reverse motion and string technique and was filmed the car moving a little slower.
We maybe able to break it down but that doesn't mean it didn't take a lot of work, neverhidefilms probably had to tape straightforward versions of some shots in order to reverse them and learn the backwards choreography, and if you think you know everything check out their sequel to this called Bobbing for Glasses, that one is a lot tougher to figure out.
But now, I am afraid it is time for me to go kids; a teen in Washington is confused and upset by the visual trickery in old Bewitched episode; this might require some visual aids. Remember, love with your heart, use your head for everything else. Captain Disillusion.
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