FX Car Impact Test
This is a little test I put together in about four hours one Saturday afternoon in early ’07. John Bryant and I had been talking about my doing an fx shot for the Duplass’ brothers upcoming film Baghead, and I had a decent idea of how to pull it off.
Had my wife film me hand-held for a few tries and then I stuck the camera on a tripod for the remainder. (Hmm, maybe I should work this up as a tutorial, show the passes, etc.) Then combined three passes with some quick and dirty roto and some tracking in After Effects, just to prove it could work. One of these days I really should tweak the roto and clean up the small transitions in between shots, so it truly is a seamless shot. But even as a half-day test, it’s pretty effective.
The technique I eventually used on Baghead was only slightly more complex (involving a mattress and some mattress removal, basically), but the technique really didn’t change a whole lot.
This shot also got me my effects gig on The Lights, an indie horror movie shot in south Austin. Sometimes in four hours you can make a little magic happen.
One fun note: check out the shirt color of the driver. It’s me running over myself.
