How is the ghost in the ghost film filmed?

Piper's ghost and movie stunts

Many people like the horror of ghost movies. In order to achieve the horror effect, the filmmakers must do their best to present the ghostly effect of flickering ghosts to the audience. In some ghost films, those ghosts will not only appear and disappear gradually, but also change in seventy-two ways and gradually become animals or someone. People seldom think about how these film and television effects are made. It may be easy to use computer stunts now, but many old movies were filmed without computers.

There is also the famous animated cartoon Garfield, which many people like to watch. One of the reasons is that the whole film is performed by real people, and the characters and environment are real. Only Garfield can tell at a glance that it is an animated cartoon image. Surprisingly, live-action shooting and animation are two completely different ways of film and television production, but in Garfield, they can be perfectly integrated, making the audience feel that Aybak really has a cute and intelligent Garfield. You must want to know how such a perfectly integrated film and television art is made.

Unexpectedly, these two seemingly unrelated film and television effects come from the same principle and technique, which is called "Piper's Ghost" in the film industry. It was the famous British director John? Henry? A shooting technique invented by Piper. At that time, he just wanted to use it to achieve the ghostly effect of ghosts.

the ghostly nature of the ghostly mirror

But to realize this skill, you need a ghostly mirror. This kind of mirror can be said that both sides are mirrors, and both sides are transparent glass. What a joke! Is there such a mirror in the world? This kind of mirror not only exists in reality, but anyone can have such a mirror!

an indoor luxury decoration is to install a rotatable double mirror in the living room, which is both a mirror and a screen, which is very imposing. If the mirror surface of the double-sided mirror is such a ghost mirror, then the guest walks in from the outside and sees the big mirror. While sitting on the indoor sofa, you look up and see a guest coming through the mirror screen.

maybe some people don't understand, don't they say that both sides of the ghost mirror are mirrors? Why can people see someone coming through the mirror? Yes, turn the mirror screen, no matter which side of the screen faces outward, people look indoors from the outside and see mirrors. But looking out from the room, both sides of the mirror screen are transparent glass.

Maybe this explanation is understandable, but this kind of mirror must be an expensive high-tech product. It's neither expensive nor high-tech. Ordinary mirrors are coated with a layer of bright mercury on one side of the glass and covered with a layer of paint on the surface of the mercury. So from the other side of the glass, it becomes a mirror. But the ghost mirror here is plated with a metal on one side of the glass, usually aluminum. Then this glass becomes a ghost mirror.

the reason why aluminized glass becomes a ghost mirror is simpler. Generally, the light transmittance of glass is over 8%. After a layer of aluminum is plated, the light transmittance becomes about 5%. That is to say, when a beam of light shines on the aluminum-plated glass, half of the light passes through the glass and half of the light is reflected back. If the aluminized glass has strong light on one side and weak light on the other, then for the side with strong light, there will be more reflected light than the light transmitted from the opposite side, so what the human eye sees is mainly reflected light, that is, the scene with mirror reflection; For the weak side, the light transmitted from the opposite side is stronger than the reflected light, so what the human eye sees is mainly the light transmitted by aluminized glass, so what people see is similar to the scenery outside the glass window. For the above-mentioned mirror screen in the living room, the outside of the screen is generally stronger than the indoor light, so the guest sees the mirror and the owner sees the glass. In fact, the glass window in life will also have this effect: we can watch the scenery outside through the glass window during the day, but at night, what we see from the window is our own indoor image. It's just that this effect of ordinary glass is not obvious, and one side must be much brighter than the other.

how is the old house haunted

what if the light on both sides of aluminized glass is equally strong? That's the point. At this time, there will be a superposition of reflected scenery and transmitted scenery. Garfield was shot by this principle: there is a huge aluminized glass in the studio, and the two projectors are separated on both sides of the aluminized glass, with a projection angle of 45, and the light intensity on both sides of the glass is similar. Let one projector show the real picture and the other projector show Garfield's animated action. After proper time and position adjustment, the two pictures can be superimposed at the right time and place to form an image of people playing with the animated cat, and then shoot this image, which is a Garfield. Although this process is complicated, it is very interesting.

If the light on both sides of the aluminized glass is the same as the scenery, but there is an object on one side and not on the other side, then when the lights on both sides are turned on at the same time, there will be a feeling that the object is a little shadowy and unreal relative to the environment, and the ghost is shot by using this effect.

For example, to shoot the scene of "haunted old house", the props needed are: in a square room, a "wall" is installed diagonally. This "wall" is composed of a ghost mirror with aluminum-plated glass, and the square room is divided into two rooms, both of which are equipped with light bulbs with the same wattage. Then put a table at one end of the other diagonal of the house (the left room). A man disguised as a ghost stands next to the table, while at the other end of the diagonal (the right room), just put an identical table. The two tables are placed in mirror symmetry. At this time, turn on the light bulbs in the rooms on both sides, and the environmental images such as tables and houses are composed of reflected light and transmitted light. Only ghosts have only reflected light, so ghosts will look like shadows. When the light bulb in the left room is dimmed gradually, the ghost disappears gradually. If the light in the right room is gradually dimmed, the effect you see is that the ghost gradually changes from a ghost to a physical ghost. This visual effect completely fooled the audience into the plot.

Ghost mirrors are also common in life

Changing the light transmittance of glass will produce such ingenious uses! What a surprise. The purpose of aluminized glass is not just these! Nowadays, many luxury decorated rooms use it as glass, in order to protect their cleanliness and keep abreast of the outside world. More often, it is used to monitor customers or workers in large shopping malls or assembly-line factories. This appearance is a mirror, but it is actually a ghost mirror of glass. The owner knows the outside world like the palm of his hand, but it will not be discovered by customers or workers and will be unpleasant.

There is another scene that you often see when watching TV: the news announcer broadcasts the news from all over the country fluently, without looking down at any draft at all, as if he had memorized it! In fact, this lens is a little tricky: there is an aluminized glass speaking prompt in front of the camera, the glass surface is inclined downward, and the angle with the horizontal direction is 45. The broadcast text is projected vertically upward from the slide below the lens onto the aluminized glass, and the broadcast text can just enter the announcer's eyes along the horizontal direction through the reflection of the aluminized glass. The camera is shooting from a horizontal angle, but it only captures the endless announcer, which makes people feel that the announcer has a good memory and is good at speaking. This kind of camera is specially prepared for special interviews or news programs.

If you want to distinguish whether a mirror is a ghost mirror or an ordinary mirror, it's really hard to distinguish from the appearance. If you have a flashlight around you, use it to illuminate the mirror. If you only see the reflection of the flashlight, it's an ordinary mirror. If other parts besides the glare illuminated by the flashlight reveal non-surrounding scenery, then this mirror is a ghost mirror. There is another trick, just like looking at the indoor situation through the window glass. Stick your eyes on the mirror and cover your eyes with your hands to form a small dark environment in your hand. If you can see the scene inside, then this mirror is a semi-transparent ghost mirror.