In this weekly post of Dan’s Friday Film-Making Creative Tips & Wonders, we look at the early days of cinema and how audiences were amazed by it as a spectacle. We showcase the work of film-maker George Melies as a master of forced perspectives and dazzling visual effects and how he used this to wow audiences and keep them coming back for more… we uncover a powerful new AI editing tool called ‘Music Remix’ which allows users to change the duration of any song seamlessly, and we also turn our attention to old technology and in particular Stereoscopic Cameras and how they can be used effectively to create interesting anamorphic effects for your current projects! 🎥🌝

Forced Perspectives. Practical Effects & George Méliès

When we think of early cinema, we often imagine silent movies filled with exaggerated acting, slapstick comedy and creative storytelling, however, what I believe truly sets these films apart is their pioneering use of practical ‘real’ effects. Long before the use of CGI, filmmakers had to think creatively and outside the box to bring their visions to life. This was achieved in several ways but most notably through forced perspectives and minatures. In the early days of cinema, audiences went to marvel at its spectacle and wanted to be wowed by dazzling visuals and special effects. Filmmakers like Georges Méliès and Edwin S. Porter were masters at this and drew in large crowds by using small-scale models and camera tricks to transport audiences to weird and wonderful worlds. In Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon” (1902), a giant bullet landing in the moon’s eye was achieved by creating a moon set with an eye-shaped hole. By placing the actors and objects at different distances from the camera, the filmmakers created the illusion of a bullet crash-landing on the moon which left audiences bewildered and kept them coming back for more!

Adobe Premiere – AI Music Remix Tool

We have all been there… you’re editing a video and although the song you’ve picked matches the visuals perfectly it doesn’t end exactly where you want it to. You then proceed to look for additional shots to make your video longer/cut down your video further or even put your DJ skills to the test and remix the song manually using fades and transitions. Well… that is now a thing of the past thanks to a brilliant new AI-powered feature in Adobe Premiere Pro called ‘Music Remix Tool.’ It allows users to drag a song to any desired duration so that it ends perfectly in time with your project/video. The power of AI magically remixes the track seamlessly allowing you to pick songs of any duration for your creative work. This amazing new feature is sure to make everyone’s lives easier when searching for your next music track for a video and also opens our minds to the possibilities of new AI tools coming to editing platforms in the future!

3D Wiggle Effect

Here’s a cool technique which allows users to create a 3D wiggle effect using a stereoscopic camera lens. A stereoscopic camera lens features three or four lenses built into one lens. This allows the sensor of the camera to take different perspectives of a subject, creating a parallax shift in between the frames that when combined into an animated sequence creates a sense of depth and 3D to the resulting end image. This creates a 3D wiggle effect which I think has a really cool nostalgic/anamorphic feel to it and is perfect for music or fashion videos. It has been used effectively in Shy FX’s ‘Roll The Dice’ music video.

This is also a technique we have used ourselves as it helps to make our videos more diverse with the introduction of different formats, giving a touch of nostalgia and a vintage feel to the final product.