Hello,

I wanted to learn this one camera technique that I see very often, whether it be in a music video, television show, and in a movie. The camera focuses on one character, the camera zooms in into the character 'while' the background appears to be zooming out.

The actor zooms in and the background zooms out simultaneously.


How would you achieve this camera technique? Thank you in advance.

this is a transtrav, technique employed by Mr Hitchckock.
if you are doing cinema, no other way than having the cameraman zooming manually while moving the camera backward.
this is pretty hard because you need to keep the subject at same size (if possible), compensating the movement of the camera with the zoom and in the same time you need to keep focus too.
With video you can cheat with blue/green screen technology.

Other names for this technique are contra-zooming, trombone zoom and dolly zoom. It basically relies on the characteristic differences between short snd long focal lengths.

A short focal length (i.e. a wide angle) will give you much more apparent distance between objects in the foreground and objects in the background. Conversly, a long focal length will appear to flatten an image, giving you the illusion that there is little distance between foreground and background.

In order to keep the foreground object the same size while zooming, you must alter the foreground object's distance to lens relative to the focal length you are changing to - this keeps the foreground object the same size in frame.

So, in order to have the background appear to move backwards, you need to zoom out to a shorter focal length, while tracking (trucking for you US citizens I believe) towards your foreground object. The opposite is true should you wish the background to appear to move towards your foreground object.

To achieve this you should also watch out for a couple of things. Firstly you would normally have a focus puller, especially when zooming in, as this reduces your depth of field. Zooming out isn't quite as critical as wider lenses will give you greater depth of field. Of course if your camera operator is moving the camera and also zooming, he or she doesn't have enough hands to rack the focus so you'll need another pair of hands.

Also, focal length changes are often accompanied by the need to change the apperture size on many lenses, thus you should keep a close eye on exposure.

Hope that helps.

Shaun

Also do keep in mind the effect has become a bit of a cliche over
time, due to over-use... So when this is the case and it is very
hard to execute perhaps it is better to think creatively and come
up with some other nice visual way to create the feel in a different
way etc.?

You're right Rob, this is very hard to do effect, I've done it four times in my 12 yrs of my carrier, but when done properly it's really nice to see. From my expirience hardest thing is to mantain correct focus. Since i was doing that with broadcast cam and lenses, i am wondering how would thing work with AF?

I appreciate your responses Giroud, Shuan, Rob, and Darko. I can't wait to attempt the transtrav, contra-zooming, trombone zoom, dolly zoom, or whatchamacallit. :)

My favorite term for it is "zolly" (zoom/dolly).

I have found the hardest aspect not to be focus (yes, you need a focus puller, and it's no different than a regular push in/out) but coordinating the zooming with the physical motion. Zooms are non-linear, meaning that as you get towards the wider end, it requires less rotation of the barrel to maintain the same rate of widening of the angle of view. Thus you have to feather off the speed of the zoom as you move towards that end (or vice-versa), which has to coincide with the inevitable feather that is required as the dolly decelerates to a stop. There is a device out there that involves a decoder on the wheels of the dolly and will automatically adjust the zoom accordingly, believe it or not...! Too expensive for most folks though.

I recall one night a few years ago having to do this effect as we pushed in on four individuals, shot one at a time. It took hours to get them all right, and it more than tested our patience.

I was thinking about this effect this week as we were shooting at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, fantastic location that, I learned, housed the wrought iron staircase used by Hitch for this effect in "Vertigo". Nifty.

I did a search on that hotel, it looks incredible from the photos I
saw. I don't even want to know the rate to stay there, heh.

<<<-- Originally posted by Darko Flajpan : You're right Rob, this is very hard to do effect, I've done it four times in my 12 yrs of my carrier, but when done properly it's really nice to see. From my expirience hardest thing is to mantain correct focus. Since i was doing that with broadcast cam and lenses, i am wondering how would thing work with AF? -->>>

I had to do one of these "zollies" on a short last month using a non-tracked Dolly (a nightmare to keep straight) and a DVX100A. In mid-move the lighting changed dramatically, but I tried it with AF and it worked like a charm. No hunting whatsoever.

Yeah, this topic is a little old, but I thought I'd bump it, rather than start a new thread. My question is if this effect is possible with the XL1? I've attempted to zoom and focus at the same time on the lens and only one of the functions will work. I probably need to switch to the full manual lense to get this effect. Guess I have to break out the 14x lens.

Zolly? I like that term. The first time I ever really noticed a zolly was in JAWS. When Cheif Brody is on the beach staring at the water and the people start screaming - Speilberg zollies him - great effect.

i do this with weddings (candles on altars and Wedding cakes... in fact) its not that hard to do with AF, a steady hand and a decent zoom rocker...

oh and 3 years practice on the bloody camera...

the best example of the contra zoom is in goodfellas when ray liotta and rob deniro are sitting at the table in a diner and the background comes in so slowly you hardly notice it.No change in the size of the characters...welll executed

Andy.

The term I've always heard is either calling it a compression shot (Or expansion, depending on which way you're going)

It's a great effect, but really requires the use of a nice dolly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_shot

There is another great example in The Lord of the Rings where the camera zollies on the hobbit while the leaves rustle.

The 'transtrav' device aparently was patented by a Romanian cinematographer, Sergiu Huzum and used it in one of his films in 1966. While I was in the film school, my optics lecturer, Toma Radulet - who probably was part of the engineering team - showed us a modified dolly with gears and cables linked to an Angenieux 25-250 zoom lens. It was dumped in a corner of the camera department store of the Buftea Film Studios.
As Mr. Huzum left the country to live in France, he became a 'persona non grata', considered a traitor by the communist governement. The device was sabotaged, some parts went missing in order to make sure nobody will use it again, at least for the memory and legacy of a very talented cinematographer.
I hope someone there will try to restore it.

I beleive the technique is called forced perspective. Dolly in, focus in and zoom out. The background will fade away and the subject will increase. Dolly out, focus out and zoom in, the background will appear to grow.

Forced perspective would generally refer to a set built to appear to be bigger than it is by faking the dimishing effect, like a street that gets gradually smaller in scale to appear to be disappearing into the distance. Example would be the corridor in "Willy Wonka" (both versions) that ends up at a tiny little door once they walk up it, or the exterior street set in "One From the Heart", plus many others.

There isn't an official industry name for the technique discussed here, I usually use "Vertigo effect" in honor of Hitchcock but I was also introduced to the rather delightful "zolly" meaning zoom/dolly, so I try to use that one.

that is precisely what it is. It is an illusion of forced perspective. be it a set or a camera move. it can be acheived easily if your are working at the end of your lens with a shallow depth of field.

Love the 'zolly' name. I think it will stick.

The best use of this shot IMO, is either Hitchcock's Vertigo or Scorsese Goodfellas, where Jimmy and Hnery are talking in the cafe towards the end.

also check out the burning hallway shot in the school in:
Fahrenheit 451 Directed by
François Truffaut
the special features describe the shot and how it was done...

The end of panic room was a really slow reverse zollie...very cool.

I am going to need to employ this shot in my next short film, so I've been considering all options to get the best out of the technique.

My DoP tells me the best way of achieving this these days is using green screen. ie. Green screen your talent and composite him over the zoomed background.

An advantage to this, besides having not having to worry about zoom/track set up, is that you can select the best performance of your actor(s) without their best performance having to be scrapped on a poorly executed 'zolly'

Can anyone tell me any disadvantages to executing the shot this way (ie with green screen), as it's my first time doing the contra-zoom on set. Many thanks,

Kris

I am going to need to employ this shot in my next short film, so I've been considering all options to get the best out of the technique.

My DoP tells me the best way of achieving this these days is using green screen. ie. Green screen your talent and composite him over the zoomed background.

An advantage to this, besides having not having to worry about zoom/track set up, is that you can select the best performance of your actor(s) without their best performance having to be scrapped on a poorly executed 'zolly'

Can anyone tell me any disadvantages to executing the shot this way (ie with green screen), as it's my first time doing the contra-zoom on set. Many thanks,

Kris

The negative aspect of doing the shot employing a green screen is that there'll be no change optically in your foreground subject over the course of the move.

Because of seeing the lens breath every other time you've seen that shot done, we've all come to expect a tiny bit of "zoom" and/or barrel distortion on your subject as the move happens. If you DON'T see that, it'll look very faked, IMO.

Unless you want to spend extra time posting that shot, i.e., manipulating the actor's compositing layer, you'd be better off doing it IC.

I'm kind of surprised your DP recommended doing it GS. Those shots are so fun to get right on set!

Jesse,

Big thanks on your feedback - much appreciated.

Yes, in the back of my mind, I figured there would be zero change to the foreground doing it green screen, which might make it look false, but not odd I thought.

Although, to be clear, I don't care much for the fun of trying to do it the traditional way or whether experts would point at it and say, 'that's not a true zolly!' ... All I care about is that it looks good and effective on screen. ie. Will the visual effect work the same way doing it green screen?

Another question, which looks better, zoom in / dolly back, or, zoom out / dolly in ?

My needs: Solo actor set up, sudden realization / horror, background object important to be seen / noticed.

Your choice depends if you want a sense of growing space or the background being drawn in.

Steven Spielberg was into them in this early days, apart from "Jaws" he used the effect in "Sugarland Express" drawing the approaching car onto the hidden marksman and his rifle in the foreground.

Jesse,

Big thanks on your feedback - much appreciated.

Yes, in the back of my mind, I figured there would be zero change to the foreground doing it green screen, which might make it look false, but not odd I thought.

Although, to be clear, I don't care much for the fun of trying to do it the traditional way or whether experts would point at it and say, 'that's not a true zolly!' ... All I care about is that it looks good and effective on screen. ie. Will the visual effect work the same way doing it green screen?

Another question, which looks better, zoom in / dolly back, or, zoom out / dolly in ?

My needs: Solo actor set up, sudden realization / horror, background object important to be seen / noticed.

To me, the effect on the foreground is part of the total visual effect, so again, IMO, I don't think it'll be effective green screened.

But if you have any solid color wall to shoot in front of, you can do a quick and dirty test yourself to see if it's acceptable for you.

As for which method looks better, well, they look different. If you want the background to appear to stretch out behind your subject (providing a sense of being lost, alone, etc...) zoom out while dollying in. If you want to collapse the space between subject and background, zoom in, dolly out.

Dolly zoom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_zoom)