Achieving a mist / rain effect

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tomtailford
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Joined: Oct 17 2007

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gkhxIa8qV_w

How would you achieve this sort of effect???

Any ideas?

DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

live or on video.

I assume it's the falling smoke that you mean at the start?

tomtailford
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Joined: Oct 17 2007

on video, and yea its the falling mist or fine rain or smoke or whatever it is at the start!!

DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

if it is, then it may be this....

In the old days, Dry Ice was used to create a "spooky mist/rolling fog" effect in live theatre/rock. It's dense and low lying.

Smoke effect hangs in the air and is a more ethereal atmospheric effect that helps show off lights. The Genesis light curtain is a row of PAR cans that uses smoke to reveal the beams and looks pretty cool.

These days cooled smoke drops to the floor to give a similar efect as dy ice and this may be what is on the start of the video. It's basically a water based oil that's heated up (which would hang or rise in the thermal currents of the lighting) but is pumped through a big water ice store so that it's cold and falls.

something like this
http://www.djanddiscostuff.com/prodpage.asp?prodid=1767

but above the stage to make a falling effect

I could be wrong.....

DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

oops
that took ages to type.

On video's differentand i don't have a clue!

It's behind the talent so you'd need to create a matte or key it out and insert a video of the effect I guess

tomtailford
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Joined: Oct 17 2007

do you think this effect was created on video or live?

i want to do it however they did it to make it look as good!

dont think it was the dry ice technique tho

DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

it looks to me to be a live effect but you tube does things to the video so it's hard to tell.

I've seen falling smoke used live before and it's similar

dvnam
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Joined: Oct 16 2006

yeah - fog machine - you can get 'em online for as little as £20. If you're planning on using it in a similar c/u shot you probably wouldn't need one that's too big anyway.

I've used a mid sized one for a card game and ghostly flashback scene in a large room using a series of mid shots and close ups and it's not easy to achieve continuity if you're aiming for a thick, swirling fog/smoke effect, easier if you dissipate the fog for a lighter effect. It's effective when used in low light with creative lighting.

You can also get a free plugin for FCP/FCE if you're a mac user called 'Silk and Fog' but the fog effect isn't too convincing.

tomtailford
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Joined: Oct 17 2007

but its more of a rainy effect than a fog effect dont you think??

i'm gonna check out the fog machine and see what they do

robo
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Joined: Aug 15 2000

It may be something as simple as filming smoke and then rotating the picture 180 degrees.

robo

Bob Aldis
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Joined: Mar 7 2001

It looks like the person in front of the smoke is superimposed in which case you could just film some smoke and pan through it.

Bob Aldis