actor fighting himself advice?

[mahmoudcg]

hi,
I need some advice on vfx shots that I'll be working on. its an actor fighting himself. what I don't know is how to make him interact to his moves. I know this has to be shot on several takes however its my first time doing this so can someone guide me if theres a special technique or method we should follow while shooting.
thanks in advance

[edge-t]

I've never done this before, but I think you need another stand-in actor wearing a blue suit for you to key out. They have to be the same height(Both actors). Rehearse the fight scenes, Shoot them fighting from one side--Main actor left, Stand-in right; after which you get them to switch sides with Main actor right and Stand in left, and both need to switch their fight sequences.

I think the biggest problem will be timing. Better do more cushion shoots.

P.S. If there's another way, I'll be interested to know too.

[mahmoudcg]

edge-t , thanks for your reply
now I'm thinking how accurately can this be controlled, I mean when both actors switch sides how can the new actor fit the position of the previously stand-in actor? specialy at the points of interaction. no ideas yet
I watched the making of LOTR in shots that involved gollum interacting with the hobbits and saw them shoot each shot twice, once with the intended gollum wearing a white suit just for the hobbits to act with , and second time in a blue suit. however I think they did a complete digital replica of gollum so they did not have the problem of a live actor fitting in the place of another live actor. not quite sure though.
I'm thinking maybe we can just do a digital replacement for the head. just shoot the actor and the stand-in actor, and with the help of assist cameras we can manually match move a digital replica of the actors head to the stand-in actors movements
any thoughts on that?

[edge-t]

Timing is the biggest problem--like I said earlier. I think you have to retime certain shots slight in order to line up when they interact. If you shot this against a green screen, with the stand-in wearing blue, you can key out both the back ground and the guy in blue suit, and reposition the actor on the reversed side(retime, fix point of contact issues). Reckon it's not going to be easy and sure takes a lot of rehearse for both actors so that they can fight with the same timing on most takes.

As I think it's not going to be ONE long take, you can actually cut to CU, MCU, OTS(Where the stand-in is back facing the camera) shots at the point of impact to hide certain interaction problems. Definitely there's going to be some troubleshooting, but I think with lots of rehearse, it can be done. I think this route is easier.

For digital head replacements, there are tracking issues to consider with fast actions, but it's as good a solution if not better. I guess it requires a lot less takes and you fix most shots in post. I would only worry about tracking the digital head onto the stand-in's head without it looking like it's floating.

[edge-t]

Oh yeah, For digital head replacements you'll need to stick markers on the stand-in's face. Otherwise, match moving the digital head on is going to be hell.

[mahmoudcg]

green screen and blue suit will definitely help a lot. next week we will be doing test shoots and see how things will go
thanks a lot for your help edge

[mahmoudcg]

now we are thinking of hiring a team to supervise the project for freelance , can you give me some info about how to reach freelance supervisors and offer them the job?

[edge-t]

Sorry man, but I'm located in Asia. Can't help you with that. Hope that everything works out