Faking High-Speed Movement From a Robotic Camera Arm With Simple Tools

The "bullet time" effect keeps evolving and today it can be achieved not only with an array of digital cameras, but with high-speed robots equipped with high-speed cameras. We, the lower budget society, always try to get the latest visual techniques in our work, but, if possible, on the cheap. This video will help you imitate a high-speed camera movement with simple tools you may already have in your video production workflow.

Jordy Vandeput shows an ingenious way of faking that cool type of movement by shooting a sequence in different "pacing" and then speeding up portions of the video in post. The parts of the video that have to be played faster are shot in a fake slow motion, meaning the actors pretend they are moving in a slow motion fashion. If you're still wondering what the effect actually is, watch the next 15 seconds from this music video:

Vandeput used a camera crane to achieve his effect, but you can use whatever tools you currently have for camera stabilization: a dolly, slider, steadicam, gimbal, drone, or even a handheld rig. Keep in mind that you won't be able to get the same result if your subject is not cooperative. This means you will have some difficulties with a falling tomato, for instance.

[via No Film School]