Hallucinating Dissolve
I do most of my editing the lazy way – in the camera, and I’m always trying to think of smart ways to dissolve or fade from one scene to the next. Here’s one I’m proud of. Use acetate (heavy clear or frosted plastic), which you can get from your local art supplies store. I usually buy it in pieces 25 inches x 50 inches, although it also comes in rolls of 12 feet and 50 feet. I sandpaper the acetate progressively so that it remains clear at one end and becomes very rough at the other end, which gives a great distortion when you look through it.
When you come to the end of your shot, have your assistant slowly slide the acetate into the shot, clear end first. You’ll have to experiment for the best distance from the camera lens. I found about nine inches to be the best. You don’t see the actual edge coming into view when you look through the lens, you just see the image gradually getting more opaque. I keep adding more thicknesses, until I end up with whiteness. To start off the next scene, just reverse the procedure, so the image goes from fog to clear scene.
It seems to work better if I dissolve into a shot with some action going on, rather than have two static shots. It doesn’t work for extreme wide-angle, because there’s much greater depth of field and you can see the surface of the acetate. Probably a focal length of 20mm or more is best.
By bending the acetate, I got a great effect for my Humphrey Bogart hard-boiled detective film: the point of view of drugged detective coming round. You could also use it for a drunk or any hallucinating person.
- Michael Martin
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