Creating 'blinking eyes' in point of view shot.

[Piet Deyaert]

Hi everybody!

I'm having a question here, for a shoot we want to have a point of view of somebody sneezing. While doing so, he's closing his eyes a few times before he actually does sneeze. I want to achieve this IN camera, so no masking in post. Does anybody know if there's some kind of machinery dat could 'act' as our character's eye?
Or is there a more easy way, using gaffa tape or whatever?

Thanks in advance!
Piet

 

[BrandonChristensen]

Any reason you want to commit to it in camera?

 

[Todd T]

If you are using a matte box, just have someone close and open the top and bottom french flags.
It will be noisy, but it will approximate the action of your upper and lower eyelids.

In a typical sneeze, the eyes gradually close for at least 0.5 to 1.5 as the sneeze builds up, so speed is not really an issue

 

[Julio Quintana]

In the behind the scenes for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" Januzs Kaminski achieved that effect by opening and closing his fingers in front of the lens, like a scissor motion. Pretty simple and realistic since the skin of your fingers still allows a little light to pass through like a real eye lid.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

Seems like a strange thing to do in camera when a super simple comp will work perfectly and give you tons of options, anything you could put in front of lens you could put in front of a greenscreen, but yeah, fingers!

 

[Paul Russell]

I'd be tempted to do this in post. Shoot a separate shot of fingers being closed over the lens (or any other ideas you may have) and use it as an alpha overlay.

 

[Matt W.]

Fincher does black flash frames. Worked better in Gone Girl than in his Nike Spot. Very innovative if strange technique.

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this in camera, but there are a host of mechanical shutters out there.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

In the behind the scenes for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" Januzs Kaminski achieved that effect by opening and closing his fingers in front of the lens, like a scissor motion. Pretty simple and realistic since the skin of your fingers still allows a little light to pass through like a real eye lid.

+1

While I agree it would be a simple post job, committing to it in camera is always fun.

 

[Marc Wielage]

While I agree it would be a simple post job, committing to it in camera is always fun.

Unless you ever need to change it.

 

[Piet Deyaert]

I will definitely shoot a clean plate, so we can always do it in post.
But does anybody know if there's some kind of mechanical shutter? Because I like the way the image interacts with the eyelids. That's why I prefer doing it in camera

 

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

Seems like the best would be to build your own eyelids

I've thought about doing this before, and if you really want to sell it and the blinks might be slow or delayed or the lids might end up in frame for more than a few frames, I think semitransparent lids that pass a little red light and that have eyelashes would be awesome in a particularly contrasty scene. Eyelashes can cause cool vertical (anamorphic type) flare that would be awesome to see in camera...

 

[Eric Santiago]

My cousin did a few artistic shorts and used black socks as gloves.

He told me he got that from David Lynch.

I thought it was funny during the shoots

 

[Eric M Hurt]

Unless you ever need to change it.

Yes Marc, that's indeed how it works.