On the Internet you can find funny photographs that supposedly show the process of filming science fiction films using chromakey. We decided to look at a few of these pictures.
In one of these photos, allegedly taken on the set of the film "Spider-Man: Far From Home"(2019), the leading actor Tom Holland is captured kissing not his fellow actress Zendaya, but her stunt double. The YouTube channel talked about this shot “Movie in 3 minutes"(237,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Similar posts can be found on Pinterest and on VKontakte, where they were posted by publics “Before | After"(119,000 views), Cut The Crap (73,000), "Marvel & DC Universe" (15,000), "Holy Jesus"(12,000) and etc.. In the comments, some users suggested that such a replacement of the actress was due to a difference in height, Zendaya's busy schedule, or measures to combat coronavirus (although the film's premiere took place before the pandemic).
Another photo being circulated allegedly shows how they were filming stage from the painting "Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022), in which the title character spreads his legs wide. It is believed that actor Chris Hemsworth wore special pants, which were then removed in editing, and his fake lower limbs were held by people in green suits. There are many similar publications on VKontakte, where publics wrote about this “Cinema world"(159,000 views), MyComics | Marvel (33,000), "Theater. Performances. Culture news"(24,000) and etc..
On the Internet you can come across publications with another behind-the-scenes shot - supposedly from the filming of “Matrices"(1999). It features Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving, who play the protagonist and antagonist, respectively. In the photo, both actors are shown against a green background, while they are supported on their shoulders by people in suits of the same color. For example, this photo is found on VKontakte, where a public post MyComics | Marvel received 180,000 views, also on entertainment websites.
These three photographs (in addition to the fact that they depict green screens for chromakey) are united by one detail: a watermark with the words Fame Focus is visible on the images. In the case of the shot with Thor, only smeared fragments of such a sign are visible, since they tried to erase it.
Fame Focus is an online portal about visual effects (VFX) in film and television. His content is quite popular - on YouTube channel The project is subscribed by almost 5.8 million users. According to its description, the authors analyze famous Hollywood films, explain how certain effects were brought to life using “VFX magic,” and also point out the mistakes they found. At the same time, almost all Fame Focus videos feature, as a preview, funny, according to the authors, behind-the-scenes shots featuring people in green suits or with a green screen. But are these images real?
For example, in a video about what the film "The Matrix" would look like without computer graphics, at the time stamp 01:28 the presenter explains that the cover of this video with the people in green is actually fake. Later in the video, he shows and tells how the scene captured on it was actually created.
Like others similar sequences with time dilation in this cult film, an aerial shootout between Reeves and Weaving's characters filmed in the studio on a green background using a special circular installation in which it was used near 120 photo cameras and two video cameras. In fact, on the set, both actors were suspended on several cables, and people in green suits were present, but did not support the artists' bodies.
Now for the photo with Holland kissing. The YouTube channel “Cinema in 3 minutes” mentioned at the beginning of the analysis is like this described viral footage: “Did you know that in [the movie] Spider-Man: Far From Home? kiss scene was filmed in a unique way? In this scene, Tom Holland did not actually kiss Zendaya's character Mary Jane (this is the name of the superhero's lover from the comics, in this film the heroine name is Michelle. — Approx. ed.), but instead kissed the stand man (apparently, he meant understudy. — Approx. ed.) in a green suit. CGI was later used to replace the stand man with Mary Jane to make the final shot look natural. Such techniques are common in film production in order to organically manage the availability of special effects and not call on actors to shoot small scenes.” However, in his video, the Fame Focus host statedthat Zendaya herself starred in the episode. In another video by the same authors, as a joke approvedthat Holland kissed Mr. Green, the Fame Focus mascot character.
In fact, Zendaya participated in the filming of the kiss scene, which confirmed official videos about the making of the film. At the same time, the real materials show that the artists were filmed against a blue background, while according to Fame Focus the shooting was on location.
“Verified” could not find official footage that would demonstrate how the scene with Thor’s splits was actually filmed. However, there is a short one on the Fame Focus channel video clip "Chris Hemsworth Trying on Mr. Green's Pants," where the green mascot allegedly learns the secret to the actor's leg stretching. That is, the authors clearly indicated that they themselves created the frame for their preview.
Thus, you should not believe all the publications whose authors supposedly reveal the magic of cinema - sometimes such posts only demonstrate the magic of using Photoshop. In the case of the frames we analyzed, these are humorous clickbait photoshops from the authors of the YouTube channel Fame Focus, who leave a branded watermark on their images.
Cover photo: Fame Focus / collage “Verified”
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