Introvision was a variation on a front-projection process that allowed film makers to view a finished composite of live action and plate photography through the camera's viewfinder on set and in real time. During its heyday, starting with the feature film, Outland in 1981, Introvision enjoyed the novelty of visual effect compositing in-camera, thus eliminating the need to wait for photo-chemical compositing to determine if the effect shot was successful.
President of Introvision Systems, Tom Naud, explained it this way: "Introvision utilizes a Scotchlite screen - ours happen to be thirty feet tall by sixty feet wide—so in that regard, we're front screen projection. But the finished piece of film produced on our system bears no other resemblance to standard front projection."
Another benefit to the Introvision process was the ability to place an actor 'inside' a plate, meaning an actor could walk vertically or laterally inside a two-dimensional background image and seemingly go behind objects within any given environment. The actual background on the set was black, so the actor would have to pantomime walking through and around certain objects. Done well, the illusion was nearly perfect, particularly with precise lighting and careful miniature set construction (or previously photographed images, which was done in The Fugitive with a train superimposed behind actor Harrison Ford).
The system faded from use around 1994, due to the widespread adoption of Digital compositing and Matchmoving, which allowed live action characters to be placed in fully or partially computer-generated backgrounds, or computer-generated characters to be combined with live action characters—and sometimes both at the same time.
The Introvision system
The front projection screen - custom made from thousands of pentagonal-shaped Scotchlite pieces to eliminate seam lines which might show on the finished film - sits at the far end of the stage. Despite its formidable size, a four-man crew could mount the screen on its tubular steel frame and erect the system in about two hours. On the opposite end of the stage is the compact projector/camera unit. As with other front-projection systems, Introvision made use of the light reflectance characteristics of the Scotchlite screen, which returns light to its source virtually undiminished, but only directly in line with that source. At oblique angles, the light intensity drops off drastically and the image dissipates. Therefore, in order to apply this phenomenon photographically, both projector and camera must be positioned along precisely the same axis - a physical impossibility sidestepped by the employment of a beam splitter. The beam splitter, mounted at a 45-degree angle to the projector axis, aligns the projected image directly to the camera's focal plane, even though the camera and projector are actually positioned at right angles to each other. The mirrored beam-splitter kicks part of the projected image up onto the screen, but being semi-transparent, also allows the camera to see through it, and thereby record the image reflected back.
Actors and set pieces were placed directly in front of the screen, because the projected image was so brilliant, the intensity of light needed to balance 'live' elements to the screen obliterated the projected image from anything in the foreground. Since the projector and camera were in perfect alignment, the foreground elements themselves blocked any unwanted shadows that they may have cast on the screen.
Origins of the Introvision process
Introvision was created by John Eppolito, who was a stage magician and hypnotist. He spent most of his adult life working as a radio producer and director for ABC, and then in the early 1970s transitioned to film production. Along with USC film student Les Robley, Eppolito set up shop in a garage tinkering with front projection. Introvision International 1011 North Fuller Ave Hollywood CA was formed, expanded, and operated from 1980 to 2000 by President Tom Naud, Head Camera Production Operations Bill Mesa, and Studio Facility Builder, Set Builder and Studio Manager Issachar Issy Shabtay.
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two or more images or video streams together based on colour hues. The technique has been used in many fields to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video – particularly the newscasting, motion picture, and video game industries. A colour range in the foreground footage is made transparent, allowing separately filmed background footage or a static image to be inserted into the scene. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production. This technique is also referred to as colour keying, colour-separation overlay, or by various terms for specific colour-related variants such as green screen or blue screen; chroma keying can be done with backgrounds of any colour that are uniform and distinct, but green and blue backgrounds are more commonly used because they differ most distinctly in hue from any human skin colour. No part of the subject being filmed or photographed may duplicate the colour used as the backing, or the part may be erroneously identified as part of the backing.
An LCD projector is a type of video projector for displaying video, images or computer data on a screen or other flat surface. It is a modern equivalent of the slide projector or overhead projector. To display images, LCD projectors typically send light from a metal-halide lamp through a prism or series of dichroic filters that separates light to three polysilicon panels – one each for the red, green and blue components of the video signal. As polarized light passes through the panels, individual pixels can be opened to allow light to pass or closed to block the light. The combination of open and closed pixels can produce a wide range of colors and shades in the projected image.
Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a set of chipsets based on optical micro-electro-mechanical technology that uses a digital micromirror device. It was originally developed in 1987 by Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments. While the DLP imaging device was invented by Texas Instruments, the first DLP-based projector was introduced by Digital Projection Ltd in 1997. Digital Projection and Texas Instruments were both awarded Emmy Awards in 1998 for the DLP projector technology. DLP is used in a variety of display applications from traditional static displays to interactive displays and also non-traditional embedded applications including medical, security, and industrial uses.
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Modern movie projectors are specially built video projectors.
Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called "chroma key", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today, most, though not all, compositing is achieved through digital image manipulation. Pre-digital compositing techniques, however, go back as far as the trick films of Georges Méliès in the late 19th century, and some are still in use.
A polarized 3D system uses polarization glasses to create the illusion of three-dimensional images by restricting the light that reaches each eye.
A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed on a wall, as in a movie theater, mounted to or placed in a ceiling using a rollable projection surface that retracts into a casing, painted on a wall, or portable with tripod or floor rising models as in a conference room or other non-dedicated viewing space. Another popular type of portable screens are inflatable screens for outdoor movie screening.
Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, middle ground, and background are all in focus.
Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image. In this case, the matte is the background painting. In film and stage, mattes can be physically huge sections of painted canvas, portraying large scenic expanses of landscapes.
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.
A front projection effect is an in-camera visual effects process in film production for combining foreground performance with pre-filmed background footage. In contrast to rear projection, which projects footage onto a screen from behind the performers, front projection projects the pre-filmed material over the performers and onto a highly reflective background surface.
Rear projection is one of many in-camera effects cinematic techniques in film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. It was widely used for many years in driving scenes, or to show other forms of "distant" background motion.
Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video display environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments.
Large-screen television technology developed rapidly in the late 1990s and 2000s. Prior to the development of thin-screen technologies, rear-projection television was standard for larger displays, and jumbotron, a non-projection video display technology, was used at stadiums and concerts. Various thin-screen technologies are being developed, but only liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display (PDP) and Digital Light Processing (DLP) have been publicly released. Recent technologies like organic light-emitting diode (OLED) as well as not-yet-released technologies like surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) or field emission display (FED) are in development to replace earlier flat-screen technologies in picture quality.
Rear-projection television (RPTV) is a type of large-screen television display technology. Until approximately 2006, most of the relatively affordable consumer large screen TVs up to 100 in (250 cm) used rear-projection technology. A variation is a video projector, using similar technology, which projects onto a screen.
Introvision International was a special effects company that worked on several big Hollywood films founded in 1980 and ceased operations at 1011 N Fuller Hollywood in 2001, moving to a smaller location in North Hollywood. The Introvision System primarily used its Introvision front projection system. Tom Naud was the founder and president of the company. Issachar “Issy Shabtay” built the entire studios location and was studios facilities manager, head set builder, and head of studio operations.
A laser projector is a device that projects changing laser beams on a screen to create a moving image for entertainment or professional use. It consists of a housing that contains lasers, mirrors, galvanometer scanners, and other optical components. A laser projector may contain one laser light source for single-color projection or three sources for RGB full color projection.
A holographic screen is a two-dimensional display technology that uses coated glass media for the projection surface of a video projector. "Holographic" refers not to a stereoscopic effect, but to the coating that bundles light using formed microlenses. The lens design and attributes match the holographic area. The lenses may appear similar to the Fresnel lenses used in overhead projectors. The resulting effect is that of a free-space display, because the image carrier appears very transparent. Additionally, the beam manipulation by the lenses can be used to make the image appear to be floating in front of or behind the glass, rather than directly on it. However, this display is only two-dimensional and not true three-dimensional. It is unclear if such a technology will be able to provide acceptable three-dimensional images in the future.
Multi-image is the now largely obsolete practice and business of using 35mm slides (diapositives) projected by single or multiple slide projectors onto one or more screens in synchronization with an audio voice-over or music track. Multi-image productions are also known as multi-image slide presentations, slide shows and diaporamas and are a specific form of multimedia or audio-visual production.
The Williams process or Williams doublematting process is a matte creation technique patented by the American cinematographer Frank D. Williams in 1918. Unlike prior matte techniques, it allowed for the integration of the actors' movements with previously shot backgrounds.
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