THE BRIEF ACTION OF THE BULLET TIME - 2

Capturing the Action: continues

Gaeta's team and the filmmakers first blocked out the action that was going to be rendered and filmed the scene using conventional cameras. Then they scanned the images into a computer and, using a laser-guided tracking system, "mapped out" the movements of the camera that would capture the final scene.

A series of sophisticated still cameras was placed along the mapped path, each of which would shoot a single still photo. Then the photos were scanned into the computer, which created a strip of still images, similar to animation cels. The computer generated "in-between" drawings of the images ‚ much as animators draw frames to move their characters smoothly from one pose to another ‚ and the completed series of images could be passed before the viewers' eyes as quickly or slowly as the filmmakers wanted without losing clarity.

Obviously, this painstaking technique takes time and precision, but it renders moving objects and people in a completely new way. Says Joel Silver, "It¼s like the Japanese films "Ghost in the Shell" or "Akira" ‚ but ours is a real-life film depiction of anime, whereas those are animated films. We¼ve used every kind of visual effect utilized before and taken each one step further."


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