How do cameras stay hidden in movies?

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Like when you watch a movie and the camera is inside a car and it always switches angles but you don’t see any of the cameras. Or when it shows it in first person and the actor is looking at a mirror but there is no camera shown.

In: Technology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

> it always switches angles but you don’t see any of the cameras.

These are two different takes, the cameras are moved in between.

> the actor is looking at a mirror but there is no camera shown.

The actor is filmed in front of a non reflective mirror, then from the front (to capture what the reflections would look like) and the two are composited afterward.

Or its CGI.

[edit] [There is a serie on YouTube where a bunch of VFX artist react to movie shots and discuss some of these techniques](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4WrKeoeZhk) It’s not very technical, but give a good grasp on how some of these shots are made.

Anonymous 0 Comments

All shots from perspective A are shot on the camera , then they re set up, move camera etc to shoot perspective B,

repeat for C,D,E etc

then they take the footage arrange so it looks like more than one camera was used

Anonymous 0 Comments

In addition to what everyone has said here, there are also long shot / single take shots which can be just as interesting.

These are sequences where one camera is the sole point of view and it moves through the scene with no cuts. It can be either a first person view or third person view.

In Halloween there is a long shot at the beginning of the movie in first person view. The shot walks up to a house, around the side, looks in windows, goes in the back door, through the kitchen, living room, front hall, up stairs.
All in one single take.
Now to get the set lighted and shot correctly, lights and actors are in specific places for each view.
So as the camera passes each view point, you can have a situation that crew (and cast if I remember Halloween correctly) are all madly but organisedly, moving equipment and cables into its new position or completely out before the camera reaches its new view point and looks back in at them.
It’s an impressive amount of planning and timing and teamwork that can be largely overlooked.