Hey Antville crew. Question. I was watching Glazer's "Rabbit In Your Headlights" and analyzing that last shot. I have some ideas how he did it but I figure one of you knows exactly...Somebody drop your knowledge.

composites?

one shot of a car hitting a pole -

one shot of the dude in the christ pose.

put the dude over the pole - add in some debris -

yeah, i know that's the easy answer. but for some reason. i guess because CG smoke never looks real to me. and this was made like 6 or 7 years ago when it looked even worse. it seems like there was some other tricks aside from that.

Pretty sure they just ran the car into a pole, and composited the actor over it.

jdub: Notice how the smoke actually happens. It shoots out and under. As it begins to envelop him, his body begins to 'feather' and loose opacity.

I think the composite was as follows:

1. OPEN PLATE: consisting of open road.
2. BACKGROUND CAR PASS: Of various vehicles driving normally on said road.
3. SMASH PLATE: Car smacks a collision pole of some kind.
4. DEBRIS/CHARGE PLATE: Four (or more) smoke charges are shot and eject a powdery like smoke cloud.
5. ACTOR: Mr. Lavant in christ pose against green taking a hit.
6. STOCK FOOTAGE PASS: For the clouds that then fill the screen.

And all plates were shot at the same frame rate or speed changed to fit acceptable frame rate.

The smoke is interesting and most likely keyed (or alpha inverted matte) across the piece. Notice how it wipes away the car on the left. And when it floods our man, you see his body and arms feather away. It's like a combo of keying/screening and mask work to make it all come together. I would almost bet anything that there's no 3D particle work.

Watching it again, the smoke charges may be utterly and completely stock footage. Again, shot against black, then screened/scaled/and fit into the composite. NOTE the background cloud/haze that forms behind his head. It just appears and blurs the image out. It feels like 5+ layers of smoke shit going on. And the weird vignette that keeps his head in focus/light very obviously looks like a mask feather that 'cancels' out any smoke cloud that may come near it.

So I guess plates 4+6 may in fact be the same thing.

Another interesting thing: There may also be smoke charges attached to the collision pole that go off on impact. And those charges are then feathered to give the illusion of coming out of the car.

And otaku, I'm almost 99% positive the mill had nothing to do with this one. Because didn't they open shop AFTER gladiator came out? Which was some time AFTER this promo...

Thanks Lusk.

Dope theories and breakdown. You definitely hit on some of the techniques. I'd be fascinated to know if you were completely on the mark.

Aren't you people at all concerned with anything beyond the technical achievement? The concept alone warrants greater praise than the execution as far as I'm concerned. Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate your curiosity, but the truth is, you don't want to be stuck behind the computer, adding smoke, keying elements of video together. At your desk chair, you simply construct the package. The Brightly colored celophane people are initially attracted to, but gets tossed on the ground in search of content to appease the hunger of the mind of the viewer. Concept. Control. The Directorial position. Here, you can bridge the gap between art and design.

No, I wasn't. The video has been around for 7 years. Filmmaking requires concept AND technique. Here, I was interested in technique.

And you know, as awesome as RIYH and Glazer are, it really doesn't amount to much. You've got a guy mumbling jibberish and walking in the middle of a busy road while cars "hit and run" multiple times. Which isn't very believable. I suppose I could draw some sort of deeper social or religious commentary from it (society's apathy/fear towards the unknown/poor/different). But in truth, the whole lead-up was probably just Glazer's way to get to the BIG ENDING.

But what an ending. (Here I am discussing it 7 years later)