Choreograph the timing very, very carefully to the song, ESPECIALLY the moment when one crosses over to the other frame.

Have both people dancing in both locations (even if one will not be scene when composed together.

If the timing doesn't work out just right put some objects into the foreground with one right along the line dividing the frames. This will give it depth and hopefully prevent an actor from crunching up or getting fat for a second as they cross the frame line.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Thanks for the reply.

Not entirely following you, though: did you mean this solution as part of the shoot, or as some kind of compositing in post? I'm quite new to this.

Ta.

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I saw the messenger of the new god there.

Dancer 1 is on the left. Dancer 2 is on the right. You shoot the scene at location 1. You frame the shot to include a section of location 1 where Dancer 2 is dancing. You won't use this section but its best to have it for timing and spacial reasons.

Once the scene is shot at location 1 you shoot the identical thing at location 2 with the intent that you will not use the left side showing Dancer 1. You want the dancer there and the space framed in there for timing and spacial reasons.

Try to frame the shots so that the camera is the same distance from the dancer at both locations. To simplify things you might put the same chair or item in the center of the camera frame at both locations so that the line between sections can cut right down the item instead of being in mid-air.

When you drop both locations into your editing program you can create a mask that chops off the left side (or the right) so that the bottom layer shows through, thus dancer 1 at location 1 will appear on the left and dancer 2 at location 2 will appear on the right. Just about every editing program should be able to do this.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I did something similar to this recently using image mattes in Adobe Premiere. It takes excrutiatingly precise measurements in timing for the actor. You'll have to shoot and reshoot many many times. And, most importantly, the camera position will have have to be identical- as in the same height and capturing the same angle of the person, meanwhile and probably the same lighting depending on the feel of the shoot. You can do it in two sepearate places, two separate shoots, just get down the dance, the beat, the timing for each movement between beats, make them PERFECT. And do it at least 3 times through perfectly.

It will wear your actor out. Mine got pissy....

Thanks both for your comments. Sounds like it could be hard work. I'll have a think and see if it viable at my somewhat low end of the scale.

Thanks again.

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I saw the messenger of the new god there.

I think it would be easier and faster to do this gag in-camera rather than futzing with it in post. Use a large room, large enough to a) get the camera back far enough, depending on your lens, to capture both actors in the frame at once, and b) so that you can dress each half of the room differently.

Now all you have to do is add a black vertical line down the center of the image in post.

And then you put whatever cash you have towards the dressing.

I think you'd save a lot of headaches doing it this way, and you could put your ingenuity and resources toward dressing the set differently. WAY more fun for the actors, too, if they can actually dance together, and will give you a much more convincing moment at the end.

Look at Michel Gondry-- most of his special f/x trickery is done in camera to great effect. It's all about supporting the performance, right?