Low-Budget Filmmaking Tip #174

Wisdom upon reflection

Sometimes, motion tracking doesn’t work. Unless you or someone you know is a total whiz at it, don’t count on motion tracking to make up for what you can fix on set. Look at all signs, glass, mirrored surfaces, visible roads, etc.

A lot of people forget to check glass doors and windows to see what’s showing in the reflections.

Even cars that are clean can reflect unwanted things.

I was on one shoot where reflective cars kept showing traffic going by. Moved a couple of cars in the way and shazam!

Was in another shoot where the whole crew was visible in a mirror in the background dressing of a set. Once we saw that, we moved everything a little bit and voila (or maybe we simply covered the mirror).

In both cases, correcting that in post would have been a real headache.

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