Could this be the first ever use of bullet time
Poorchowski brothers hang youre head in shame
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Trancers (1984) Discussion > Could this be the first ever use of bull...
Hehe, I thought of the same thing when I saw Trancers recently, ALL THOUGH I'm not sure you really know the term "bullet time". It's a type of computer f/x that was unlike most things ever created for the big screen until "The Matrix" (or perfected in The Matrix if you will).
Or as they explain it on whatisthematrix.com:
Bullet-Time Photography; Super slow motion would be relied on heavily in the stylization of the action scenes in "The Matrix," but certain moments in the script called for something special. These scenes required dynamic camera movement around slow-motion events that approached 12,000 frames per second. The Wachowskis called it "bullet-time photography." (read the rest yourself)
http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/sfx-bullet_text.html
In short, calling the bullet-effects-scene in Trancers "bullet time" is like calling the shower-scene in "Psycho" CGI :P
[deleted]
[deleted]
I disagree. The technology of the effect in Trancers is old and simple (just slow motion), but the idea is the same.
Your comparison with Psycho is awkward, so I`m giving a better one: the bullet-time in Trancers relates to the one in Matrix as the stop-motion dinosaurs in the old movies relates to the CGI dinosaurs in Jurasic Park.
[deleted]
[deleted]
This is incorrect. If you look it up, The Matrix was released in 1999; Max Payne only came out 2 years later.
The game clearly used the same Bullet Time idea, and to great effect, may I say. If only the actual Matrix games had been this good...
It's bullet time, low-budget style. He slows down time to evade bullets. The same thing happens in The Matrix and Max Payne.
In all cases, time is slowed to help evade bullets.
It's bullet time, low-budget style. He slows down time to evade bullets. The same thing happens in The Matrix and Max Payne.
It's not bullet time. It's slow motion with composited bullets but the thing that makes a shot "bullet time" (in the sense of how the Wachowski team innovated the effect) is the camera moving at impossibly fast speed around the scene while the actors are almost perfectly still.
In this case the effect conveys the actor moving at impossibly fast speed while there are bullets being composited and the camera moves at normal speed. share
According to "Four Flies On Grey Velvet" (1971) trivia section:
A slow-motion bullet effect is used in the film, pre-dating The Matrix and many Hong Kong action films.
Prostitute: What the *beep* are you doing?
Johnny: I'm gonna kill a bunch of people.
Suppose it depends a lot on how we define the term then, but specifically the innovation that John Gaeta contributed for the Matrix where they actually coined the term involved a very precise technical setup -- it was more than just slow-motion.
shareYes. I think we can say the Wachowski Brother... and "Sister-thing" were probably influenced by this film.
Come with me if you want to live.
[deleted]
Yea. It's a circle of cameras taking pictures really fast.
However a movie called "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" had a similar effect to Trancers. They actually stopped time completely.
http://www.youtube.com/user/alphazoom
https://soundcloud.com/#carjet-penhorn
Yeah, I immediately thought of the Girl with the Gold Watch when I saw Trancers.
And all the people in this thread calling Trancers' "long second" scene "bullet time" are confused. It's not about literal bullets, folks. *eyeroll* It is, as several have tried to explain, "a circle of cameras taking pictures really fast" -- although the circle could be any shape. ;-)