How do you make it look like there is 2 of the same person?

They do this on alot of stuff. How do you make it to where you're talking to yourself. Like you can acctually see 2 of the same person interacting. How?

First you write your script, then you shot that person in one position like if he/she were talking to other one, you can use another person just to help, then you shot that person again in the new position .
Remenber all the cenario have to be the same if you want have them facing one another . Just get an edditing software and use crop,motions and matte options to do it .

And don't move the camera! It's a good idea to just leave it recording between takes so you don't even have to touch it. It might help to pick a visual divider for the scene, whether it's the edge of a bookshelf, or even a seam on the couch so you know not to cross that line with a stray elbow or hand or something.

Also, it's a good idea to use a stand-in for lighting reasons. If you don't, you might notice that when you match up the two halves, the brightness could be ever-so-slightly different, because light will bounce around the room differently depending on where you're sitting. I'd even recommend that you wear similar colours too. Of course, you could just tweak the contrast/brightness later.

I don't think I can do this with windows movie maker, can I?

You better get yourself a better edditing software

Yeah, I don't think Movie Maker can do split-screen stuff. There is a free version of Avid here http://www.avid.com/freedv/

It has all the basic editing features plus a few good effects and transitions.

I could have sworn they did this in the olden days. Before they had this advanced technology. I saw it on episodes of Star Trek from the 60's. heck I've seen it on Laurel & Hardy and that was from the late 1920's!

Yeah, it's one of the oldest and simplest visual effects ever, and one that's still in use today. I'm not sure what they did in the film editing days, but for editing on a pc (which virtually all movies are now before being dumped back to film), all you need to do is mask out half of one image and overlay the other to fill that void. You need a multi-track editor for that, and I don't think WMM has that option. I could be wrong though.

But there are a few inexpensive yet powerful editing programs that you can pick up. One of the cheapest but best IMHO is Magix Movie Edit Pro. It's under $60, and it can do amost anything the $300+ big boys can.

So this editing program can make it look like 2 of the same person are talking at the same frickin time? It can do all the things mentioned on my other thread as well? I'm kicking myself for not discovering this earlier! DVD's with personalized menus and chapters! I've already made like a kajillion menuless DVD's and it took a long time! I made labels for the discs and everything! Wonder if there is a way to copy the DVD's I've already made onto there and add menus and stuff. Gosh it would take forever though. Maybe I will just do this with future stuff.

The thought has also crossed my mind to have a little bussiness converting peoples vhs onto dvd. The dvds I make don't work on everyones dvd player (mainly the cheap ones) and it would be difficult personalizing other peoples discs. Another words, complications stood in the way...

Before you buy your software try to get a trial version so you can see if it is what you want .
Sometimes cheap doesn't pay and you end up regreating for not have bought another software, also it would be wise to buy a software that you have forums that talk about it ao you can get some help .
Hereif you've noticed we have forums that talk about adobe premiere 2 and sony vegas so it's easy to have your questions answered .
I personaly prefer adobe premiere and if you want to dive in the digital world professional then you better choose well .

I did this about a year ago when I was evaluating my editing software. I did exactly as was said here and I kept the camera on a tripod to ensure it didn't move between the two shots. It was a lot of fun but it took almost a full day to complete this! Video editing takes time...

Here is a link to my short movie that was the result of the exercise.

The Zapper (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3951636803409761554&q=the+zapper&hl=en)

Have fun!

thank for the link thirtyframes.

SemanDemon,

I feel your pain. I started doing this video stuff 15 years ago with a JC Penny's camera and a room full of analog consumer equipment. Today everything is sooo much easier. I agree that you should try some affordable advanced editing software. You'll be glad you did. These days if you tell yourself "I should be able to do (something) - you can pretty much bet there is software that can do it or atleast come close. I also used the Movie Maker for a short while - moved on to Pentacle and after I pulled out absolutely all of my hair I got Vegas. You can download a trial of Vegas for 30 days from the Sony site. ( I think this is a full version or atleast pretty close ) Adobe also makes some awsome editors. I know adobe, like vegas has a stripped down version called Essentials ( I think ).

As far as getting your finished DVDs back into your computer, I have a low tech solution that works for me. Most of the intermediate and beginner software won't allow you to import a finished DVD file - so try this - play the DVD in a DVD player and record to your digital camcorder. Capture into the PC. (you can also do a pass through if you have that capability on your camera) I have not noticed any loss of quality in this process - but that's just me.

got some good advise here. thanks all! :)

In the days before electronics the effects were done by making an optical composite of two separate bits of film. Special opticals houses existed who were expert at this kind of thing - and it was of course, very expensive. Some of the opticals in star trek are actually quite poor - a result of too short a timescale, or too low a budget. What happens is that the shot is done twice. The two pieces of film are then combined. What happens is a section of one is removed with a matte - actually quite simple if there is a handy door edge or hard line - it can simply be done with a fixed metal matte. The film runs through a machine and is re-exposed onto a new one, with half the image masked out with the matte. Then the matt is reversed and the other piece of film is run through exposing that section. The problem is that the end product is a second generation copy. Look at star trek on video, and as eachspecial effect section starts or ends there is a subtle change in quality - maybe a difference in brightness, or other small artefacts. The transporter sequence is the obvious one. The cast stand there, the director says 'go', the cast run oout of frame and the camera records the people empty set. In the compositing session, the 'there' and 'missing' sections are mixed into each other, and the sparkly effect added over the top. If you watch, you can see where the effects start and stop. In many episodes they used pretty poor doubles as optical work was so expensive - watch in fight scenes where the double used doesn't look at all like kirk or spock, etc.


Nowdays, rather than do split screen, it's possible to green screen in the extra person, alter perspective and size to make it quite effective.

Showing my star trek interest, in Nemesis there is an amazing shot where the camera starts on Data, who is sitting back to back with himself, and it goes up and over and down to the new Data - a very neat bit of effects work.