MovieChat Forums > Contact (1997) Discussion > Question about a scene

Question about a scene

posted 11 years ago by Mr_Wolf_80
17 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching it right now and maybe I'm a bit sleepy because it's very late, but this is driving me nuts.
However, I'm watching the scene when Ellie's father has just had an heart attack and she runs to take the pills.
At the end of the scene, we discover that the scene is "reflected", that is, we see her running reflected on the mirror of the closet, as if the camera had been all the time behind her. Ok, nothing strange, they found some trick not to reflect the camera on the mirror.
The point is that the scene begins with her running up the stairs, then she turns the corner and it seems the camera is in front of her, but at the end we discover it should have always been behind her instead. There are no cuts, so the camera should have be behind her from the beginning. But, in this case, if the camera was always behind her, we couldn't see her running towards us.

I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mr_Wolf_80 11 years ago

Many thanks! I don't have the DVD with the commentary, but cgi could be the only explanation. Just wondering why to add cgi to such a simple scene and make people go crazy.

I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] trash-65 11 years ago

This scene was (besides the whole story in general) one of the main reasons I loved this movie the first time I saw it. This very scene blew me away and made me think about it ever since, knowing that many of the viewers didn't even realize what just was showed to them.

[–] dahaka-535-16877 10 years ago

It was definitely a WTF moment for me!

[–] jaystarstar 10 years ago

The other big gimmick, the Bill Clinton scenes, were hailed as incredible when the movie came out, but seen now, especially on HDTV, they really don't look like that big a deal.

Especially in the one scene of the conference in the White House meeting room, with Ellie sitting off to the side, Clinton's head appears to be hovering weirdly 3-4 inches above his neckline.

Also, the Clinton scenes horribly date the movie, and also wrote out one of the better characters in the book, President Lasker, a no-nonsense woman. The Angela Bassett character was kind of based on her (the '20 million people died to defeat that SOB' quote was from her).

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

[–] Pzachlen 9 years ago

Angela Bassett almost ruined the film for me . having said that I still love this film.

[–] chester-copperpot-1 8 years ago

The idea that the Clinton scenes makes the film "horribly dated" is simply idiotic. The film is supposed to take place in a contemporary mid-90's setting during the Clinton administration. How in the wide wide world of sports would that make the film "dated" ? That's exactly what those scenes are supposed to do, they are supposed to ground the audience in the reality of it all happening in the 90's.

[–] Thrillseeker303 11 years ago

Ah so you also noticed this incredibly genius shot.
The shot was actually filmed as a normal shot, then flipped and placed in the mirror which, at the time of shooting was a blue screen placement in the cabinet.

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[–] Batmans_Medic 10 years ago

Thanks for the explanation! I figured it was something like this but couldn't quite get my brain around it.

[–] Pzachlen 9 years ago

I think you may be right. Very clever of you.That shot always drove me crazy. Thank you.

[–] dark_frances 11 years ago

It's actually as if an invisible camera was placed in front of the mirror the whole time, slowly zooming out as she was approaching the cabinet, to keep her proportions on the screen constant.
If the camera had been as if behind her, we would have seen her back.
Anyway, thanks to the user above for the explanation!

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder

[–] Mr_Wolf_80 11 years ago

Ok, I got the DVD only to listen to the commentary - there are three! - for that scene, but they didn't explain much.
However, there's a video about special effects which briefly explains also how they made that scene.
You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1JNyOEVrVI

Even if I still believe they put too much effort for such a scene, I think what they did made it memorable.

I'm Winston Wolf. I solve problems.

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] Acceler8 10 years ago

Not only that, but since the shot began with Ellie running up the stairs, it's as though that invisible camera in front of the mirror was able to zoom in to the stairs and around the corner to watch her climbing up, then zoom out as she approached the mirror!

[–] lisztnet 10 years ago

This is interesting, it suggest some pattern where things are not at usual places, or viewed reversely, like the opening scene, the whole universe is inside her eyes. Just an elegant way to show that something is different, unexpected - a nice surprise effect.

[–] sage2112 10 years ago

Great scene. I just thought it was that the shot was already filmed and then being played on a video screen that is made to then look like a mirror, along with a seamless edit to "morph" the screen into the actual mirror on the cabinet she opens.

[–] jaystarstar 10 years ago

Zemeckis loved gimmicky crap like that in the 1990s.

It was kinda cool to see the first couple times, but after you've seen it 4-5 times or more your reaction is more like, "oh, big deal."

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

[–] Thornspike 10 years ago

aLso I recall Robert saying that the mirror was digitally enhanced to contain the bevelled edge that we see on the mirror as the mirror that was filmed had no bevelled frame edge.