Who started rear projection, and why didn't they get it right?

[Lokke Heiss]

In defense of this method:

1) Most of the scenes that look so hilarious today are from films that didn't have a budget for location shooting, 'you work with what ya got.'
2) Sometimes (often, actually), a rear screen projection can give the actors a better chance to act that trying the 'hit or miss' of doing it on location. From personal experience, an on-location shoot is really hard to get a good closeup. This is especially true for scenes shot inside cars. And not just a closeup, but a shot that can be lit beautifully, and in a way you can have the actor act...and do some business.
3) Sometimes the artificiality of a rear screen projection can be seen as part of the aesthetic of a shot - say for example, flashbacks, where we are in somebody's head and it adds to the feel of it being a memory, not an event occurring in the present. The obvious example of this is Casablanca.
4) Sometimes (like Casablanca) it's the least worst way to do the shot. Especially true for short scenes that have important plot points. Even if France had NOT been occupied, unrealistic to fly to Paris for five minutes of the film.
5) NOBODY (at least until the '60s) thought that 50 years after they did a film, there would be social media discussion groups that were dissing how well or badly they'd shot a scene for a camera setup they had maybe a day or less to do, in a movie they may have spent 4-12 weeks making.

[Mike Gebert]

3) Sometimes the artificiality of a rear screen projection can be seen as part of the aesthetic of a shot - say for example, flashbacks, where we are in somebody's head and it adds to the feel of it being a memory, not an event occurring in the present. The obvious example of this is Casablanca.

My friend Scott wrote a book that became a movie, and it was being shot north of Chicago, so we went up to the set. And the scene they were shooting was a driving scene. And surprisingly, rather than shoot it on the actual streets, or even using modern rear projection, they faked it all. There was a car on rockers, and some guys with hoses to shoot sleet at it, and... this was the best part... a pair of mini headlights on rollers, which a guy would "drive" behind the car, occasionally getting closer or further, or making a left turn away.

It was a neo-noir, so a little fakiness was suited to it... but still, I loved the artifice far better than if they'd shot in the real world. You can just see it for a moment at the end (around the line "Only morons are nice at Christmas.")

[FrankFay]

My favorite rear projection scene is in "Way Out West."
Their little dance in front of that rear projection scene of
a small Western town is a hoot. You see the same people,
wagons, horses in the background several times!

Similarly Wheeler & Woolsey sitting on a streetcar in CAUGHT PLASTERED where you can catch the background loop a few times. Of course live action films aren't immune- sharp eyes can catch the background repeating in Keaton's THE GENERAL

[daveboz]

Strictly speaking, the shot to which you refer in THE GENERAL is not rear projection; a cyclorama is used for the background image.

[FrankFay]

Strictly speaking, the shot to which you refer in THE GENERAL is not rear projection; a cyclorama is used for the background image.

I'm speaking of the footage where we are looking at Buster on a moving train with landscape behind him, and it isn't a cyclorama, it is actual photography of the landscape. What I MEANT was that the situation was SIMILAR to back projection- as the footage from repeated takes was cut together an informed eye can see that landmarks in the background appear and repeat in the wrong order.

It all depends on the viewer being more interested in Buster with an engine than in random trees in the distance.

[daveboz]

Is this the sequence to which you refer?


Rear projection with film didn’t exist when Buster Keaton made THE GENERAL. The reason the (obviously painted) background repeats is that the art is rendered on a moving support. Also, Keaton is outside, with sunlight illuminating the logs behind him. This could never be done with rear projection. Studio only.

These two shots in the film are about 45 seconds apart (screen time). Interestingly, while the backdrop is identical, the arrangement of the logs behind Keaton differs, indicating the takes were made at different times.

I’d guess that, to get the subtle reactions on Keaton’s face, it was necessary to make the shots in controlled conditions, not on a moving train with cinders blowing in one’s face. The art in the background is flat and generic, nothing like the real locations otherwise seen. It looks also as though a scrim has been interposed between the backdrop and the foreground, in order to simulate atmospheric haze. This effect is only noticeable when the film is in motion, not in freeze-frames like the two above.

[FrankFay]

Ahh, I'd forgotten about those close ups -

[Brooksie]

Another consideration in filming driving sequences using rear projection: a surprising number of people - especially women - did not know how to drive during that era. One study from the late 1920s estimated that women made up only 20 percent of license holders. My own grandmother didn't learn to drive until she had children in the early 1950s, and I gather that this was not uncommon.

[Jim Roots]

Another consideration in filming driving sequences using rear projection: a surprising number of people - especially women - did not know how to drive during that era. One study from the late 1920s estimated that women made up only 20 percent of license holders. My own grandmother didn't learn to drive until she had children in the early 1950s, and I gather that this was not uncommon.

Okay, I'm wondering how this ties in with the topic of rear projection. I think I'm missing your point, sorry.

Jim

[Paul Penna]

Another consideration in filming driving sequences using rear projection: a surprising number of people - especially women - did not know how to drive during that era. One study from the late 1920s estimated that women made up only 20 percent of license holders. My own grandmother didn't learn to drive until she had children in the early 1950s, and I gather that this was not uncommon.

Okay, I'm wondering how this ties in with the topic of rear projection. I think I'm missing your point, sorry.

One of the most common uses of rear projection. We're inside the dashboard of a car, looking through the speedometer glass at two people sitting very close to each other while one wiggles a steering wheel back and forth and we can see a movie playing through the rear window.

Jane Wyatt drove very convincingly in Pitfall, btw.

[Brooksie]

Another consideration in filming driving sequences using rear projection: a surprising number of people - especially women - did not know how to drive during that era. One study from the late 1920s estimated that women made up only 20 percent of license holders. My own grandmother didn't learn to drive until she had children in the early 1950s, and I gather that this was not uncommon.

Okay, I'm wondering how this ties in with the topic of rear projection. I think I'm missing your point, sorry.

One of the most common uses of rear projection. We're inside the dashboard of a car, looking through the speedometer glass at two people sitting very close to each other while one wiggles a steering wheel back and forth and we can see a movie playing through the rear window.

Jane Wyatt drove very convincingly in Pitfall, btw.

Yes, I would say the driving sequence - complete with the image of an old-timey actor twiddling the wheel while barely looking at the road - is what many people think of first when someone mentions rear projection.

As Mike points out in his post above, it's still pretty common to fake driving sequences today. When you think of the cost of blocking up a public road for a few hours versus doing it in a studio, it's easy to see why. If I were the actor, I'd probably prefer to concentrate on my performance than the road, too.

[daveboz]

Camera cars are used for these shots nowadays. The dummy car rests on a flat-bed trailer, which is pulled through the streets. The camera is at the front of the unit shooting backwards. Piece o’ cake.