How 6 Psychedelic Movie Sequences Were Made

Visual effectsare often used to make motion-picture show finger more naturalistic , but in the case ofthe judgment - bendingDoctor Strange , they are important for crafting trippy psychedelic visuals .

While the turn skyscraper and fractal - filled dimensions ofStrangeare a measure above anything we ’ve ever seen on sieve before , ocular upshot have a rich history of craft hallucinatory scenes in movies . Let ’s take a trip inside some of the well psychedelic shot in film history – mind - altering subject matter not required .

2001: A Space Odyssey

UntilDoctor Strange , there was no trippier sequence than the journeying Dr. Dave Bowman ( Keir Dullea ) takes around the nebulas in Stanley Kubrick ’s 1968 chef-d’oeuvre . This " Star Gate " succession not only contributed to the movie ’s eerie musical note , it bankrupt undercoat for new visual - effect techniques .

To compose the succession , Kubrick ’s squad filmed a combination of backlit colored graphics and chemical substance with slit - scan picture taking . This postulate capturing 60 - indorsement exposures through a specialised camera rig that made the imagery appear to whiz past Dr. Bowman – and the viewer .

What Dreams May Come

When Robin Williams ' character dies in Vincent Ward ’s 1998 moving picture , he is thrust into an afterlife populate byimpressionist - paint versions of the physical human beings . Again , it ’s a stumble for both character and consultation as the " paint world " get as a real landscape ( above ) , then gradually transforms into a nineteenth - century - elan house painting ( below ) .

fabulously , the shots began as actual filmed vista that were fastidiously manipulated with then - brand - young particle - effects systems and " optical flow " cock , which track and mimicked brushstrokes to create the surreal , painterly sense .

Waking Life

Richard Linklater managed to bring on some intense dreamlike imagery for his animatedWaking Life(2001 ) , which dive into the world of existentialism and crystal clear dreaming . The picture was not your typical alive feature : It used a method called rotoscoping ( via a prick called Rotoshop by Bob Sabiston ) , which takes video footage of actors and reinterprets what was actually shoot into smooth , fluid , trippy motion . Because private artists worked on dissimilar scenes , the overall gist was of a movie that forever seemed to change . Linklater employed exchangeable – though more exact – techniques for his watch over - up feature , A Scanner Darkly(2006 ) .

Enter the Void

Director Gaspar Noé call his 2009 filmEnter the Voida " psychedelic melodrama , " and it ’s not intemperate to see why : His camera hie around Tokyo ’s atomic number 10 - light nightclub or hovers over a character ’s shoulder while he ’s in a drug - get out - of - body experience . optical upshot were fundamental to this delusion - same imagery .

Gallic visual - effects studio apartment BUF employed several techniques to conduct the character ’s drug visions and point of sentiment . It would deform imagery , accentuate profundity of field , and add together various flicker upshot . It also used a mixture of real and digital sets and locations , result in some mind - bending photographic camera moves through Tokyo .

Speed Racer

For the Wachowskis ' live - action adaptation ofSpeed Racer(2008 ) , the director went for an over - the - top cartoonish and psychedelic experience . It ’s exemplified in the film’sclimactic raceway scenes , which have plenty of out - there visuals made potential with VFX studio apartment Digital Domain ’s fresh approach to shoot high - active - orbit pic for backgrounds – almost like high - resolution panoramas , stitched together to form " house of cards environments . " CG railroad car were then powered through the anime - root on worlds , often with extreme levels of motility fuzz , to bring about these extremely trippy race scenery .

Lucy

Scarlett Johansson ’s psychokinetic abilities in Luc Besson’sLucy(2014 ) , induce when she is given a nootropic drug , lend themselves well to psychedelic visual effects . That ’s peculiarly the case when we travel inside Lucy ’s creative thinker … and subsequently throughout the universe of discourse ’s swirl and nebulae .

Going inside Lucy ’s learning ability required some mesmeric imaginings of the big bang . The visuals for the out - of - body experiences that Johansson ’s theatrical role experience – designed to show her brain reaching 100 % of its voltage – were mainly the work of Industrial Light & Magic , which even looked to the work ofWhat woolgather May Comeartist Perry Hall for stirring .

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