The "Bullet Shot"

Since I don't know if it has a bona fide title, the Bullet Shot is what I call the shot of a projectile in motion.

We've all seen it in films: Keanu Reaves dodging a bullet, an arrow in flight, a ninja throwing star... it's where somebody unleashes the projectile and then the camera shifts to show the said projectile travelling through the air - normally slowed to almost a standstill before speeding off.

Anyway, I know that it's usually done via CGI, but could the effect be recreated otherwise?
 
Since I don't know if it has a bona fide title, the Bullet Shot is what I call the shot of a projectile in motion.

We've all seen it in films: Keanu Reaves dodging a bullet, an arrow in flight, a ninja throwing star... it's where somebody unleashes the projectile and then the camera shifts to show the said projectile travelling through the air - normally slowed to almost a standstill before speeding off.

It's most commonly known as "Bullet Time"... which happens to be a registered trademark owned by Warner Brothers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time

Anyway, I know that it's usually done via CGI

Not always.

.
 
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I'm sorry, I didn't explain it properly.

Bullet Time is where Trinity leaps into the air, the camera spins around her and then she kicks, right? I think that it was developed by a game company and they sold the rights.

What I actually meant was:

During a short, a character goes to walk away, the defeated character throws a knife... we see it in mid-air for but an instant and then it speeds towards the target... change angle and he blocks it with his sword.

It's more of a mess about for a mate's band's music video, but shooting on a borrowed professional HD camera, I want to get it all done in the weekend as to not irk the lender (some relative of his girlfriend).

Personally, I'd skip the whole part about throwing a knife(!!!!), but it's his contribution to the "script" so I promised I'd try to find out if we could do it on a no money budget.

I've seen the shot/effect in about a 1,000 films and most aren't WB productions and it is different from the ripple of air around CGI bullets seen in The Matrix.


P.S. Thanks for helping.
 
What you're describing is basically just a slow motion shot of a projectile, right? While it's certainly possible that you could do that without CGI of some sort, it's likely to take a lot of tries to get right, and require a specialized high speed camera. It's going to be a lot easier to just get the camera shot without the knife, then add it in post.
 
Here's my take on a practical effect that may give the look that you're after. Shoot your actor from the front winding up to throw the knife. Then film the person throwing the knife in profile as he goes through the motion of throwing the knife. If you have access to someplace safe to have him/her actually throw the knife, shoot it at normal speed and in slow motion (you didn't mention if the camera that you're borrowing shoots in higher frame rates). Get a shot of the knife going past the camera (don't forget the 180 degree rule). You then shoot an over the shoulder shot with the camera zoomed past the thrower and have him/her throw the knife again. You can then shoot from the reverse angle of the knife inbound. When you edit it together, play with the frame rates to get the tension that you're after. Your actor winds up to throw the knife, throws the knife, the knife enters screen left or right, pause the frame with the knife positioned so that the tip is just before the midpoint of the frame, hold for a half second, transition to the over the shoulder, knife speeds away, cut to knife inbound, end with knife in person or whatever happens to it at the end of the sequence.
 
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