Disney &Frame Grabs 18 Jul 2011 07:12 am
Snow White Multiplane – 2
- Once Snow Whtie enters the dwarfs’ home, the multiplane camera virtually gets into limited use. There are almost no interior multiplane shots in the film, and few exteriors in the second half of the movie. I have collected a few, and I’ll post them here. Like the first half of the movie, the multiplane shots do not call attention to themselves. They’re in no way obvious, but they do help set a texture and a mood throughout the film.
1aThe first scene to use the multiplane after “Whistle While You Work,”
comes at the end of the sequence when the camera pulls out from the
cottage and Snow White has finished her work.
1b
As we pull out, overlays, slightly out of focus, come into the picture . .
1c
. . . until the camera comes to a stop.
2a
We see the next use of the camera when the dwarfs
go home from the mine.
3a
It’s the famous scene where all seven dwarfs
march across the tree-bridge.
3b
The sky is separated from the foreground elements . . .
3c
. . . as the camera moves in a bit.
4a
Likewise the following scene where the dwarfs
move home behingd the water fall.
4b
There’s a arge separation between background and foreground.
5a
There is an interior shot where the dwarfs search for Snow White.
5b
The camera trucks in to the dwarfs
while foreground objects go out of focus.
5c
Not all of the dwarf drawings are beautiful.
6a
The truck in to the castle is stunningly beautiful.
6b
Traditionally, the moon stays its size
while other things move to the camera.
7a
Dissolve to a closer shot of the castle and the moon . . .
7b
. . . the camera continues to move in.
8a
The Queen comes down the stone stairs.
8b
She continues to screen left.
8c
The camera pans down to the bottom of the stairs.
An overbridge passes the frame.
8d
She continues on with all determination, behind chains.
8e
8f
8g
. . . into the next room.
9a
MS, the Queen raises her glass of toxins . . .
9b
. . . and drinks it.
9c
The camera pulls out.
9d
We lose focus on the Queen.
9e
The room spins around as the montage begins.
Forground objects swirl in front of the Queen.
9f
We end with a slip of the Queen, wildly out of focus.
10a
The animals watch the celebration going on in the dwarfs’ cottage.
10b
The camera pulls out giving levels for the multiplane camera.
10c
It comes out full.
11a
One of my favorite shots has the old hag coming out of the fog.
11b
She grows larger as she moves to the foreground.
11c
She turns and moves across the screen.
11d
She urns her back to us . . .
11e
. . . and moves into the distance.
11f
She returns to the fog.
12a
At the top of the cliff in the rain clouds move on another plane.
12b
The camera moves in as the clouds continue to speed by.
13
After she falls, the dwarfs look down to her.
This is the last multiplane shot in the film.
14
Here’s a shot of the multiplane camera on the DVD.
15
A closer shot of the topmost level and cameraman.
on 18 Jul 2011 at 1:09 pm 1.Stephen Perry said …
I wonder in the track in on the castle, to keep the moon at the same distance. Would they have move each level up towards the camera or tracked the camera in and moved the moon level away from camera at the same time to keep it a constant size? I suspect they moved each level up towards the camera than try and judge how far to move the moon level down. Or would moving the camera and moon down a 10TH of an inch each frame say, keep the moon at the same distance?
on 18 Jul 2011 at 1:37 pm 2.Michael said …
The multiplane camera ALWAYS worked with the levels moving toward a stationary camera. The only times the camera would move was for special effects that couldn’t be done otherwise.
on 18 Jul 2011 at 6:03 pm 3.Oscar Solis said …
Just placed the bonus feature disc into my Netflix cue (as well as the film itself). These early Disney films just keep rewarding with repeated viewings. I’m curious about something. Do you know if Disney ever incorporated 3 dimensional or live objects/elements or sets into their films, ala the Fleischer Brothers? I seem to recall seeing something like that in a film (I can’t remember which) unless my memory s confusing it with something else.
on 18 Jul 2011 at 9:02 pm 4.Michael said …
They did make 3D objects painted whie with black lines around all the edges. They’d animat the in 3D, then transfer the frames to cel and opaque them.
Examples of this include Stromboli’s carriage in the rain and the truck driven by Jasper and Horace in 101 Dalmatians.
on 19 Jul 2011 at 10:45 pm 5.Scott said …
“The multiplane camera ALWAYS worked with the levels moving toward a stationary camera. The only times the camera would move was for special effects that couldn’t be done otherwise.”
Unless, as many “multiplane” shots were, it was with the horizontal multiplane camera.
on 20 Jul 2011 at 8:54 am 6.Michael said …
The horizontal multiplane camera did not exist in the Disney studios until PINOCCHIO for the bird cage scenes. For SNOW WHITE, only the vertical multiplane was in use.
on 21 Jul 2011 at 10:16 am 7.Stephen Perry said …
So not really true multiplane, to be true, the camera would have done all the moves through and across the levels and the gap between the levels would have created the true multiplane effect.
on 21 Jul 2011 at 10:23 am 8.Michael said …
The Garity multiplane was the “true” multiplane camera. It was always designed for the levels to move to the camera as opposed to the camera moving through the levels. Every description ever released from the Disney studio has articulated this point well.