Face scanner prop
I am a big fan of all things optical and analogue, and have always been fascinated by the early techniques of theatrical performances that used optical illusions to mesmerise the audience. A well known example of these is the Pepper’s Ghost illusion, which uses a pane of glass at an angle to be projected onto, and that creates the illusion of something that is semi-opaque occupying the same space as the background.
(continues below the images...)
It’s been popular since Victorian times and has recently been used to create “holographic” performances of The Gorillaz and the cameo of the late Tupac Shakur on the Coachella stage.
I have experimented with this technique in the early stages of my work on Blade Runner 2049, but never got to the point of being able to actually using it on set. So, I decided to create a prop, a sort of sci-fi facial scanner that employs this illusion. Pepper’s ghost works really well when you are able to see the background, and it sort of floats mid-air, but I wanted to use it to create parallax for the UI and content within the prop. There are two plexiglass panes, one reflects the head - that is the back panel, the front one is used for the UI, so it can create some parallaxing between the two layers of the UI, giving dimensionality to the projections.
This prop uses an iPhone to project the content, and I think it could work really well in camera within the context of a sci-fi project.
