MIRROR TRICK: Film Yourself WITHOUT CAMERA REFLECTION #ProTipChallenge

Let’s see a really cool trick, filming ourselves in the mirror with an invisible camera. There can be various storylines for this, but now I will shoot a short home quarantine scene with a cloning effect and with some interaction between the characters on the different sides of the mirror.

In this tutorial I show you an easier and an advanced version of the effect with two different camera positions.

1# Recording in 3rd person view

The first scene is shot with a normal camera angle, with a view to the talent and the reflection in the mirror. I put the 360 camera on a tripod, making sure that the camera and the stand won’t be visible in the mirror, and record the scene.

To make some interaction between the main character and the reflection I need two different takes. First I focus on the guy in the bathroom, and then on the reflection in the mirror.

I record everything from the tripod, making sure, that I don’t move the camera between the shots.

After recording I'll have footages like above: one take for the bathroom and for the mirror. And I will mix them later.

2# Recording with an INVISIBLE CAMERA IN THE MIRROR

I think the previous trick is cool, but hiding the camera in front of the mirror is even more exciting. Let me show you my trick to shoot in front of the mirror, with an invisible camera in the middle.

Creating this shot I will take the advantage of the so-called blind spot or blind circle at the stitch line of the 360 cameras. Thanks to this phenomenon we can take photos and videos with an invisible selfie stick, creating a floating camera look.

In this case I mount a tent hook with a duct tape on my OneX. It will help me keeping a little distance from the mirror, and also patch it to the glass surface a little bit.

Although the camera has a blind area around the stitch line, if I put it to the mirror directly, the reflection would be so big, that it would be visible on the scene. That’s why I need to keep a small distance.

I mount my camera on an invisible selfie stick, and put this whole construction between my chest and the mirror. I slightly press it to the surface, while the duct tape on the hook doesn’t allow it to slide up and down. You know safety first! 😉

I make sure that the camera is totally horizontal and start recording.

Pro Tip: to make sure that the camera is invisible, wear black clothes.

I take care of recording two takes: once focusing on the character in the bathroom and then on the one in the mirror, too. That's how my raw 360 videos look like in both cases:

3# Editing: let's create the INTERACTION between you and your reflection

Despite the different approaches during shooting, editing is very similar. In both cases I put the bathroom scenes and mirror scenes on top of each other and create a mask around the mirror. To create a nice interaction I move the clips on the timeline back and forth, so they will fit perfectly.

Working with the tripod shots, post-production is really easy, as I didn’t move the camera between the takes.

But during shooting Trick #2 it could be a little bit more difficult to keep my camera steady enough. So in certain cases I might need to do some stabilization in post:

Then the trick will be the same as in the previous case: I just draw a mask (or an inverted mask, depending on the order of the footages) around the mirror:

And when the masks are perfect, all I need to do is Reframing the 360 video:

In such a case it’s enough to create a fake camera movement with only a couple of keyframes, and the tricky mirror scene is created!

Pro tip: working in Premiere Pro, you should reframe the video using an Adjustment layer and a Reframe Plugin, like GoPro FX Reframe, so you'll have a non-destructive workflow. It means, you can turn your Reframe layer On and Off and make corrections in masking or timing anytime, if needed.

Check out the same sequence with the Adjustment layer turned On and Off: