Introduction

If you are a student creating a spy film or a sci-fi epic, you don't need to film your nighttime scenes at night. Use the Night Vision Effect instead. As a parent, if you want to give the film of your toddlers in a playpen a fake reality show's look at nighttime baby activities, use the Night Vision Effect. If you just want to have a little fun with an easy-to-use effect that can be applied to virtually any video clip, use the Night Vision Effect.

The techniques you'll learn in this chapter, like most of the techniques in this book, have broader applications than just simulating the night scope of a camera or other lens. In this chapter we'll create oval cutouts to simulate a night vision scope, but you can use this same technique in other projects to simulate the view through a telescope, a camera lens, or even a keyhole. The Night Vision Effect is a much-requested effect because of its many applications, especially in amateur filmmaking. It can be used to simulate the point of view of someone using night vision equipment, or to suggest a darkened room at night with low visibility.

The effect is great for spy flicks, as already mentioned, and can be used very effectively for thrillers and horror films as well. For example, if you're creating a spy film, videotape the view out your window and have your friends sit in a car across the street and act as if they are staking you out. Or for a horror film, do the same thing, but have your friends act like zombies moving slowly (but inexorably!) down the street. Next film your hero picking up special night vision-equipped scopes (also known as ordinary binoculars) to look out the window. In post production, cut in the zombie or stakeout footage, altered with the Night Vision Effect, and then cut to footage of your hero reacting. The entire scene will be instantly believable. So, let your imagination soar as you follow your visionyour night vision, that is.