In-Camera Transformation Effect

For the month of October RocketJump FRIGHT School releases spooky, horror-themed filmmaking tutorials!

This week, we're recreating a famous special effect done by director Rouben Mamoulian and DP Karl Struss in the 1931 adaptation of "Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde."

Using contrasting colors in our lighting and makeup, while shooting in black and white, we're able to create the spooky transformation effect in-camera, without any computer generated VFX.
Mamoulian and Struss used specially-made filters of colored glass, but here we'll show you a simple way to recreate the effect with lighting gels, using the same principles. If you only have one light, you can try experimenting with overlapping gels!

Special Thanks to our makeup artist Taylor Berez!

Did you try out this effect? We wanna see it! Post your work on our forums!

If you'd like to know more, you can read an interview with Rouben Mamoulian where he discusses the effect in the book "The Celluloid Muse" by Charles Higham.

Music:
"Concerto per viola ed orchoestra" (1983)
Krzysztof Pednerecki

"Capriccio per oboe e 11 archi" (1965)
Krzysztof Pednerecki

"Drei Stucke im alten Stil fur Streichorchester - I Aria"
Krzysztof Pednerecki

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[MarcoDowny]

That is indeed an awesome in-camera effect ! I also loved last year blood recipes, I still have it bookmarked in case ahah
Hope you'll keep these video coming all october !

[rustygazes]

The girl volunteer had me lol 😂😂😂 so funny. Uuuygghh😂

[ReverendAnthony]

The best thing about this video is just how consistently steady my hands were, all the time

[alyssumbonaventure]

I knew this trick primarily from the Twilight Zone episode "Long Live Walter Jameson" (season 1, episode 24). However, the lights used for that sequence went from red to green. I don't know how much a difference that selection makes.

Anyway, love your videos. Keep it up, and best wishes, everyone!

[TMWriting]

That is genuinely one of the coolest things I have ever seen

[misterwinkybluff]

0:39 Wouldn’t you have chosen those because they are two alpha channels (RGB)? For example, would it still work with say pink and green or orange and purple?

[aoshaw]

Great job Cherish & Joey for modelling and acting!

[thyinstead]

the last time i was this early rocketjump was still freddiew

[EmriProductions]

Not big difference.. It's not simplier to do in post? :D

[libertines]

I think it worked better with the blue make up for some reason.

[eiden_]

This is ingenious and probably blew people away in 1931!! Also, those silly transformation faces...

[LaneCarter]

Sounds like you guys had some fun while dubbing this...

[eviltwin]

I suppose another way to achieve this would be to keep the lighting constant and split your video into the RGB channels in post, then dissolve between the red and blue (or red and green) passes. Anybody tried it that way?

[cakebaker]

This month could you guys do a video on how to make the vertigo camera angle.

[sviewer]

I wonder how the effect would work with more obvious make up and using dimmer switches on the colored lights to fade the effect in and put.

[marwanatallah]

Thats how your eye doctor tests for lazy eye. They uses red and green glasses, one color for each eye.

[isaiahgalarza]

What is this effect actually called, though?

[shelleynobleart]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this trick. It was a treat.

[pN]

How can we get the same effect in color ?

[danielacordiano]

AMAZING VIDEO!! Thanks for the info, I was searching the effect for a makeup class <3
Can you make more videos about Makeup Department? Pleaaase, thanks in advance!