Extending Your Viewing Area With Mirrors

by Roy H Wagner ASC

reprinted with permision

For many years we have carried a 4x4 front surface mirror on the grip truck to assist in difficult shots. Instead of removing a wall or ceiling, especially on location, we place the front surface mirror against the wall and photograph into the reflection of the scene. It allows us to get over the shoulder angles in very difficult circumstances. If you are viewing the scene with the assistance of monitors, provide a standard household mirror (preferably large) for the director to view the scene. Turn the monitor into the mirror and have the "monitor gallery" view the scene through the mirror, This eases confusion. Contact the post production supervisor and have the negative flipped optically (in features) and electronically (in television).

The mirror must be a front surface of very high quality. On occasion, slightly more fill light may be required to fill the shadow detail based upon the quality of the mirror's reflective coating. I have used this trick in extremely small locations. The mirror can be tipped and turned to get a better angle or alignment between actors.

The most extreme example that I have used this effect on is:

A scene required a very long dialogue sequence down a hallway. The dialogue would continue down the length of one corridor into another. The hallway was boring, the director wished to stack up the length by using a long lens. The floor was very bad negating dolly moves. We used a Nikkor 300mm at the very end of the second hallway. We placed the mirror at the corner connecting the hallways. We photographed into the mirror until the actors got too near the mirror. An extra crossed between the camera and the mirror as the actors turned the corner. When the extra crossed we had the actors change position so that the viewer would not be aware of the flip in their positions. At that point we tipped out of the mirror directly into a 300mm angle of the actors walking directly towards us.

I have also carefully panned or tipped the mirror when I could not do so with the camera. It makes for an odd nodal shift pan effect.