On the third row of this page there are a couple of Japanese video clips which I found quite interesting. They seem to be of some Japanese TV contest. Now, The one on the right, titled “SOMBRAS REALES” (2.1 MB) has a young woman doing some moves and another person lying on the floor, dressed in black, and mimicking her moves as it was her shadow but it is so well done I do not know how it is done. The figure on the floor moves across the floor and you cannot see how it is done. Then the “shade” of the basketball . . . I don’t get it.
The other clip is of a similar nature. Two ping-pong players do a matrix-type skit. It is very ingeniously done but I am also not clear on whether the “players” are real people being carried around by others or if the top part of the body belongs to one guy and the bottom to another or maybe is not real.
The quality of the video is not great and that is part of the probem. Maybe someone can find better quality clips?
Her “shadow” appeared to be on a wheeled cart (like you might use to work under a car). The most frequently shown basketball “shadow” was on a retracting string. The others appeared to be on hard wires, which allowed them to do things like shoot up a wall.
I saw the ping pong one the other day. I didn’t re-watch it just now, but, although it was really cool, I don’t remember there being any part that was unexplanable. If I recall correctly, the “players” were people carried around by people wearing black.
I saw that ping pong one some time ago, and i was sure that the players were NOT real people. I seem to remember some weird bending at the end of the clip that would not be possible if the players were real people.
I have watched it a number of times and finally caught the trick. The upper half of the body belongs to one guy and the bottom half is “blacked out” The legs are not real and are being moved by another “blacked out” guy. In other words, the weight is always on the floor and no real guys are being lifted off the floor. Pretty neat. I’d love to find better quality clips. (I hate WMV)
What Sailor said. There’s one guy who’s wearing the top half of an orange jumpsuit and black pants, and there’s another guy wearing all black standing behind the first guy with his arms sticking into the legs of the orange jumpsuit. The whole thing is amazingly choreographed.
I haven’t seen the “shadow” video (and can’t right now (but I will as soon as I can)). I have seen the “ping-pong” video, and what Sailor said, also.
I think I “got it” pretty quickly, but then I recognized it for what it is – puppetry, but done on a grand scale (where even the “puppets” are human), truly impressive, massively choreographed, well-written and well-rehearsed. Genius.