We’ve recently shared at HuffPost UK how movies manage to get newborn babies to cry on set.
And we’ve even explained how weather forecasters know where to point on the green screen when they’re on the news.
But it wasn’t until I was watching a movie with mirrors in it that I had the sudden thought – how do camera crews and production teams shoot scenes with reflective surfaces without appearing in the frame?
So, how is it done?
Movies Insider shared that in Orson Welle’s 1947 film The Lady From Shanghai, the iconic hall of mirrors scene used two-way mirrors, and the cameras simply shot from the non-reflective side.
This technique was also used in 2019′s It Chapter 2.
For other scenes, “the mirror is actually a window looking into a duplicate version of the set”. That means the set designers have created a reverse image of the entire set and flipped it behind a panel of glass that looks like a mirror on-screen (woah).
“Performers stand on either side of the reflection, mimicking each other’s movements,” Movies Insider revealed.
For instance in Terminator 2, Linda Hamilton used her twin sister’s arm in front of the camera for the iconic chip recovery scene. Linda herself was on the other side of a window in an identical version of the set, copying her sister’s movements.
The back of Arnold Schwarznegger’s head, meanwhile, which didn’t need to move much, “was a very lifelike dummy.”
Woah. Is that the only way?
No. Sometimes they use CGI ― and some moviemakers cover the side of the camera in green tape to make it easier to remove it in post.
Sometimes the crew will make the “mirror” itself blue or green to turn that into a shot of their choice in post, too.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Last Night In Soho involves a lot of complicated mirror scenes where one actor sees another in her place. To do this, the crew used a combination of the techniques above and hired a movement coach to ensure both parties were moving in the same way.
And as for Bridgerton’s instantly iconic Penelope and Colin mirror scene?
“A lot of time and effort was put into sourcing that mirror... we made sure that we had two or three on standby just in case,” a production designer shared.
Not only did it have to look right with the rest of the room, but it had to be clear enough for close-ups and big enough to capture all the, er, action.
“Anything too small or narrow wouldn’t work for the ratio we get on screens,” she added.
Who knew so much went into a simple mirror?