VISUAL INTEREST: ANAMORPHIC PERSPECTIVE

I wanted to study how optical illusions can add visual interest to shots, and I was most curious to find examples of anamorphic illusion. Anamorphic illusion is an image that must be seen from a specific viewing point to make sense. An example from Felice Varini

An example in film is in Yolanda and the Thief. In this scene, the floor at a low viewing angle appears normal and flat. But when filmed from above, the floor pattern makes the floor feel raised and curved with anamorphic perspective. The raised and curved effect comes from cross contour. Cross Contour Study

REVEALING WITH ANAMORPHIC PERSPECTIVE

One dramatic use of anamorphic perspective is to reveal information or a subject. In Infinity War, it’s used for Nebula’s introduction to reveal she is being tortured. This example was actually my intro anamorphic perspective and spawned this study.

The first anamorphic perspective reveal I saw as a kid was in The Last Crusade:

One surprising real-world example of anamorphic perspective are constellations -they change depending on your viewpoint in Space because the stars in the constellation are not on the same plane. The Big Dipper:

The new Lionsgate logo sequence uses an anamorphic illusion reveal to show a constellation forming a lion: