Mirror shots

In our music video we are considering using a mirror for filming some of our scenes. This will be in the form of viewing someone in the mirror and then using a shot reverse shot to indicate that they are looking into the mirror and their reflection is looking back at them. The way in which this is done confused us and so I decided to ask my teacher about how this is done in real videos.

He suggested that the best way to do this is film into a mirror from an angle so that the camera cannot be seen in the reflection. From this, I learnt and realised that whenever a mirror shot is used in a film, the shot is never directly straight and this is the reason why. An alternative to this method is to cover the camera in a green material and then edit out the camera. However, this method is more complicated and time consuming and would not be an efficient way for us to get our work done.

Reflections are very important when using mirror shots and we must ensure that the camera cannot be seen within the mirror at any time. Many films have made this mistake before. This can be seen in the kitchen/cooking scene in Mrs. Doubtfire when she is preparing the evening meal.

After watching the video and speaking to my teacher we have decided that we will still use a mirror scene within our video and ensure that we consider all of issues that could occur.