Camille Boyer and cinematographer Nik Mirus worked with a Montreal-based agency called Caravane to create a surreal short film called Club Palace. It looks like a computer animation student’s final-year project, but in reality it was all filmed using real-life miniatures and clever practical effects.
The lighting, detailed sets, and precise camera movements will make you think that what you’re seeing was surely spit out of a computer after a couple weeks’ worth of rendering. There’s even a room featuring an impossible, upside-down swimming pool complete with water ripples that look straight out of a video game. But it’s your eyes and brain that are fooling you this time.
If you don’t believe me, watch this behind-the-scenes look at the production, revealing the scale of all the sets and the techniques used to make it look so incredibly fake. I suppose there is the chance this behind-the-scenes video could have also been faked using computer-generated imagery, at which point I’ll gladly tip my hat to the talented forgers who fooled me.
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DISCUSSION
It looked like miniatures from the get-go for me. They have a certain charm to them.