How did they film the camera following flying golf ball in Happy Gilmore?
At around 00:50 we can see the golf ball flying through the street and camera following it through air and through bushes until it hits window.
How did they film it so realistically considering the movie is from 1996?
Best Answer
Just a guess, but I feel reasonably safe...
As it's quite obviously sped up I think we can pretty much eliminate it being anything other than a purely mechanical effect.
My guess would be a camera on a crane, attached to a moving vehicle. Presumably for safety/stability reasons, they could not travel it at the required speed, necessitating the post-process speeding-up of the footage.
Note that the first 3 shots are clearly following a road, only the last one isn't.
Another guess is that the fourth shot may have had the camera suspended on a wire. This is pre-drone technology & I think a helicopter shot would have been far too disruptive, at that height above a residential area. A wire would explain the straightness of the camera trajectory & why they couldn't go any closer to the building; presumably because they needed a back-pull wire on the camera & daren't let it hit the building.
You can also discern some slight swinging motion on the shot, which wouldn't be present using any other method I can think of.
Pictures about "How did they film the camera following flying golf ball in Happy Gilmore?"
How do cameramen follow the golf ball?
Protracer / Toptracer uses complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors, installed in a camera, to monitor the golf ball. The cameras create a 3D space, and when a golf ball moves into that space, it's tracked by the sensors. These sensors are attached to a computer, which receives the tracking data.What golf course is Happy Gilmore filmed at?
Furry Creek Golf and Country Club, located along the Sea to Sky Highway, offers by far the most beautiful views and is home to maybe one of the most iconic scenes in sports movie history. That's right- this is the exact course where Happy Gilmore and Bob Barker got into a fistfight.What is a Happy Gilmore golf shot?
The swing itself is sort of simple. Basically, Happy would run up to the tee and swing with all his might; not something we normally see with golf and something that, originally, made people laugh at him in the film. So seeing someone like Woods run up to the tee and swing is hilarious.How far can snappy Gilmore drive a golf ball?
It's a one-armed, looping, wobbling, violent swing that sends the ball soaring in the 250-300-yard range and leaves spectators wide-eyed. To call it unorthodox is like calling Jack Nicklaus a fine golfer.Meet the Real Life Version of Happy Gilmore
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