ECHO – short film written and directed by Victor Perez– depicts a girl who wakes up in the middle of nowhere to see in a mirror her reflection ten seconds ahead of her time. When she wakes up again the nightmare has just started over.

a MASKED FRAME PICTURES production
in association with STILLER STUDIOS
written and directed by VICTOR PEREZ
produced by TOMAS WALL and VICTOR PEREZ
with MARIA RUIZ
executive produced by PATRIK FORSBERG
featuring a motion control technology developed by TOMAS TJERNBERG & TOMAS WALL at Stiller Studios
cinematography MARCUS DINEEN
visual effects supervisor VICTOR PEREZ

ECHO features a pioneering motion control technology developed at Stiller Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) –by Tomas Tjernberg and Tomas Wall– synchronising for the first time two motion control rigs: the massive and pixel-accurate Cyclops® and the fastest and versatile Bolt®, both manufactured by the highly regarded Mark Roberts. The synchronisation algorithm allowed the filmmakers to tell this story in a very specific way: just 5 long takes. All takes from both motion control rigs were shot contemporarily to create the effect of a virtual mirror. Once the sync was pitch perfect Stiller Studios worked closely with Victor Perez to accomplish the highest challenge: a reflection in the mirror out of sync in relation with the hero camera and vari-speed to alter the time within the reflected image but maintaining always the angle of reflection in relation to the main camera. Months of research and development, rehearsals and planning were necessary to accomplish the “Echo Mirroring FX”. Stiller Studios –owned by Patrik Forsberg– brought a state of the art motion control technology featuring a 3D virtual representation of their real sound stage to allow the filmmakers design a choreography with the actress to match the virtual world to the real one and viceversa, with visual feedback in real time. A teamwork effort of narrative visual effects to capture a complex vision in a simple cinematic way.