The Vertigo effect
Drag the slider: the camera pulls back while the zoom pushes in. Watch the background.
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What just happened (read it after the experiment)
By pulling the camera back while zooming in, you keep the character the same size, but the perspective of the background changes: it seems to stretch away or close in.
The effect was created for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), to make the audience feel the hero’s fear of heights. Steven Spielberg used it again in Jaws (1975), on Chief Brody’s face.
Your brain judges distance from perspective; when perspective moves on its own, it loses its footing.
More experiments
Sources
- Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo, 1958.