Hasenbol, part 1 - The Complete Hasenbol Set
This set of pictures is very easy to recreate indeed. To set it up you simply throw ropes over two tree branches that are on opposite sides of a field and use them to pull either end of a long length of fishing line up to the branches. The fishing line is tied onto keychain clips which are clipped onto the ropes where they loop and feed through themselves allowing you to pull up to the branches. Make sure you pull one up first so you can cut the other end of the fishing line short so when you pull that up to a branch it's difficult and already quite tight. If you don't do this the model won't go very high because the gap is vast. I used a gap of over 100 feet and got a height of about 10 feet with the model. The last time i did this I got the model 15 feet up so you can get decent hieght easily and it can all be done with one hand.
The main thing for the eye when looking at the finished pictures is the model and how close it is to the original. It must be of the same sort of scale to reproduce the frames exactly. It's really only about 8 or 10 feet up off the ground but if you have a landscape that drops away like in meier's it can look like it's way up there. The most important thing here, however, is to know what the Olympus camera is capable of. When I say that I mean if you don't know that the 42mm lens acts like a fish eye lens to some extent you won't realise that it makes the model look much smaller and further away in the finished pictures then is expected. I was very surprised to see the first results. I thought I was too close but the models look like they're a mile away. I've not heard or seen a proper discussion concerning the cameras used by Meier and would say the same applies for his film camera as the Olympus, in that it makes things appear smaller than they are.
One technique when taking pictures is to pull the model down to the ground with your hand and let go so it bounces up with the recoil of the fishing line. If you take pictures when it goes up high it will look like it's way up there. Another aspect to this technique is to tilt the model when you let go so it looks like it's at an angle when you take the picture giving the impression that it's "doing" something. I call these "action shots" for obvious reasons. You can get more interesting "action shots" though, as well as good close ups, if you suspend the model directly from a tree branch and swing it out before taking pictures. You can see the moments when the sunlight doesn't light up the fishing line so that's when you take the picture. The photos taken in bright sunshine, where the UFO base is not dark, in this video were all taken like this.
In fact the "sunset shots" themselves were taken like this too, where the sun is directly behind the model, which looks like it's interacting with the large tree in the background. In Meier's original sunset shots he might have simply been looking down the length of the line he was using between two trees, without it being suspended directly from a branch. I say this because Kal Korff found a length of rope in the Hasenbol tree itself, in Meier's picture, that nobody has pointed out before and strongly suggests Meier suspended his model from that particular tree to another one behind him, over a portion of the hill that falls away quickly allowing you to see the distant hilltop. It would account for the photos he produced.
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