History Main / CircularDrive

* ''{{Flyboys}}'': The same generic, red CGI Fokker Dr.1 triplane appears muliple times, often within the same scene.

* ''HalfLife2'' uses this during shots where citizens are seen from afar, such as on the monitors in Kleiner's lab: the stream of citizens walking on the security cameras are actually the same low-resolution model that respawns back at the start point as soon as it walks off-screen.

* ''{{Airplane}}'': Played for laughs, of course: The circle is obvious, the film is sped up, and as it goes on more and more incongruous vehicles (including a beer truck and a farm tractor) [[ThrowItIn get added in]].
* ''{{Godzilla}}'' particularly noticeable with the firetruck scene: There's only one truck!
* ''TopSecret'' played for laughs when the camera cranes back to display the entire circle.

-> 'Why not ride the camel past the picture box, and then get the handleman to stop the demons, and lead it back and put a different rider on it, then start up the box again and ride it past again?' said Victor. 'Would that work?'
-> Dibbler looked at him open-mouthed.
-> 'What did I tell you?' he said, to the sky in general. 'The lad is a genius! That way we can get a hundred camels for the price of one, right?'
-> 'It means the desert bandits ride in single file, though,' said the youth. 'It's not like, you know, a massed attack.'
-> 'Sure, sure,' said Dibbler dismissively. 'Makes sense. We just put a card up where the leader says, he says-' He thought for a second. 'He says, "Follow me in single file, bwanas, to fool the hated enemy," OK?'

Alien Invasion. Natural Disaster. Kaiju attack. Big catastrophes naturally require a big response, and what better way to depict a big response then to show them mobilizing an entire army? There's only one problem: you can only afford twenty extras, two jeeps and three trucks... and [[MyCarHatesMe one of those won't start.]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

* Parodied in the {{Discworld}} novel ''Moving Pictures''.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]

* During [[TheAmericanCivilWar The American Civil War's]] Siege of Yorktown in 1862, Confederate general John Magruder actually did this to convince Union general George [=McClellan=] that Magruder's small force was a big one. It worked, and [=McClellan=] settled in for a siege rather than overwhelming the vastly outnumbered Confederate garrison.

* CircularDrive -style deceptions were popular with the western Allies in WWII, originating with the British in the Western Desert and later embraced wholeheartedly by the U.S. Army and climaxing in an entire false invasion force off of Calais on D-Day. Literal {{CircularDrive}}s were a popular part of these deceptions, with trucks full of mannequins and fake insignia.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': used in at least one of the "bugout" episodes, with [[TanksButNoTanks anachronistic vehicles]] thrown in to boot.

* An in-Universe example from ''DadsArmy'' where the platoon was on guard at a local Italian POW camp and had to conceal the fact that most of the prisoners had temporarily escaped (they were working for Private Walker and would be back before dawn). They got the remaining ones to jog through their hut over and over again while the authorities did a headcount.

* The famous long dolly shot that opens AkiraKurosawa's ''{{Rashomon}}'' was filmed by having the actor walk a figure eight path that crossed the dolly tracks twice. Clever framing makes it look like the camera is following the woodcutter through the forest but he's actually walking around it.

* Lampshaded in ''TheTrumanShow'', when Truman realizes this is happening with the vehicles that are passing by.

* ''RaidersOfTheLostArk'' The truck blown up in Cairo is the same one used for the chase scene 20 minutes later. Especially noticable on repeat viewings.

* ''{{MASH}}'': used in at least one of the "bugout" episodes, with [[TanksButNoTanks anachronistic vehicles]] thrown in to boot.
* An episode of ''{{Land Of The Giants}}'' featured the heroes stealing a bunch of giant spark plugs. There was only one spark plug prop, though clever editing handles the issue quite well as they steal one at time and immediately hide them all.

* Used twice in the opening credit sequence of ''HogansHeroes'' with running prisioners and guards falling out for a midnight rollcall. The camera is aimed at their feet to hide the fact that it's the same men both times.

* CircularDrive -style deceptions were popular with the western Allies in WWII, originating with the British in the Western Desert and later embraced wholeheartedly by the U.S. Army and climaxing in an entire false invasion force off of Calais on D-Day. Literal {{CicularDrive}}s were a popular part of these deceptions, with trucks full of mannequins and fake insignia.

* ''{{Airplane}}'': Played for laughs, of course: The circle is obvious, the film is sped up, and as it goes on more and more incongruous vehicles (including a beer truck and a farm tractor) [[ThrowItIn get added in]].

[[AC:TabletopGaming]]

[[AC:TableTopGaming]]

* ''{{Airplane}}'': Played for laughs, of course: The circle is obvious, the film is sped up, and as it goes on more and more incongruous vehicles (including a beer truck and a farm tractor) [[JustThrowItIn get added in]].

Thus was born one of the classic techiques of cinema: The circular drive. Need to depict an entire armored division with only three tanks? simply drive them in a big circle that passes the camera and hope that nobody notices the markings don't change. You can turn a SuspiciouslySmallArmy of twenty extras into an entire armored division if you frame your shot right. Note that this is not restricted to vehicles - pretty much any object will do, provided it can be steered appropriately. Takes advantage of the time-worn technique of having vehicles turn in front of the camera to add action to a scene, but the same three or four vehicles passing in the same repetitive sequence is going to be a dead giveaway. Alternatively, the same vehicle (or vehicles) may be noticeably present in multiple scenes for no apparent reason, which is particularly egregious when the scenes are supposed to be separated by time or distance.

Thus was born one of the classic techiques of cinema: The circular drive. Need to depict an entire armored division with only three tanks? simply drive them in a big circle that passes the camera and hope that nobody notices the markings don't change. You can turn a SuspiciouslySmallArmy of twenty extras into an entire armored division if you frame your shot right. Note that this is not restricted to vehicles - pretty much any object will do, provided it can be steered appropriately. Takes advantage of the time-warn technique of having vehicles turn in front of the camera to add action to a scene, but the same three or four vehicles passing in the same repetitive sequence is going to be a dead giveaway. Alternatively, the same vehicle (or vehicles) may be noticeably present in multiple scenes for no apparent reason, which is particularly egregious when the scenes are supposed to be separated by time or distance.

Thus was born one of the classic techiques of cinema: The circular drive. Need to depict an entire armored division with only three tanks? simply drive them in a big circle that passes the camera and hope that nobody notices the markings don't change. You can turn twenty extras into an entire army if you frame your shot right. Note that this is not restricted to vehicles - pretty much any object will do, provided it can be steered appropriately. Takes advantage of the time-warn technique of having vehicles turn in front of the camera to add action to a scene, but the same three or four vehicles passing in the same repetitive sequence is going to be a dead giveaway. Alternatively, the same vehicle (or vehicles) may be noticeably present in multiple scenes for no apparent reason, which is particularly egregious when the scenes are supposed to be separated by time or distance.