History Main / CircularDrive

* In the SwordOfTruth, Jagang did this to make it look like the army went one way, forced a confrontation with Kahlan as she went scouting, and pretended to believe that his ruse had fooled her. His army attacked that night.
* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Moving Pictures''.

* Circular Drive-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 {{Circular Drive}}s were a popular part of these deceptions, with trucks full of mannequins and fake insignia.

* The famous long dolly shot that opens Creator/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.

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.]]

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 battalion 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.

* Used in the infamously bad ''SpaceThunderKids'' where the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voaK8wL3vz4 footage of the tanks]] is blatantly the same couple of frames recycled for over a minute.

* ''{{Gettysburg}}'' uses this technique to allow an admittedly large number of extras to represent two huge armies. Particularly noticable with the cavalry. The actors can change their uniforms but their horses can't change their coats.

* A variation shows up in ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' with the Roman Soldiers repeatedly trooping into and out of the hideout of the [[strike: Judean Peoples' Front]] Peoples' Front of Judea. If you look closely you'll notice that the number of soldiers going in is different from the number coming out.

* 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 {{Circular Drive}}s were a popular part of these deceptions, with trucks full of mannequins and fake insignia.

* Used in the infamously bad ''Space Thunder Kids'' where the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voaK8wL3vz4 footage of the tanks]] is blatantly the same couple of frames recycled for over a minute.

* ''Film/{{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]].

* Used twice in the opening credit sequence of ''HogansHeroes'' with running prisoners 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.

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 battalion 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.

'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?'

* 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.

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

* ''Film/{{Gojira}}'', particularly noticeable with the firetruck scene: There's only one truck!

* An old RogerCorman trick of course, but he'd also paint the cars a different color on each side.

* ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'', particularly noticeable with the firetruck scene: There's only one truck!

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.]]

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* ''DoctorWho'' did this with Daleks before the revival came and could finally afford some decent CGI.

* During TheAmericanCivilWar'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.

* An old RogerCorman trick of course, but also he'd double the number of cars by painting each vehicle a different color on each side.

* ''Film/{{Godzilla}}'', particularly noticeable with the firetruck scene: There's only one truck!

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