The actor (or subject) performs in front of the reflective screen with a movie camera pointing straight at them. Just in front of the camera is a one-way mirror angled at 45 degrees. At 90 degrees to the camera is a projector which projects an image of the background onto the mirror which reflects the image onto the performer and the highly reflective screen; the image is too faint to appear on the actor but shows up clearly on the screen. In this way, the actor becomes their own matte. The combined image is transmitted through the mirror and recorded by the camera. The technique is shown and explained in the "making-of-documentary" of the 1972 "sci-fi" film "Silent Running".