How can i pull off this effect shot?? Help?

brock2621

brock2621

Well-known member
I don't really know where to post this question so you might see it repeat in a couple different forum topics but i need help. Here is what i'm trying to shoot and i don't know how to effectively pull this off...


1. Man is hunched over in a car with a bullet hole in the side of his head, blood is on the front glass...

2.The shot is from the left of the dead driver...this is where it gets tricky...

3.This steady shot begins to pull away dollying back and THRU a bullet hole in the spiderwebbed glass back about 15 feet to all the way back through the sights of a pistol which then become in focus while the car is now completely blurred and out of focus.

So this is one of many complex shots i will be attempting to put into my next project and basically i need to learn how to slice shots or composites together and match the timing of the dolly to one another.

Does anybody have any ideas??? Thanks a bunch!
 
hey brock,

I'd try the shot with a lipstick cam, and a makeshift spider cam.
use strong black non-reflective thread. (nylon industrial thread is pretty strong)

I'd attach 2 lengths of thread parallel to each other about a foot apart starting from the top of the side window. use the window frame to retain the ends of the tread, basically tie the ends of the thread to something like a small peice of wood and close the door using the wood behind the frame as an anchor.

rig up the other ends of the thread to something ridgid 15ft away. position the gun 7" below and between the treads.

hang the small camera about 6" below the threads with a makshift contraption using lots of tape and popsicle sticks use two drinking straws as guides or runners to slide along the threads and suspend the camera . The 8" length of the straws should keep the camera from swinging side to side.

set the focal depth of the camera to a foot or so (or what ever is possible with the lens)

position the camera lens through the window bullet hole. use another string tied to the camera rig to slowly pull the camera away from the car and up and over the gun site.

all this could make for a cool shot if

your audience doesn't know that car glass is tempered and shatters into thousands of little 1/4" squares when broken (safety feature). On the other hand the windshield has a piece of clear plastic sandwiched inside it so it would hold the shape of a bullet hole.

But then again lots of action movies including big budget Tom Cruise flicks don't acknowledge the existense of tempered glass to get a cinematic affect of broken glass.

Secondly if the victim is hunched over from being shot then the bullet hole should technically be up higher than his dead head position because his head would have been up higher when he was alive which wouldn't line up with the camera shot.

Unless ofcourse he was ducking to avoid getting shot when he was shot then the scenerio works.

where are you located?
 
Thanks john for the imput...

My only problem is i think there would be a HUGE quality difference that is very noticeable between and HVX+M2 and this little lipstick cam. Do you know of any that i can get that are VERY high quality if not HD (i doubt it). Or any other way to get this shot? i think i'm going to just have to make the hole big enough to fit the lense of the camera through unfortuneately...

I'm located in Lexington, KY and am a film major at Asbury College.
 
Also, i just checked out your website... that jib is very very nice... i've been making mine for a while but how much is that thing to order? I was very impressed with the freedom of movement on the cam itself.
 
Well you could do it all with greenscreen like those ST & Mather guys.

(don't click the image, click the link, click the image on the link)


http://www.saintandmather.com/prey.htm

See.

Edit:
Or do the Orson Welles. He created a collapsible table that split in two for the camera to move past it...

Make a collabsible bullet hole window.
 
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Yeah... my green screen knowledge isn't that expansive tho. I usually try to shy away from it unless i have somebody that really knows what they are doing on set.
 
hey brock,

they do make HD cameras like that, I had a flyer for one kicking around somewhere, can't find it right now but a company out in LA called Acuwar (310 219 1345) sells them, they are the size of a typical chicken egg (infact the add has a bunch of them in an egg carton) . They are kinda pricey but perhaps Acuwar can tell you the make and model and maybe you could rent one locally.

I guess you saw my old site . My new website is

www.advantajib.com

it's much better than the old one, check it out to get some ideas for your jib, they start a $1799.00 for a standard Advanta-Jib Lite.

t'would be cool for a shot like that to work out, good luck
 
OK... here's how I would do it, just off the top of my head:

I would start the shot as you say, then pull back through an OPEN WINDOW (no glass in place). Comp in your glass and bullet hole in post and motion track it. Much easier and will still look real if you do it right. The key to digital effects is using them so they don't look like digital effects.

For ideas, watch the behind the scenes disc for Bad Boys II (stop rolling your eyes!) and watch the scene where the camera rotates around in a 360 degree loop several times during a shootout. They incorporate effects a lot like what you're wanting to do (i.e. camera moving through a space that, in reality, a camera could not fit through)

Good luck!
 
Call Fincher.

-

I'd do it this way (Using a dolly):

Shot 1

I'd pull back from head with Window Down

Shot 2

(On same track) Pull back from Window in the Window Rolled Up position

Shot 3

(On same track) Pull back and bring camera back through sites; the sites being large scale replica

ALL SHOTS ARE THEN COMPOSITED TOGETHER

Now those are my ideas based on my fantasy of knwoing what I'm doing.
 
Pale Rider said:
OK... here's how I would do it, just off the top of my head:

I would start the shot as you say, then pull back through an OPEN WINDOW (no glass in place). Comp in your glass and bullet hole in post and motion track it. Much easier and will still look real if you do it right. The key to digital effects is using them so they don't look like digital effects.

For ideas, watch the behind the scenes disc for Bad Boys II (stop rolling your eyes!) and watch the scene where the camera rotates around in a 360 degree loop several times during a shootout. They incorporate effects a lot like what you're wanting to do (i.e. camera moving through a space that, in reality, a camera could not fit through)

Good luck!
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I was going to suggest. I am pretty sure that it is the same type of compositing that they do on CSI when they follow a bullet track or whatever coming out of a body or going in.
 
Pale Rider said:
OK... here's how I would do it, just off the top of my head:

I would start the shot as you say, then pull back through an OPEN WINDOW (no glass in place). Comp in your glass and bullet hole in post and motion track it. Much easier and will still look real if you do it right. The key to digital effects is using them so they don't look like digital effects.

For ideas, watch the behind the scenes disc for Bad Boys II (stop rolling your eyes!) and watch the scene where the camera rotates around in a 360 degree loop several times during a shootout. They incorporate effects a lot like what you're wanting to do (i.e. camera moving through a space that, in reality, a camera could not fit through)

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I guess i'll try this and if it doesn't work i'll fall back on something simpler. Thank you guys for your imput. I'm sure i'll post the finished product somewhere on here when it's done in a couple months :)
 
um.... uh... yeah, motion track it, comp in glass...yeah obviously, I mean, that's what I'd do too. I was just kidding about the whole string thing

man I feel so old school
 
brock2621 said:
I'm sure i'll post the finished product somewhere on here when it's done in a couple months :)
Click to expand...
Almost two months later now. How's the project progressing, if you don't mind us asking?
 
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