How Would You Do It? Smash My Coffee Table

Chance White

Chance White

Well-known member
Alright this may be an ongoing series.

I'm going to propose a scene and I want to hear input, suggestions, creative ways of pulling it off... under the limitation of almost no monetary funds to throw at it.

So... Riddle me this, oh great minds of the DVXuser community...

I need a character to fall 'through' the ceiling and land on a coffee table. The coffee table of course smashes in brilliant 60p HVX200 slow mo. The character comes to rest in the wreckage of said coffee table. I'd like to have slow mo shots from above, as well as other coverage. We have access to multiple HVX200's (well, 2 at the most I think).

Presumably we're going to be building a breakaway coffee table...

My main questions are:

1) How do we safely 'drop' the actor onto the coffee table?
OR
2) How do we composite the character for the OH falling shot without it looking assy?
(Yes I said assy... and this is if we only have access to budget green screen, as in a green curtain on a wall in a room)
3) If we composite for the OH shot described above, how do we drop the actor on the coffee table from a shorter distance insuring it substantially breaks apart etc?

Any and all participation is greatly appreciated!
 
Make the coffee table out of balsa wood and foam etc etc. Get a stuntman (or failming that, any dumbnut who likes jackass will do) and get him to sign some kind of disclaimer, this could go very wrong.

You would be better off shooting this in a studio, somewhere where you can install a false ceiling and have a scaffold tower to drop yoru actor off. Build a scaffold gantry over the room and table table and then get your stuntman (not actor) to throw himself through it.
 
Thanks for the response!

But now to complicate things further, the character happens to be the main character. Finding a stuntman lookalike on no budget seems tough...

Oh and BTW, nice equipment.
 
With no budget, you're going to have to settle for assy... bummer dude. I would go with a waited dummy, then cut, and replace the dummy with your actor. This is purely for safety, since you likely can't afford a wire harness to insure this goes off without injuring him.
 
I just hate to resign myself to having to not show it, just hear it off screen, etc... as I just feel like people will know we couldn't do it because we had no budget... any other ideas?
 
The other thing to keep in mind is that if he falls through the ceiling and lands on the table, we can't see both happening unless you do some pretty amazing camera move - it's far more likely that you'd show him coming through the ceiling then cut to him falling onto the table.

So the sneaky zero budget method is to first film him coming through the ceiling (and falling onto off-camera mattresses, and then separately film him falling onto the table from a very low height (perhaps even just falling backwards onto it, depending on the shot you need) or even just him lying there in the wreckage - if done right, the viewer's brain fills in the gaps.
 
Clang, sounds like a possible angle of attack on this...

How would you go about the low angle shot of him falling 'through' the ceiling?

BTW, he actually, uh, sort of falls out of a portal from the ceiling, so he doesn't need to smash through or anything...

Greatly appreciate all the contributions!
 
I think Clang has the right mindset, but you can also get you some Chroma Key Green and paint the mattress. This way he falls down, breaks the "foam" coffee table but his fall isn't that bad since he landed on a mattress (better make that 2 mattresses). Then Edit another shot with him falling a small height, maybe 2 feet and breaking the table again, this time with dust and such.

On the edit as his body begins to hti the mattress, before the "bounce" cut to the close up of him smashing through the table.

As long as you have After Effects CS3 you can use Keylight to remove the green painted mattresses. All you need is a "cleam matte" of what the room would look like if the mattresses weren't there. It may be slightly tricky to line up, but I think it could work.

Green - is your friend. As an indie once you can control it, you can do things you never thought you could do before. :beer:
 
JLS4,

Excellent suggestion, my main concern with this approach was the nailing the landing, the physics looking off due to the mattresses, but with close up cuts it should work. I'm also concerned with fining an area to set this up and duplicate lighting... we'd need some kind of warehouse with a large ceiling to film the composite, ideally, and then matching the lighting with the actual location, but that part shouldn't be tooo tricky.

Thanks. :)
 
Given your budget ...

I'd use a dummy and shoot it wide exposing for the light whereas all you see is the figure of the dummy. and not total detail.

The audience will get the jist.

I'd also shoot it witout slow motion; that **** is predicatable and played out isn't it ?
 
Chance White said:
JLS4,

Excellent suggestion, my main concern with this approach was the nailing the landing, the physics looking off due to the mattresses, but with close up cuts it should work. I'm also concerned with fining an area to set this up and duplicate lighting... we'd need some kind of warehouse with a large ceiling to film the composite, ideally, and then matching the lighting with the actual location, but that part shouldn't be tooo tricky.

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

That's why I would do a close up with the actual landing. the wide with the mattress is for the fall only, not the landing. Otherwise you'll get the bounce. but this way if your actor/stunt guy comes too close to the table then at least you have maybe 12 to 15 more frames for a good edit.
 
I am going to re-iterate what everyone is saying, this can go very wrong! A simple stunt like this can get someone very injured.

And not to be the legal beagle here, if someone does get hurt, a waiver really means nothing. Especially if someone is being directed to do something no one has the appropriate training for.

In Court:
Judge- "Mr. Director, you had this actor do this fall and what training have you had to ensure his safety?"

Director- "Well.......He signed a waiver."

Judge- "But it was your responsibility to make sure he was trained to do it, and that you were trained to supervise it. Your waiver does not mean a thing"
 
well ideally they'd be drunk and therefor quite safe.
again, I say drop his ass in and enjoy.
 
Doc's right, things can go very wrong. But hey that's part of making indie movies. My first 3 movies we had no insurance at all. I had one actress who brused her wrist doing a small "fall down" stunt. We put water damage on two wooden tables each worth at least $500, one probably work $3500. Scratches in paint, on walls, etc. Id say a total of about $10K or more in damages over 3 movies. Thank God that the people who owned these items didn't think much of the damage.

That being said.. everything is at your own risk. That's the indie way unfortunately - not enough money to do it right - yet you need the shots so you can sell and make money - so you'll have money next time. It's the perpetual problem.

If it was me, I'd do a mixture of what everyone has said and try over 3 shots to make it work. Maybe a dummy falling for the first 2 seconds, then the actor falling to a mattress on a quick medium and followed by a close where the actor literally falls maybe 12 inches into the table. And hope you get an editor that can piece it together.
 
Thanks for the excellent suggestions everyone.

Mr Hudson has a point about the slow mo... however... this is kind of a significant 'impact' in more then one way so I felt it could add emphasis... but since the means to accomplish the level of realism necessary for some sweet slow motion here is not quite there, it would probably be much easier to parlay it. However your suggestion makes sense as exposing in said way and letting the motion play at quickly would hide details and make a dummy work much better. I have to admit I am quite weary of using a dummy due to the many Troma films I've seen... ha ha...

I can always shoot it both ways and see what works best.

Thanks again and if anyone has any additional epiphanies regarding this challenge of coffee table smashery please share.
 
Hmm.... You could chroma key your actor falling out of the "portal". Have an upward looking shot at the ceiling showing him come out and "falling" (Granted, this requires some fans and other smart shooting in front of the screen to make it look like hes really falling). Then cut to a low shot, and just have your actor fall back on the table. If the angles are all done correctly, it should look pretty good and provide enough information to look believable.

You can still do your OH shot, but it'll only be about the last half of your actor's fall onto the table. But it should still capture the slow motion of the table shattering and all that fun stuff. Its figuring out shots like these that makes film making so fun!
 
you can always use stock footage and just run the frame rate slower(i.e; see Jumper when Sam tosses Anakin off the 2nd floor onto the coffee table) - clear the gate - thats a wrap! lol
 
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