Actor on side of house, second floor, falls to ground ?

[Randall_Oelerich]

Wondering if I should cut this shot/scene, or if it is doable for an indie: I originally wrote up a scene where an actor (~22 years of age) crawls out a second floor window or an attic window, then holds onto a vertical pipe (electrical, telephone, etc) on the side of the house, then falls to the ground (onto something cushioned of course). Too dangerous? Too much risk of liability? Is there any way to do this relatively safe? Would I need to hire a stunt double and what does that sort of expense work out to? I tentatively rewrote the shot/scene, just having the actor pushed out a second floor window from the inside hallway, as I could cheat that with VFX. Just wondering if I could go back to my original intended scene on the side of the house. Writing up the script now.

 

[novicemonk]

Hi

If you can get a stunt coordinator to help you break down and shoot this scene, great. If the stunt coord would also make a good double, even better. A decent pro stunt person can make falling from second floor quite straightforward. If you cant get a stuntie involved don't do any shots where there is a genuine risk of falling from height. Please don't ask an actor to fall onto a crash pad or boxes from height without a stunt coord.

The good news is that there are many ways to cheat this, and they needn't cost the earth or be too tricky. So don't feel you have to cut it out.

Have you chosen you location yet? I have done shoots where the ground floor levels of buildings look same/very similar to upper floors. with a low angle, or profile shot, you can have the actor fall through frame. I guess what I'm saying is if there is nothing in the shot to show how high up he REALLY is (like a parked car), you could show window, brick wall, actor holdiing onto drain pipe and him falling back, but in reality he's stood on an apple box 10" off the ground, falling onto a large gym crash matt.

On some buildings you find they have windows/walls high up, but beneath them is not a straight drop to the ground, but a larger part of flat roof. Provided it's safe to work on the roof, you can get a lot of interesting/scary angles with the actor climbing out of window, holding onto pipe etc, and he's only 3-4ft away from large, flat, solid roof to stand on. Shoot him side on (or inside window looking out), and you may see things in background like tops of trees or buildings, telling the audience - "we are at height".

Now if you have the time/money, you can shoot actors at real 2nd floor, but have them on cables (use stunt coord), or shoot them at ground level and in post comp them to 2nd floor. You could also build a scaffold/ platform up to the 2nd floor, then garbage matte it out. Or let's say you had a truck with hard, flat roof, which reached just below the window. You could park that under the window, shoot a locked off shot of the actor climbing out of window onto the roof. You cut, get actor safe inside, and then drive truck away. Shoot a plate of the building with no truck. Now you could matte out the truck and at least show the beginnings of the actor climbing out of the window with an apparent drop below.

Anytime you have performers genuinely at height I would suggest getting stunt pros in. If you can't make it risk free, they probably can, and quite easily. If you can't get stunties, I say cheat it, and shoot at a lower level or where there's no fall risk.

 

[paulears]

There's no rule that says you have to show everything, and dramatically, maybe a shot of him going out the window, another shot of the hand slowly grasping the pipe, then a close up of the fixing pulling away and then a slow pan to him laying on the ground, with suitable music and effects is how it used to be done. You don't need to see the actual fall. TV did it all the time when you couldn't do it in the studio. A real fall from height will cost a LOT of money, and still needs editing because although you can see the drop you can't see the ground impact because it will be aircushions or cardboard, meaning it's still going to be a two shot piece. So why not show the window and the ground from a long shot as he climbs out and forget the actual drop?

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

There's no rule that says you have to show everything, and dramatically, maybe a shot of him going out the window, another shot of the hand slowly grasping the pipe, then a close up of the fixing pulling away and then a slow pan to him laying on the ground, with suitable music and effects is how it used to be done. You don't need to see the actual fall. TV did it all the time when you couldn't do it in the studio. A real fall from height will cost a LOT of money, and still needs editing because although you can see the drop you can't see the ground impact because it will be aircushions or cardboard, meaning it's still going to be a two shot piece. So why not show the window and the ground from a long shot as he climbs out and forget the actual drop?

I will cheat it as you and novicemonk discuss; cheaper, safer!

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

...
Have you chosen you location yet? I have done shoots where the ground floor levels of buildings look same/very similar to upper floors. with a low angle, or profile shot, you can have the actor fall through frame. I guess what I'm saying is if there is nothing in the shot to show how high up he REALLY is (like a parked car), you could show window, brick wall, actor holdiing onto drain pipe and him falling back, but in reality he's stood on an apple box 10" off the ground, falling onto a large gym crash matt.

On some buildings you find they have windows/walls high up, but beneath them is not a straight drop to the ground, but a larger part of flat roof. Provided it's safe to work on the roof, you can get a lot of interesting/scary angles with the actor climbing out of window, holding onto pipe etc, and he's only 3-4ft away from large, flat, solid roof to stand on. Shoot him side on (or inside window looking out), and you may see things in background like tops of trees or buildings, telling the audience - "we are at height".....

Nice ideas, yes I will cheat it, or green screen it. I just do not feel right asking actors to take that risk, and I certainly do not want that liability risk. Better to be safe, and do it cheaper without a stunt person. Thank you!