Breakaway shed door

T

tcindie

Well-known member
I have to make a wooden shed door that will break away easily so an actor can be thrown through it. The camera will be on the inside of the shed with the actor bursting through heading directly toward camera.

The director was thinking either a precut sheet of plywood held together with something like drywall joint tape so it'll hold its shape but slight pressure would cause it to crumble.. My concern with that is the wood would still have some girth to it and could cause an injury.. So I'm thinking something more like foamcore would be a good plan, but I'm concerned that it might not look believable since foamcore is so light weight.


Any thoughts?
 
My 2 cents...

I'm inclined to agree with you: foamcore would look too unrealistic, and real plywood too strong and likely to cause injury. the first alternative that comes to mind is either balsa wood, or basswood...both are very soft and very light, (I think basswood is even lighter than balsa), but you may find them hard to find or relatively expensive in a quantity large enough to make the door. Even if not too expensive, it might take so much time and work that you may only get one shot of it...so make it good.

the only other alternative that comes to mind is cutting cardboard into board-sized pieces, paint them to look like wood, and glue them together, or use a combo of basswood and cardboard.

Good luck.
 
Well.. sadly the budget probably won't cover balsa or basswood, but if I were going to go the cardboard route, wouldn't foamcore work just as well?

Although I do suppose cardboard would be cheaper.. ;) Actually.. that might not be a bad idea, because if I stagger the cut slightly on the different layers it should be possible to have it interlock enough to hold its shape until the actor is thrown through it. And I do have a largish amount of cardboard lying around. Might as well give it a try.. thanks
 
the usual problem with foamcore is the white interior, which shows when it's broken, but you can buy it in black too (i.e. the foam is black). Painted up, carefully scored with break lines via a boxcutter knife so that it just supports its own weight, it should be safe and look ok.

Consider also making some matching wreckage out of real wood, so that you can cut to that after the door-smashing shot, if that's what the script needs
 
What if you had cut out the part where you wanted to break through the wood and then glued it back in to place With some wood glue. But when the glue is drying sprinkle saw dust in it so it keeps the woods color and from a wide shot you shouldn't even be able to see it.
 
clang: yeah I will be sure to have wood wreckage on hand as well.. in fact though the director isn't planning on it I'm gunning for shooting it from the side as well, and that shot would include more wood splinters than the head-on shot..

clarkage: yes, but the concern is that the wood has enough girth that it may still cause an injury, something we'd rather avoid.

I think what I'm going to do is make a large jagged hole in a piece of plywood, then plug that with interlocking cardboard door pieces that are several layers glued together to match the thickness of the ply, and reinforce the pieces so they won't bend too much. It will all be painted to match... This way it will break away very easily, but hold it's shape and should be resettable for several takes -- also I was thinking about it and I seriously doubt if someone were thrown through a door the entire door would be obliterated, hence the large jagged hole.
 
I decided to start a blog to be kind of a catch all for the special fx work I'm doing.. Since it's what I aim to get more into, I thought it kind of made sense.

Anyway, I anticipate being fairly active with posts in the near future, since I'm doing a LOT of fx work on the current film I'm working on.

If anyone's interested:
http://will-fx.blogspot.com
 
We did one of these by using drywall and making it look like it was part of the wall. Dust and dirt and the drywall gave us a lot of stuff in the air and it broke irregularly. We still scored the crap out of it. You might think about using Luan it is only a 1/4 inch thick, but I would still score it and I don't think I would use an actor.
 
If the shot is
Taking from inside use plywood scenic to look like planks...do test with foamcare firsts to see how to do focus
To on the outside of the door called back cuts. Start with the deepest cuts to the playwood in the initial impact zone with breaking radiating outwards progerssively...and be prepared with several sheets...perhaps with a sledge hammer for the first test.
And then progressing to padded human and for the take no padding....this is achieved by moving towards the final shot with the deepest cuts...I would us something like a router...the can template the cut/shape and then making your test is just a question
Of lowering the router bit in the plywood to weaken it sufficiently to break without injury.
 
In the 70s and 80s they used a black board 4x8 sheets as insulation. It was pressed cardboard ?? but dark colored throughout. If scored from the back a fist or foot or head should be able to go thru without damage.
 
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