Breaking out window on second floor

Talk to your stunt coordinator about a BOX fall. You can use corrugated cardboard boxes for a gag like this.
 
Hire a real stunt coordinator. People can get seriously hurt doing this.

Hire someone who knows what they are doing and real stunt people. Else rework it.

Thats the best advice I can offer.
 
I read in another thread that you have 75 crew members on your film. Is there a stunt coordinator in there somewhere?
 
Are you planning on all of the people going out of the window at the same time? If you are, I think you are in trouble. First of all 12 people can't fall on an airbag at one time. Second, unless you have 12 stuntpeople you won't get anything usable without an ambulance at the end of it. The only way I would do it is with everyone on a descender. A box catcher won't work because Even with a box catcher, someone is going to land on someone else. You need to keep them separated at the end of the fall. Besides not being able to use a bag because it is unsafe, you can't put any kind of cover on it and tie it down because you will change the integrity of the bag.
My last question is this: why does anyone think these things up with no money available? This is a big money stunt. Big money because you need equipment and safety people and riggers to pull this off, not to mention 12 stunt people and a stunt coordinator that knows what he/she is doing. For this stunt I would budget at least 8 people to rig and safety at minimum, more likely at least one for every person doing the stunt, so 24 people. Figure a minimum of $1000. per person for the day, with a minimum of another day of prep (more likely two days for rehearsal as well ) and depending on the height of the fall an additional $500=$1000 per person stunt adjustment ( for each time they do it) and an additional $5000 for equipment rental.
Good luck!
 
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it would seem a million time cheaper and easier to let them jump out the window then cut to a view of them falling/landing - even most big budget hollywood movies would do it that way
 
Sorry I questioned your idea. No idea you had a major crew.

But I can tell you that wire removal isn't as hard as it seems. If you really want to you could farm it out to a post production facility to do it for you. It will be expensive, but shouldn't be as bad as hiring all of those people to do it.
 
AlienFX said:
Well we are.... I just want the camera to see the inital 2-3 seconds out the window then it cuts down to the landing.

Well, we'd cover it with thin layer of sand just to hide it as the camera looked over the edge of the window..... the whole shot is supposed to be 12 people escaping from a building on a deserted island.... so they jump out the window to a dirt trail. Although an airbag wouldn't work because of the amount of people. Our budget is going to be 5-7mil. so we could pretty much do what we have to do, but I'd rather not use wires, because it'll be hell in post.
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I guess I missed the 12-15 feet part of this. You still can't cover the air bag with sand. You could lay a canvas over it, but don't tie it down. It changes the integrity of the bag. Plus a fall of that height an airbag will be a waste of time. You will lose at least a third of the fall and I have NEVER had more than two people go into a bag. Once the first person hits the bag it starts venting air. With two people you need a bigger bag than normal and both people have to hit it as close to simultaneous as possible.

Two to three seconds of the fall? It will be over before you can get the camera out and tilted down. The fall won't last 2-3 seconds. Any multiple of falls needs to be done to pads or boxes. Each stunt person needs to have his/her own area of the catcher. In other words there needs to be separation. Otherwise someone gets kicked in the face or even worse. Even a fall of 12-15 feet can kill a person if they land wrong or over rotate. With boxes or pads you can tie a greenscreen or blue screen tarp over them with out endangering your stunt people.
I would shoot this whole thing in cuts with as many cameras as you can get. Inside going out is ok. But the outside watching them come through the window is a must. Plus you need to have the coverage of the fall.
Remember that action going away from camera is not the best shot. Action needs to come to camera or go past the camera. Otherwise it is boring. If possible you need a cut any kind with bodies in the air with no reference points. And I would over crank at least one camera. Then to complete the shot you need to show impact with the ground which can be accomplished with a short parallel with the camera (s) on the deck and the stunt people hit the ground. This is an awful lot of free information.....
Maybe I should be your stunt coordinator?:grin:
 
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throw a greenscreen or green or blue tarp over the bag.
Then take the bag and greenscreen away and shoot a clean plate looking down.
take the clean plate looking over the edge (stabilize/track any motion in it) and key it into the greenscreen area

Stu Maschowitz has a shot based on this same thing with a guy jumping off a building into a pickup truck driving by he did the same way it in his book "The DV Rebel's Guide (to making killer action movies on the cheap)"

He did it this way with a clean plate of the truck driving past. His camera didn't look over the edge but since you can hide stuff in the motion of the camera I have no doubt you can easily track the small amount of frames that see the green screen area and might move.
 
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Arson said:
throw a greenscreen or green or blue tarp over the bag.
Then take the bag and greenscreen away and shoot a clean plate looking down.
take the clean plate looking over the edge (stabilize/track any motion in it) and key it into the greenscreen area

Stu Maschowitz has a shot based on this same thing with a guy jumping off a building into a pickup truck driving by he did the same way it in his book "The DV Rebel's Guide (to making killer action movies on the cheap)"

He did it this way with a clean plate of the truck driving past. His camera didn't look over the edge but since you can hide stuff in the motion of the camera I have no doubt you can easily track the small amount of frames that see the green screen area and might move.
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Again, and I cannot stress this enough, you cannot do multiple people into an airbag at the same time. They are not safe being used in that manner.
I actually jumped into a boat being towed down the street back in '90 from a crane (25 feet) on a show entitled "Hard Time on Planet Earth" doubling Martin Kove. The catcher in that instance was boxes covered with a tarp in the boat. A single layer of boxes I might add. That sequence actually had 3 stunts and took a couple of days to shoot. The first day, I jumped from building to building. (Always a good idea to jump from a higher building to a lower building.) They had built a giant tomahawk shaped sign which was supposed to be the target of my jump. So we then went from a parallel next to the sign. I jumped from the parallel to the tomahawk which in turn was built to hinge. When I hit the tomahawk it hinged and I fell to an airbag. (About 25 feet, We did that fall about 5-6 times.) Then on another day we filmed in downtown L.A. and I jumped from a "cherry Picker" crane into the boat and did that twice. The first time the driver of the pick up truck that was pulling the boat didn't drive away fast enough.
 
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Hire someone who can jump out of a 2nd story window without any mats or airbags. They are called traceurs. I'm sure there are people in your area that would do it for 100 bucks.
 
How are you going to stop jumper two landing on jumper one, and so on... You could end up with a pile of bodies....
 
Andrew McCarrick said:
Yeah..... we're just going to be going with a 6-7 foot drop and a 8-12" thick mat and having people roll/walk off of it as soon as they land. And then pick up the wider shot (with a longer fall) with everybody spread out.
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I give up..... I've only been doing this for oh say 25 years. Been there, done that...about 164 times. If you don't listen to a stunt coordinator now, when would you choose to listen? You don't have time for them to roll off, and have you ever fallen to a 12 inch pad from 6 feet? And is it one 4 x 8 pad or two? And are they tied together? When do you tell the next person to go? Or two people to go? How many people helping them get up and get out? ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!
 
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To be really honest with you, I couldn't answer that question with out seeing where you want to do it at. And if I did I wouldn't be very bright. Number two I would say that without using all stunt people you can't do it the way that you want to. Fitting 12 people in such a small space is asking for trouble. Even with using stunt people it doesn't mean that you can do it. Somebody is going to land on someone else and that being said, someone will probably get hurt. You need some separation of some sort and a short fall will not give it to you. To be really honest with you I would probably make the opening bigger and the landing area much bigger, get some separation between the bodies and then show individual impacts on the ground. Pretend you're making a real movie and fool the people watching it. CUTS, CUTS, CUTS and coverage. You can't do this all in one, you can't use an airbag and their are multiple other problems that I can't answer without seeing the location, or at least pictures and maybe a storyboard. The only time that I have seen multiple people falling anywhere in my limited memory would be into water, but they still had separation.
To also be honest with you, since you don't have money for this project yet, you are spinning your wheels and of course everyone else's as well.
 
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