Getting Sucked Away - "The Grey"

D

DDirector

Veteran
So, I have a short film coming up soon, and there is a part where the guy is laying down on the ground (or so i believe) and then he gets like sucked away in his dream.

It looks exactly like in 'The Grey' when the woman is sucked away in the dream.
How do we accomplish this?
In camera? - Post? - How?


@0:45
 
It sort of depends on what kind of surface they're on. At it's simplest it could just be the person on a sound blanket with two people pulling away at the right time, combined with some camera shake. If the ground isn't quite that smooth, maybe you can raise everything up and put them on a furniture dolly or something of the sort.

Either way, just find a way to pull the actor back and then add in some camera shake and maybe have something fly foward, like they did with snow in this one to help sell that quick sudden movement. It'd be even more interesting to have them go somewhere where they normally couldn't go...like if they were on a bed, they get pulled through the mattress instead of off it.
 
Haven't seen the movie, but I suspect that the effect in "The Grey" is a practical done on camera by yanking the woman back somehow. The shot as seen in the trailer is inside a kind of tent, and you can see the fabric of the tent move as she is pulled away.
 
Looks entirely in-camera to me. Actually looks pretty simple to pull off. If you analyze it frame by frame you'll see that it's really not that seamless, it's the speed of the transition that makes it work. It appears to be made up of three shots: 1) Laying in bed looking at each other 2) the pull-away 3) sitting up in the snow. The tricky thing would be working the mechanics of the pull-away shot. I would probably place the wife on some type of rolling board and the husband on a stationary platform at the same height. Then pull the board (with sheet attached attached and wife on top of it) so the sheet pulls across the top of the camera.
I agree with RyanT, I think the transition would be more interesting if the movement were something less natural such as pulling through the mattress. Something a little further from the realm of possibility.
 
Often these shots are done with a clutched motor - the motor spins up to speed, and a clutch is kicked in, making the "suck" instant without any ramp-up. This route, of course, takes trained stunt people and special harnesses - the body doesn't like being jerked that suddenly.

There's a BTS of the first Bourne film where they use clutched motors on cranes when an building explodes. They wrapped harness wires around the stunt performers to "twist" them as they shot into the air. Made me think how glad I am not to be a stunt person...
 
I didn't check it frame by frame so I can't say for sure, but it almost looks stop-motion to me. Might be an interesting idea to think about. It only looks like the wife flying away is about five or six frames anyway, if it's sudden and quick it might look pretty neat.
 
Michael Carter said:
Often these shots are done with a clutched motor - the motor spins up to speed, and a clutch is kicked in, making the "suck" instant without any ramp-up. This route, of course, takes trained stunt people and special harnesses - the body doesn't like being jerked that suddenly.
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound safe to do...

Being in college, are there any practical methods to doing this?
I will get more info on ours, but from what I know, it only involves 1 character. Not too.
Its only the man himself. Not other person involved.
 
DDirector said:
Being in college, are there any practical methods to doing this?
Click to expand...

I would probably place the wife on some type of rolling board and the husband on a stationary platform at the same height. Then pull the board (with sheet attached attached and wife on top of it) so the sheet pulls across the top of the camera.
Click to expand...

It sort of depends on what kind of surface they're on. At it's simplest it could just be the person on a sound blanket with two people pulling away at the right time, combined with some camera shake. If the ground isn't quite that smooth, maybe you can raise everything up and put them on a furniture dolly or something of the sort.

Either way, just find a way to pull the actor back and then add in some camera shake and maybe have something fly foward, like they did with snow in this one to help sell that quick sudden movement.
Click to expand...

I didn't check it frame by frame so I can't say for sure, but it almost looks stop-motion to me.
Click to expand...

If you're going to do it, it's going to be one of these. I'm sure there are other ways, but it's difficult not knowing the exact shot and surfaces everyone is on.
 
So, as it turns out, I am going to be shooting this scene really soon. It wasnt confirmed at the time I posted this if the film was going to be shot, or if this scene was going to be used. Now it is.

What's being seen:
In the film, a couple lays on the bed mostly naked (M: wearing only pants W: wearing a bra top with pants, lots of skin exposed) with the covers up to their chests.
The camera cuts to close ups, back and forth, etc. The couple CAN cover themselves with the sheets if needed to pull this shot off (which I believe we will have to do so). They stare at each other and then the woman gets sucked away. The man sits up quickly, he uncovers the bed sheet where she layed and she is gone.

Theory to pull off the shot:
-The way I thought we could pull this off is by having the couple lay on the bed. On the wide shot, its a double/twin bed. Just big enough for the two. But for this shot, we would have two of the beds side by side so it it wider than seen.
-The woman would have a harness (rock climbing harness type) around her waist. The harness would be covered by her pants. At the back would be a long rope.
-The bed sheet covering the couple will be very light. One fan would blow from the bottom of the bed (from their feet to their heads) This fan would blow the sheets so they flutter around a bit. A seconds an would be positioned directly over the woman facing downwards.
-Underneath the woman would also be a small piece of white foam core to allow smoother sliding.
-When the woman is pulled back, the fan on top of the woman would blow the sheet down covering the area she was laying at.
-The wide bed would allow the woman to be pulled back enough to disappear behind the bed sheet.

A few concerns:
The woman will be pulled by hand. So, the pull obviously wont be too fast. How do we make it faster? Do we just speed up the footage in post? Or do we actually record it at a differently frame rate than 24fps?
Thoughts?
 
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