Help with a simple stunt

R

rockfordmultimedia

New member
I am in need of a stunt coordinator or simply some advice and direction for one small stunt. I have a door similar to a garage door that is closing fast from top to bottom, and need my actor to dive / roll through it just as it closes. Indiana Jones style.

I’d obviously like to do this as safely as possible.

I've been doing some tests, and different camera angles can certainly make this look closer than it is, but I’m wondering if anyone else has any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks.
 
Well, my own garage isn't hooked up to a motor. If I wanted to do this, I'd have some big guys, myself included, holding the door out of frame and moving it up and down manually. If they don't let go, they can control it the whole time.
 
Modern garage door openers have a safety that will retract the door if it hits an obstruction. Test the door to see how much pressure it takes and if it is safe enough to not hurt the actor if they don't time it right.

Secondly, a proper garage door has an electric eye that prevents the door from coming down if there is an object near the bottom of the door. This will have to be disabled for the shot. But this electric eye can also be used as a safety off camera. Have a safety officer standing by with the electric eye. If it looks like the actor won't make it, break the path of the eye and the door will retract.
 
If the shot is locked down, shoot the guy with the door fully open. Then shoot the door closing. Comp 'em up, do a little roto.

Extra credit: shoot some handheld footage and motion track it - use the motion data to give your comp a little handheld shake and lose the locked-down look.
 
Speed is the other issue. If you can slow down the lowering door, that gives your stunty a much better chance of matching their own dive to match the lowering door.

Safety is a bit upredictable for this stunt - most such doors do indeed have a safety mechanism to stop people and objects being crushed, but they're obviously not designed to detect rapidly rolling stunties. It's pretty unlikely that the stunty would be crushed under the door, but they could be hurt by a mistimed crash into the door from the side - and the door istelf could be damaged too.

Michael's idea is certainly the safest way. Be careful with lighting though, if the door would have cast a shadow on the stunty.
 
Is there a particular reason you couldn't just switch the garage door into manual mode and then lower the door down by chain? Then you could add the motorized garage door opener in post.
 
Thanks for the all of the suggestions. The door doesn't have a manual mode, but when detached from the opener it's really not to heavy for a guy on each side to hold it in position. So I'm thinking that's how we'll shoot it.
 
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