I am making a haunted house/ghost movie some of the scenes involve objects flying across the room, and door closing by them selves. How exactly can I do this with out have to use expensive special effects software? I think I may have a way to one of the scenes, in the scenes a couple of the characters are playing a board game and then suddenly the board is thrown at a wall. I was thinking that I could make a small hole in the board and insert the fishing line into the hole tie it then pull the line when it is time for the board to be thrown. Would this be a good way to do this scene or is there a better and simpler way to do this?
Horror Movie effects
- Thread starter fobers95
- Start date
harcourt22
Member
You Definitely want to look into some sort of visual effects software like Apple's motion or Adobe after effects. Using fishing line will probably end up making this effect completely crappy. Motion is only $50 bucks which is practically pocket change compared to after effects which costs $1000.00 yep a thousand bucks. Trust me if you want this effect to look decent you probably need software that can rotoscope.
"I could make a small hole in the board and insert the fishing line into the hole tie it then pull the line when it is time for the board to be thrown. Would this be a good way to do this scene or is there a better and simpler way to do this?"
Absolutely, and it'll look way more convincing than digital flying around.
I would do this in several shots, perhaps three. That means careful choreography of your flying game board. The first shot is it being yanked from the table. This could show almost all of the board, except for the corner that's attached to the line.
Second shot, wider, would be the tough one, and maybe require rotoscoping of the fishig line out (which is very easy with some practice). It cal also be done in Photoshop if you export the files as a sequence. I would frame that shot so that the wild physical reactions of the actors to the flying board dominate the shot. Make sure that the audience is looking at the actors reacting, even while the actors are looking at the board flying.
Third shot, really wide or confined to the impact of the board against the wall -- your choice. Keep your framing convincing and the flying board sufficiently violent and fast, and all sins will be forgiven. This shot (or shots) could have the board SMASH into something else, a mirror, a statuette, whatever, to add more dramatic questions.
And rotoscoping out some wires can be done in numerous programs, even Vegas lite, which I got for less than 50 bucks. I've done it in Photoshop --free. Could be done in most editors. If you choose lenses that don't pick up the wire, you might even be off the hook.
Absolutely, and it'll look way more convincing than digital flying around.
I would do this in several shots, perhaps three. That means careful choreography of your flying game board. The first shot is it being yanked from the table. This could show almost all of the board, except for the corner that's attached to the line.
Second shot, wider, would be the tough one, and maybe require rotoscoping of the fishig line out (which is very easy with some practice). It cal also be done in Photoshop if you export the files as a sequence. I would frame that shot so that the wild physical reactions of the actors to the flying board dominate the shot. Make sure that the audience is looking at the actors reacting, even while the actors are looking at the board flying.
Third shot, really wide or confined to the impact of the board against the wall -- your choice. Keep your framing convincing and the flying board sufficiently violent and fast, and all sins will be forgiven. This shot (or shots) could have the board SMASH into something else, a mirror, a statuette, whatever, to add more dramatic questions.
And rotoscoping out some wires can be done in numerous programs, even Vegas lite, which I got for less than 50 bucks. I've done it in Photoshop --free. Could be done in most editors. If you choose lenses that don't pick up the wire, you might even be off the hook.
I am not sure what tpye of lens my camera has, I am going to get some fishing line and test it out before I shoot the scene, just to make sure the line doesn't show up on the camrea. I really don't want to spend to much money on special effects software since this is my first movie and I won't be making any money off of it. Most of the money I put into the film will be on fake blood and stuff like that.
When you set up the shot, have someone stand out of frame throw it. If you wanna see the board move from starting position to ending position. And don't wanna use rotoscope, you'll need to do your best at motion control. Have someone throw the board, follow it one direction. Then have someone throw the board and follow it the other direction. Then, if you did it right, you attempt to make a seamless cut, playing one clip in reverse. Without something more advanced this is the simplest way to do it. Perhaps not the most effective though. But if you have two cuts, two different angles, using the 30 degree rule, you should be ok.
"What about making doors close by themselves?"
1. compressed air
2. small screw on the bottom of the door attached to fishing line. Could even be underneath the door, if you don't want to show any damage when you're done. if you take it off its hinges and put a tiny screw on the bottom, attach fishing line.
1. compressed air
2. small screw on the bottom of the door attached to fishing line. Could even be underneath the door, if you don't want to show any damage when you're done. if you take it off its hinges and put a tiny screw on the bottom, attach fishing line.
One last question, I have a scene that I could do multiple ways but having a hard time figuring out which one would be scarier. In the scene my main character wakes up and goes to use the restroom before he reaches the door to exit the basement he hears a noise coming from the laundry room, he goes to investigate but does not see anything. He then hears a noise coming from outside the room again he goes to see what it could be. He doesn't see anything, he hears a noise coming from behind, turns around and then see a sentence formed in blood.
The part that I am trying to figure out in the sentence formed in blood I have been thinking of two ways I could do this part. 1. When he turns around the viewer actually sees the blood forming the letters into the sentence. 2. He turns around and instead of seeing the sentence being formed the viewer instead sees the character reaction to what is going on, the viewer then see the sentence formed in blood.
Number one is a little harder to do because I don't know how I would do, to option 2 is a little more scarier to do, because the audience really doesn't know what is going on, he could be reacting to anything but you know that its something fearsome.
The part that I am trying to figure out in the sentence formed in blood I have been thinking of two ways I could do this part. 1. When he turns around the viewer actually sees the blood forming the letters into the sentence. 2. He turns around and instead of seeing the sentence being formed the viewer instead sees the character reaction to what is going on, the viewer then see the sentence formed in blood.
Number one is a little harder to do because I don't know how I would do, to option 2 is a little more scarier to do, because the audience really doesn't know what is going on, he could be reacting to anything but you know that its something fearsome.
maranfilms
Veteran
Yeah, I think this would look not only better, but be much easier with string, Make sure to get a black flat (flat as in no shine) string, you might even be able to get away with black thread doubled up. Then place it on the table so you dont see it. I would shoot my first shot close up of it lifting off the table, then cut to a wide shot of it flying accross the room, then a medium closeup of it hitting the wall. Then cut to the actors facial expression with a slow push. OOPS sorry got carried away, Sound very easy to pull off. I think using after effects would not only be a pain, but look fake as well.
maranfilms
Veteran
I say it's enough to shoot both ways, do it with nothing on the wall, then do a take where he turns around and sees it written, when you actually write on the wall make sure it's still dripping when you shoot it. With having both options, you can see which works best.