How to shoot a club scene?

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xa1986

New member
I am doing an action short film. Im on a low budget and I found a club willing to let me shoot. I do need to get extras. The actress is walking through the crowd searching for her victim.

How would I make the crowd look big by shooting it if I can't get enough of extras? Also, lighting, how would I do that?

If you were on a low budget, what would you do to make this scene work?
 
Make sure it is very dark, with lots of lights. lol. By lights, I mean CLUB lights,, not film lights. And smoke.

As you block for the camera, remember to think in terms of the 2D camera plane and not in terms of filling a 3D space. Use the extras you have to both show width and depth. If you are short on people, make sure they all occupy a place in the frame. Also, have crew that are doing nothing, or even friends that wouldnt normally fit in the scene fill out the background. It should be dark and obscure enough that you wont notice what these people look like or that they are wearing a grip belt.

Cut back and forth from this wider establishing shot where the club looks filled, but you dont see any real faces, to a much closer shot of your LEAD going through people. Do this a couple times and you can utilize your anonymous crowds and then focus on them in the closer shots.

For the wider shots, if you have a few people very close and large in the frame, it leaves less room to have to fill in the rest of the frame. It's not the BEST way to shoot a scene, but it will get the job done.
 
xa1986 said:
I am doing an action short film. Im on a low budget and I found a club willing to let me shoot. I do need to get extras. The actress is walking through the crowd searching for her victim.

How would I make the crowd look big by shooting it if I can't get enough of extras? Also, lighting, how would I do that?

If you were on a low budget, what would you do to make this scene work?
Click to expand...

I don't have the means to try this, but from a clip that's on the Internet, which 'built' up an invasion sized force on Normandy Beach, the idea being record a number of single shots with a man running across the beach, film that man a number of different ways, then composit the result... it would suggest to fill a club, perhaps shooting the crowd scenes in 'chunks' then compositing them into an ensemble. You'd have to have your 'crowd' wear different clothing for each compositable element... but you may be able to give a good wide shot for a brief period of time to set the environment.

Then shooting low, 'in crowd' shots such that the place looks packed with wall to wall people.
 
When trying to film a scene where an actors seems to battle the crowd, I use a long lens and have the extras walk backwards with the camera. When they hit their marks they stop or start walking forwards.

I also have a 3-4 people rotating clockwise and 3-4 counterclockwise in the background in a circle.

This creates the illusion of an endless sea of people and keeps them safetly away from the operator.

Hope this helps.
 
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