killing scenes

N

n1c02

Well-known member
What would you guys suggest on scenes where people are brutally murdered and want to show the stabbings etc... would greenscreen work or what would the easiest "real" look of this to be...


Thanks
Terry
 
If I were directing a movie and it called for a brutal murder scene I think I'd try to find a way to do it in a way that is unique and horrific all at the same time.

Maybe a slow creeping push in on a persons face as they see the attacker approaching, here the knife unsheating, and when we hear the slicing we're so close on her we can't do anything to avoid the situation. We see the escalation of emotion, then resignation in their face. The pain and shock from the knife blade, etc.

This requires no SFX or even prop weapons if you approach it this way, and I bet more people would find it horrific and unsettling than the old boring knife constantly plunging into a clump of bloody meat scene. How many times have we seen that before?? Too man.

Movies are all about the characters.... even when they're being murdered..
 
Yeah, it's all in their reactions. One of the most brutal stabbing scenes I can remember would have to be from Tsotsi. Sure, they do show a bit of the shank but most of the scene is in the emotion and reaction.


Sorry about the aspect ratio - there doesn't seem to be another clip available showing this scene.
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
If I were directing a movie and it called for a brutal murder scene I think I'd try to find a way to do it in a way that is unique and horrific all at the same time.

Maybe a slow creeping push in on a persons face as they see the attacker approaching, here the knife unsheating, and when we hear the slicing we're so close on her we can't do anything to avoid the situation. We see the escalation of emotion, then resignation in their face. The pain and shock from the knife blade, etc.

This requires no SFX or even prop weapons if you approach it this way, and I bet more people would find it horrific and unsettling than the old boring knife constantly plunging into a clump of bloody meat scene. How many times have we seen that before?? Too man.

Movies are all about the characters.... even when they're being murdered..
Click to expand...
Hitchcock was an expert at this.

Terry, it all depends on what you are going after for the visuals. You want Hitchcockian, or do you want "Chainsaw Massacre"? It would help if you set up the scene for us and describe your vision for it.

There are so many ways to go about filming a violent death scene, so without more info, I don't know how to advise you. I have set up the quiet emotional stuff, and I have done the loud, blood spurting everywhere death scenes. Each have their own tricks, camera angles, and set-ups.
 
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Im sorry I guess I should have given more information... The script is about an abused girl who is in essence seeing waht her future "could be" should she not get help. Split personality type . So the "other" part of her is evil and older. Not so much a killer but easily provoked. As time goes on, the killing seems to get easier for her as the men she meets seem to want only one thing from her. I would like to be able in some way show the killing but not so much in a gorefest type of way.. More of a dramatic/thriller sense. I know this might not make sense without reading the script, but in some ways I would like the viewer for almost "feel" for the character as if the attacker deserves the end result but at the same time make it so that with each time she is more and more enticed to do it again. For example, the "first blood", her first kill, the man she knows attempts to get payment as he says from her and forces himself on her... After she is looking in the mirror and the blood and it almost as if she is intrigued by this..

So maybe I don't really need to "gore kill" but as some have said more of a hitchcock sound, feel, and then after showing her with the suspense and look in her eyes and on her face of the feeling she gets from doing it.

Terry
 
I will add. that In writing this script, I am also trying to write to my shooting abilities as well as my budget which is very low.. I tell my friends that there are low budget and then there is my budget ... i call it Pocket budget... Whatever I happen to have at that time... I wouldnt mind getting a few reviews from some of the senior people here once I finish with the rewrite of the script if you are interested.
 
To get the audience sympathetic to the 1st "killing", you will have some work to do to endear your character to them first. You will definitely want to be going the emotional route with not a lot of focus on the act itself, but the set up to the actual act. You may not even need to show the knife entering the body, but you will want to show the aftermath. Body on the floor, clutching abdomen (if thats where stabbed). You will need some blood, maybe even having the knife still "impaled" into the actor, but use DOF to make it not so graphic and in the viewer's face. Maybe the actor slumps into your actress and she spins him out of the embrace. That gives you an opportunity for a eye to eye 2 shot.

But after that first set-up, you will need to find ways to change up how you film the subsequent ones. Otherwise the audience will lose interest in the act.

Side note: The best knife death I have seen on film was in "Saving Private Ryan". Not much blood, and the act was not "violent" like some I have seen. But having the German actor saying "Shh.....Shhh.." as he finally and slowly pushed in the bayonet after the long knife fight..........gave me chills. And the American actor sold the reaction.
 
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I like that idea.. thanks guys for all of your input... I hope to be able to show you all once I start,
 
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