Possible to do explosions, sinking ships, & car chases without Hollywood's help?

S

Steve33825

Member
Is it possible to do explosions, car chases, etc. like Hollywood or at least ALMOST like Hollywood but without their help? Because in the event that I can never make it big with the small stuff, I'd like to know that my bigger stuff is somewhat do-able still without Hollywood's hands.

Sinking ships, exploding buildings/cars, sword fights, etc.

I would imagine most of this stuff is possible to do but would probably run upwards of $100,000 to $250,000 possibly. I'm guessing I would need lots of green screen for obvious reasons, quarter scale models, pyrotechs, lots of prop guns and swords, plus blanks for the guns, oh to top it all off I need to find a "safe" and "legal" place to fire those blank guns.

I can't imagine how a car chase would be done though. For instance, I'm not too sure if most of you recall the tentpole chase scenes from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Indy steals the truck carrying the ark or in "The Road Warrior" where Mad Max is driving the tanker that is crawling with bad guys. Sounds pretty impossible with our budgets, I cant even picture doing this sorta thing with models.

Are there any easier ways of doing this type of stuff or ways around what I mentioned above?
 
A great many (but not all) types of explosions are fairly easy to do in post these days, e.g. have a look at the free footage at http://www.detonationfilms.com/Stock_Directory.html.

Most of the other stuff you mention still requires practical (and hence relatively expensive) stunts OR going full CGI which is usually even more expensive. Regardless of how you do it, a sword fight still requires a couple of skilled people pretending to kill each other with swords :)
 
Car chases require cars, but those are actually not too hard to pull off, depending on where you're shooting. Expensive, but nothing compared to sinking ships and full 3D.

Budgets matter, and if you try to do something to look just like a Hollywood film but on a budget you will fail, no matter how well you do. It takes a lot to equal what can be done with millions, and if you're concentrating on that as your selling point the higher end product is going to win every time. And that's even assuming you do really well; if you do badly, it'll just look much worse than if you decided to simply imply the event, or invested in some other area of production.
 
For sinking ships and exploding vehicles/buildings, it's possible to use practical models. In this day and age it seems to be a very overlooked option.
 
I am shooting a war film in a few weeks, and we are doing simulated shell hits. The plan is to bury a campaign bucket (its the right shape and has no seems to split) drop a large theatrical 'bang maker' in the bottom, and fill it up with loose soil. When the 'bang maker' is fired it throws stuff up in the air.

These are a restricted item (they are not called bang makers, I just dont want to call them by name, they are used in steel drums in theatres to scare the sh!t out of the audience), you have to prove you know how to use them to buy them, and as it happens, ive done all the courses and ive got all the right qualifications to buy them, but im not a hollywood effects guy.

Maybe someone on your team has the same kind of credentials and could get hold of some maroons for you? Be really careul, these things are like small grenades on a wire, they go with a hell of a bang and will blow your fingers off if you do stupid things with them.

Really, if you do manage to find someone who can do this for you with theatrical pyro, be really careful. Dont blame me if you hurt yourself.

Pete.
 
You can always do what Spielberg did as a kid... When he'd make war films, he'd dig holes in the ground and lay a small board in there like a catapult and cover it with dirt, leaving the end sticking out. On cue, the actors would run through the frame and stomp on the end, flinging dirt into the air right behind them. Put some good sound fx over it and you've got a recipe for success.
 
Hi Everyone,

We did some testing today for some simple mortar hits. It turns out that these small theatrical charges are more poweful than we thought.

This is what we did:

Bury a small stainless steel champain bucket and stick the charge at the bottom:
8323_161997357569_506442569_2666714_226929_n.jpg

Looks small dosnt it?!

Wired it up, and pressed the button (this button)
8323_161999117569_506442569_2666728_5339693_n.jpg


The result?

A 15ft tall column of mud with some smoke. Looked pretty good, although our bucket failed:
8323_162079782569_506442569_2667685_7218317_n.jpg


Did one more and the bucket had had it:
8417_162080017569_506442569_2667686_4459432_n.jpg



We tried one more charge in a bean tin with a bag of petrol ontop. I put a standard pyro ignitor in with the petrol and the result was a nice thud, mud blown everywhere, smoke and a nice lick of orange flame.

Very good I thougth.


Just getting the footage off the red drive and will post it.




Pete.
 
compressed air is another option, its safer than pyro, but you must be very careful, flying dirt and debris can damage eyes....
 
hoarp001 said:
I am shooting a war film in a few weeks, and we are doing simulated shell hits. The plan is to bury a campaign bucket (its the right shape and has no seems to split) drop a large theatrical 'bang maker' in the bottom, and fill it up with loose soil. When the 'bang maker' is fired it throws stuff up in the air.

These are a restricted item (they are not called bang makers, I just dont want to call them by name, they are used in steel drums in theatres to scare the sh!t out of the audience), you have to prove you know how to use them to buy them, and as it happens, ive done all the courses and ive got all the right qualifications to buy them, but im not a hollywood effects guy.

Maybe someone on your team has the same kind of credentials and could get hold of some maroons for you? Be really careul, these things are like small grenades on a wire, they go with a hell of a bang and will blow your fingers off if you do stupid things with them.

Really, if you do manage to find someone who can do this for you with theatrical pyro, be really careful. Dont blame me if you hurt yourself.

Pete.
Click to expand...

Work like that needs to done by a licensed pyrotechnician. I think that the license is for a 3rd class Powder man, and is a variation of the type of license that folks that blow up buildings and set charges at mine sites have. Mixing up powders to go "Boom", without a license, might just be a real nice way to get acquainted with your local special agents for the BATF! Don't blow sh*t up without a professional doing it.

I have seen some of those compressed air canons and they seem pretty impressive. Some of them are used to make fireball explosions, but I would double check with the local fire marshal about that.

Check out the "Ten Minute Film Schools" that Robert Rodriquez has on the DVDs for "El Mariachi", "Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". They have some good tips for low budget action shooting...
 
I second the film schools! I have all his DVD's and ripped the film schools to my hard drive and compiled them all onto one disc. Also added the cooking schools, and inside Troublemaker Studios. It's a hit with my filmmaking friends.
 
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