Repeated Complex Shot

Ki-Ki

Ki-Ki

Veteran
There's an ending sequence in my film. Or at some stage at least, where we see [lets call them killer clowns] running around exterminating people. This is the problem i have:

I need to do a shot where, i'm slowly panning across the street, and there's several clowns running around, killing, stabbing etc. Altough I only have enough for this 1 clown outfit. The idea was to get the EXACT shot recorded several times, and in each version, have the same character do something new and overlap. That just won't work though.

One reason because I havn't got a dolly or a crane and it would be a miracle getting the shots the same every time. I can't really afford to have a still shot since it would spoil the momentum built up so far to this point in the film. Has anyone got any ideas on what i could do?

Special effect was an idea, but maybe for in the distance, for foreground - mid range i have no idea. I've forgotten the proper words for all this now, my film brains sort of sleeping at the moment.
 
You could always film a wide shot from a high angle (I mean like top-of-a-nearby-building, six-stories-up high).

If you have a lot of close and in-your-face cuts of the clown(s) doing violent things (which you can shoot with one clown and cut together to look like many), cutting to a high, wide, stationary angle of the carnage won't damage the momentum; if anything it will create a "big picture" sense of the mayhem. You can lock off the shot, run multiple takes of the clown and assorted victims, and once you've comped it all together you can add in some "float" to the image to make it feel handheld, to inject just that extra bit of energy and realism to the comp.

You lose the dolly shot, but as far as I can see it's either lose the dolly, or scrounge up some more clowns. Any decent alternative that I can think of that would get you the move you want would cost you more than renting extra costumes.
 
Appreciate that. Thank's

When you say this shot would show the carnage etc. The scenes set out like tihs:

-Main character steps out of house, carrying little girl.
-A 8ft 'killer clown' runs down the street robotically chasing these people.
-its early morning so he crosses the road to the edge of a hill
-looks out & see's the city burning.
-crane shot [camera on tripod flying backwards]
-fade out

That shot im hoping to show the carnage on.

When he steps out of the house, it's that moment where bodies are lying across the floor, car's smashed up. Screams in distance, bullets in distance etc. The whole story goes through the turmoil of just one of them, then to reveal an entire city full is the idea to put across.
 
A great example shot would be in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, where ; Spoilers..

Jack's insane on the pearl at Davy Jones Locker, he see's many of himself. The scene where there's around 40 Jacks running around doing tasks at once, all acted by the one and only JD.
 
I understand what you're going for, but you're not going to achieve that POTC3 look without a very expensive motion control rig for your camera. As I mentioned above, if you can't afford a second clown suit, you definitely can't afford motion control.

You may have to abandon the concept of a "sweeping crane shot" and just have a stationary high-angle of the scene to establish the city being overrun. Or otherwise take the risk and do your best to match the crane move over and over again.
 
The shot is just a panning shot though right? (POV of the main character looking at the carnage?)
Just an idea (Need After Effects or something equal), but you could set the camera on a tripod, not moving at all, and record the Clown doing something in the frame. Then pan the camera slightly over, and act as another clown, ect... Then, bring the video files onto the timeline and line them up to start at the same time (should overlap significanlty off the sides of the screen). Then do the pan in After Effects and add a motion blur.

POTC3 SPOILER
In POTC3, JD's stunt man looks disturbingly like him and was how they did much of the interactions.
 
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