Shot Through A Pillow

L

LightningFilms

Active member
I need to recreate the effect of a girl getting shot, point blank on a bed through a pillow (to muffle the sound).

I will cut away from the girl after the trigger is pulled and show the guy shooting her with the sound effect, but does anyone have any suggestions on recreating the aftermath? What would it look like? Feathers everwhere? Blood seeping through pillow, how much?

Any input will do - shooting on Sunday the 27th, So one week or so to plan.
 
yes, but I was planning on showing the shooters face at the time the gunshot goes off because I am hitting walls trying to figure out how to create the effect that the bullet is penetrating the pillow.

Thoughts?
 
I would think a small puff of feathers would be most effective. If it's point blank, all blood flying in his direction would be caught by the pillow.
 
I agree, I may still use blood for effect. How much do you think would get on the pillow and/or bed? I enjoy gore, if you can't tell.
 
Just my two cents but the example from "The Hitwoman" is probably more accurate than feathers flying. The use of the pillow is for two reasons, one to minimize sound, the other to avoid blood spatter, or so I am told by pros.
 
There will come a time in the next few days when I have to decide on realism or dramatic "effect". I'm kind of in the middle right now. No feathers, but blood seeping through the pillow. Still doesn't explain how I'm physically going to pull it off.

Jury rig something, right?

EDIT: I can imagine feathers would fly at a farther range. In The Hitwoman, the barrell of the silencer was litterally buried into the pillow, thus eliminating feathers. I could be wrong, just an assumption.
 
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I really like the Hitwoman scene too -- if you want to add some more gore, how about a shot where you pull away from the top to show a puddle of blood forming around the head
 
I think that's what I'll do - pull out to a shot of the shooter over the body with a pool of blood around the head. I'll also find a way to create a burnt looking bullet hole in the pillow.
 
Since you can't really shoot a blank at that time, why don't you just do a test on a different pillow case with a plug in the end of the gun and apply shoe polish or something like that to leave the black mark. You won't be able to tell that there is a hole there anyway. Look at what was left in the hitwoman.
 
Very good point Maverick. I went over the scene with a friend of mine who suggested a similiar idea. I will "setup" the aftermath pillow and when I cut to the shooter closeup, switch the pillow to the "penetrated" one. In the Hitwoman, the burnt spot looked a lot larger than the barrell of the gun.

As far as blood is concerned, gravity says no blood on the pillow but a lot underneath so a small pool on the bed near actors head should work. I will be nixing the feathers, feel it would be too cheesy.
 
Think about the pool of blood also. A bed would soak it up not let it spread. Maybe make it cot or on a board or something or someplace it could "drip" to. Just spit ballin' here.
 
I love how we're nit-picking such a simple sequence - but it's great because it's less I'll have to stress over this weekend.

She gets shot in the center of the bed on her side. Her feet are going to be dangling over the edge. I suppose I can coagulate the blood near her head.

Now, what about smoke? haha
Make some come out of the pillow after the gunshot... or no?
 
Cool, if it wasn't such a revealing part of my feature, I'd publish the clip on here right away....for now - you will have something to look forward to in April.

End credits special thanks: Maverick Stunts
 
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