ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

8 years, 5 months ago - Mark Wiggins

Regardless of whether you are doing this practically on set or filming the woman hanging in front of a green screen to be composited in later, it still involves hanging a woman by a harness. This should be done by a proper stunt person with the proper gear or someone will get hurt. IMO.

8 years, 5 months ago - Andrew Ionides

Hi Mark, many thanks for your reply on this (and the lighting question). I'll look into harnesses and stunt person.

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

You could shoot GS with the actor standing on a box, tiptoe, head tilted to one side, with no rope or harness. Then comp in the rope and background... I've done that before!

8 years, 4 months ago - Andrew Ionides

Cheers Lee. I might have to do that for one shot. Don't suppose you have a screen shot of what that looked like for your project?

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Not that I can share at this stage as it's still in post. But would be happy to advise on the shooting of the GS for VFX later.

8 years, 4 months ago - Andrew Ionides

No worries. I understand. Yeah that would be great thank you. Any advise would be appreciated

8 years, 4 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

IM me your details and we can chat offline.

8 years, 4 months ago - Paul Campion

Possible change your shots slightly, so you're using a combination of a wide establishing shot to show she's hanging then close up shots which you can do practically without any vfx. As soon as you start hanging stunties from branches with wire rigs, you're going to be dealing with a whole new level of complexity, safety and insurance, and cost.

I'd agree with Wozy, set up a simple greenscreen for the shot of the woman hanging. You could also rig a prop rope coming off her neck. If there's an issue with how that connects to the tree, just comp in a new rope, but at least you've got a rope lighting and position reference there with your actress.

Consider a separate close up shot of her moving towards her victim. Once you've established she's hanging in the establishing shot, the audience will understand what's happening. You can have her stand on a dolly and have the grips just push her towards the victim.

Dropping into shot I'd consider using a couple of shots. One low angle of her jumping down off a low box, then another angle where she's jumping down onto the actor. Or work with a stunt supervisor who can help plan a low jump onto a crash mat.

I'd plan this first with a test shoot. Just use a simple camera with a zoom, shoot a load of different angles, then edit the sequence to see what works. Then once you've got it worked out, shoot only those shots on the day of the shoot. Time spent planning and testing shots like these in prep always saves time and money during the shoot.

8 years, 4 months ago - Paul Campion

There's a sequence in The Eye with a ghost floating towards a woman in an elevator - all done with practical effects and close ups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuSO-_XiToI

8 years, 4 months ago - Andrew Ionides

That's excellent advice Paul. I am currently drawing storyboards and experimenting with different angles so I can cut between the shots she drops / floats into view including POV shots. But definitely will plan this. At the moment I'm also building a mannequin which will be used for the wide shot. It will be out of focus so that it won't look too mannequin. It will also double for some close up floating shots.