Lo all. Been while since my last post. Things have been going smoothly in the production of Breakout from Normandy: Against all Odds With most of our equipment in already production begins in about a month. Anyway, on to my questions. Ny friend and I are filming in like three location but my main question is how would I go about building a mockup french village? We were thinking about using Plywood for main store fronts and some customn built generic interiors that could be painted and applied to other productions. Could that work well seeing as how of our other locations have brick buildings that we could intergrate as part of the village. Could this system work? Also how could we go about realistic looking explosions? We need dirt blows and all that that could be sagfe and at the same time safe for our actors for those that die by explosions. Our idea for how a guy dies by stoppiong on a mine is ehe steps on a fulcrumed board spraying dirt and lookcing like a realistic explosion with the proper sound effects. (cheap yes but we are working on a 5,000-6,000 dollar budget.) What is your guys' advice?
Anyone out there?
Personally I haven't given much thought to this kind of problem. I can tell you that in most cases hollywood explosions look nothing like the real ones. Rarely will you see flame for example. Just dirt, smoke, and pain. It also rarely happens as close as Hollywood shows. It would be better on your budget to try for reality as oppossed to Hollywood.
One nicely done explosion was in Full Metal Jacket. The explosion was some distance from Lt. Touchdown and he just sort of collapsed and then twitched beside the tank. Shrapnel goes a long way in reality, you don't need the explosions to be right next to someone. Safe for the actor, and the twitching really shows the agony. If the explosion is close you probably wouldn't have much left of that person to bury.
Also you can go a long way with reaction shots of those that aren't killed, combined with carnage showing the after effects of a body (or partial body). Do you remember the ear cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs. One of the most memorable scenes in movie history and we never saw the ear actually cut off. Yet it sticks because your mind fills in the blanks. You jsut have to set things up clearly enough that our minds can fill it in for you.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
