Personally I'd try to zoom in closer to Bob's face, then beyond it to the pistol as it is being cocked and then to the face of the shooter. BAM! a flash and then pan to the reaction of the other shooter and then the camera continues circling again. Hopefully if you do the guy with the blood behind the camera idea you can put the blood on "Bob" and the chair and the floor while Bob is off camera.

If you get it in one take it could look really nice.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

actually that is similiar to what was originally wrote but studying the LTS, i fell in love with it. I'm really wanting to show the blood flying out of "bob" for dramatic purposes but still the keep the camera moving in an intriguing fashion. Bob is not the main character in the scene, the two suites are, so i dont want too much of him shown.

Don't know if this will be much help but it could help with the visuals...look around, there is a section for blood splatters somewhere...

http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm

"'It doesn't bother you, killing those people?' 'Well I wouldn't be very good at my job if it did.'"
-Casino Royale

thanks dash, i've actually been on that page several times, but have never seen the blood splats until now. They're pretty good.

No problem. Hope it helps

"'It doesn't bother you, killing those people?' 'Well I wouldn't be very good at my job if it did.'"
-Casino Royale

I would do this shoot one of two ways.
1) You could simply incorperate some CGI into the scene, given that you either have a pretty good budget or if you know someone that can do very realistic CGI.
2) Right before the gun goes off, cut to a zoom up of the gun. Keep the zoom up of the gun on screen until after the gun goes off, have blood spray hit the gun just to show that Bob had been shot. After that cut back to the other camera angle and have Bob all done up with the makeup fly back in his chair.

I know this is a little late, but anyone else who needs to odo a similar shot can use this also.

yeah, i thought about that, but it wont have the effect that i am looking for. THose kind of shots just make the viewer wish that they could see the person being shot. I decided to change the scene a little bit. Instead of the suit 2 staying at the chair after pulling off the bag, suit 2 will walk over to a table near the chair and begin to prep the needle. The camera is going to follow suit 2 and position in front of him as the person in the chair is still visible in the background. WHile suit 2 is prepping, suit 1 will walk up and shoot the person in the chair. Then suit 2 will walk over to the person in the chair and give him the injection as the camera follows and reveals the fresh blood on the wall.

In this way, the camera is showing the gun shot from the side and from a distance, so all i will need to add is a little muzzle flash and a little slpat on the forehead. I can do that digitaly.

i tried the compressed air. It looks great going onto the front of the head but looked horrible coming out of the back. It was too small and didnt spread out like an exit wound should. I know what the problem was though, it was just a can of compressed air so it didnt have enough force like an electric air pump would. Thanks though. Once the shot is complete, I will post it up so ya'll can see.

THose kind of shots just make the viewer wish that they could see the person being shot.

I disagree. Remember in Reservoir Dogs when the ear was cut off? Tarintino didn't show it, he showed a wall and let you hear the action.

What about the scene when Big Brain Brett got shot in Pulp Fiction? Didn't show it. Instead we got the shooters and flashes of color.

Marvin in the backseat of the car? Didn't show it. Instead we had sound and reactions from the front seat.

People will tell you Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are violent films but they actually don't show much violence onscreen.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

that is very true. But in this film, there is a lot of violence shown so it would make sense to keep it up through the end. Since the focus of the scene is not really the person getting shot but rather the two suits, it would be selling itself short if all that was shown was the after effect...especially if its all one long shot. But i do agree, its always possible to have extreme violence without actually showing it and still get the same effect, but the scene and story and mood must reflect that or it wont work.

How about (not sure if you have this much room) but have the camera come back out, away from the action so that all three men are in the middle of the shot. I'm not sure how you're lighting this, but if a silhoutte is possible, try it- then have the bloke blow out the guys brains, but in silhoutte. You can have the compressed air hooked up behind the guys profile etc. Easy to do, and still very violent.
Could be very dramatic, especially if you got the lighting right. (I'm thinking that mob excecution at the start of 'Road To Perdition')

?xx(?

Another suggestion, and i'd like to know how it's done. In the first Godfather, when pacino goes to that italian restaurant to kill of the Turk and the copper- he caps the cop in the head from about 3 feet. Playing it back in freezeframe, the bullet hole appears on his forehead, but not explosively as if it's been blown away by a squib etc... then a cloud of red shoots out from behind the cop's head. The blood would be easy, but how did they do the bullet wound? Any ideas? Looks like it's all one shot...

I agree that there is great value in keeping things consistant. If you have shown the violence in other scenes it might stand out even more if you do not show the violence in this scene.

However you also say the scene is about the guys in suits. Most of the alternate versions above emphasize the guys in suits (or their guns) rather then the killing which is what you want if the scene is about them. If the scene is about the guys in the suits a cut to them (turned on, sickened and turning away, just business, whatever) could be stronger than the shot itself. Especially if you've shown violence before in the movie.

I would suggest shooting it both ways if possible. A simple cut-away of the suits reactions without the special effects could go far in editing if things don't gel the way you are hoping. Also you could slip in very, very quick cuts of the suit's reactions which could help you hide any special effects without disturbing the feal that you've got one long shot.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

As far as the materials go, homemade applesauce and black cherry kool-aid makes the most realistic brain matter I've ever seen onscreen.

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

I think it all depends on what the characteristics of the guys in the suites are.

If they've been in lots of action and killing (and acted cool), they would act cool and wouldn't get scared when shooting someone. So the scene would go (camera stays on the left side of suite 1, suite 2 is on the left of the guy in the chair facing him, everybody is in the scene)suite 2 prepareing the needle, suite 1 shooting the guy, blood sprays onto the wall, guy in chair falls back with head behind suite 2 so the camera dosen't see the head ,that would bring the atention to the guys in the suites, suite 2 walking towards him with the needle and dose his thing. Suite 1 ,while all that happens, puts his gun back and gets ready to do his next thing.

If they've been through lots of action and acted...well not-cool and they sweat and sort of panic when trouble comes the shoot would go like this. Lots of camera movement, focus on suite 1 pulling the trigger (slowly),and then bang blood squirts onto the wall, suite 2 has already prepared the needle and bends down (when he bends down you sort of want him to cover the shoots man's face with his arm or something, so the 2 guys in the suites still get the attention) then he when his dose his thing with the needle you want a close up of suite 2's face and then the action keeps going.

H.A.