X-Mark
Imported Account
May 18, 2004, 4:24 PM
Post #3 of 7
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: I'm heading off to film school in the fall and I thought it would be a good idea to make a short film with a couple of my friends. Just something fun I can look back on in the future and I had a couple questions maybe you guys can help me with.
: Slow motion. I'm not talking about matrix slow or anything ridiculous like that, just slower. I'm using a sony mini dv camera nothing fancy. Can it be done with the camera or perhaps in post or would I need a high speed camera?
Can be done in post. Easiest way by far. I use Vegas Video 5.0 and you can use "velocity envelopes" to make slow motion, as well as varying the speed of playback. Works slick.
: Gun shots. Nothing over the top. Blanks, although avaliable to me, would be out of the question. We were thinking of holding the gun off camera, using a single strobe light flash for the shot, and add the sound in after. Does anyone have a better method?
There are really good ways to get around it stylistically. If you don't own it (and you really should), rent "Fargo." There's a scene where Steve Buscemi's partner shoots a state trooper and chases down a couple who saw them with the body. When he tracks them down, he aims to shoot one of the witnesses and the picture cuts to black just before the gun goes off, but you still hear the gunshot. For all we know, Peter Stormare didn't even fire the gun on set. But it still works.
: Keep a car floating in a river. We purchased a car for seventy dollars for this scene. We were thinking of putting a dock/warf under the car, float it out, and keep adding weight, such as cinder blocks until the warf is submerged leaving just the car visable.
I'm no expert here, but I'm sure you're playing with a lot of fire doing something like this. There's probably all sorts of things to think about when doing this including safety, laws, and probably environmental stuff as well. I'd go with Doug's idea of chromakeying the car in. With that method, you definitely have a lot more control over the situation as you do it all in post.
Of course, there are also stylistic ways of accomplishing the effect of a car going into water without having to put a car in water. Be creative. That's what film school is all about!
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