special effect « Videomaker Community Forums

nobody
Member

my dad says he won't help me with this unless i do some research by myself. i'm a freshman in hs and have to do a video with some classmate. we have to film the first chapter from Jayne Eyre creatively. there's a part where a book is thrown at her and her head is cut and bleeding. how can we do this? we can use his equipment.

thank you, Elena

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

You can mix up some simple hollywood special effects blood. There are lots of recipies on the internet. Try a good search.

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

First shot needs to be of the person throwing the book. You should be as far away as possible and focus and zoom in at his upper body. You want to get not just the throwing action but also the book in flight. So throw it at the cam. Be careful and if you don't have a shield, have someone catch it or knock it down before it hits the camerman. Edit out that part.

Then do a closeup shot of "Jane Eyre." Have someone hold onto the book and hit (touch)her in the forehead. Make sure that the hand of whoever is holding the book isn't seen on cam. Do several takes and have her react with surprise. She needs to take a movie "punch" and move her head back as if really getting hit. This could be a good slow-mo shot.

Last shot would be after adding some fake blood.

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

Hello Elena,

Have someone get some lexan at the home improvement store and get two assistants to hold it in front of the camera, about 5 inches from the lens. This allows the thrown book to not present such a threat to an expensive camera. Get a fair size of lexan- probably around 4'X 4'. You will have many uses for it in other film projects, so it is not wasted money.
Have the thrower aim directly at the camera and throw.

At this point you have two options:
1) film the book as it approaches the camera and edit as necessary.
2) use your zoom during the toss- zoom in on the book during the flight to make it approach the camera more menacingly, or zoom out to make the book throw seem to last longer on it's approach. Try it all three ways.

Then, in post, at the end of the throw scene, do a very rapid color wash to full white, and then a hard cut to black. This will simulate to the viewer the blinding shock that people see when they suffer a blow to the head. This rapid flash to white and cut to black will be very effective.
One way to modify that would be to white out the scene with, say, 20% transparency on the white, thereby still showing some scene through the white.
The duration on this should be no longer than 5-8 frames.

After this you may proceed to the post-throw take. Too much blood and gore will actually spoil the effect. Why design a beautiful home only to install a yellow and purple yard?

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

You may also experiment with the lighting of the book. You may want to select several books of different colors.

Remember, books tend to fly open when thrown, so you may want to rig up a temporary way to keep it closed. If the camera is not going to linger on the book, you may use clear tape.

It may not be necessary to even show the impact on the face. Many times it is much more effective to have the audience imagine the impact. This is an old film technique, and very powerful. The imagination of the viewer will always fill in the gaps. You could cut directly to the bleeding wounded face.

You may wish, during filming of the face in the immediate post-impact shot, to place the camera in motion. For example, you could have the camera open the shot on the left side of the subject's face, and move to the right while the subject slowly looks to the left, so that face and camera are moving in opposite directions. This lends artistic depth to the scene, and if you really want to make your point, you may have the light changing on the face during the shot as well, which would give you 3 moving elements- face, camera, and light. This would allow you to explore the depth of feeling and reaction of the impact victim.
Just a standard shot of the face post-impact would be rather shallow and not grab your audience's attention to you as a talented director.

Filmmaking is an art, and here is your chance to really shine... here is you chance to demonstrate the depth of your talent and your nobility in communication.... to show that you are not merely a snapshot-taker, but rather a sensitive thinking mind, capable of becoming fully professional.

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

What about the eyes? Would you like to linger for a moment, just a fleeting moment that allows a lighting-like penetration into the emotions of the impact victim ?

How could you film the eyes, how could you light the eyes, how could you set the eyes in motion? Did you know that you can film the changing focus of the pupil as movement?

Do you know that by introducing the eyes in a choke-shot you may insert, briefly, almost a micro-moment, a secondary shot, such as a replay of the throwing scene, which would suggest trauma-memory to the audience? The victim replaying the scene, involuntarily... this is one way you may invite your audience into the mind of your subject.

Posted 8 years ago #