Making An Army Out Of Ten Extras

[NoRemorse]

Basically, I have ten actors playing zombies. I want it to look as if there are 1000 zombies. What would you suggest?

[KayBeck]

What's the scene?

[Epsilon]

You could try some intricate masking and combining a number of takes together. Have the actors on one side of the frame and each take they are slightly over, not to overlap. Hard work, but it would work!

[asapfilms]

I really want to do that sometime for a battle movie of somekind... What I was going to do was set up a large blue screen, in a barn or gym or something, film your actors from the same angle many times, only have them stand in different spots and do different things. Blue screen the actors angles, and overlay... MAKE SURE YOUR BLUE SCREEN WORKS!!! Do a few tests... I tried doing stuff before, took all day and when I finally finished, I began to edit and realized that the blue wasnt blue enough... what a waste. Hope it works. On the other hand, you might just want to get an 3d editor and try something there...but that prolly would get expensive.

[I3lade203]

Well, a bluescreen could work, but epsilon says is much better. To make this look like an army, it's all about camera shots. Carefull camera shots is whats going to sell this. Basiclly, what you'd have to do is get as many people as possible, if you can get more then 10, get them. After gathering as many peopel as possible, your probably going to want a longshot of the army charging, walking slowly ( zombies , I duno ) or whatever. Thats your main shot, where your going to have to film how many ever people you have charging in different spots in each take, and after several hours of compositing, you should be good to go. Althougth, you don't only want that long shot. Playing that long shot with various close ups and sequences is going to sell the shot. The audiance can only watch long shots for so long, it's going to get very dull if you don't do anything else. Deffintly a lot easier then using a bluescreen though. If you have a 3d application like max lightwave maya or something, and are skilled in it, it could possibly work as well.

Another suggestion I have for you, to make your life easier like epsilon said to make sure they do not overlap, I'd bring some sort of marker, sports tape or something visible you can use but thats thin enough to hide on the ground ( In the grass? ) so that it's not on camera. Easier if your doing an above shot looking down apon the army. Basiclly, you'd mark the ground for each group of people for each frame with different colors, and where they should move each time. This way, you won't have to worry about it during editing, becuase it should all be framed out beforehand.

[santi]

Use close angles and make lot of cuts. In long shots and wide angles it won't work. Of course you can make few composed shots with CG cloning but zombie movie with all steady shots would be boring. Change shots as frequently as possible ex: hero looks left: there are zombies, hero looks right: more zombies, he looks up.... etc

Find locations that are dark and/or narrow.

There's an old trick used in many old battle scenes: one or two actors are running around the camera close to the lens. The were blurred and dark so they are made an impression of many more.

Generaly... dont't try to show 1000 zombies, rather try to make an impression of such a number.

[I3lade203]

Your first phargaraph is basiclly repeating exaclty what I said. If he wants it outside, then it's going to be hard to make it dark and narrow, althougth that would be ideal. That old trick is great and all, but a lot of people these days would rather get a good look at the action rather then blurred darkish fast moving stuff. Your last line is very much correct, it's what I was trying to say. Your not literally going to make a thosuand, your can get as many people as you can, do mabye one or two clone shots for the distance shots to give an imppression of 1,000, and then just use creative angles and a lot of people. Simliar to the hero turns left hero turns right, only it's having the battle scene cutting and changing a lot, WITH a few long shots thrown in there just to impress the audiance and give them an idea of how many zombies there really are.

[pdj]

I know this might be a little off BUT, as a viewer of the old Dawn of the Dead- there was a line while they were in the shopping centre “there are hundreds of them out there!â€

[NoRemorse]

What's the scene?

Basically, what I really want is a wide shot of all these zombies crossing a field towards a barn, surrounding it. They'd alll sorta be walking away from the camera. Do-able?

[Epsilon]

Oh yeah, I would definately attempt a multiple take shot and mask them together. It's easier for the wide shots and will look very consistant as long as the camera is static and trees are not blowing around in the background.

[I3lade203]

Yeah. Masking the shots togethers going to be your best bet. Watch out for those trees though! lol! Keep the envoriment as steady as you can. Do you want literally 1,000 zombies? Or just a hundred ? Whats the real number you want, 1,000 does sound overexagerated.

[Epsilon]

I think masking to get 100 is realistic and will look very good. 1000 is quite a big number!

[NoRemorse]

yeah, 1000 was an exaggeration. 100 would be perfect.

[I3lade203]

Okay. Try the masking then with very clever and lots of different camera shots. If 10 is the most you can get, then you'll need to film it 10 times again, and thats a lot of work! I suggest even using your self if you can, since the camera will most likley be statinary anyway. If you need some more help, feel free to give me an AIM, PM, MSN, EMail , whatever.

[crb]

I'd do the masking thing. Keep the camera static and have your ten extras bring many layers of clothing. Shot the shot with them playing the guys from the farthest point from the camera as possible, as background zombies, then yell cut. Have them take off a layer, doing a simple change, then have them a little closer, shoot that take, then take off another layer, shoot another with them even closer and on and on untill you have many layers shot. Then in the edit just pile the layers on top of each other using the farthest layer first and piling them one by one from farthest to closet. It should look very clutter giving you large army effect. I am testing this out with my film. My benefit was that I was shoooting my shot in the snow during winter with blood shooting off from them which is added in post production with after effects and combustion 3. With mine I have so much blood flying and the shot is so short they'll have a hard time making out any discrepencies.