Dead Bodies - Dissapearing..?

[fi11m-m4k3r]

Hey all.
Im making an action movie and im planning on having a huge firefight. The only problem is i only have 3 actors. I can cut it so it looks like there are more people, but then the bodies would "dissapear"... Do you think anyone would notice it?

[Grant]

careful shooting, tight shots etc

[rhys]

heavy load of cropping, or mattes.

[britishbulldog]

i wouldnt do it without more actors unless its suposed to be somthing people can laugh at in which case it would be rather funny i wouldnt do it

[MasterMike]

There's a bit of information about how we did the big cloning shot in my film The Forest on its page, here. I'm in the process of writing an advanced cloning turorial at the moment.

[fi11m-m4k3r]

But look: In the matrix, On the roof, they killed dozens of guards but here, we dont see any of the bodies:


Here is in the lobby... No bodies! He shot like 50 guys in that room. If the bodies were still there... You would at least see one of them.
PS: I tried to find a picture from the lobby scene... but i couldnt find any good ones except this one, so dont mind the guy in the picture DS




In the worst case, i could tape clothes together and stuff them with newspaper, from a distance, that might look like a person, so i could spread dolls all around the place.

[UFProductions]

Forced perspective with GI-Joes

[buck_suck]

Well, we've always had 20-30 people for our films so bodies were never really a problem. If yours is a film whereby everyone looks the same (i.e. alot of bad guys wearing black with ski masks), you could just keep re-using dead bodies. Or if not, have them switch around clothes and stuff. If your camera isnt too sensitive or detailed and if you shoot the angles properly, it should work fine.

[fi11m-m4k3r]

Yeah, everyone basically looks the same.
Do you think it would work fine if i tape together some clothes and stuff them with newspaper or something, make two or three of those and put them on the floor?

[2nd_Recon]

depends on your resources vs the amount of people getting killed. If you have enough clothes and newspaper and time to stuff it, by all means do it, but if you're that worried about it, you have to make sure the "Dead" people don't move.

I'm planning on a short whereby the protagonist just goes out and pummles on a bunch of people, it'll be focused more on choreography and cinematography than anything else, but it's been held up a little because some bridges have been burned between me and my actors, and I need to find some replacements.

[fi11m-m4k3r]

It's not that important to me... I just want to know if anyone would notice it and if someone did, would it look weird...

[buck_suck]

Angles, angles, angles.

If its good, no one will know. All you'll hear are 'Wow how did you get so many extras?' I'm my personal opinion, I'd rather employ live re-used extras rather than newspaper just in case. Having them not move is easier than stuffing a hell lot of cloth which may or may not turn out good. Up to you. My $0.02.

[FabianJansen]

While one person is fighting the second, make sure th third is visible on the floor as a dea person. Then the two fighter move, as soon as the third person playing dead is out of the shot he gets up, moves around the camera and lies down where the other two are going. If you plan it correctly it can look real...

[fi11m-m4k3r]

The problem is that i only have two actors.. Me and another guy.

[SgtPadrino]

Well, it's not like you have to have a huge firefight. When you're writing your movie, make sure you mostly write around what you've got or can get, not what you want to have. That way you run into these kinds of problems.

[buck_suck]

I guess we're all caught up with being impressive bruckheimer-wannabes (I'm guilty of that too). Where we embark on super big projects with damn impressive plans to do some big-a** engagements which usually fall flat. Why not try it out? Its the best way to learn haha. Last time we wanted to simulate huge wars and battles but now we square it down to skirmishes and stuff because its within reach and logistical restraints.