Need suggestions for how to shoot one crucial scene in my indie short

My answers are from an acting point of view and not a script writing point of view.

Their backsides as they are entering the highway.
Their feet pedaling.
A car cutting off the view of them crossing. Mainly the tires on the asphalt.
A car crossing in front of them.
Their view: wobbly, short, to the right, to the left.

Just ideas, hope they help....

If you have a good budget, blue screen it. If you don't have a good budget be creative like Woodsie said. This way they aren't out there with the cars.

Woodsie said:

My answers are from an acting point of view and not a script writing point of view.

Their backsides as they are entering the highway.
Their feet pedaling.
A car cutting off the view of them crossing. Mainly the tires on the asphalt.
A car crossing in front of them.
Their view: wobbly, short, to the right, to the left.

Just ideas, hope they help....

Click to expand...

I agree with this one. Your scene will depend on great editing. First, I assume you have a studio teacher or social worker present for the minors. If not, you could be in serious legal trouble. But assuming you have one already, You may have to substitute the actual six-lane highway, for a safer one where you can control the traffic. You could probably have some actors drive and stop abruptly, while the children safely pass after the cars stop. Quick cuts will make this for you.

It's about angles, tricks of the camera and piecing some small shots together. This isn't a terribly hard shot, even if it's for a small to zero budget film. I don't believe anyone can explain to you how to do it; if you're a film maker by nature, you should be able to figure it out.

I would use a combination of wide shots to show the "big street" and then, to put a realistic effect on it, take it to a backroad where you can get a driver to slowly move into a tight shot of the kid(s).

Like I said, I'm not going to try and explain it step by step, but I can think of a million ways to do that scene.

I agree with the quick shots and direct shots on their feet as they are peddling.

You might want to try storyboarding at this point and see if you can come up with something that looks right to you. It isn't unusual for the shots to be cut short and to put shots that shake a tad or a quick blur to show confusion or that something has happened that didn't get in the shot.

But be sure you get it clear in your head before you start, or maybe even practice that part with some adults first so you get a good feel of how it will come out since it seems to be your most difficult scene.

You could place them on a not so busy street and make the angles show their feet and pavement, no one will know that it isn't the same street that you appear to pull back and show if the pavement looks similar.

Also when you get to that part about telling the parents, you can have something to show that will reassure them that there is no risk to their children, if you have already figured it out with adults.

Good luck!

Plot Device said:

Hi guys,

I am right now in the planning stages of a short video (about 8-9 minutes long) I will be shooting in the next several weeks. And I have just six cast members.

The Narrator
The Baby Sitter
Cop #1
Cop #2
Ten-year-old Child
Six-year-old Child

The two most important characters are the two children. They will be on screen for over 99% of the time and all the other characters will have very brief screen appearances (narrator has NO apearances, of course). The children will be played by the son and daughter of a friend of the family. But what I haven't yet revealed to the real-life parents of those two kids is that in my story, the two children peddle their bicycles out into traffic on a six-lane-wide state road with a guardrail down the middle and ALMOST get hit by oncoming cars, and yet while not getting in any way injured, they will still cause a major auto accident. This will be 20 seconds at the most of screen time, and will easilly take well over an hour or two to actually shoot (in my own estimation).

So when I explain to the parents that I will be doing this, I need to assure them 100% that their kids will be in no danger.

So ....

How do I shoot this in a way that looks reasonably real and still poses no real danger whatsoever to the children?







Two things to keep in mind:

1) It's going to be shot with NO SOUND (just music in the background).

2) It's going to be shot with a very chintzy camera because I am trying for the deliberate look of inexpert home video quality, or even of impromptu and herky-jerky mockumentary style.




Here's a general idea of the kind of highway that I'll be shooting on, but toss in a center guardrail. (It will be shot in broad daylight, not nighttime.)

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Here's the deal.

You cannot under any circumstances, actually put the two kids on a real highway. Or on a street, or anywhere else where there are actual cars.

What you can do is find yourself someplace with some asphalt that looks like a street (maybe from a high angle). This could be almost anyplace.

Somebody's driveway. A parking lot (if it's closed or if there's a section that you can close off).

Then you need to "marry" the two locations - the real location with the real traffic and the fake location that's safe.

You can do that in a number of ways, but generally you use some kind of prop to anchor the two locations.

If you've got a car, say you have the car pulled up to a stop sign at the real location. Have a shot of the two kids, still on the sidewalk, come into view, behind the car -- so that you establish them at this dangerous location.

Then move the whole deal -- the car, the kids -- to the safe location -- and find an angle showing the kids cutting out in front of the car -- presumably circling out into traffic.

The car anchors the two locations.

You just have to be careful that there's nothing else in frame that gives away the switch.

And if you've got the asphalt -- go for a high angle and paint a white line on it.

The white line on your safe asphalt will connect in the minds of the viewers with the line that you'll have already established in the dangerous location.

You can have as many close shots as you want of the kids on that safe stretch of asphalt.

And as many "safe" shots as you want of the kids on the sidwalk with out-of-focus street behind them.

Cut to someone in an approaching car, reacting, slamming on brakes.

Oh - and I agree -- sound effects are going to make this thing, considering that you can't actually show anything crashing into anything.

NMS

Moving cars and young kids throws up all kinds of red flags. You may even be in violation of child labor laws. Will you have anybody with verifiable credentials and experience supervising this?

If the young kids and the moving car(s) are actually in the same shot, well, it would be too hot for me to handle. I can't think of any AD I know here in LA who'd sign on for what you seem to be proposing. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting the situation.

In LA, it would require so much in the way of extra personnel, paperwork, that most TV shows wouldn't attempt it if even if it was done SOP. Stunt coordinators, stunt drivers, stunt doubles (probably midgets, to double for the kids), child welfare workers, cops to stop traffic, etc.

Even with the best preparation, things can go wrong. It's bad enough when it happens to adults. With children, it's absolutely tragic. Not to mention the lawsuits that are bound to grind on for years afterwards.

What you could do is have one kid fall off the bike, which would then careen into traffic, with the cars swerving to avoid it. You could do the same thing with a skateboard or scooter. Even a moped. That way, you could shoot the kids one day, and do the car stuff on an entirely different day. Car stuff involves risks of its own, but it's manageable with good drivers, caution, and common sense.

I guess you already know about shooting stuff at 12 fps and doing the stunts at half speed, so that it looks faster and more dangerous than it really is when it's run at 24 fps.

This is what I suggest. Draw it out cut by cut before you shoot it. See what works on paper first. Like Hitchcock, you have to know exactly how it is going to cut together in the editing room before you shoot. Then you will know what shot you need to "fake" it.

Start wide with establishing shots. And then slowly begin cutting in closer. Matching backgrounds using an anchor as Steven's suggested is a good idea. Drawing it out first will help you plan and calculate how you are going to use this. A tight shot with kids on a bicycle while a large grill of a car fills the rest of the frame is always a good, threatening shot that conveys menace and danger without indangering anyone.

As you move in tighter, shooting with longer lenses will compress the spaces and increase the movement through the frame. It will make the kids seem much closer to the traffic and emphasis the speed and movement of the traffic.

The asphalt anchor is part of the illusion. You can also use a background anchor.

At the REAL location, find a distinctive background where the kids have stopped. Call it a particular store sign = HARDWARE.

We've established that the HARDWARE sign is 'behind' the kids, and the freeway is 'in front' of the kids. Have the kids peddle "AWAY" from the sign, "TOWARDS" the freeway. In reality, they are yards from the freeway, perhaps even in the closed off parking lot, but the low angle, probably 'wide' angle makes it appear as if they are farther away from the sign, and closer to the side of the highway. (A telephoto lens will compress the shot, making them appear closer to the sign). As they ride TOWARDS the camera (In the viewers eye, towards the hiway) we think they are riding in to traffic. Intercut feet peddaling, asphalt stripes passing beneath their tires, shrieks of terrified onlookers, faces of terrified drivers - you get the idea. The kids are never in the road, never in danger.

Shoot the whole thing with sound. You'll be glad you have it, even if you decide you don't want to use it.

Now that I think about it, a moveable background anchor would be even better. Something like a sign, or a postbox. We establish that IT and the kids are RIGHT NEXT to the Hiway in the wide shot.

Move them both to the 'safe location'

Now when the audience sees them next to the sign or postbox, or shrub - whatever, they assume they are still next to the hiway. BINGO

These are all great responses.

To reassure everyone, I never intended to send the kids into traffic!

I did want to have the kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk, and then the two kids would make the decision to ride out into the road. THAT is where I am having problems. How do I make it LOOK like they actually ride out onto the road when they in fact do not?

But do you guys feel I can't even have the kids on the sidewalk?

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Cool. Didn't mean to sound so alarmist. Kids on the sidewalk should be fine. Anyplace where they would normally walk.


You could have the kids standing with their bikes on the sidewalk, arguing about whether they should cross. You establish the conflict, the cars zipping by. As Writenight noted, you can use lenses to make the cars seem much closer than they are.

One kid decides to go for it, and exits the frame on her bike, in the direction of the traffic. She doesn't actually have to go into traffic because the camera stays with the kid who's left behind. He's shouting, sulking, gesturing, and then watching her. He sees what's about to happen and screams in terror.

It could actually be more terrifying because we don't actually see it - we see the emotional reaction to the event. If the kid's a decent actor, a closeup shot of the terror in his face could be very effective.

The sound of brakes squealing, burning rubber, broken glass, crunching metal, etc. will be key.

Recording sound, including location tone - a few minutes of just the ambient sound, will be very important.

You'd probably have to get a permit to close off the highway or street. You'd definitely want to find someplace that's dooable, not just put the shot on a particular street or highway because that's what you want. I don't know if they'd let you block off a major highway without a load of money, but you might get by with blocking off a lesser traveled road.

I also don't know what kind of equipment you're using, but I'll just assume you're capable of doing what I'm going to suggest. You'd definitely have to play around with it a lot before doing it. You might want to set it up in your driveway with an adult friend, shoot it, and do your own post production to make sure you can make it look realistic.

Do the shot in reverse. Have the car stopped, whether the person will be hitting the brakes hard or swerving, but just have it in position. Now put the bikes in front of it. When you start the shot, have them pedal in reverse. If the bikes can't go in reverse, get someone off frame to pull them so they'll be going backwards. Do the shot and obviously be careful. The car will go in reverse and so will the bikes. When you get it in post production, reverse the footage so it'll now look like everyone's going forward.

I would also do all the shots with the kids with the street blocked off. Then get rid of everyone who doesn't need to be in the shot and have the car drive down the street. Just intercut everything and then put your special reverse footage in the mix. If you do it right, it'll look good.

I would also suggest you record sound, even if you don't intend on using it. You might be surprised how much that'll sell your movie. If you do, get an external device like a tape recorder or portable reel to reel or whatever to do it. You don't want the sound reversed obviously.

What if you think about it as one of those things you don't actually see happen. Now I'm thinking of the experience in real life. Like when an accident happens right behind you just as you turned you head away. You know those details. What are they? Can they be used for what you are trying to do?