Elaborate Shooting Scene...

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Ok, around Christmas we are beginning production on a feature that involves an elaborate as **** shooting scene. It takes place in like a rectangular conference type room, with tables lining two sides, and the idea is that the man with the gun is going to march past the tables and shoot people (around 15). We have experimented with the air compressor bullet hits they have here on the site, and figured out a descent way of making them work to our satisfaction. The question is we would like a little more variety than 15 people dying with chest wounds. So does anyone have any ideas about a descent way to pull off a head impact wound. We have styrafoam heads if that helps. And also any advice on where to possibly look into getting squibs (and yes, learning how to use them safely), ground squibs, or even flash blanks? Basically any advice on or stories about a shootout you may have filmed.

[prime]

i think there's nothing better in an action flick than seeing someone take a bullet straight through the neck [img]smile.gif[/img]

should be easy to do. **** , Jim Carrey did a pretty good neck wound with a ketchup packet in Dumb & Dumber.

and if someone gets shot in the back of the head (while trying to escape the carnage), i think it would be cool to see their teeth (and plenty of blood of course) slide across the table.

-Prime

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Groovy. Keep em coming.

[prime]

one more, then ill stop.....

will this room have window? is it on a high floor of a building? if so, there could be a lot of interested "getting blown through the window" things you could do.

ex.
guy a) is shot in the chest and the force of the shot blows him back into guy b) who is in turn shoved out the window and plummets to his death.

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Yes it does have several windows on one side. But this isn' t a Desperado type shoot em up, it is a more desperate, less comic kinda thing. But thanks for the idea.

[Littlerich]

Go for the "less is more" approach...

Instead of showing a big bloodfest which, if not done well, will look **** ...

Focus on the sound, and maybe have either a shot of the door from outside the office while the sound effects are going on.

That way, people will make up their own minds about how bloody and gory the scene is.
You could cut back to the scene after the gunner has unloaded, with just blood covered dead bodies laying around.

Just remember: Make up is easier to do than special effects! (cheaper, too!)

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Ya, I know. But that is the approach of the two of the other rooms in this scene. This one is important because it establishes that several key characters are now dead. But I willprobably end up going with some combination. Thanks for your input.

[Dirty Cricket]

you know i think you could well establish that your key charecters are dead with that "less is more" approche. I mean they guy did suggest you show the dead bodies. But yeah...i don't think no matter how hard you try, you are going to get a good head impact wound or anything else halfway decent other than the chest. So maybe you should just show a few of the fifteen getting shot in the chest and the rest, show the gunmen just shooting, or the outside of the room with sound. I don't think it will be possible to show 15 gun deaths and keep it interesting. BUt if you can pull it off...it will be pretty **** good.

[spaceham]

If you go with the less is more approach, but still want to make it absolutely apparent that the key guys are dead, then you may want to show some sort of communication between the shooter and the victim's body after the shooting. (I.e. Guy lighting match on Moco's face in 'El Mariachi'.) Or you could do a low tech execution type thing. Like Eastwood in Unforgiven. Show the key victim wounded and cowering, add in a cold evil line from the shooter and pull back to the shooter just as the trigger is pulled, the shot is heard, and the audience is left imagining the carnage.

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Thanks guys. But the reason I want to show those deaths in particular, I guess isn't just to show that their dead, but the malice with which they were killed by the gunman. But I like the Clint Eastwood-esque idea, and I am hoping the 15 deaths or so won't get tedious, but I want it to be rather fast and furious, leaving the key victims until the end. Thanks for your ideas. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]