A while back, I had posted something along the lines of 'Shooting a low-budget Car Crash', asking if there was a way to shot an accident without damaging the vehicles, while keeping the intensity.

Does anyone have a clip or something that demonstrates this really well? I just need some ideas.

Thanks.

I don't have any examples to give but one thing I must say is, sound is everything.

implying that stuff happens is often more effective that acually displaying it

quote:

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implying that stuff happens is often more effective that acually displaying it

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no its not-

I agree with teenagdcelluloid. Let me rephrase parnell's statement: "implying that stuff happens is often cheaper than actually displaying it."

no - not showing the audience something can be very effective. signs managed to be extremely tense and that was the technique throughout. same with the village. admittedly a car crash is not quite the same circumstance.

td's statement is a better way of saying what i meant to say- i remember (as i finished writing my first post) asking "what about reservoir dog's off camera violence? and the movie reservoir dogs borrowed the idea of off-camera violence of?"-

but then i rememberd that a lot the people watching ur film (ur peers in filmmaking actually) are looking for a reason to get pissed off at how BAD or CHEAP ur movie is so that they can feel better about their crappy movies- its a thing small budgets have to be careful of- something different and "coincidently" cheaper than the easier to think of alternative is always asumed as just cheap (or unoriginal...if i may rant)-

"oh u just used archive footage and set it to music! oh u just faded out cause u couldnt afford to hurt the car! oh im such a bad movie maker i need to assume u guys do these things out of stupidity so i can feel better about the **** i put out"

get a car u can crash- people will only b*tch at u otherwise

I guess another factor i'd need to look at first is whether you want to show the crash externally or from inside one of the cars. Much more can be done if its from inside the cars viewpoint.

But like mentioned before, sound is HUGE, camera shake is another. If it's inside, greenscreen can be implemented....im a big gscreen person, idk why.

Thanks guys. Sorry, Davis195, I should of explained a bit better how I wanted to shoot this sequence. Ultimately, I'd like to have both shots from outside and inside the cars.

The actual film starts off with the accident. I want to catch the audience off guard by having no time at all to set up the crash. It has to just happen right away. I'd like to have shots outside the vehicles BEFORE impact, and have some inside DURING impact. After the crash, I'd like a few shots of the cars spinning out, etc...

I totally agree with the sound thing...but I want to have intense visuals that don't turn out cheap in the end.

Thanks again.

well when you say you dont want the audience "set up for the crash". It makes me want to refer to the wreck scene in "The Forgotten', when they were t-boned. One of my favorite car hits. When i was mentioning greenscreen (with some time), it could work to film all outside occuring action and replacing it on an inside shot (car coming torwards and such). Another thing is the type of wreck or how it occurs....head-on, tbone, wether they knew each other, whether they were speeding, or if it just....happens...

Starting it off with the crash i think i have a feeling of where your going, and i think its veering torward a "real" accident.

Also i dont know your location, or the experience of your drivers, or the types of cars you are using. But if you had the ability to film even a 180 spin, with lots of cutting all ofer the place to show the disorientation that usually happens, it would look ok (for your afterward spinouts..

I feel like im rambling on and on so im gonna stop until something comes up again id like to comment on haha, hope ive helped some. I wish you the best of luck in this and id love to keep in touch with you over this project, as i would like to see its completed form as well.

-J

I really appreciate all the input. The project is in the last stages before shooting. I'm just re-working some of the screenplay, etc.

This shouldn't be too long and I'd love to have it done by Feb. 2005.

Thanks again.

u culd start out with a shot of an old grandma knitting on her front porch, and see the cars crash in the distance, that way u can just cg the cars.