Cheap Stunts Essay Research Paper Topic Using

Cheap Stunts Essay, Research Paper

Topic:

Using basic techniques combined with creative thinking to achieve stunts and special FX, in low-budget film making.

This paper has been written with the low budget film maker in mind. Seeing as though I am personally used to working with little or no money to produce a film or a video, I have always searched, through nessicity, for new ways to create effective looking stunts, special effects, and in general unique looking shots, devices and ‘looks’ in my movies.

Of course stunts and special FX may not be your cup of tea when it comes to making or watching a film, and this is fair enough. If a dialogue laden script and endless two shots and close-ups take your fancy, then I’m sure you don’t need to be told how to achieve this. It is simply a matter of writing the script, then setting up the camera and shooting it, generally speaking.

However when it comes to low budget film making these days I feel that the film maker must make a special effort to produce a movie that is unique and interesting for an audience to experience. This does not necessarily mean that the film maker must load the film with cheap stunts, blood and guts to grab an audience’s attention. However they should at least try to create something that is very original and makes the audience question how they achieved the results that they did, even if the movie does consist of only ‘two shots’ and ‘close-ups’. In the case of this type of movie (two shot/close-up style), the obvious place to start with ‘creative thinking’ is when writing the script. However this should be fundamental to any script, story or idea.

First of all, whoever you are, you must realise that it isn’t money that makes a good film, it is the idea and how that idea is achieved in creative ways. Of course it’s a great thing if you do have a little bit of money to put towards a film, however, throwing around creativity will always win over throwing around a ton of cash at a film, I believe anyway. You probably already have realised this, but for the uninitiated, this is the core theme of this paper; use your creativity where possible, not your money.

Of course both creativity and dollars will always show up on the screen, just in different ways. I believe however, that any given audience would rather see creative ideas expressed in a proficient manner in a low budget movie, rather than seeing expensive production values apparent in a poor idea. This is because everyone knows what is achievable these days if you have the money. However I think the same audiences are starting to get very bored with these expensive films, because the film makers haven’t really used their creativity to develop their ideas, they have used their wallet.

So how does one go about achieving a high standard when producing low budget films, in particular action and horror movies.

Obviously it will depend on what your idea is, but over the following pages I will present certain methods, ideas and techniques for achieving pleasing results. Most of these methods are very basic, and it would surprise most people to find out that some of these techniques are actually used in similar ways in the film industry, not just in low budget, renegade film making.

Problem: You have an idea where a character must crash through a thickly frosted glass door. How do you achieve this in a safe environment, with little or no money, and so that the finished stunt or shot looks effective and exciting.

First of all, the biggest issue here is safety. Whenever possible you should employ the services of a safety officer and qualified stunt person to carry out the scene or shot. This is fundamental and goes without saying, and it is standard protocol in the industry. However things can and will go wrong, even if you’ve hired 10 safety officers. (The film ‘Love Serenade’ is a solid example; a stunt person died jumping off a wheat silo.)

However, you may not have the money to hire a stunt coordinator, or a person to perform the stunt, or a safety officer. All you have is a camera and an actor, and the actor must be the one to crash through the glass door.

Seeing as though the actor’s safety is the main issue here, the question is how are you going to protect them during the stunt. Firstly you will need to cover them with heavy duty protection so they will be in no danger of cutting themselves up. Having done this however, the problem then shifts to the fact that they will look different during the shot, because they are wrapped up in all sorts of head gear, knee pads and chest guards etc. They will no longer ‘look’ like their character is supposed to.

This problem is easily solved if the film maker is willing to fit his or her story slightly to fit the stunt. If the film maker is making a horror film for instance, the standard formula in a horror movie is to have a ‘killer’ chasing one or more helpless ‘victims’. So if the film maker is willing to use this formula all they have to do is make the killer so that we, the audience, cannot tell what they really look like, ie: The killer would be wearing a mask that covered their head, and a costume that fully covered their body.

So if the killer is dressed as mentioned, there will be no problem in fitting protective clothing and/or equipment under the character’s costume. This will enabl