Filming Miniatures

rizien

rizien

I'm gonna need to film a scene of a building, but i have no budget at all except for when i get paid..so i figured i should do miniature

the scene is a really high up and is going to show several hundred(or so it looks like a LOT) of zombies closing in on a circular or rounded fort kind of thing...

any ideas on how to get the depth of field...so it looks like its really high up, not just me shooting some small set up..

help please?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Some quick q's...

1) What editing/fx software can you use?
2) Particular camera with decent lens, or generic camcorder?
3) How long do you envision the shot to last?
4) Where is the camera, in relation to the fort?

I'll see what ideas I can come up with, with the above. :shock:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Question 5)

Why is the budget more for shooting an actual building? If you have no budget at all, the miniature will look like just that .. a miniature.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah I was just going to say, if you can find someone skilled enough to build a realistic looking miniature, chances are they're not going to work for peanuts
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
well theres a kid in my school who is a god with clay, and im sure he can get some realistic stuff, and we're never gonna show the actors and the ENTIRE building at one time, just like, enter a door to another room etc... to answer the questions :

Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects
HOPEFULLY, a Panasonic AG-DVX100A
the shot should last maybe 3 or 4 seconds, jsut enough to pan up and outward
the camera is going to be directly above it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shoot a real building! A 3 second shot of an exterior ... why so much hard work building a realistic miniature that will probably look like a model, when you can go shoot the real thing with ease! :?:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think you can. You need to shoot in a city where tall buildings are next to each other. Get rooftop permission, and shoot the zombies entering. Or if your city has chopper tours .. they're about $99 bucks an hour. Either way .. go 4 it!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It's not that hard to find actors, put up a call in your school and do it on a weekend, get all your relatives & Friends together, ask everyone, ask random people in restaurants. People are generally helpful, I'm sure that those who have time will do it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Take one step back

Can I suggest that instead of trying to find a way of making a shot that is beyond your budget, why don't you take a step back and ask yourself what purpose having hundreds of zombies approaching that building plays in telling your story.

It's always easier to put a script fix in, than it is to overcome massive technical problems. Big budget shots on No budget shoots almost always make the film look cheap, whereas creative scripting with the resources you do have will give you a better film in the end.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well, he could come up with something like this...

A flyover of the miniature fort, like this.

Then some fast trickery, (and a bit more care than I took), to use the end of the overfly to change to footage of the zombies running up a hillside towards the camera, like this. (Except in this case, it's just the woods instead of a hillside of zombies... as I couldn't quickly find any like so).

Making the real miniature fort look "decent" is its own problem, for sure... but then again, King Kong (original) wasn't really terribly authentic either.

I'd say take a trip to the local gaming/hobby shop... the kind where they have dioramas on display. They should also have a corkboard for flyers. Put up a notice offering to pay for the materials needed, if a hobbyist is willing to put something together that suits the needs. You could end up with a pretty decent miniature , for relatively little cost.

But overall.. Clive is probably right. :shock:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
well, the one thing that we always want to see in Zombie movies is the "Rescue Centers" getting overrun and shut down by zombies, because that would be an awesome scene...so we wanted to end our movie setting up for the zombies to annihilate the rescue center, provided we make a sequel with a real budget. I mean, i know we can re-write(actually..no Re- as of yet :) ) the script so that we set it up like that without showing zombies, but i thought a scene of a flyover or something with zombies closing in on the rescue center would be sweet... Zensteve, if you could make something liek what you have, that looks realistic ( i know you made those nice and fast) we could employ your services..i mean, we cant pay top dollar but we can pay a decent amount
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm afraid I don't have the time to be able to commit, sorry.

The point was, that something like that is simple enough to do with the software you currently have... just takes a bit of practise to get the basics down pat.

I would also tend to agree with the screenwriter-types input on this one. Unless you have significant use of a miniature(s) in the film, it's probably going to look awkward (or at least out of place) for just a few seconds of the entirety.

I'd better stop here, before I try to convince you that doing the whole thing in claymation would make the film unique. :D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top