Any tips for shooting this cold scene?

Well.. there doesn't seem to be much you can do with regard to the snow that is on top of you once you start shooting. That is going to be freaking cold!

What is the camera angle like? It may be possible to line the snow that you lay in with a cloth and/or a bunch of hand warmers to make life a little easier.

Definitely don't go for the water! That's how people die from hypothermia! The first thing you are taught to do is take everything wet off the person in such instances.

7-8 min is a LONG time! Good luck with the project and keep us updated!

Are you trying to do this in one shot for creative reasons, or because you lack the ablity to cut? Either way, I would go with a low angle where you are hiding in a hole and we can't see that you aren't covered in snow. We just see the snow go flying up (proprelled by air or by the hands of your crew) and your body rise from the snow that is in front of you. Perhaps you might also try a white blanket to partially cover yourself too.

Don't go from extreme hot to extreme cold, it's too much of a shock for your body, you could get really sick. I would employ at least a few cuts, for health reasons if nothing else. If you don't have an editing system try doing it in camera.

Better yet, if YOU don't have an editing system, your local cable access studio does. I don't know about your area, but here they are very supportive of students trying to get into film school at the cable access studios.

You could do it with a very cheap fake snow alternative... get a bunch of those dome-shaped packing peanuts, and cut them all up into tiny bits (time consuming and a pain, yes...) have the crew pack those in the hole around you, and then just do a very thin layer of real snow on top, keeps the snow off your chest/arms and should still be sufficient.

Otherwise, like ktdamien said.. multiple takes, and a low angle for when you pop out of the hole would be best.

thefilmer said:

I'm making a film to submit for college...
The thing is, I have to do the scene with my shirt off but with pants. ..
I want to show that .. yup I froze my ass off filming this small segment. If I used cuts, you can tell I didn't have to stay there for that long.

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So you are an actor, not a filmmaker, correct? Just wondering why you want a long take of you in a snowpile to submit to a college

snow

thefilmer said:

I'm making a film to submit for college. In one brief scene I hide in the snow and pop out shooting a gun (a humorous scene obviously.) It snowed a lot over here in Northeast America so I got my chance.
---
The thing is, I have to do the scene with my shirt off but with pants. In order to do this scene, we've dug a hole in the snow and I lay there while they pile snow on me first. It gets pretty cold under that snow. I tried to film it the other day, but I had to tell the crew to stop because it was just too cold, I didn't prepare well enough, and a big prop on set kept falling.


Q: I want to know which you think is a better idea to get this shot done, trying to save as many toes and limbs as I can lol:


a) Have a hot bath ready, immerse myself in the hot water, get in the hole, and then start the scene.
OR
Have heaters ready, heat myself up with a heater and towel, get into the hole and then start the scene.
(the snow hole and the heaters/hot bath will be near each other)

The hot bath one seemed alright at first but I don't know if the hot water will eventually work against me and make me even colder (the shot will take in total about 7-8 mins to film)

and with heaters, I don't know if the heat on my body will last that long.


I'm trying to keep my film as minimalistic as I can and I can't use multiple cuts or fake snow (I don't have enough money for fake snow to take up the entire landscape.)

I want to show that .. yup I froze my ass off filming this small segment. If I used cuts, you can tell I didn't have to stay there for that long. Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks

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My initial thought would be to rework the angle of the camera in such a way that you can dig a nice big hole in the snow so that you can go inside WITH a warm jacket on as well as a wool cap maybe (we lose most of our body heat through our head believe it or not). A wool cap will keep you warmer since not as much of your body heat will escape.

Anyway, if you find a nice open area with enough snow, simply dig a fairly large trench right next to hole you're going into. Create a tunnel from the trench to the hole. This way, you can sit all warm and cozy right up until the shot is needed. Then you take off your jacket and wool cap and crawl through the tunnel. Have your weapon already in place so you just pick it up on your way up through the hole.

If you place the camera correctly, we won't see the trench. All we will see is you coming up through the hole.

No warm bathwater.
No heater.
No hypothermia.

filmy

Hire an eskimo stunt-double?


(I got nothin')

Hahaha that is the single coolest emoticon I have ever seen!

Suck it up and do it!

So your freakin' cold for 10-15 minutes. The shot will look great!

Don't f around with this one. If you have to get that shot, Make it as warm and comfortable as possible for yourself, try and hide as much as possible behind a tree or a bush or a rock or something. If we need to see you coming out of snow, dont have your guys cover you with 2 feet of snow, have it be 2 inches. Maybe make it more of a semi supported outside that wont break, and give yourself a little hole in the snow to pop out of. If it can be shot from long range, maybe mix styrofoam with the snow that flies up.

A long time ago there was a female actor who was supposed to dive into an icy river and float dowstream to be saved by the hero. She doesnt remember anything after hitting the water, she could have died. Don't f around with this one, being surrounded by snow can be terribly cold.

Thinking about this further, what if your crew laid a layer of syrofoam over you first, then a shallow layer of snow?

WideShot said:

Thinking about this further, what if your crew laid a layer of syrofoam over you first, then a shallow layer of snow?

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Isn't that what I said? hehehe well, great minds think alike, or so they say

You said peanuts! That would never work, those are brown! j/k didn't see that.

since you can't afford enough fake snow to cover the entire LANDSCAPE...then just cover yourself with fake snow (and a small amount of hte surrounding area) and let he rest be real snow.

Reading through here, you can tell who's from CA and who's midwest and north (props to our canadian friends). I think the packing peanuts is the way to go...hit up the ups store or something similar for getting them cheap and in bulk. Try to get the chips rather than the peanuts though. Or tear them up to be smaller. You could also use a large piece of styrofoam on the ground in the hole underneath you as an insulator for your back. use a planer (home depot wood working tool) to shave off pieces from a large piece of styrofoam to get snow that is more random than packing materials. Rub down with vaseline as well for insulation and wear a hat!

We did snow shooting in a short I did for a friend's wedding. The actors were all dressed up in thick jackets and hats and good boots. They were still cold.

Don't mess around with the cold...it'll put you in the hospital with your skin falling off...or worse. Hypothermia is bad.

I decided to register just for this one. Was a chance find on Google, which brings up the most amazing unexpected results to stuff, at times...

If you want the scene to be realistic, best go as close to reality as you can, the result will look better. So, to do it without harm, you need thermal equilibrium with good core body temperature, and energy (food, calories..) to maintain it. In practise, that means run for a half hour, or walk briskly for an hour, shirtless. I actually do this, and I know from firsthand experience that -6 degrees centigrade is no problem, for three hours. So long as you have energy, are awake and not fatigued, and are active enough to keep breathing and heart rate natural, you wil be at thermal equilibrium. Contact with the snow will change that, but you will have more than enough time if you do this right.

First, get those starting conditions right so that you are genuinely comfortable. Your skin will feel cold to your touch, but the temperature will rise fast through only a few millimeters, and you'll be warm inside, where it matters. Once you start with the scene, get into a shallow trench in the snow, compacted and stable, the walls of the trench firm, just further apart than your own width. If in a hurry, just take a deep breath and get people to pack the snow round and over you, leaving air access to breathe. Wriggle enough to keep circulation free, propped on your elbows, to raise most of your body off the floor of the trench, and the idea is to make an inch or two of space over you. Use the deep breath to help your body make a cavity bigger than it's own normal size, and wriggle a bit to push snow away if you feel it touch you. Once the compacted snow is over you, you can relax a bit and breath out while the other people make it look right above, and the air space around you will be an amazingly good insulator. After the initial cold of contact, (which will be reduced as you are acclimatized to cold but with good core heat), you'll be fine. You might not feel any sensation of cold at all, for more than the few minutes you need. David Blaine did nearly three days! So if you maintain that air gap, you can certainly manage 7 or 8 minutes.

And the quality of the scene will benefit hugely from the simple fact that nothing is faked.




Edit: Just noticed how old this damn thread is. > Only the last posts are new. Still, as winter is up again, no doubt this might help someone...