Hello everyone,

We are preparing for a scene in which someone is being dragged down a flight of stairs (on her back, being pulled by her feet). Does anyone have any advice for how we do this safely so as not to injure the actress?

Thanks!

make sure she has a leather protector under her clothes. Stunt dude's wear them when they are being pulled behind cars and horses, etc.... as for protecting her head, that's a tough one... is she supposed to be dead? are the stairs carpeted?

is she supposed to be dead? are the stairs carpeted?

She is not dead. She is awake, alert, and fighting. She should be able to keep her head up on her own. The stairs are wood, not carpeted.

Thanks for the reply CootDog!

Now that I think about it... bull riders and bronco busters wear them too... check at a rodeo store, or something that's for cowboys/girls.

Then you could use it for many other things!

Sounds dangerous. Professional stunt person and insurance is the only way to go there.

Then you could use it for many other things!
Nice, Coot. I caught that!

the pros build special staircases with sliders built down the middle and all kinds of special aparatus...the rest just sounds painful no matter how you cut it. If you were to put the actress on a board (back and head so nothing actually bounces) and have the her act out the bouncing parts from hitting the stairs...I agree with IT though...sounds like a pro job with insurance for the best results.

If she never done any stunt before, you might want to consider using a stunt double and then once in a while show the real actress in close up (without moving), and cut between, wooden stairs have the tendency to give a lot of pain and might really injure your actress during the 'flight'.

One thing I can think of is to use a small board under her, besides all the padding she is wearing, a small board size of her body, to be place under her to protect her from hurting her back, but if she doesn't take precautions, she would hurt her head by accidently hit the stair...

If you can edit between cuts, then you can get away with a wide angle shot of a double being dragged and all, then cut to close ups of her, and then from above her, showing her coming down (having a board and other safety stuff around).

And, if you want, shoot it in SLOW mo and speed it up accordingly during post.

I really say get a professional stunt person, because this is dangerous, but if you can't do this at your own risk, and make sure EVERYONE is comfortable with it. Do not rely on what the actress say (they always going to say it's fine and they can do it" trust their eyes but looking deep and you can see the fear...

Anyway, whatever suggested here are merely suggestion. :) we don't want to be sued for any wrongly death or injury caused by our suggestion. :) Do it at your own risk.

Johnny

This sounds like fun!

I would strongly suggest that you use a stunt double therefore your welcome to use Monica my blonde lovedoll who can be seen in action on

{mod edit: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh Eddie, you know better than to promote your own movie in someone else's thread -- especially one started by a moderator! Now cut that out!}
Only joking...but seriously i would use a mannequin and dress her up in the same wig, clothes, etc, just to be sure not to cause injury.

The other alternative is to pad your wooden stairs with foam.

...hey, Bophe!

...what if instead of actually pulling her down the stairs, what if you pulled her ACROSS something that LOOKED like stairs. then can't you manipulate the shot picture to be turned in the direction of the down staircase possibly in post? You would probably have to shoot it tight and do the protection thing for her back, but couldn't you build the fake stairs with a 'ditch' of some kind to pull her across...

...I don't know if this would work, but if I had to do something like that with no budget and no access to a stunt person, and I had to do it today, I would try to come up with something like this I think....

...just trying to think on my feet...

--spinner :cool:

Spinner, let us know how did it go, I'm curious too :) I like your idea too, on doing it on flat surface that looked like stairs... and close up, might work!

Thanks for all the input everyone! As of right now, I am leaning toward a combination of ideas, mostly based on Johnny's plan--

I think what we will try to do is use editing to minimize the actual risk. Caputure shots of the "pull-er" moving down the stairs without actually pulling the actress -- gives movement to the scene. Have a few shots of the "pull-ee" on some sort of pretective (but hidden) board/sled coming down a few inches. Cut to close-ups of "pull-ee." Have some shots of the "pull-ee" actually just sitting/lying on the stairs holding on to the rail trying to stop the motion. With enough quick edits, I think this could all come together nicely.

If anyone else has ideas, please let me know. Thanks again!

John

I was once pulled down a short flight of hard-wood stairs by my feet ending on a gymnasium/cafetorium floor. We did it for a play... plus I have fallen down so many flights (accidentally and otherwise) I can make some suggestions:


The body:
-Elbow pads. Because I was being dragged down the stairs face down, and my character was dead, I allowed my elbows to support my upper body and slam down onto each step- trying to make it a natural dragging motion. In rehersal for the play, in insisted to be dragged down for real (so it wouldn't be a new and unnatural pain during the performances). Going down the first time, I tried the elbow thing, and was not able to move my arms for a good 5mins. Luckily, it was a school play, so I was able to acquire some elbow pads from the gymnasium- using the elbows again, I felt virtually nothing.... keeping my head on the side, right above my elbows, which I timed to lower and hit the step in advance of the dragging, it looked like a natural unconcious slide down the stairs.
-Double up on clothing, especially pants.
-Long sleeve shirt/sweater- the hide the elbow pads.

The head:
-Remember if the neck is tense it can snap like a board, but loose, it can be flexible- so make sure you relax, try and create a fluid motion of your body, and move your head WITH the motion, not against it. Try and program your body to make the actions by nature (by sliding down carpeted stairs on various angles) so you can wholly concentrate on your head- if you loose it, there's no telling WHAT might happen...

The shot:
I like the other suggestions, Mr. Wu's as well. Keep the shots with the actress close, and unless she's persistant, use a stunt double. If she does want to do it, why not train a bit for it and try it out? Practice on carpeted stairs and work out a choriography (sp?) coriography? .... work out a dance, where the person dragging is actually supporting thier fall, and the person falling is just shifting weight to bounce down stair by stair... do it to music too- then when you actually work out a choriagp.... dance, just start putting the acting back in. Assuming you start very slow, begin to speed it up and act more. Film all of it too. Then when you have it perfect- do it once with as many cameras as you can (be clever with blocking) to get the most coverage, and you could really make it impactful.


There you have it. {mod edit: shameless plug link SMACKED -- you silly boy!}

...okay, you are never gonna believe this but....

on tv today I saw this commercial. www.doggystep.com. It has about 3 steps to let the dog on the bed. It goes for about $39 for one and its buy one get one. So, for less than $200 you could get 4 of these suckers, nail 'em together and pull your very adventurous actress across or down or whatever. Did I mention the steps are carpeted?...

...I swear I saw this on tv today.....

--spinner :cool:

So, for less than $200 you could get 4 of these suckers, nail 'em together and pull your very adventurous actress across or down or whatever. Did I mention the steps are carpeted?...


--spinner :cool:
That would be one rickity staircase, I think that's going the other direction as far as safety is concerned.

Yeah i saw that commercial when i was in New York having lunch at the South Street Seaport.

Anyone who allows their dog to walk on the furniture must have a house like a pig sty (a big mess)!

Hello everyone,

We are preparing for a scene in which someone is being dragged down a flight of stairs (on her back, being pulled by her feet). Does anyone have any advice for how we do this safely so as not to injure the actress?

Thanks!

I'd suggest liasing with a stunt team. As good as the advise is I work on action & martial arts films and I would NEVER do any form of stunt without a pro stunt team or stunt man there. Even the simplest stunt can go wrong (and I know... I have injured myself on the easiest of stunts and managed to put myself out of work for weeks at a time!)

I know a few good UK based teams and stunt men but not many outside of the UK.

What I would do:
Keep it simple. Have a shot of the 'pullie' starting to pull the actress down the stairs (not far, maybe just to the small of her back). She'll be kicking and screaming and really putting up a fight. Then a close-up of of her face, frantic. Close up of pullie (evil, desperate, whatever). Shot of the door at the top of the stairwell, with a loud, fast, *thud thud thud thud* and some screaming. Cut to the bottom of the stairs.
Granted, I don't have much experience with this at all. I just figure the best way to avoid a risky visual situation is to take advantage of sound and viewer presumption.

Or maybe I'm just lazy. :D

For the lynching sequence in No Place we used a fire department dummy, which has the advantage of being the same weight as an average person. They'd be no good for any kind of tight shot, but on long shots they are totally convincing.

I would suggest that you get some static shots of the actress at the top of the stairs, kicking and screaming; then shoot a wide from an angle that shows the antagonist pulling your dummy down the stairs, but doesn't really show the protagonist. (The real weight of the dummy will make the antagonists actions look much more convincing).

Then you can have a section halfway down the stairs where she manages to grab hold of a banister rail (so again she's static)

You could also cheat some close ups of her face going down the stairs, through the banister rail, by combining a small movement down by her under her own control and a camera movement in the opposite direction.

The only thing I would say about any of this is you need to do very clear risk assesments on each part of the sequence. So, for instance, you need to think very carefully about how you are going to protect the actor who is doing the pulling of the dummy down the stairs from a fall. In a situation like that it's easy for the actor to get caught up in the moment and either loose thier footing or loose grip on the dummy, either case means a fall backwards down a set of stairs (In real terms you're looking at a potential fatality).

One other thing occurred to me, my motto has always been "when in doubt rewrite" and my experience is that the best ideas occur in a film when you have to scrap an idea that turns out to be impractical on the budget. Whilst I was thinking about that it I also realised that your sequence may look odd anyway. The truth is that it's almost impossible to drag a conscious person anywhere by their legs (unless the antagonist is supernaturly strong), leg muscles are just so much stronger than arm muscles. If you want to control someone you drag them by their upper body.

If it was me, I'd rewrite and have the antagonist punch out the girl and then wrap her in a rug with just her legs sticking out. He could then drag the rug down the stairs (which would be easer to fake, because it's a rug with some maniquin legs sticking out of it.)

I have to agree with Clive on this. If you cant get in pros or semi pros to make this work then dont. I ahev been working on stunts and action for 10 years and even with the best saftey team and pros in force injuries still happen.

On something like this I'd shy away from anything that could cuase complications.

Yes on the elbow pads, yes on using a stunt double if you can... I'd also get flat knee pads and tuck them in to pad the hips, etc (or get the nice padded shorts used in some sports), get a kidney belt type thing, and skip leather and go for one of those 'gatorback' or 'armadillo' type back protectors like they use in Motorcross or other such sports. Rigid plastic armor segments with padding underneath, velcros on, runs about $30 and up on ebay. You can get mesh under-jackets that have complete rigid pads along the spine, forearms, elbow, shoulders, etc that are great, but you have to wear a pretty bulky costume to hide it.