doing stunts and then editing

[peter917]

okay just a quick question, lets say i have an actor that needs to jump off of something and hit the ground, i have a mat on the ground for the fall, but how do you get the mat out of the shot and make it look like he hit the ground in the same shot? I've seen this in so many behind the scenes videos but never know how they get the mat out of the shot. I was thinking taking a clean plate and masking but that wouldn't work for a shot with movement, so how would you go about this? Thanks for any help!

[wheatgrinder]

depends on the shot your trying to make.

Can you tell us about the shot you're trying to get or give an example?

[peter917]

lets say you have a shot of a bad guy being shot and he jumps backwards onto the ground, the ground is visible in the shot and falling would hurt without a mat so i place a black mat for him to jump on, the shot with be shot with a steadicam. i just don't get how they get rid of the mat and make it look like he's hitting the ground considering the matt is a good foot off the ground to begin with.

[PaulGriffith]

How far is the jump? Many real stuntmen can take a jump fro standing to the ground no problem. We've used a few. Otherwise, frame the mat out of shot so you can't see it. Or change the shot and cut from the jump to them on the ground, or write around it? I don't think you'll be able to key one out successfully.

[peter917]

okay i just never knew if they really keyed it out or if they just cut around it or with it out of the shot. some behind the scenes videos made it seem like they shot with the mat in the shot itself, thanks for all the help haha.

[knightly]

3 shots...

1. jumping onto the mat with the mat framed out
2. Cutaway of a reaction or the "cause" element for the "effect"
3. final inch of actor hitting the ground with the ground framed in.

[jax_rox]

It's generally framed out. Or they'll shoot it of the guy falling - ie, his face as he falls backwards off the wall, so you don't see the ground but he dosen't hurt himself when he does fall. Some VFX heavy filsm might key it out, but they've generally got a tremendous amount of keying to do anyway so a little bit more isn't going to hurt.
Good stuntmen can either take a decent fall, or will at least consult with you on how to pull off the shot you want. Even if it's a longer fall, you can often do a wide shot and really pad the stunty up so that there is not mat, but they're still padded.

I've done whipping scenes wehre we've padded the actor up, shot on a wide so you can't tell they're padded and then had them whipped. Worked fine. Please not that you should definitely have a safety officer on set if you're going to do that. Please do not start whipping people or making them take falls without a professional on set looking out for their safety.