Making a fallout shelter - entrance.

Okay so for a future project i need to have the protagonist lead two other characters into a fallout shelter and lock the door behind them. The two extra characters are blindfolded, expecting a pleasant surprise from the protagonist.

My question is how i would go about filming this on a low budget? I have been trying to approach it from different angles, it would be easiest to make a 'lost' style floor hatch (washing machine door?) and lay it down in a nice remote location. Problem with this is that the protagonist would not realistically be able to lead two others characters through a hatch and down a ladder without them catching onto his intentions.

Other option is a large steel door, not a problem for the interior of the set and works well with the script but would be a pretty mighty task to get looking right from the outside. Fallout shelters are generally built underground so the door would need to lead into a mound, maybe a hill?

Ideal situation would be finding some steps that lead down into the ground that i could sit a door at the end of, don't think that's going to happen though!

Any ideas? Thanks in advance :)
 
Night of the Living Dead and Evil Dead both used cheats in their basements. All you need is an outside view of the entrance door ( you can composite to make it more "real" ) and then cut to the POV inside w/ the characters entering. sell it w/ sound and heck, I'd buy it.

Heck even have a ladder go up to a ceiling, composite the entrance hole, have the first person coming down with a pedestal shot from the top, then composite the others following right after. Cut to a closeup of actor #1 and etc................





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Thanks for the fast reply IndieBudget! Not sure i'm completely following 'cheats in their basement', the basement idea is a good one but could you explain the process a little more? I only know one friend with a basement and it's full of stuff! I already have a location for the interior of the shelter, a plain brick room.
 
As suggested you could construct the outside - open the door and not see in - and then use a basement as your bomb shelter.

In the mid-Western US tornadoes are always threat so many folks have storm cellars (see below). The outside door would not be hard or expensive to construct. You could use a storm door as a model. I would suggest that you look at photos on PhotoBucket and similar sights for ideas. Also, since you're in Old Blighty you may have some WWII bomb shelters still around.

Here's some stuff just for fun...

falloutshelter.jpg




mbc_20090626_MAT_0023.jpg




mbc_20090626_MAT_0022.jpg




StormCellarDoor.jpg
 
I would find a mud bank/hill with a rougly flat side. Then take a shovel and whack it down so that it's flat and stick a corrugated Iron door on to it...

Like a military style Hobbit hole...
 
Thanks for the fast reply IndieBudget! Not sure i'm completely following 'cheats in their basement', the basement idea is a good one but could you explain the process a little more? I only know one friend with a basement and it's full of stuff! I already have a location for the interior of the shelter, a plain brick room.

Show the trap door in the entrance show talent #1 opening door w/ others following

Cut to:

"Below Room" place a ladder in ANY room that would work as the "below" room, have the ladder even hit the wall near the ceiling. have your talent simply start at the top and descend and follow them down w/ the cam. You can only show their feet and not show the ceiling OR composite in post a hole above. You might have to do this frame by frame.

When the talent is 1/2 way down, stop the cam showing the talent only 1/2 way down, let them get down, have talent # 2 go up. do not move the cam or the ladder, have talent #2 come down splice #2 following as close to #1 as you can. Cut to a closeup of #1 looking up and saying a line and follow #1 walking off.
 
Great idea NickClapper! I will look into that.

Alcove Audio: That rusty white room with the Dr Pepper can, i want that!! If i came across something like that my film would be forced to go feature and sell millions. Also i have actually found an old military shelter only 10 miles away but it's barely visible (just about sticks above ground) and the hatch is very much locked and boring to the lens.
 
Look up the threads by ScoopicMan, where he posted tonnes of BTS pics from his Exile flick.

You'll get some very creative ideas on how to easily composite bunker entrances, and similar.

As far as the interior, well... that could be anywhere tbh.

Good luck. :cool:
 
As Alcove says, WWII bomb shelters are not uncommon here, so you may be able to find one and use it; my next door neighbour has one in their back garden. You could also consider using one of the 1500 or so Royal Observer Corps (ROC) posts dotted around the country, and sites like 28 Days Later have a fairly comprehensive catalogue of them, with lots of photos for you to get an idea of what condition they're in before you have a look for yourself.
 
Thanks for the brilliant advice guys! Such a helpful forum.

Chilipie that's exactly what i was looking for, a listing of possible locations in the UK. Thank you, you've taken me from being desperate to find a location to actually having some choice! Such an informative source.

Gonzo, you have already influenced my project without knowing it! This film is for my final year university degree, today i received the marks for my post-production log in which all of my work up to this point was contained. When researching i did a forum search and used some of your production photo's as reference among the 60 something pages of notes i handed in. I attained the highest grade possible.

Now for the great news! Today, whilst location scouting i stumbled across something rather special...

29mr688.jpg


AND I HAVE PERMISSION TO USE IT!

Score :)
 
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