Getting Sucked Away (On a Bed)

[Michael Frymus]

ey,

I asked this question a while ago, but with the film shoot going down in a few days, I just wanted to know if there were any suggestions on how to pull off this shot.
It has been seen in the movie 'The Grey'.

I have an idea, but it seems to be a difficult method to pull off, so Im wondering if there are any thoughts on an alternative and better method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJG3...ature=youtu.be


In our film the couple is laying on a bed in an infinity white room. To simplify the shot of the woman being pulled away, we will mimic the film by having the couple pull the bed sheets over then just before the pull. They lay underneath the covers and then the woman get pulled violently. The man sits up and pulls the covers away to reveal the empty bed where the woman was. All happening within a white infinity room.

Shooting on the Red One/Scarlet. This is a student film so we dont have a big budget to pull this off. We need to rely on the resources we have available.

 

[Todd T]

Shoot the bed in a green screen cyc.
Pull the actress off the bed, and under a green sheet.
Use a white background under the key and you have your infinity white room.

 

[Mike P.]

Looks like it was shot at a slower framerate (like 20-22fps) so it looks faster when played back at 24fps... Also she only goes two arm lengths away, with snow blowing up and sheets moving about, before it straight cuts to him outside in the snow... If you're cutting to the same room without a scene change it might not look as good (and to be fair, in slow-mo it kinds of looks crummy in The Grey as well).

Try using two single beds, one on rollers and one stationary, but raised to the same height as the rollers and then use a loose sheet between them (to make it look like one bed). Then slide the entire bed away with the actress on it... There's no way you'll be able to jerk the girl off (heh) the bed without it looking like crap (seeing where she's being pulled from and/or how the body would drag across the sheets... it just wouldn't look right). Then cut to the opposite angle of the dude sitting up frantically without the girl on the bed.

As I said, I think the only thing that allows that shot (shots?) to work in The Grey was that a.) you weren't expecting it, and b.) the liberty provided by cutting to a completely different environment.

 

[Michael Frymus]

Sorry, video isnt that great as it was pulled off from YouTube and looks sketchy in slow-mo.

Hmm, yeah, when the guy would sit up, it actually may look awkward that that girl suddenly disappeared.

It has to be in the same room when he gets up.
This is why Im thinking as editing goes. Laying on bed. fast cut of him sitting up, medium shot of his face freaking out on the reverse (like the last shot seen in the video but the other side), then but back to the opposite site to see the empty bed.

I know I will have to speed the footage up, is it best to shoot 24 and then speed it up later, or shoot it slower on camera?

Try using two single beds, one on rollers and one stationary, but raised to the same height as the rollers and then use a loose sheet between them (to make it look like one bed). Then slide the entire bed away with the actress on it...

When the beds are pulled away, it seems as though the extra bed sheet would sag down revealing that there are two beds being pulled apart. Unless if I can hide it by the angle

 

[Craig Parkes]

How many frames do you need in the shot? Aesthetically you could do this in a stop motion fashion if it was relatively fast (adding some sort of motion blur in post) by just moving her back slowly as long as the actor in fronts head stayed in the same position. This could be a bit of a creepy look if done right, which may or may not work for your short, but for short/sharp shots sometimes it's worth experimenting with things that look wrong if you go through frame by frame because they create a different feel in motion that can have a subconscious effect on the audience.

You could do it practically, depending on which way she gets pulled out of bed. If she was sucked out the bottom rather than the top you could have the bed on an angle or near vertical with a barrier below the actors feet keeping them on the 'bed', and then pull the barrier away so she slides down the 'bed' (wouldn't work so well getting sucked out the side as her hair would be hanging wrong) the 'bed' would need to be elevated so she has enough distance to slide, but it's just sheets over something the actors can lean against with another sheet billowed over them, so they don't actually need to be on a actual bed with mattress for this portion of a shot (hence the quote marks).

If you want to show the effect happening from outside the bed then a simple composite would do the trick (film a plate shot with the man and woman in bed and they pull covers over, then you replace the woman with an object on a rope you can pull out from under the covers keeping an eye that the shape of that object matches the shape of the woman enough for the frame after the covers where pullled over, then literally pull the item out with the end of the rope and simply mask out the rope/object as it leaves the end of the bed. This is kind of interesting as the woman will disappear from the bed, as she leaves it, although you could also frame this so you DON'T see the edge of the bed so the audience doesn't know she is being sucked out. If you were a stickler for details on this one you could feasibly have the guy react to the woman being pulled out in the same shot as the woman getting under the covers.

For this sort of shot you really need to work out in the effect what is the framing that you need for the story, and the look of how you want her to get sucked out, then problem solve how to do that in camera, while thinking how post effects like basic mask and feather work on a locked off plate shot can hide your trickery.

 

[Michael Frymus]

Well, the shot will look pretty much identical to the example.
It will be cut as fast and will look fairly the same. Not copying the idea, just that it is described in the exact same way as in this movie. The only difference is that you see more angles of the actors before the pull away and they were never intended to be underneath the covers. But, for our budget and simplicity we decided that just before the pull, they cover themselves with the blanket and then after a few seconds shes pulled away. The rest is the same. Quick shots of him getting up, and he gets up in the bed and cuts away to see shes really gone.

She would get pulled sideways too.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

ey,

I asked this question a while ago, but with the film shoot going down in a few days, I just wanted to know if there were any suggestions on how to pull off this shot.
It has been seen in the movie 'The Grey'.

I have an idea, but it seems to be a difficult method to pull off, so Im wondering if there are any thoughts on an alternative and better method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJG3...ature=youtu.be


In our film the couple is laying on a bed in an infinity white room. To simplify the shot of the woman being pulled away, we will mimic the film by having the couple pull the bed sheets over then just before the pull. They lay underneath the covers and then the woman get pulled violently. The man sits up and pulls the covers away to reveal the empty bed where the woman was. All happening within a white infinity room.

Shooting on the Red One/Scarlet. This is a student film so we dont have a big budget to pull this off. We need to rely on the resources we have available.

Think simpler. Pull apart two mattresses by hand, angle the shot appropriately to cover the moving mattress, cut well

You don't need CGFX for this. Think about for example the Bilbo / Gandalf tea drinking scene in the Lord of the Rings which was done by perspective "trickery".
You will gain a more organic look when you leave out mattes and greenscreen.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

When the beds are pulled away, it seems as though the extra bed sheet would sag down revealing that there are two beds being pulled apart. Unless if I can hide it by the angle

Guess I didn't read them all. I second the pulling part. If this is for a really short sequence, it will work. if you keep pulling, the sheet won't sag but be pulled apart straight.
If the pulling of the sheet doesn't work well, put the man on maybe another thin mattress or a light plank or something, so the friction is evenly spread and the sheet doesn't get caught on the limbs, elbows, what not.

EDIT:
Sorry, I guess you mean the upper sheet. This one had a fan blowing or something similar. if the sheet will be in motion, you won't notice the sag. Try by having crew members wave it on top of the actors or with a fan in between both beds to blow up the middle part of the sheet.

 

[Emin Mihat Hye]

You definitely don't need a big budget for the effect. Its as simple as pulling the two sheets apart by hand as Patrick stated above. The angle is low enough where the part that they separate won't be visible and then a quick cut to him rising will sell the effect exactly as it does in the film. No compositing/vfx required.

 

[Andrew PC Smith]

Yellowcard had a great version of "being sucked into a bed" in the opening shot of this music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DRh1EyvPHw

It was directed by Marc Preston Webb, who recently used RED to shoot The Amazing Spider-Man.

 

[Dan Frenkel]

That Yellowcard vid was a double mirror gag. Looks pretty cool, just not as scary if thats what your looking for. They shot that in the LOMA VISTA hospital that was shut down in LA, I was there!! Its a great filming location!! Thanks for the post!!