So I have to stage a fight between two men in a picnic ground, where the much bigger/stronger man wrestles the other guy to the grass, but the other guy manages to pull the big man down with him. The big man smacks his head on the edge of the picnic table bench, and is almost knocked out.
Any ideas on staging, and particularily shot selection (to cheat it and make it look as real as possible), that I could try?
If somebody is getting punched in the face you want the camera to be facing that person's face. The camera should be behind the person swinging, so you see the fist move in front of the victim's face, but not the distance between the fist and the face.
As for the falling and heading hitting... Go wide as they start to fall, then cut to a close-up of the head hitting. Watch Youngblood for a similar scenario when Patrick Swayze gets his skull cracked.
Okay, that's good stuff. But how do I do the CU of the head hitting? Have him start on the edge of the bench and push off (as if his head just hit and bounced)?? Where should I place the camera for that?
You could just set up so he's in between the bench and the camera. Then just have him set up close to the bench, but in front of the corner and fake it. Have his recoil his head right when it looks like he'd hit the bench. Then crumple. Since it's a CU, you can do a few takes. It would also avoid any possible injury.
using a camera in motion during the shots will help because the movement of the cam will help mask the movement in the shot, in particular going hand held will help the frentic situation look.
Otherwise placing the camera behind the subject as he falls where the table is in the background will mask how far away from the table he even is as he reels his head back.
Sounds good, guys. Thanks for the help.
Yeah, Michael, I planned on shooting this scene shakey-hand-held. Kinda cliche, but I've never really tried it before, and it makes sense because we have to break down almost three pages to shoot in 1 hour of slow sunset, so we really need to run and gun.
Just to add one more thing... make the cuts quick... don't show too much... the audience will fill in the gaps... they'll think they saw what they didn't really see. And don't forget to add good sound effects in post!
Nick