im shooting a movie, and there is a chase scene through the woods, any suggestions?

Chase sceenes:

I've never shot a scene quite like that myself, but here is some advice that I would heed.

Light it well, especially if you are doing it at night.

There appears to be two styles of chase scenes. One is real quick chop style edit to give the effect of fast action. This tends to have rougher camera work and angles to add to the effect. I find these annoying unless they are especially well done.

The other is a longer scene type chase where the viewer can have a better idea of where the characters are, how close they are getting to each other excetera. This requires better technical shots, and alot of work to keep it fresh. After a while no-one cares about running through the woods. Stuff has to happen, trips, tangles, wrong turns, scary animals etc.

Good luck with the shoot.

just watch the old Texas Chainsaw massacre for plenty of chases through the woods.

thanks

There is one movie that is great for that, The Fugitive or U.S. Marshalls.

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There is one movie that is great for that, The Fugitive or U.S. Marshalls.

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Isn't that 2 movies?

The French Connection definetly has a great chase scene.

for an example of a brilliant chase have a look at the german film 'Run Lola Run'. Keep your editing realy tight, the trick of a good chase is rythem, it doesnt matter how many cuts or how good your cinematography is, your chase will not be effective if your rythem sucks. see the litrature of Hitchcock as a good reference on how to shoot an effective chase scene

ive seen, and own the fugitive, us marshals, texas chainsaw massacre(original was awesome), the french connection, and run lola run, (franka potente was great in that) and i know that if i edit quick it could be good, but i was originally asking, does anyone know how or to get a some kind of track system that can move the camera through the woods?

For some pretty awesome chase scenes in a creepy forest, rent Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. Both are not only awesome movies but they also have sweet chase scenes.

i own and love both evil dead movies (evil dead 2 was better) and once again, ive seen a lot of movies with chase scenes, but what i was asking, is are there any ways i can get my small minidv camcorder to run through the woods for just one shot?

just duct tape the tripod with camera attached to a bike or something and ride on through.

i dont want to fall and brake the camera or me

build this little fellow and paractice abit and then just RUN through the woods

ive heard about those and i want to build on, but i also heard that you cant run to fast with them.

no - thats true. you have to sort of glide - like a martial artist

how about getting a truck or van, or even a car you can lean out of. get someone to hold onto you and hold the camera out the door. the drive along on a road in the woods. i've done that - with my steadicam. results are SUPERB! give it a shot

"ive heard about those and i want to build on, but i also heard that you cant run to fast with them."

Me and crazywilly built one and he can testify that if you drill a real good bolt youc an full out sprint and its fairly steady.

i made a steady cam from an old tripod! now its a uni pod! lop, anyways, you get rid of the legs! take a weight for a weight bench and it fits on the part of the pod that holds the neck for the cam! it has a handl... it kicks butt!

another thing is, for a chase, use yur tripod, put yur cam on it tigtht! and throw its end(the legs that extend) over your shoulder and loosen the bendyness! it fakllows great and all you need to do is flip and mirror the footage on your computer when your editing it!

-thats what i do, well did! it worked good..... and use a bike or skates! it flows better!

Chase scenes almost always turn out looking like crap unless you are willing to do one of two things:


1) Either put lots and lots of money into it.

OR

2) Put lots and lots of time into it.


If you are going to do it, make it look good. Take the time to light it properly, use the camera right, in other words dont settle for a "get together on the weekend and screw around" type of shoot.


Also, try watching some "Walker: Texas Ranger" episodes, they have some awesome fight scnes ...