In a couple of weeks I'm participating in a short film festival. The story is basically finished and we'll start filming next week. However, there is one scene that leaves me mildly desperate. In the film we'll do a hand-from-the-grave-grabs-hold-of-someone's-arm-scene (I know, it's been done a million times, but I think it'll work well in the story). As far as I can tell, it really involves burying someone in a box under a thin layer of dirt (so that's my first question, are there alternatives to actually digging a hole somewhere and stuffing somebody in there?) If digging a hole is necessary, I was thinking of filming a grave yard but shooting the actual scene somewhere else (because I doubt we would be allowed to play around in the actual graveyard) and somehow insert that little patch of dirt in the graveyard footage, but I'm afraid I will not be able to make it blend together. Also, I thought of just making a fake grave somewhere, but then how do you make people believe that one grave is actually located in a graveyard? In short, who has any ideas to make a kick-ass, pee your pants, hand from the grave, graveyard scene? I use Vegas Pro 8 for editing.
