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Diehard movie(1988)-to know the technique behind some shots


Mathew Collins

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Hi,

 

Could someone share your knowledge about 'Diehard' movie(1988).

 

1. Picture1-Gunfire

2. Picture2- There is sparkle when bullet is hitting the meta sheet.

3. Picture3- Again sparkles falls down infront of Bruce Willis who is trying to move in the tunnel due the hit of bullet.

 

How the Gunfire and sparkles is made?

 

4. Picture4-Alan Rickman's character is falling down from the building..

5. Picture5- The explosion with helicopter on top of the building.

 

What is the technique behind these shots?

 

-Collins.

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Edited by Mathew Collins
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Sparks are usually either squibs (small planted explosive packets triggered by someone) or "zirc" hits, a type of pellet fired from a special gun (usually from off-camera) that sparks when it hits a hard surface. As JD says, these things are done by trained, licensed professionals and can be dangerous.

 

The falling shot of Hans Gruber required a high frame rate camera shooting down at the actor falling into a large blue screen covered stunt pad, and the composited over a plate.

 

The explosion was done on a very large miniature.

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Thank you Hartman and David.

 

I was just reading this link.

 

https://medium.com/cinenation-show/cinematography-greig-fraser-asc-acs-25a087e46af4#.vadjhou6o

 

Here Greig Fraser is explaining a technique he used in 'Killing Them Softly'.

I am not able to understand it completely. I think he used LED light-strobbing to give gunfire effect.

 

Does someone have any information about this?

Edited by Mathew Collins
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Is the that effect used to create Gunfire effect?

 

The article isn't clear but it seems the strobe was just off-camera to create the lighting effect of a muzzle flash onto the subject. This is not unusual, I remember reading about an old movie, maybe "The Emerald Forest", where a nighttime sequence with gunfire was mainly lit with strobe flashes. Sometimes multiple flashes from strobes during a gun battle can make it seem like many more people are firing guns from off-camera.

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You can create quite realistic muzzle flash using After Effects plugins or the built in tools. But you still need flashing lights strobes or similar on set to really "sell" it. Since the muzzle flash would be illuminating the set briefly - a give away on bad cgi muzzzle flash is when the lighting on the set doesn't match up with the flash

 

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I hate to date myself but it reminds me of edition of Cinefex:

 

http://www.cinefex.com/backissues/issue36.htm

 

But as far as weapons are concerned it seems only props who have a special movie/tv license can rent them from weapons prop houses who also have a license. Its very regulated as it should be. I looked into it years ago when I was doing something for myself.

 

Weapons Specialists in NYC is one. But don't do it unless you have a professional with you who will keep everyone safe.

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