Failed rescues - thoughts from producers etc.

[PM2K]

Me again, thinking out loud.

I was wondering if further progress or thought has gone towards this idea... not so much how the lady ends up in the quicksand but how she fails to get out of it.

I know any grim outcomes pretty well cover that, but what I was thinking is when these failures happen as a result of mechanical difficulties.... the breaking branch, the snapped vine or rope, the inability to get a good grip or be able to get a hold of same... and the way these could be shot.

A classic of this is from Mr. Bogg's classic (and still to be filmed... hope, hope) Fight Without a Winner. The two ladies are so busy fighting they fail to get to the vine in time to save themselves... one sinks, the other is almost under and gets ahold of it, only to have the leaves come off in her hand.

WAVE did a cool bit with a breaking branch in their early DiD series... granted, the quicksand wasn't great and the actress didn't execute it well, but the idea of almost getting out, then the branch breaks and she plunges back in is worth a revisit, I think. Snapping vines and ropes (either by accident or by a bad guy or gal cutting them) are classic peril... lady hauls herself out from shoulder to waist deep only to have the rope/vine snap and she plunges up to her chin and certain doom definitely has its appeal... Also trying to grasp at a branch overhead and being unable to get a good grip on it is another one.

As for execution, I'm not really sure how one can get a branch/vine/rope to break at the right time. Camera angles I can see... the overhead cam would be great for some of these if one had the branch in the foreground and the helpless victim beneath it trying to grasp it... and failing to get to a vine in time is simply a matter of getting or making a vine as a prop. The actresses take it from there.

Again, just me speculating... but what do you folks think?

[Fred588]

What you describe is a simple problem with a complex solution. Let's consider, for example, the idea of the victim reaching an overhead branch. She bends it down, lifts herself almost to safety, it breaks, and she plunges to her chin. First, we have to position a suitable branch in the right place. It has to be anchored somewhere out of frame and it has to be positioned right. Simple enough but requires some thought. Second, we have to arrange for the break to happen at the right time and place. Ideally, we want the break point to be in frame. We need to arrange some means for the victim to appear to raise herself par way out of the mud, but actually using the branch is probabky not going to work. Assuming we do not actually use the branch for the partial self rescue we can probably pre-break it in a way that it can be made to bend at the right time. We can then add a sound effect of a branch snapping to make it a break and not a bend. Finally, we have to do the plunge to the chin. If this is going to be convincing it probably requires use of a cork pit or something very similar. Clay or peat will probably stop the plunge before the desired depth is reached.

Me again, thinking out loud.

I was wondering if further progress or thought has gone towards this idea... not so much how the lady ends up in the quicksand but how she fails to get out of it.

I know any grim outcomes pretty well cover that, but what I was thinking is when these failures happen as a result of mechanical difficulties.... the breaking branch, the snapped vine or rope, the inability to get a good grip or be able to get a hold of same... and the way these could be shot.

A classic of this is from Mr. Bogg's classic (and still to be filmed... hope, hope) Fight Without a Winner. The two ladies are so busy fighting they fail to get to the vine in time to save themselves... one sinks, the other is almost under and gets ahold of it, only to have the leaves come off in her hand.

WAVE did a cool bit with a breaking branch in their early DiD series... granted, the quicksand wasn't great and the actress didn't execute it well, but the idea of almost getting out, then the branch breaks and she plunges back in is worth a revisit, I think. Snapping vines and ropes (either by accident or by a bad guy or gal cutting them) are classic peril... lady hauls herself out from shoulder to waist deep only to have the rope/vine snap and she plunges up to her chin and certain doom definitely has its appeal... Also trying to grasp at a branch overhead and being unable to get a good grip on it is another one.

As for execution, I'm not really sure how one can get a branch/vine/rope to break at the right time. Camera angles I can see... the overhead cam would be great for some of these if one had the branch in the foreground and the helpless victim beneath it trying to grasp it... and failing to get to a vine in time is simply a matter of getting or making a vine as a prop. The actresses take it from there.

Again, just me speculating... but what do you folks think?

[bart1997]

.

[water_bug_62208]

This particular idea was done pretty well in the movie, Bare Essentials, where Lisa Hartman was stuck and sinking in quicksand, was soon mired upper thigh-deep to hip-deep in quicksand, saw a branch within reach before her, bent over to reach for it, pulled on it, had it break loose, and the momentum of her effort, along with the sudden break of the branch, sent her reeling back where she was then about chest-deep and settling quickly, all the while she still had the broken branch in her hand with this wild look of shock then panic in her eyes.

The "quicksand" that they had Lisa Hartman get stuck in during the movie is something along the line of what Studio 588 has, only the Studio's pits are much better. Seems the cork (possibly best choice as Fred noted) or peat pits would do the trick. There just needs to be a branch strategically placed as it was in the movie for the actress to grab for. A few well-placed plants upon the mire's surface to give a most deceiving tranquility as seen in the movie and you got a pretty good set up for a melodramatic, "she was walking along lost, she got stuck, realized she can't pull her feet then her legs free, finds she's sinking, struggles, searches frantically for a way out, finds the branch, the branch breaks, she reels back, and slowly sinks from site.

Now, I do like the vine dangling from above idea as well. A storyline to make things interesting is the damsel gets stuck and slowly sinks in quicksand, is unsucessful at getting free, and as she settles hip to waist-deep sees a vine dangling from above, but can't reach it because it's caught on the branch, she finds something nearby or (if the quicksand/mud is thick enough) she makes mud balls, throws these items at the vine, dislodges it, grabs the vine, tries to get free but the suction and tenacity of the mire is too great to over come, and just as the sound of relieving suction comes to her ears as the mire is about to release its prize, the vine breaks and she settles back to hip or waist-deep where frantic struggling works her the rest of the way in. And, a camera angle from above looking down at the damsel (as well as perhaps one from the damsel looking up toward the branch) would be cool.

[Boggy Man]

After her rescue attempt fails, I feel that she doesn't necessarily need to plunge down quickly. Instead, she then starts to slowly sink back down from where she had raised herself, the rescue attempt only delaying her descent to her demise! With her only hope for rescue destroyed, she can only watch in horror and struggle with futility as the muddy parts of her body that were finally free of the gulping morass are slowly being reclaimed by it! She knows that this time, there is nothing to stop the voracious ooze from gulping her down deeper, and deeper, and deeper! After the muddy parts of her body are once again consumed by the deadly morass, it then starts claiming newer, cleaner "territory"! The sucking muck finally gets to finish gulping down its tasty meal!

[Chimerix]

WAVE did a cool bit with a breaking branch in their early DiD series

Yeah, in every single quicksand scene they shot. One scene, they actually did it twice!

The WAVE formula was that the stick always had a fork in it, and the damsel would use the fork as a hook to latch onto a nearby sapling. Then, she'd try to escape by rappelling up the wall of the quicksand pit, feet planter formly on the edge, body leaning back, maximum possible strain on the branch. She'd be nearly out of the pit, or even completely clear of the mud, but with her body suspended by that little branch, when it broke. Every time. So she'd always do a full-body plunge back into the mire.

They always had a cut-away of the branch breaking. That, plus the consistently tragic timing, tell you that they were indulging in some practical filmmaking rather than just letting the action play out. Nothing complex.

I always liked the scene with Krystal from DevilClown where as she sinks, she pulls on a buried limb, that breaks off in her hands. I believe that was real, that she had not expected the branch to break, or at least not so soon.

[Billie Bonce]

I always liked the scene with Krystal from DevilClown where as she sinks, she pulls on a buried limb, that breaks off in her hands. I believe that was real, that she had not expected the branch to break, or at least not so soon.

I also like that moment. Her reaction was very realistic.