Movie quicksand..

[Fred588]

Exactly this. In fact, it would be a fun exercise to try to determine the extreme ends of the cost/effort continuum.

Death Curse of Tartu would no doubt be a contender for the low end. Krull comes to mind as one of the more elaborate. Apparently, there were multiple pneumatic (possibly hydraulic) rams/cylinders that the actors were lowered on. You can see Ken Marshall wobble a bit as he was balancing himself on one of them. It was also a large set. Guns of Darkness would also be a contender on the high end, as well as the opening sequence of the Brazilian soap opera Deus Nos Acuda (God Help Us).

I had never seen the soap opera you mention, but the show intro is on YouTube, and I watched it. Kind of a kinky opening, not sinking per se, but achieves a similar effect. Not sure how they did that in 1992, unless they really filled up the room.

This was discussed here way back when. As I recall, the room was bult on a floating set and they sunk it.

That would make sense -thanks for letting me know. I was here from 2009 until 2014, then stepped away and rejoined in 2022, so I guess I missed the thread. Nowadays, the scene would just use some computer generated effects to “fill” the room, I imagine.

Sorry if I am incorrect here but someone from here, at the time, reported commnicating with someone on the production side, abot how it was done. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably Duncan Edwards, but I AM getting old.

Me, too - will turn 70 day after tomorrow.

My 70th was NOT a good year. That was the year of the fire, after which I spent 10 months living in an AIRBNB instead of my home.

[dlodoski]

Ok, as it turns out, they did lower the room.

I have located the tape capture file. Here's a shot of the room being lowered - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/yep_lowered.mp4

And here's a longer clip from some of the raw footage - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/god_help_us_snippet.mp4

I'll attach the full BTS video to the ongoing quicksandmovies.net project.

[PA Jack]

Ok, as it turns out, they did lower the room.

I have located the tape capture file. Here's a shot of the room being lowered - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/yep_lowered.mp4

And here's a longer clip from some of the raw footage - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/god_help_us_snippet.mp4

I'll attach the full BTS video to the ongoing quicksandmovies.net project.

Wow, you weren’t kidding about this scene being on the elaborate end of the spectrum - a pretty involved production.

[Duncan Edwards]

This is just a tid bit but ever wonder how much effort is put in filming a quicksand scene for a tv show/movie?
Like this scene from Prey...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlpxfIskjN8

On the DVD during the commentary Amber Midthunder commented in that scene it took like a week just to film this one quicksand scene

The real trick in any scene is to spend little and make it look like a lot. Not a doubt in my mind that Krull was the the most expensive ever shot just because the entire production was famous for being way over priced, over ambitious, and over budget. They filled the entire James Bond stage at Pinewood studios in England with just that one scene. That's when you know someone is really dropping the big bucks and they blew through a $47,000,000 budget. Huge sum for the day and the genre. Not only was it crap, Lysette Anthony spent the entire flick just looking virginal. Lame.

I loved God Help Us from the first time I saw that opening. Pushed a lot of buttons for me somehow. The scene is a metaphor for the mud and corruption among the elite that were running Brazil at the time. Made for great soap opera stuff. Anyhow, I managed to get in touch with the guy who created all that scene and got him to send me a VHS tape of how they did it all. He also included some video of his wife who was a really hot Brazilian carnival dancer. He had good reason to be proud. I gave the tape to Dave and haven't seen it since then. We both been kind of busy.

I'm not saying Prey was cheap but what went into creating the location probably wasn't really that much. They were outdoors with a small cast. That one was a great job of making something simple look a lot more spectacular than it really was. Reminds me of Hammer Studios. They did The Mummy, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Hound of Baskerville, and some other scenes and near misses that I'm forgetting. Great lighting and atmospherics went a long way on a small budget.

One that gets overlooked, and was probably pretty spectacular, was the deleted scene from Tarzan Escapes (1936). The movie as it exists has a couple of male scenes in a smoking swamp and the entire thing is fairly intense. When completed the movie was heavily criticized for being far too violent and gory. So much so that scenes were deleted and quite a bit was reshot. We know a big scene involving the swamp was cut and we know it was shot because a couple of photos still exist. Apparently the footage all ended up on the cutting room floor. It would have been our one chance to finally get Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) into quicksand. You can see what a muddy mess she and everyone else are in this surviving photo.

Tarzan Escapes 1936.jpg

This is a big contrast with something like Death Curse of Tartu. . In the narration on the DVD the producer laughs about how little they put into creating it but there was some work there to make an effective scene. I liked it.

Good question.

[PA Jack]

I agree about Tarzan Escapes - I always thought as a kid that it was strange that the group waded into the giant swamp, then waded out like nothing had happened. Later, I found out that the devil bat scene and all of the swamp footage was cut out. What a good scene it must have been, Maureen O’Hara up to her neck in muck . . . (sigh).

The thing with Prey for me isn’t so much the complexity of the set as it is the really good acting and camera work. I still wish she hadn’t sunk in so fast and so far initially, but the rest of the scene was so well done.

[cbqdbq]

Did the actress (in Prey, about the alien landing on Earth in the 17th century) make it look harder to get out than it actually was? I wonder if this was real bog and real bog mud just how much at risk she was of actual harm in that stuff. It looks sticky, and it looks like it could have been hazardously deep.

But goll, if I knew where that spot was I'd want to go there and take a dip myself!

[Duncan Edwards]

Did the actress make it look harder to get out than it actually was? I wonder if this was real bog and real bog mud just how much at risk she was of actual harm in that stuff. It looks sticky, and it looks like it could have been hazardously deep.

But goll, if I knew where that spot was I'd want to go there and take a dip myself!

I guarantee nobody risks the expense of a movie production, especially one where the cost is tightly controlled, on the chances that mother nature is in a good mood when you just happen to find the right spot.

[TK421]

Ok, as it turns out, they did lower the room.

I have located the tape capture file. Here's a shot of the room being lowered - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/yep_lowered.mp4

And here's a longer clip from some of the raw footage - http://www.mpvstuff.com/misc/god_help_us_snippet.mp4

I'll attach the full BTS video to the ongoing quicksandmovies.net project.

They really stretched the dollar with this in all the most inventive ways. That floating rig for the one camera is practical, affordable and removes the necessity of renting a jib/crane and an additional gimbal operator or focus puller. I love the idea!

[TK421]

This is just a tid bit but ever wonder how much effort is put in filming a quicksand scene for a tv show/movie?
Like this scene from Prey...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlpxfIskjN8

On the DVD during the commentary Amber Midthunder commented in that scene it took like a week just to film this one quicksand scene

The real trick in any scene is to spend little and make it look like a lot. Not a doubt in my mind that Krull was the the most expensive ever shot just because the entire production was famous for being way over priced, over ambitious, and over budget. They filled the entire James Bond stage at Pinewood studios in England with just that one scene. That's when you know someone is really dropping the big bucks and they blew through a $47,000,000 budget. Huge sum for the day and the genre. Not only was it crap, Lysette Anthony spent the entire flick just looking virginal. Lame.

I loved God Help Us from the first time I saw that opening. Pushed a lot of buttons for me somehow. The scene is a metaphor for the mud and corruption among the elite that were running Brazil at the time. Made for great soap opera stuff. Anyhow, I managed to get in touch with the guy who created all that scene and got him to send me a VHS tape of how they did it all. He also included some video of his wife who was a really hot Brazilian carnival dancer. He had good reason to be proud. I gave the tape to Dave and haven't seen it since then. We both been kind of busy.

I'm not saying Prey was cheap but what went into creating the location probably wasn't really that much. They were outdoors with a small cast. That one was a great job of making something simple look a lot more spectacular than it really was. Reminds me of Hammer Studios. They did The Mummy, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Hound of Baskerville, and some other scenes and near misses that I'm forgetting. Great lighting and atmospherics went a long way on a small budget.

One that gets overlooked, and was probably pretty spectacular, was the deleted scene from Tarzan Escapes (1936). The movie as it exists has a couple of male scenes in a smoking swamp and the entire thing is fairly intense. When completed the movie was heavily criticized for being far too violent and gory. So much so that scenes were deleted and quite a bit was reshot. We know a big scene involving the swamp was cut and we know it was shot because a couple of photos still exist. Apparently the footage all ended up on the cutting room floor. It would have been our one chance to finally get Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) into quicksand. You can see what a muddy mess she and everyone else are in this surviving photo.

Tarzan Escapes 1936.jpg

This is a big contrast with something like Death Curse of Tartu. . In the narration on the DVD the producer laughs about how little they put into creating it but there was some work there to make an effective scene. I liked it.

Good question.

Krull definitely takes the top end of the most expensive scene produced. It was a massive set and they didn’t have CGI to help them produce the depth of field the background gave. That was ALL set. Factor in all the moving bits involved including grip, lighting, and shooting an elaborate scene like that, and you will be surprised how fast you piss through money. They probably had to offsite the pneumatic build to a 3rd party which also costs money. In all, it’s investor money many us smaller independent film makers would dream of having. LOL

That said, sometimes it doesn’t take a ton of money to produce a great scene. We seen many instances of those in just this community. It really is about having a good vision, knowing the process and having the right people on board with the right talents in place to help execute it. You can have the most expensive QS set in the world but if the actress isn’t “selling” the scene, it’s all kinda pointless and it is gonna be lackluster no matter what.

[John1212]

Since we are talking about scenes from the film, it is impossible not to mention "And the dawns here are quiet." Of course, it was difficult to shoot a swamp, like Jackson in his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, to put it mildly. It turned out to be easier to remove the present. And so the marshes of Karelia were chosen (because the actions were taking place there) . The actors really plowed through the swamp, of course, along a safe route. And the dramatic scene was simply prepared - an explosion was staged. Dirt flowed into the funnel, and now when the actress fell, she did not just sink into water, but into a thicker substance. At the same time, according to the actress, the upper part was liquid, and the lower layer was thick. She had to "drown" quickly- in the book, Lisa drowned for a long time (and it is possible that she died from hypothermia, not quagmire). But it was not suitable for the film- the film is not endless, and not cheap. The water is not the warmest, although it is summer. Plus the nightmares, the humidity....and the timing. And even so, the actress had to swim in the mud for a long time until it was shot perfectly. At the same time, during one of the takes, she almost drowned.