How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
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How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
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Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#2This is both engineering and art. Magnificent.
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#3[deleted]
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#4Just don’t look up how they made the horses fall down.
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#5Just don’t look up how they made the horses fall down.
tripwires?
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#6For those who don't know, Keaton was amazingly dedicated as a comedic stuntman - a silent era Jackie Chan (he was less popular after the silent era, but kept working until his death in the 60s).
From Wikipedia: Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to care." This would have been in about 1955, when Keaton (born 1899) was an old man and well past his heyday of really dangerous stunts (he once broke his neck during an early stunt).
And he usually had an amazing commitment to film in a lot of other ways. The first time he was shot in a film he took a camera apart to figure out how it worked, because he really cared about every detail (though in the middle of his career this really hurt him, as execs wanted to just trot him up in front of the camera as a high paid celebrity - they didn't want him wasting his valuable time fussing over details, or risk their investment letting him do stunts).
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#7[deleted]
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#8[deleted]
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#9Those reasons seem to make sense but I'd say just as much has to do with Buster Keaton himself, he had nerves of steel.
During the filming of the Civil War movie The General there are images of Keaton doing things that even the bravest of stuntmen wouldn't do these days and we'd now rely on film animation and tricks to make the scenes work.
For instance, Keaton—who obviously was very fit and agile—is filmed sitting on a cowcatcher of a moving locomotive whilst removing rail ties that were placed on the line to impede the train's progress and then tossing them aside.
I read somewhere that Clyde Bruckman the film's director gave instructions to the cameraman "to keep filming the scene until finished or until Keaton is killed" or words to that effect.
I can't remember whether Bruckman was referring to this scene or another such as when he's running across the locomotive's tender (the comment could equally have applied to many other scenes I reckon). Others who are more knowledgeable could perhaps fill in the details.
I like this movie, Keaton was a great performer and his movies are a testament to that.
Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)
#10"The only secret of magic is I'm willing to work harder on it than you think it's worth" - Penn Jillette