How to Make a Few Extras Look Like Hundreds?

kjones

kjones

Greetings, All-

I'm working on a period piece that needs a huge number of extras, or at least *look* like that many... However, it's a proof-of-concept teaser running maybe 2 minutes and funded with our own money, so the budget needs to be around $5K.

The piece needs to *look* like we had more than a thousand extras. We really think it will be hard to put across the power of the film's narrative without the large number of extras, but fortunately they don't have to be in the same place at the same time. Think "The Alamo" (1960 J. Wayne version), but with several hundred on each side of "good" and "bad."

I'm stumped how to pull this off and afford it, and being not the most experienced filmmaker, my first ideas are:
- Tons of locals who want to be a part of the film (my God, think of the catering!).
- Get ONLY a few establishing shots of a large number of extras, with extras performing roles on both sides.
- Green screen with some footage (from somewhere) of the hundreds.
- Go with small numbers of extras, and come up with the money to CGI the throng.

Would love to hear of other ideas-- crazy, obvious, and in between...
 
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Tried looking for it, but cannot find it. It's the BTS on a British documentary about Vikings, and includes a scene with hundreds of Viking warriors swarming across some hills in their charge to attack. In reality, it was just one man they'd filmed on the hillsides, and multiplied him into the bloodthirsty hordes.

It was actually linked on the forums here, a few years ago, in a cgi discussion. My search-fu is weak, tonight.
 
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That first one that Knightly posted is exactly what I was going to post. It's pretty much a combination of CGI, green screen and crowd duplication. I recommend trying to follow the the ideas they show in their video
 
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It might be outside your budget to buy these outright, but you might know someone with access: There is a piece of software that was made for this purpose. It's called Massive.

It's been used in many films, including Lord of the Rings for the Orcs invading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASSIVE_(software)

http://www.massivesoftware.com/index.html

There is another method that was mentioned above of duplication where you shoot a smaller crowd, and effectively copy and paste them into many different areas. So long as you don't need movement it isn't too hard to pull off but the quality isn't as good as the massive option.

Good luck.
 
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Video Copilot has a pretty good tutorial where AK films only 2 men and makes them look like they're a SWAT team of 8-10.

Might not quite be what you want, but worth checking out.
 
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Sweetie said:
It might be outside your budget to buy these outright, but you might know someone with access: There is a piece of software that was made for this purpose. It's called Massive.

It's been used in many films, including Lord of the Rings for the Orcs invading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASSIVE_(software)

http://www.massivesoftware.com/index.html

There is another method that was mentioned above of duplication where you shoot a smaller crowd, and effectively copy and paste them into many different areas. So long as you don't need movement it isn't too hard to pull off but the quality isn't as good as the massive option.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Sweetie! Yeah, a bit out of our price range, but I'm going to check with all the editors I know and see if we get lucky....
 
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Here's another concept... blender + particles for crowds (here they're doing an army, but any footage can be attached to a particle and placed automatically in 3D space this way... even stationary ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDU8NcNESEg
 
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Zensteve said:
Tried looking for it, but cannot find it. It's the BTS on a British documentary about Vikings, and includes a scene with hundreds of Viking warriors swarming across some hills in their charge to attack. In reality, it was just one man they'd filmed on the hillsides, and multiplied him into the bloodthirsty hordes.

It was actually linked on the forums here, a few years ago, in a cgi discussion. My search-fu is weak, tonight.
Click to expand...

Was it Attila the Hun by any chance???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBeHljB6uFU

BBC drama which was directed and had all the VFX done by Garth Edwards (Monsters)... the 'one man army' bit is about 3/4 of the way thru the video.
 
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Does nobody want to use miniatures anymore?

Do you guys think it's less tedious to do the CGI cloning?




Just create a landscape and use a ton of minatures and go stop-motion animation. Use closeups so you don't need so much footage of the large crowds.
 
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Although it was done on a large budget the crowds of the DC Mall and football stadium scenes in "Forrest Gump" were composites. It's shown/explained on the BTS DVD. More than you can afford, but informative nonetheless.
 
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