How to make crowd in a boxing film?
- Thread starter Fooksta
- Start date
How big a crowd? And do you have a location?
Easiest way would be to get 20-30 people or and put them ringside, then light so that you can't really see the crowd beyond that. Move the people as needed to fill the side that's visible, and then add sound of a much larger crowd to imply that there are more beyond the lights.
Easiest way would be to get 20-30 people or and put them ringside, then light so that you can't really see the crowd beyond that. Move the people as needed to fill the side that's visible, and then add sound of a much larger crowd to imply that there are more beyond the lights.
You won't necessarily need after effects, but some kind of compositing tool, and most of the available info online seems to center around AE...
Bunch of time, handful of people, and a chunk of greenscreen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJ8rJREAIA
Or if you've got AE & Trapcode particular (or form): http://www.redgiant.com/videos/redgianttv/item/26/
This Lynda course: http://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-...Crowd-Replication-After-Effects/114012-2.html
And of course, if you have access to massive, there's a stadium agent available...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JPFFwFMoSU
Bunch of time, handful of people, and a chunk of greenscreen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJ8rJREAIA
Or if you've got AE & Trapcode particular (or form): http://www.redgiant.com/videos/redgianttv/item/26/
This Lynda course: http://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-...Crowd-Replication-After-Effects/114012-2.html
And of course, if you have access to massive, there's a stadium agent available...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JPFFwFMoSU
Will's proposed method may be what you're looking for if you want to make it grandiose and don't mind the editing. Otherwise, essentially tricking the viewer, as ItDonnedOnMe proposes, would work quite well, too.
Sort of reminded me of Gladiator. When it came out, it was a really big deal how they were able to effectively create the Colosseum and fill it with people. I had some trouble finding videos of the film, for some reason. But there's some good shots of their faux crowds in the last scene:
I'd give some sort of 'Gladiator isn't for the faint of heart viewer' warning... But come on. It's Gladiator. You should know. So yeah... don't watch it if you don't like blood, Joaquin Phoenix dying, and Russell Crowe's body magically floating...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NK1t6lvCU
Wikipedia explanation of Gladiator's effects in this regard:
"They also used 2,000 live actors to create a computer-generated crowd of 35,000 virtual actors that had to look believable and react to fight scenes.[28] The Mill accomplished this by shooting live actors at different angles giving various performances, and then mapping them onto cards, with motion-capture tools used to track their movements for three-dimensional compositing.[27] The Mill created over 90 visual effects shots, comprising approximately nine minutes of the film's running time.[29}"
Well, I'm going to go watch Gladiator now.
Sort of reminded me of Gladiator. When it came out, it was a really big deal how they were able to effectively create the Colosseum and fill it with people. I had some trouble finding videos of the film, for some reason. But there's some good shots of their faux crowds in the last scene:
I'd give some sort of 'Gladiator isn't for the faint of heart viewer' warning... But come on. It's Gladiator. You should know. So yeah... don't watch it if you don't like blood, Joaquin Phoenix dying, and Russell Crowe's body magically floating...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NK1t6lvCU
Wikipedia explanation of Gladiator's effects in this regard:
"They also used 2,000 live actors to create a computer-generated crowd of 35,000 virtual actors that had to look believable and react to fight scenes.[28] The Mill accomplished this by shooting live actors at different angles giving various performances, and then mapping them onto cards, with motion-capture tools used to track their movements for three-dimensional compositing.[27] The Mill created over 90 visual effects shots, comprising approximately nine minutes of the film's running time.[29}"
Well, I'm going to go watch Gladiator now.
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As ItDonnedOnMe mentioned you get 20 to 30 people - more if you can - to sit ringside. Put a green screen behind them. When you have completed shooting from that angle the green screen lays/folds down over the seats in which the extras were sitting. The extras change clothes & positions (make the extras in the first two rows the back rows so you don't get repeated faces up front) and sit in the seats further back. Then move to the next angle and repeat.
Check out the BTS extras from "Forrest Gump" and see how they did the crowd scene around the reflection pool and the football stadium.
In "The Natural" they used cutouts of fans to fill the back seats. I bought one many years ago at an antique fair. They're just a piece of masonite board (some call it beaver board or chip board - you can get it at Home Depot and similar places) with a B&W photo of two people on them and cut to shape. They lightly painted the faces, arms and legs with appropriate colors. They made a thousands of them and placed then on the empty seats or stood them up. These were interspersed with just a few live extras.
Mine is of two men whom my wife and I call Pete and Slim. It got a little water damage when my studio was flooded back in '07.
After that, also as ItDonnedOnMe mentioned, you use crowd sounds. If you have the budget you get a loop group to supplement the library stuff with scene/shot/action appropriate vocalizations to complement the actions seen on screen. The more time/budget you have the more layers you can do.
Here are examples of loop groups at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t52MVV4duqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyH9Uc4JvAA
Check out the BTS extras from "Forrest Gump" and see how they did the crowd scene around the reflection pool and the football stadium.
In "The Natural" they used cutouts of fans to fill the back seats. I bought one many years ago at an antique fair. They're just a piece of masonite board (some call it beaver board or chip board - you can get it at Home Depot and similar places) with a B&W photo of two people on them and cut to shape. They lightly painted the faces, arms and legs with appropriate colors. They made a thousands of them and placed then on the empty seats or stood them up. These were interspersed with just a few live extras.
Mine is of two men whom my wife and I call Pete and Slim. It got a little water damage when my studio was flooded back in '07.
After that, also as ItDonnedOnMe mentioned, you use crowd sounds. If you have the budget you get a loop group to supplement the library stuff with scene/shot/action appropriate vocalizations to complement the actions seen on screen. The more time/budget you have the more layers you can do.
Here are examples of loop groups at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t52MVV4duqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyH9Uc4JvAA
I've often thought that being a walla actor would be a pretty entertaining job. 
I've often thought that being a walla actor would be a pretty entertaining job.
It can be a lot fun. You're occasionally asked to do group Foley work as well.
Most loop groups are long-standing teams.
If I were you, I'd go to a real boxing match with a DSLR and get some real crowd shots for cutaways AND fake a crowd with the above suggestions.
You could also get a stable shot of the crowd, fitting as much of them in a shot as you can (this would have to be shot BEFORE the match, so the fighters don't get in the way) Then shoot the boxing scene using the same angle so you can mask your own ring over the original (which would leave the crowd in the background)
Also, if you try ItDonnedOnMe's method, another thing you could do is place clothed dummies/mannequins in the background. This method is used a lot, even by big budget productions:
(skip to 00:55)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Faft3ncthu0
They even did crowd replication in a massive zombie movie (and they probably do for all
of them) In Dawn of the Dead, every time you see the huge horde of zombies, it's just the same 20-30 people in different areas of the parking lot shot on a green screen.
Altogether, if it were me shooting it, I'd use IDOM's, Will's, and my own suggestion, each for different angles and coverage. And for far in the background, I'd even use CG animated crowds (blurring the hell out of them obviously... which looks natural because of depth of field)
You could also get a stable shot of the crowd, fitting as much of them in a shot as you can (this would have to be shot BEFORE the match, so the fighters don't get in the way) Then shoot the boxing scene using the same angle so you can mask your own ring over the original (which would leave the crowd in the background)
Also, if you try ItDonnedOnMe's method, another thing you could do is place clothed dummies/mannequins in the background. This method is used a lot, even by big budget productions:
(skip to 00:55)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Faft3ncthu0
They even did crowd replication in a massive zombie movie (and they probably do for all
of them) In Dawn of the Dead, every time you see the huge horde of zombies, it's just the same 20-30 people in different areas of the parking lot shot on a green screen.
Altogether, if it were me shooting it, I'd use IDOM's, Will's, and my own suggestion, each for different angles and coverage. And for far in the background, I'd even use CG animated crowds (blurring the hell out of them obviously... which looks natural because of depth of field)
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You won't necessarily need after effects, but some kind of compositing tool, and most of the available info online seems to center around AE...
Bunch of time, handful of people, and a chunk of greenscreen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJ8rJREAIA
Or if you've got AE & Trapcode particular (or form): http://www.redgiant.com/videos/redgianttv/item/26/
This Lynda course: http://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-...Crowd-Replication-After-Effects/114012-2.html
And of course, if you have access to massive, there's a stadium agent available...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JPFFwFMoSU
Love the first tutorial. Excellent. Have been wondering how to do this for a while and that's a great solution.