Want to give input into a making a real movie prop?

[Jedirick]

Cabin Fever 2 is in production.

One scene requires a swordfish ice carving.

Obviously ice is not going to do, it. It was 70 degrees here yesterday.


The director found a mounted swordfish he likes.

It's about 3 1/2 feet long.

It needs to be reproduced to look like ice.

1- You have 5 days

2- Pressure casting is out of the question because of size of piece.

So gentlemen and ladies. Here it is.

Your shot at helping make a real film prop.

Please present your plan. If it is used, I'll see what booty I can come up with that's lying around the lot.
method, material, techiques, finishing

 

[gnrlotto]

How close up will it be seen?

How much abuse is it supposed to be able to handle?

Etc.?

Otherwise go with a vacuformed copy. Lightweight, a little airbrushing should look decent (to give that slightly milky quality all large ice pieces have) depending on where it is, a little dry ice around to give off the "ice vapors" effect, good to go.

 

[hydin]

if i give a good answer, can i stop production on a sequel to a horrible movie?

obviously i lack the expertise of many of the people on the board, but i would hazard to just make a multi part mold (something easy and stretchy like oomoo), and use alumilite clear to cast it in pieces until you have one big fish. basically a big one piece mold with the pour hole and vent holes near the tail to minimize bubbles in the "sword" part of the swordfish.

itll be somewhat bubbled, but ice does look like that, and if you keep the entire fish in the mold and keep adding more and more clear resin to it in layers, it should all adhere together with little to no seam line internally. just dont knock it around and it should be ok.

best guess i can come up with.

chris

 

[Rhett J Martin]

Skin it in a nice brushable silicone, give it a nice hard shell.
Use a great clear resin in three or four seperate castings/curings; like smooth on's Crysal Clear, let cure fully, use thin saw blade to make"blocks" after curing (cut or just scribe along pouring lines)

Have fun.

 

[wilysteve]

How about a hollow clear resin/wax rotocast version filled with water?? That way you can de-gas the resin before pouring into the mould and still get the weighty feel with the water. Just an idea.

 

[Gilmortar]

form the main body out of vaccuformed PETG...then do do the same with the fin...form it, or reconstruct it out of either acrylic or PETG.

Then cast the mouth, eyes, and sword(snout), tail and fins with clear cast resin...

that should give it a good clear look, then you could just clear coat it. But glueing the pieces on with Weld On 4 should give a good seamless look...and then you could even coat it with a clear resin to give it a more "undetailed look" like it was actually cut out of the ice...or if you need it super detailed, just leave it be...

 

[VashDstampede]

I agree with gnrlotto. Vac-form with clear plastic. Spray paint with matt and gloss clear to get the ice look. Spray some water to get the drip factor.

 

[Treadwell]

Ask Lord_Gita. Our friend Dave in Orlando helped make clear statues for Disney that were about 7 feet high.

 

[gnrlotto]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Treadwell @ Feb 27 2007, 10:48 PM) [snapback]1428427[/snapback]</div>

Ask Lord_Gita. Our friend Dave in Orlando helped make clear statues for Disney that were about 7 feet high.
[/b]

Isn't it sort of against the "rules" of this exercise to engage in such blatant nepotism?

Or should I go drown myself?

 

[Treadwell]

? Rick's asking for input and I suggested a source of advice from someone who would know what to do. You know, the kind of thing people on forums do for each other. Help.

edit:
per Rick's post below:

Ah, I see.

 

[Sporak]

I think I agree with the idea of a vacuform piece if you can...Thinking of the deadline though..

Or, if you have a huge amount of silicone around and happen to have clear resin...



How about a forced perspective etching (scratching, sanding, paint etc...) on an acrylic sheet (Plexiglass).

Or sculpt directly onto the acrylic with a thick acrylic paste medium, like you'd mix with paint...there must be something sculptable and clear...

Build it up with plexi and saran wrap..maybe cheat a little aluminum foil in there here and there...

If all else fails, matte the swordfish out and add it in later with CG :lol

I hope some of this inspires an idea.

 

[Jedirick]

Futher clarification. I know what I would recommend. Looking for how you guys would do it. Gnrlotto grasped the point.

1-This is coming out of a SPFX shop on Screen Gems lot. Materials and methods are not limited except for time constraints and a budget of let's say... $4,000.00 from which a profit would be expected.

2-It's not supposed to be a focal piece, however the director likes it.

3- He is not interested in how anyone else would do the shoot.

He wants an ice sculpture of a particular swordfish that won't melt.

Lack of information is frustrating, welcome to the film business.

4 1/2 days left, stick to the shooting schedule.

 

[Gigatron]

I say do a multi-part cast in clear resin. It'll have small air bubbles, but so does real ice.

Once it's assembled, spray it with some light mists of white and clear coat to give it the frosted look and then you can spray water on it to make it look like its melting.

-Fred

 

[Ramiel]

You can sculpt the swordfish in hard foam, cover it with urashell or something to make it sturdier, make a 2 pieces silicone mold with a fibrglass shell, and pour the clear resin in the 2 halves of the mold... You can repeat the operation 3 or 4 times to make a quite solid cast, but very light because it's hollow... 2 days of work (approx)...
Ice is full of air bubbles, so don't worry about them...

It's hard to describe the operation properly in English for me, but I can illustrate it if you want...

 

[Beeb89]

I think the clear vac forming is the best bet to get the overall piece done. I was thinking to add some depth to it to make it look like a solid piece, you might want to brush in slightly tinted clear resin/epoxy inside of the shell. Also, you might want to lightly sand the inside, this should help defuse the light and along with a little airbrushing on the outside and a clear gloss coat should give it the look you're after. I also like the idea of shooting it with a light mist of water right before filming will give it the "slowly melting" look.

Good luck.
-B89.

 

[Ghadrack]

Quick, cheap, and easily replicable so they can make a bunch if it is going to be used in a scene?

How about making them out of ice. Make a swordfish ice cube tray out of heated styrofoam / craft foam using the original wall mounted fish as a mold master, it may not be very detailed, but the shape sould be pretty well on with very little work.

They could make several of them at a time to deal with melting and breakage. Keep them in the "Craft Services" cooler truck if they are filiming in the woods.

P.S. I loved Cabin Fever, and I hope this is another Eli Roth movie. Fun Cheesy horror rocks

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

First of all, REFERENCE MATERIAL If you THINK you know what is wanted, I´d say most times the director disagrees. Okay, you have the fish, but what about the surrounding stuff ? Just in case you didn´t do the pic research already...

http://members.tripod.com/living_ice/id10.html

I like the lit up ones the most. You can see that most sculpts are not as lifelike and detailed as the real thing is, due to the material "ice". Hence the somewhat crude replication of details, which would certainly contribute to getting away with a sloppy cast swordfish

I can´t contribute to the technical process, but I´d say that GnrlOtto´s method would be the quickest and safest method. and probably the cheapest.

If I´d know how the shot was setup, I´d dare to suggest ordering one of those crystal marlin

I hope that I was able to return a bit of the favor that you did me about two years ago when I asked for pics of functioning magical pendants


Michael

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ghadrack @ Feb 28 2007, 03:50 PM) [snapback]1428590[/snapback]</div>

...
They could make several of them at a time to deal with melting and breakage. Keep them in the "Craft Services" cooler truck if they are filiming in the woods.

...
[/b]

Oooh, the nitpickers will love that . "Now its molten, now its not ."

And the continuity folks, the light folks, the set dresser, the set decorator, the props people, and especially the director, when in a crucial shot the sword breaks off due to a lamp too near the swordfish

Furthermore, after initial filming is done, and all of the real sculpts are gone, what if they have to do a reshoot ?

Nah, I´d say that the decision to have a fake fish is the only way to be safe. Real ice sculpts seem to be cheaper at first, but in the long run...

In addition, the fish can reel in some dough when auction off or directly sold to one of those silly as hell props collectors Costs minimized

Michael

 

[TReinman]

Well, I was going to say, first you find old army surplus stuff, like a grenade from an English weapon. Then a knob from a sink...

Oh. Sorry. No, I have no worth while input to this thread.

-- Tim

 

[SgtFang]

Looks like this is pretty well covered, but here goes-

Mold fish in accelerated silicone, 2 part mold side to side

Cast fish in water clear resin, maybe hollow to save materials and weight

clean up seams, wet sand seam areas till shiny again

"frost" fish with airbrushed white paint

Mount fish in clear PLASTIC punchbowl, seal all joints with clear silicone caulking to waterproof

light from beneath

fill bowl with colored water to simulate punch.

add chips of dry ice for a little fog.

how's that?

-Sarge