Having watched a lot of three stooges shows and a lot of stuff posted here on the UMD, I wonder what actually go into a pie throw?
Of course, you don't want to throw too hard and hurt the person you're pieing. Throw too soft and the pie doesn't stick or misses. Also aiming your pie is also a factor.
I guess that is why some people just push the pie into the other person's face. Again not too hard and not too soft are still factors. Of course, some people don't like a arm appearing from off camera. Me I don't mind either.
Materials is key! Some stuff can be used for a cheap cinematic effect, but if you want the high-quality, splooge-worthy hits, you have to use the best materials around.
Now, "best materials" is different to different people. Some people like shaving cream. I use that to simulate cream, but for me some of the best materials are like heavy whipping cream or a mix of yogurt or sour cream with cool whip. That's awesome.
As far as throwing it too hard, you'd have to release the pies at full force, just inches from their face. I've been on the receiving end of some pretty forceful pies, and yes, it can hurt. However, the pies are pretty poorly designed for aerodynamics, so a lot of power is going to be lost really quick.
Unless you're tossing it like a frisbee. Then you have no business throwing a pie whatsoever.
For me, the thing you need for the perfect pie is almost never seen in WAM. The throw and the hit should be separate things.
You should see the thrower (a hot girl), hurling the pie in one shot AND THEN CUT to the pie landing in the face of the target (another hot girl), from off screen, and having been thrown from short range, by a competent pie thrower. It doesn't even need to be the same pie. In fact, it doesn't need to be a pie at all - a suitable creamy projectile is more convenient and aerodynamic.
The director should create the ILLUSION of the perfect pie. You see this all the time in classic slapstick, and I have never, ever seen it done in a wam video.
1) Attractive target. The "Before" is part of the entire process so viewer needs to see what they looked like pre-pie
2) Pie must stick to face. This can be done with any number of types of real or fake pies but obviously the goal is for face coverage and sticking to the face so (generally speaking with a few exceptions here and there) only some type of cream pie work (how many times have you seen someone on youtube or what have you try to pie someone with a pumpkin pie or apple pie with no cream on top or with a lattice/upper crust? Gah! What's the point? Redo!)
3) SPLATTER! Obviously it's important for the pie to successfully hit the face without missing the target and the face must end up with good coverage but i also want to see the pie splatter and get in target's hair and upper body. Then of course gravity helps too as the pie crust and cream bit by bit falls off the face and drips down onto upper body.
4) Good clear look at the pieing. If you never show the pie plate taken away from the face, that is the worst buzzkill! Camera should show viewer a good clear picture of victim pied - i should be able to see details of the cream distribution and still be able to somewhat see or get a sense of the person's expression even if it's covered with cream. I'll always choose seeing a good clear picture of a decent or average looking person pied over an unclear, blurry and/or too far away to see him good enough picture of a drop-dead gorgeous person pied. If the pie just looks like a white blob that could just as well be someone drawing over the picture with white-out, that's no good.
5) Kind of goes with above but i want to see target's expression/reaction. If it's a video, they should have a "line" reacting to their pieing. The picture should be clear enough to get a sense of their expression underneath the pie. Then (only after we got a good look at the initial results) they can wipe pie off their face so we can see them a little more. A nice bonus is if its an actor or model taking part in a scene, hearing the actor's actual thoughts on the experience (aside from their character or persona they were "playing")
All of the above can be achieved with any type of pie - real or fake - crust or no crust (though crust is usually better but not always) - thick cream or liquidy or a mixture. But bonus points definitely go to pies that have some kind of texture i.e. some different kind of "filling" underneath the cream on top - whether this be a real pie like banana or lemon or a well-constructed fake one with custard or pudding under the cream. If the person is taking several pies, start with the lighter colored ones (like just cream or yellow/light colored filling like banana or lemon) and save the darker ones (like chocolate) for later. If you start with a "dark" pie this overwhelms the effect of the later ones. Not a requirement but huge bonus points of pieing is finished with getting wet (to clean pie off face) like hosed off, seltzer bottled off, bucket splash or dump, shower.
And here's some of my own handiwork as examples (whenever i've pied someone in still photos or video, i always strive to reach the above goals ... kind of as a "this is how it should be done" for others) [Yes, these are all male targets which is my preference, but even if that's not your thing, you can still see the principles i'm talking about which can be applied to either gender]
Pic #1: Real banana cream pie. Direct hit to face with goal of getting good splatter in hair and upper body. You can see details of both the cream, banana filling and still get a sense of model's expression even though it's covered with pie.
Pic #2: Follow-up with some pie wiped away and seeing some more detail of model's pied expression.
Pic #3: This was done with a shaving cream pie with pudding filling underneath on paper plate. Model was already wet prior to pie which is why i chose this type as works well with a target who's already wet as per still sticking to face. Again, pie was delivered to achieve splatter in hair and upper body and also not so thickly clumped on face where it looks like a big white blob...you can see details of face, expression, the white shave cream and yellow filling highlights.
Pic #4: Followed up with a nice bucket of water splash which not only is fun for those who like wetlook but it also distills the pie already on his face for a different kind of "pied" effect.
Pic #5: One of my favorite model's expression pictures. This was after a hit with a real banana cream pie and after model has cleared pie from face with hands giving a great look at his pied expression. You've got hair splatter, upper body coverage with nice drips down neck and in addition to seeing details of cream and banana filling, you can even see a few banana slices stuck to parts of him.
Pic #6: This was just a simple shaving cream pie on a paper plate...no crust or filling underneath. But still not too clumped over the face to where you can't see there's a face underneath, and even though it's not a lot there's still some slight hair & upper body coverage.
Pic #7: And some pie gets wiped from face to get a different effect and more of model's expression.
Pie #8: Video still of one of my favorite kinds of thrown pies - a pie with no plate but with the crust strong enough to hold pie on its own taken out of plate thrown in manner to get lots of excellent splatter. This was shave cream (well mixed with water to thin it out to a "creamier", more liquidy texture more likely to splatter well) with some slight color pudding underneath for highlights in a baked crust.
Pie #9: Example of a thinner runnier pie. This was after model was hit with two pies. First was cool whip in a crust and second was a very runny whipped cream pie which was intended not only to splatter well in hair and body but also to get lots of running and dripping down onto the chest. And because it's a thin texture, you can easily see model's expression but still enough still sticks well to face.
Pic #10: Several pies later, a beautiful big bucket splash to "help" clean it off.
...and a final note, the kind of pie hits you often see in game shows or fundraisers where the pier is rubbing the pie all over the face and hair all at once can be decent but to me they aren't usually as preferable to everything i've described and shown. There are exceptions (especially in larger pie scenes with lots of hits where you should have a good variety of techniques) but most of the time i find it's better to try to see how much you can get the victim covered with a good initial hit or throw to begin with rather than trying to accomplish getting pie all over by rubbing pie all over them. That's what your second or third pies etc. should be for. Take things a pie at a time instead of trying to "give away the farm" with the first one (now granted, if you only have the one pie and one chance to get someone like at a fundraiser, i can understand why you'd want to get it all over by manually spreading it around...again there's lots of exceptions and no hard and fast "rules".)
Bozo1 said: 1. The girl on the receiving end has to be hot.
2. The stunned/humiliated reaction
3. My favorite hits are the hard ones that come from off camera. Mr. MG does this better than anyone else.
Hey, thanks Bozo! I have pied many a girl, but for me, Lane is my favorite target. The reason why, was because before many of our shoots, she would always like to give me a hard time and tease me up a bit. It was like she was daring me to totally go off on her, and once the cameras were rolling, I let her have it.
2. Single-handed pie smush or pie throw. Something doesn't feel quite right to me when two hands are required to deliver a single pie. It must be the tradition buried in my subconscious from old-timey slapstick pie throws.
3. Good aim is good: cover the whole face is best, in particular, the eyes.
4. I'm afraid to start a flame war going into the details of pie material, because I have strong polar opposite feelings about that.
5. Pie target: well, I'm heterosexual male, so, yeah - I want my targets to be those particular women I find hot. Good luck trying to get an algorithm out of me to decide who's hot and who's not.
Bozo1 said: 1. The girl on the receiving end has to be hot.
2. The stunned/humiliated reaction
3. My favorite hits are the hard ones that come from off camera. Mr. MG does this better than anyone else.
Hey, thanks Bozo! I have pied many a girl, but for me, Lane is my favorite target. The reason why, was because before many of our shoots, she would always like to give me a hard time and tease me up a bit. It was like she was daring me to totally go off on her, and once the cameras were rolling, I let her have it.
Your welcome! Your talents are the reason my Amy/Penelope custom you are doing next week features off screen throws.
Mr_MG said: I have pied many a girl, but for me, Lane is my favorite target. The reason why, was because before many of our shoots, she would always like to give me a hard time and tease me up a bit. It was like she was daring me to totally go off on her, and once the cameras were rolling, I let her have it.
Just when I thought I couldn't love Lane more!
^_______^
Zoidberg, what's wrong with a self-pie hit?
There were some amazing ones that are out there. THIS is my favorite one, courtesy of Anglefan. Her name is Julie, and this entire scene is just her smashing pies to her own face. This particular hit was the fourth one.