BarryMcCockiner2 said: Recently had my eyes opened up to how much it costs to film a scene and as a result will most likely not order either of these, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask. One is a little more simple but also more technical, while the other is a gameshow format in rounds.

She walks in, and is almost immediately ambushed with three runny cream pies on planks, set to swing around on a string attached to the front door. One to the face, one around chest area, and one around the knees. 4-5 pictures here, showing initial mess. Blinded, she steps forward, onto a tripwire, and gets her first dousing with a couple gallons of green gunge.

She starts giving the tour anyway-it'll show perseverance

and makes it to the kitchen when she steps on them and face plants. Directly into a kiddie pool full of something sticky I'm thinking chocolate pudding. By now she should be covered, 100%.

She decides to go to the bathroom to wash up, and gets a nice surprise when she opens it, because it's a hose hooked up to a nice big container of (choose your color here) gunge. This stuff is cold, and she stands there in shock for a couple seconds as it slowly runs down her. By now she looks like a human Jackson Pollock painting.

At this point, screw the tour. She blindly runs for her life conveniently right into the house's pool.

Round 2: Trivia OR Guess the substance

One contestant wears the outfit from the realtor scene. The other wears a dress like the third game, bonus points if it is actually the third dress and is still soaked.

Rules are as follows-they start pouring it on you. For every second last 5, it goes faster. If you guess wrong, they pour it all on you. You guess 3 substances wrong, into the tank you go.

flank said:
If it's a video, how much can be faked during editing? Thinking in particular about the pie catapult, you'd be lucky to build a contraption which will work first time, and get the whole thing on camera. If it was a sitcom, I'd expect it to be more of a montage with a series of close-ups, e.g.
* The door opens. Zoom in on the door handle, showing the string moving.
* Show the string going through a pulley.
* Show the planks set up like see-saws, with a pie on one end and string attached to the other end. (Maybe one string which splits off in 3 directions?)
* Show the planks pivoting and the pie(s) flying off. Maybe just show the end of the plank which has the pie, so that someone can physically put their hand on the other end.
* Cut to the realtor and show the impact of the pie(s). (These can be thrown from off-camera.)

flank said:
Bear in mind that you don't actually want to injure the model, and you might need padding underneath the pool.

flank said:
I'm not a producer, but I think the realtor scenario would be significantly more expensive than the gameshow scenario. That said, it also sounds quite interesting. My comments are intended as enthusiasm rather than nitpicking!

As a general question, is it important for the models to speak English? If you want it to be done in the UK or US, that will be more expensive than outsourcing it to a developing nation (like Rev Slymsford's videos).

With the realtor, I agree that finding a suitable location would be a challenge. E.g. I saw a video advertised earlier, where the kitchen was protected by plastic sheets up to waist height:
https://umd.net/forums/kacie-and-natalia-strip-or-gunge
Would that be ok for you, or would you want it to look "normal"?

That will particularly be an issue for the bit inside the front door:


Kitchens typically have floors that can be mopped, whereas hallways often have carpet, and I wouldn't fancy trying to get gunge out of a carpet! Even a hard floor (e.g. polished floorboards) might be tricky.

You mentioned "4-5 pictures". Is this a photoset or a video? Photos might be easier, since the camera angle can be carefully chosen each time.

If it's a video, how much can be faked during editing? Thinking in particular about the pie catapult, you'd be lucky to build a contraption which will work first time, and get the whole thing on camera. If it was a sitcom, I'd expect it to be more of a montage with a series of close-ups, e.g.
* The door opens. Zoom in on the door handle, showing the string moving.
* Show the string going through a pulley.
* Show the planks set up like see-saws, with a pie on one end and string attached to the other end. (Maybe one string which splits off in 3 directions?)
* Show the planks pivoting and the pie(s) flying off. Maybe just show the end of the plank which has the pie, so that someone can physically put their hand on the other end.
* Cut to the realtor and show the impact of the pie(s). (These can be thrown from off-camera.)

This reminds me a bit of the Cruella scene that was discussed a while back. In that example, they'd only get one chance to show her falling into the mud. In this case, you'll only get one chance to see her going from clean to pied, unless you want to reset for costume changes. Is it important to see all 3 pie hits in one shot?

Similarly for the tripwire, I think it would be ambitious to actually set up a mechanism for this, but you could fake it by showing the moving string (at ankle height) and then the gunge pouring from above. However, the height of the room (and the model) might be an issue, since you need to have a decent amount of space above her.

I don't think you'd be able to attach anything to the ceiling, because people won't want that type of permanent modification made to their house! The simplest solution would be to have someone standing on a ladder and pouring a bucket, but if this is being filmed in widescreen then it will be difficult to avoid seeing the ladder; are you happy to have an extreme close-up on the model (head and shoulders, panning down) or do you want to see a long shot with the whole of her body (head to toe) visible at once?


Is she going to clamber over the plank catapults, or is there room to get around them? Most houses that I've been in have a fairly narrow passage for the hallway, unless it's combined with an open plan lounge.


I think you've missed a word here - what does she step on? The paddling pool of mess should be fairly straightforward, although we're back to the logistics of the Cruella scene. Is it ok for her to land on her hands and knees, then her hands slip so that she face plants, or does she need to go straight from standing to horizontal? (Again, you only get one chance to film this, so clear instructions to the film crew will be essential.) Bear in mind that you don't actually want to injure the model, and you might need padding underneath the pool.


Having a hose pointed at the doorway will be tricky, because it will spray into the hallway (walls/floor). I think it might work better if the shower had been sabotaged, i.e. she stands underneath it, turns it on, then gets gunged.


Again, this is going to be a practical limitation, if you need a house with a pool. Presumably this would be a below ground pool, i.e. it's plausible that she could fall into it from ground level rather than climbing up a ladder to get into it? So, a temporary above-ground pool wouldn't work. After the shoot, that pool will need to be cleaned (possibly emptied) before it can be used again, which is going to cost extra.

Also, outdoor filming will be weather dependent. (The model might not mind getting rained on, since she's about to jump into a pool, but is the camera equipment waterproof? If it's late in the day, and dark outside, will you be able to see anything?) You might find a suitable house, and arrange a date when the model is available, but then find that you can't film that day after all. Will all the mess have to be chucked away? Or would you want to just film the interior and then do a second shoot for the outdoor section?

I think you'd actually be better off doing this on a film set (resembling a house) rather than a real location. Thinking about soap operas (e.g. "Neighbours"), I believe that they film some scenes in an actual residential street, e.g. when someone gets out of their car and walks to the front door of the house, but all of the interior sets (e.g. kitchens) are done in a studio. So, you could use a physical location for the clean shot at the beginning (before the realtor opens the front door); you'd have a lot more flexibility about when to do it, i.e. you could just wait for a day with suitable weather.

If you go down that route, the question becomes how much realism you want. I'm thinking about theatre vs cinema here. E.g. let's say that I'm watching a Robin Hood story. If it's a movie, I'd expect them to send their actors out to an actual forest, and then go to a real castle (with stone walls). However, if I was watching the same story at the theatre (where they only have a few seconds between scene changes), I'd be happy with a painted backdrop that has a few trees on it, and I can suspend my disbelief to say "Ok, now they're back in Sherwood Forest".

The key advantage here is that you wouldn't need an entire house. E.g. for the bathroom scene, all you really need is a corner for a shower stall, and you could have a hose on the other side of the wall. Similarly for the front door, you can make the entrance area as big as you like. For the gunging, you could have the ladder on the opposite side of the wall (with no ceiling).

Moving onto your gameshow...


If this is round 2, what's the third game? Do you mean round 1? Also, you're only mentioning 2 contestants here. Has the loser from round 1 been eliminated? If so, are you suggesting that she should swap clothes with one of the remaining contestants? (That's fine, but it will restrict you to models who wear the same size.)


You said "into the tank". Is it important to have an actual gunge tank, rather than someone sitting in a chair with gunge poured/thrown over them? If so, that will be a limiting factor, i.e. not all producers have gunge tanks.