Four ideas for recreating Hollywood shots with stuff you have at home

A lack of gear or budget is frustrating, but it shouldn’t stop you from creating. To help you get stunning shots even on a tight budget, Dan Mace has prepared a fun and useful video. He recreated four shots from movies and TV shows with almost no budget. Mainly he used objects he found around his house and he even acted as his own stuntman. So, if you need low-budget filmmaking ideas, check out his video below.

1. Recreating a shot of a cyclist smashing into a car – in the original video, the cameraman is basically a ninja, sliding in and out through the car’s windows and filming the cyclist slamming into a car. For his recreation, Dan was his own stuntman. He slammed into a car while driving a skateboard, rolling over the hood. For the camera rig, he took a wheel from a roller door and fixed it onto an improvised stand. He added a string, tied a 360 camera onto it, and had a friend pull it through the window as he pulled his skateboard stunt.
2. The stairwell running from Mr. Robot – to recreate this shot, Dan made a DIY motion control rig. And the best thing is that he basically used the same setup as above, he just placed it vertically. A friend was running down the stairs as Dan was letting the camera slide downwards, and that’s it! It’s similar to the fishing rod trick we saw in this video.
3. A slo-mo gunshot from The Fight Club – this one involves some work in post, but the essential part of the shot is a leaf blower. Dan had an assistant point the leaf blower toward his face in order to create the same warp effect. He shot the sequence in front of an improvised green screen, so he could change the background and some effects in post.
4. Entering the Upside Down in Stranger Things – this rig looks so ridiculous that I love it. Dan put his bicycle onto a shopping cart so he could slide it back and forth. He attached a GoPro onto one of the pedals so the camera could rotate. It looks crazy, but it faithfully recreates the scene of entering the Upside Down and it makes me want to see Stranger Things again.

[Creating Hollywood Shots without Hollywood Gear via ISO 1200]