MovieChat Forums > Village of the Damned (1960) Discussion > How was the scene filmed?

How was the scene filmed?

posted 5 years ago by MAGolding (1236)
4 replies | jump to latest

I watched part of Village of the Damned on tv on March 28 2020, and I saw the inquest where Anthea told about the death of the man who drove into the brick wall.

There was a flashback as she spoke, to the scene where he almost hits one of the alien girls, possibly "Nancy" portrayed by June Cowell, and gets out of the car to apologize.

And as far as I remember the car and the child actress were actually touching in that scene.

So how was the scene filmed?

I can imagine jokes about using up a bunch of different child actors before they managed to film the scene correctly.

I guess that they took a car of the same model as the man drives in the scene, and hollowed it out until it was lightweight, & put a camera inside to film through the windshield. And one or more stagehands would push the car forward slowly and slow down and stop on cue as the girl put out her arms to try to stop the car.

I guess that would be the easiest way to film the scene safely.

[–] ncdwbmk6 (81) 5 years ago

It's been a long time since I saw the film. But one trick would be to film the scene in reverse. I.e., start with the girl and the car touching, then slowly move the car backwards. Then reverse the film and speed it up.

[–] MAGolding (1236) 5 years ago

That's a great idea. That has probably been used in some movies and tv shows. It might even be a standard technique.

If backwards filming of scenes for safety is now a common practice I wonder how long it took before someone thought of doing it that way.

I find it easy to believe that lots of actors, extras, and stunt persons were injured and even killed before various safer ways to film their scenes were developed.

You may have heard of melodramas where the villain ties someone to railroad tracks. I once read of filming such a scene for a movie in England about a century ago where somebody goofed and the actor playing the victim was actually run over by the train and died.

Here is a list of movie and tv accidents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_and_television_accidents

[–] ncdwbmk6 (81) 5 years ago

The "film in reverse" technique was used in the film Sweet Liberty (1986), in the scene where a car almost hits a train. That's how I thought that it might be used in this case.

I'm sure film makers have developed lots of tricks.

[–] thingmakersback (1414) 5 years ago

I guess that they took a car of the same model as the man drives in the scene, and hollowed it out until it was lightweight, & put a camera inside to film through the windshield. And one or more stagehands would push the car forward slowly and slow down and stop on cue as the girl put out her arms to try to stop the car.

Just looked at that... You may be right, but it may not have required lightening the car. In this case it appears that the car was probably being pushed forward or was moving at a very slow speed down a gentle grade and stopped as it came in contact with the girl, probably by either a barrier below the point of view (camera on the hood looking forward and slightly down) or by a chain hitch. This would be a belt and suspenders approach as the person in the drivers seat (not driving, I think it was in neutral) would also apply the brakes. So, no danger.