Wats the best way to snap some ones neck?

[rhys]

Hey im makin a zombie film and i want the main caracture to snap a zombies neck then take its bike.
Wat is the best way to snap some ones neck?
Thanks

[ct_bullet]

in real life or movie making effects??

a dummy

digital

good actors


aren't zombies brainless so you could perform it wit just actors, as long as they have some dying knowledge, do you have a zombie flicks to take referrence from

[Radiate]

By "snap someones neck," I assume you mean breaking their spinal cord. So then you would just grab their head and make a quick snappy, jerkey like movement with it. Ad the snapping sound on the computer.

[=JDL=]

Simple as that. I would never waste money on a dummy for something as simple as a neck breaking effect. You can easily do it with one of the actors. You can even add a simple cracking noise to make it sound real. Look at other zombie movies to get ideas from too, that always helps. Good luck.

[DEDFX]

What He^ said.

[DEDFX]

What He^ said.

[crossfire]

im not too sure, how easy is it to snap a real persons neck? because if its easy, id invest money in the dummy, rather than killing someone

[=JDL=]

Breaking someones neck takes quite a bit of power. Im sure the actor would be willing to movie his neck to the side as you move his head to the side too. Kind of a teamwork thing. And you wouldnt even use alot of power for that because remember your faking it.

[NPMAX]

Doesn't take that much power to break a neck, I have seen it happen. That being said don't try to really do it to the actor, have him whip his neck in the direction you are going for as you or the other actor make the motion.

[Spartan_Monkey]

Put one hand on the zombies head and one below his chin and twist. Thats how most people do it (or somthing of that nature).

[aaronv2]

No No No... this is a stunt however simple it sounds its a stunt... so as such you need the person whos neck is getting snapped to do all the work. It is like filming someone getting their hair pulled out. The actor grabs the person by the hair and the stunt person starts to jerk their head back and forth while the actor holding the hair does nothing... its just an illusion

so in this case. as soon as the actor places his hands on the stuntpersons head then as soon as they feel the hands on their head the stuntperson will violently jerk their head to the side while the actor does nothing but keep their hands on the stuntpersons head.

I mean if you let the actor do it all he could actually injure the persons neck for real.

EDIT- breaking celery near the cams microphone will get a real crude cracking sort of snap sound.

(WOW LOOK AT THAT! NOTHING DIGITAL ABOUT IT!)

[crossfire]

the problem is this, i think that we tried this one time, and it WAS the actor that turned his neck fast, but the first few times we tried it, it didnt look very good since the person wasnt capable of twisting his neck as fast as the real motion would ask for, so what we were going to do is take the few frames in which the person is twisting his neck and speed them up a bit (we didnt get to try it but it might work and look good), 150-200% aught to be enough maybe too much, you'll have to experiment a bit

[UFProductions]

What I've found works good is quite similar to what aaronv2 said, except instaed of only snapping off in one direction the actor whips his head a bit to one side, then as quickly as possible reverses direction. As soon as this happens he just goes ragdoll and crumples in a heap. The other actor (the guy doing the snapping) just holds the head and lets his hands go along for the ride. So it looks like: Left(SNAP!)RightCrumple!!

[ct_bullet]

As its a zombie flick and zombie tissue should be weak

it would be amazing to see you rip its head off, and just have the head in your hand, not too sure how this would be done low budget though

[bretoncrackers]

I did an 8 month stunt course in which i did swordplay training with one of the top stunt coordinators for a theatre version of the three musketeers. One of the more interesting moves we learned in hand to hand was the neck snap. on stage, it cant be used in a combat scene, only in stealth, but since ur filming, this is perfect. What you do is position yourself behind the victim, place your left hand so that it is cupping their chin and your right arm tilted behind their head. Most people will start the snap with the person's head facing forward and snap to one side. DONT DO THIS, you could injure your actor seriously. When you grab the person's head, rotate it all the way to the right, and then when you "snap" pull it so that they are facing forward, this way their head does go to any uncomfortable positions. For sound, i find it best if the person snapping the neck holds a water bottle minus the cap (aberfoyle work really well) in their free hand behind the victim's body (hidden from the camera) squeeze the bottle, snap the neck. What's important is that the victim sells the concept to the camera, meaning that they make the appropriate movements, maybe a quick seizure like movment before going limp, or whatever looks good for your film. good luck.

[bretoncrackers]

if you email me, i might be able to find a video from training with a clip of the neck snap, or maybe you've already solved your problem.

[Spike_P_2]

Ive actually kinda had ti done to me, but they popped my neck, they told me to stand perfectly still so i wouldnt break my neck when they threw my haed. I might get my friends who did it to be in some of my films so its quick and fluent movement the whole time. Well see yall later folks, off to school..............

[xander-prd]

I find that instead of snapping the neck to the side that snapping it backwards works.

Go behind the actor and place your left hand across their forehead.
Your right hand can be on their right shoulder/arm, wherever.

Then pull your left hand back and roll their head onto your shoulder while pushing their right arm out.

As long as the actor tenses their muscles and crumples by rolling off of the attackers body with a lovely bone crunching sound, it works perfectly with no risk of injury aas the neck is supported at all times.

[rhys]

Thanks for all of them replies but i meant like wat was the most stylish way of doin it like in the last reply, not like wat should i use but wat movements.

[xander-prd]

well. . . r u creeping up on the zombie or isthe zombie attacking you?

[DEDFX]

There's not a lot of ways to snap a neck. You could have him on his back then kicking his cheek with your heel to snap the nech (I just thought of that).

[xander-prd]

if your sneaking up you could use my first suggestion if its attacking a stylish way would be:

It lunges at you with its right arm,
You parry the strike and grab his right wrist with your left hand and roll so you are back to back,
You then put your right hand over and grab its hair/head and sink down.

If you do it in 2 cuts, one for the move one for the snap it should look pretty cool.
If im out filming tomorow I'll shoot an example of what I mean