Project X/Superbad, wolf of wallstreet, etc…
When there’s several hundred people at a party scene, and all of them are doing different things, like dancing, drinking, doing drugs, things that seem entirely unscripted, make out scenes, sexual scenes, jumping into pools, crowd diving, spraying beer everywhere, swinging from chandeliers, fights, getting sick, etc. how are these scenes coordinated? Is everyone at the party given free reign to be as chaotic as possible and the cameraman just takes random shots of everything or is every single shot laid out in the script perfectly? How does it all seem so natural? How long does it take to film a chaotic houseparty scene like this? How do the extras get the job? Do they need acting experience or can anyone just be in it if they’re in the right place and the right time? How do extras and actors get roles for films without knowledge of the film’s recording getting out?
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First of all there is a storyboard and director interacting that sets up choreographed shots. What you think is chaos is really tightly controlled because time is money.
Overalls – extras doing specific things and mouthing repetitive words at each other. Things like pool interactions, bars, waitresses are setup right from the storyboards. Those overalls get filmed from a few angles, and there are cameras hidden in scene that give alternate angles, which gives whole other “times” to the scene in one run.
Mid range with stars- stars are mic’d up or a boom follows. The the movement is carefully planned through the crowd. Lots of times you’ll have steady cam or dolly laid right through the crowd, but their movement and the other camera shots makes it invisible in the finished product.
Close stars /bit part actors – the specific person is mic’d up or boomed. Their movement through the scene is tracked through several cameras to give angle variation. The specific moment is tied back to the overall shots, but careful attention paid so that your close in shot flows with the background, but the multiple cameras aren’t visible in the overall shots. Takes a while to film if you have moving required dialog in those scenes. Depending on the set, moving walls on all 4 sides sometimes make the scene flow easily, but in reality the “room” is on the middle of a production stage area the size of a hangar.
As the party evolves, wardrobe changes, people changes within rooms, the cake disappearing, the ice sculpture melting, the people passing out… that’s all scripted and storyboarded.
The wardrobe crew is responsible for getting “that guy” in “that same outfit”. They will sometimes grab outfits and keep them for a couple days if the extras come in off the street wearing their own clothes.
Depending on the size of the party scene, you may have room level planning for each room within a hotel, house, set. If those scenes run for multiple shooting days, it’s often much easier to run at a stage instead of a real location.
Suggest you watch:
Bachelor party with Tom Hanks
Weird Science
American pie / 2
Start looking at the locations, and think about the size of rooms in houses and hotels. Then start applying those rational sizes to what you see. Then think about the walls you never see. That’s where you’re in a stage instead of on the location.
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