I am making a film with a character hung by the neck from a rope.  I
want to know how I can make a vest or apparatus to make the character
look like they're dead, without any risk to the actor.  The rope has
to convincingly wrap around the actor's neck and the actor must be
able to be swung slightly.

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Clarification of Question by wildgorilla-ga on 24 Aug 2004 06:03 PDT

I'm using a G5 to edit and add special effects.  But I am seeking
specific information on how to build a harness for a more realistic
effect.

The total "hanging" time for the actress will be about 5 seconds at a time.

Why not use trick photography?

You could be in a whole lot of bother if your supposedly safe device
fails AND you have got it all on film.

I think that they call them 'snuff movies'.

For most filming, they create a loop of rope that anchors around the
shoulders and waists of actors/actress to be hung.  The loose loop
around the neck has no anchorage (but pasted to make it seem connected
to the main anchor rope) and thus no risk to actor/actress even if
there is a slip.

The actor/actress will have the difficult task of "acting" as if they
were hung by the neck - its not easy and it takes practice.

Note: it is still very painful and tiring for the actor/actress to be
hung for a long period of time even if its by their shoulders/waists,
so recommended breaks whilst filming is advised.

Safer method is really to use computer graphics - actor/actress still
have to act though and let graphic artist add in the appropriate rope
as a graphic layer to film later.

Other techniques include mixture of closeups (actor stand firm on
solid ground and rope is tied round the neck and held up and taut by
crew) and longshots (dummy on rope) if you play with camera angles
right and costume control, you'd be able to pull it off.

The question is how much film time you are dedicating to this series
of shots?  It might not be worth your while to expand too much energy
into shots that last for too short a time.

regards