Club Obi Wan

There are two scenes of Harrison Ford practicing the whip for Raiders in the bonus DVD’s. Many of you probably saw them last night. They both show Ford doing nice overhand cracks. However, both scenes are shot on the back lot with him hitting the concrete time after time.

Seeing those David Morgans on the concrete. My sons and I whip all the time but our whips have never touched concrete. When you are on a big budget your perspective is a little different. What do you think?

Thanks
Bill Walton

They probably had a couple whips and although Harrison Ford was practicing, that whip won't last forever and was not meant to last forever. I wouldn't whip on concrete, but since the movie only required a couple months of filming(probably just a couple days worth of whip footage), it didn't really matter. Or maybe he was just weathering the whip?

It's the same idea as aging the jacket, Aldens, hat etc. really.

They need someting to look good for a couple of scenes - if it breaks, they have unlimited replacements.

We need something to look good for a LOT longer, 'cos if it breaks and we replace it we have unlimited grief from the wife.

But seriously, wasn't Harrison whipping on concrete just to record his whip sound effects for Ben Burt?

Al

I'm sure they didn’t use Harrison Ford for any of the sound effects. That’s what they have grunts like you and me for. No, I think the shots you see in the DVD are Harry getting ready to film the scenes. That’s what he gets the big bucks for.

Bill Walton

Bill, once again we shall just have to rewatch the DVD to find out.

It's a dirty job, but someones gotta do it.......

Al

I find it interesting, and Ford must have found it somewhat frustrating, that he practiced using the bullwhip so earnestly, but in the final cut of Raiders, there are less than 10 seconds of actual whip cracking. The scene where Indy whips the gun out of Barranca's hand is mostly implied, with about two frames of actual footage. You can only see Indy using the whip if you freeze frame. The scene where he whips the poker out of Toht's hand is enitrely implied, rather than shown. We don't even see Indy whip the tree branch to cross the pit in the Peruvian temple. What we do see is Indy cracking the whip a few times after throwing Marion onto the cart in Cairo, but that's pretty much it. All the well-planned combat moves were deleted.

I'm with you, Schwammy. I always longed for a more extended whip sequence in any of the movies. It was always such a cool, and somewhat offbeat choice for a weapon, that I've always a tad disapointed it was used more as a tool than an effective way to disperse the bad guys.

Lets just hope that with all the whip fight's popping up in movies today, that when Indy IV rolls around, there will be a scene to show how Indy is the master of the braided roo skin!... Lucas has a way of regurgitating ideas from movie to movie, so it may just happen.

Mike

The scene where he whips the poker out of Toht's hand is enitrely implied, rather than shown.

In the trailer, it is implied that he shoots the poker. I like the whip idea better

"I'm sure they didn’t use Harrison Ford for any of the sound effects."

Actually, WC, if you watch some of the footage, they say that the reason HF was cracking on the backlot was so the sound guys could get some of the HF cracks specifically for sound effects used in the movie.

Toward the beginning of the "The Sound of Indiana Jones", Ben Burtt is taking about Harrison cracking on the back lot.
It was a little too noisy to record it (the cracks) in the studio parking lot. So later Burtt took Gary Summers went to a quiet location and Gary did the cracking of the whip in different environments. Together they "built up a library of whip crack sounds" which was the basis of that sound. In my mind that says much of the whip sounds weren't from Harrison.

I got my hands on the 5th disc 'best buy' bonus DVD from eBay, and as I recall you do see a little of that cut fight you mention on there. Not much mind, just a snippet!

On the same subject, the January 2004 issue of EMPIRE has just been released in the UK, featuring a special Return of the King slipcover and collectors magazine - tasty! But Indy also features several times throughout the issue, including a glowing review of the DVD set and an interview with Laurent Bouzereau, the man who supervised the DVD package for Lucasfilm. He talks about Selleck being happy for his screen test to be used, how he chose what ended up on the Bonus disc and how he had 300 tapes of material to choose from. He also talks about exporing the Lucasfilm archive, including the grail diay being Spielbergs fave prop and finding the huge matte paintings on glass from the Indy trilogy.

Interesting reading!

Incidently, it made me very excited about Return of the King too! Not long to wait now!

Al

Langpuss, it's a small world!

It's a nice place to live, great for the kids. We live on the seafront, really handy for the beach in the summer etc., so we are pretty happy here! Lots of great Victorian architecture, the famous St. Mary's lighthouse and the Spanish City nearby. It's a nice place for you to hail from!

Check out this website: http://www.newcastlescoast.org.uk/whitley_culler.html

Be sure to check out the 'history' section for more interesting info.

Regards

Alan

ob1al wrote:But Indy also features several times throughout the issue, including a glowing review of the DVD set and an interview with Laurent Bouzereau, the man who supervised the DVD package for Lucasfilm.

That's not the same person that posts as "laurent" here?

I really have enjoyed the bonus DVD... We have watched it a few time and each time I see something new... <smile>