Sword cutting a shirt
 

There is a rig you can build for doing this with tape and thread, anyone have specifics on how to do it? I need to know incase I have to make one for an upcoming shoot if the other guy doesn`t show

what kind of framing are you looking for for this...shot list?

wide of swing w/ normal shirt on
xcu of sword cutting fabric
mid of victim w/ cut shirt on - surprise
cu of aggressor's satisfaction

the shirt could be switched out (or cut) between shots and a dummy (styrofoam block) and shirt really getting cut substituted for the xcu. Hide the actual cut unless you have all day to shoot the effect...the timing will be very hard to get right.

It will be a medium. I`m talking about actually filming the shirt fall open as the sword goes by. Theres a way to precut the shirt and tape it (?), then run thread or something through the tape and hooking it to the sword, so when you swing the sword quickly it cuts the tape and the shirt opens...there does need to bea shirt switch out...but i need to build the rig

I tried something like this for a neck appliance once...you'll need to make sure that you attach the other end of the thread to the right part of the sword (different depending on swing) based on the fulcrum of the cut...otherwise it will pull faster than the blade cuts it...or slower...

I will personally say that this is a very difficult way to do it. It'd be much easier to do with movie magic (editing) than with practical effects. If it works for you, I'd like to see footage of how you set it up...cause ours didn't work...we ended up just putting a baby nose bulb in the cutters hand full of fake blood and having them squirt as they sliced...the preloaded appliance never worked out right :( and wasted valuable shooting time.

lots of tests before the shooting day is in order on this one.