# making someone legless \[in movies\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521 "2013-11-09T19:46:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/21 "2013-11-10T20:16:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Musicat** : > > There’s a way around that. If he wants to wear a green tie, you use a blue screen. Likewise, a green screen for a blue tie. There’s no reason why a red screen could’t be used if necessary. I think that red is usually avoided because human skin usually has a bit of red in it. With the modern computerized techniques, this isn’t a big deal, since you can easily tell the computer that skin color is “different enough”, but with the old techniques, you’d end up with a little bit of the background image ghosted onto people’s faces. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/22 "2013-11-10T21:48:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that red is usually avoided because human skin usually has a bit of red in it. With the modern computerized techniques, this isn’t a big deal, since you can easily tell the computer that skin color is “different enough”, but with the old techniques, you’d end up with a little bit of the background image ghosted onto people’s faces. A notable exception to this was for the original _Predator_. Because of the green of the jungle the actor was masked with a bright orange suit instead. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/23 "2013-11-10T22:23:43Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > There’s a way around that. If he wants to wear a green tie, you use a blue screen. Likewise, a green screen for a blue tie. There’s no reason why a red screen could’t be used if necessary. It would make many natural features of people difficult to keep out of the keyed area. The reason such odd, strong shades are used is that they aren’t commonly found in normal object, clothing, etc. But yes, you can use any color for chroma-key, and there are other techniques as well (luminance keying, mostly useful in monochrome). Red would be useful for, say, Avatar scenes. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/24 "2013-11-11T02:58:57Z")
You can also just manually mask, frame by frame. That’s what is done if you are using footage that was not originally designed for such use. Or if you didn’t have the equipment (common in a lot of Internet stuff). ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/25 "2013-11-11T06:49:41Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > This is a hijack but it’s on topic with the subjects of amputees and special effects. > > I watched the movie _The Best Years of Our Lives_ with my mother. It was her first viewing, I’d seen it two or three times. > > She wondered how the “special effects” were done to make it look like the sailor (played by Harold Russell) had no hands. I had to tell her he really did have no hands, being a veteran who had lost them in a training accident explosion. To hijack your hijack- I almost convinced a co-worker that _Edward Scissorhands_ was inspired by _The Best Years of Our Lives_. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/26 "2013-11-11T09:17:20Z")
In the 1954 Warner Brothers movie _Dragnet,_ Virginia Gregg is shown with one leg, and using crutches to move about. I guess the other leg was tied beneath her skirt. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/27 "2013-11-11T15:24:09Z")
In Barry Lyndon, you clearly see Ryan O’Neal’s leg hanging from the hole in the mattress after it has been “amputated” (marvelously spoofed by MAD Magazine). ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521/28 "2013-11-11T21:11:29Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The remake of “True Grit” that came out a few years ago did not use an actress who was an amputee for the final scenes; they used a “regular” woman and digitally edited out her arm. How do I know this? They didn’t do it in every frame, and her arm flashes on and off. That was really weird to see. Sort of - according to IMDB they did use a body double for Elizabeth Marvel (the actress who plays the grownup Mattie Ross). Elizabeth Marvel has two arms but the body double was born without her left forearm, so in at least some shots you’re seeing (well, not seeing) a real missing limb. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-someone-legless-in-movies/673521.md?page=1)