Help with explosion and fire footage

J

jaimie

Member
Hello!

I shooting my first short this summer, and in one scene there is an explosion in an apartment because of a gas leak. Our budget is low, so I was wondering if anyone knew of something we could do in post to simulate an explosion and fire on the outside of an apartment building.

Any help would be appreciated.

:dankk2:
 
Shoot a minuature and comp it in. That would be the most fun way I could think of. CG is a possibility, but you would need to find someone that is pretty good to pull of a photoreal shot.
 
Shoot them at very high frame rates, and build to scale. In your case all you need is just a facade exploding, so you could just film a faux mini wall against black and then comp it over the real apartment building. Scale will be something to keep in mind since fire does not scale well. After you comp it in just add some extra digital debris.

Might also want to look into some stock footage, that route may be easier, and a little cheaper. WIth any pyrotechnic work, make sure to be safe.
 
You might also consider picking up one of the commercially available explosions-and-fire frame-sequence collections (like "Reel Explosions") which come on CD-ROM and give you high-resolution real pyrotechnics that you can add to your footage in post.

That way you can avoid the hazards of working with real pyro, have "full-scale" explosions rather than miniature fire, and avoid the time-investment involved in DIY modelmaking and miniature pyro.

The main drawback to using explosions from a library is that a lot of the stock explosions have become kind of recognizable, having been used over and over again in so many projects. But there is a lot you can do to tart them up and individualize them in post, using particle f/x, etc...
 
Wow!

I never heard of it (this is my first project)!

I will definitely check that out as well!
You guys are extremely helpful!
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top