Explosion

J

Jerryv

Active member
Hello everyone,

I am looking for advice about suggestion an explosion.

A girl is running/chasing a car on foot. Suddely the car explodes, on the time of explosion we see the reaction of the girl, not the explosion itself. But how can i fake the lights/impact/fire from the exploded car on the girl's face? We are shooting outside, on a location without powersupply, so taking big lights with filters is not an option.

I hope to hear from you!

Thanks,
Greetings,
Jerry
 
get a golden bounce board and shine it on her when she reacts. if its too yellow, put a layer of CTO or some other gel on it. Get a fan or something similar to blow her hair back when the car "explodes". And of course, you could try shaking the camera a bit to simulate the shockwave.
 
We live in The Netherlands, so its impossible to tell if the sun is going to shine or not... Why?

I get the idea of a bounche bord. It will produce a 'shine' effect... But normaly this is used for getting 'pretty' images, not trying to simulate an explosion :) I think its the only option we have, without an power supply.
(Thefore we cannot use a fan).

What about trowing some sand/dirt on the actrice as well?
(I hope the actrice is NOT reading this, dont tell her :)).
Iam not "into explosions" but i do think there is a pretty big shockwave when a car explodes?? If so, we must simulate that also... What do you think?
 
Flash a gold reflector on her face to simulate the light from the flames, and add a small amount of camera shake to sell the shockwave effect like mentioned. The big factor in the intensity of the light is how close she is to the vehicle...
 
Have you ever experienced a real explosion? Mine was just a rock band's pyro going (terribly) wrong - about 5 bottles of high-speed flash powder going off at once (one kid hospitalized, all the windows in the school cafeteria GONE...) That's a far cry from an exploding vehicle, but the shock wave was like someone slamming me in the chest (and I was twenty feet away). Everyone around me staggered back.

So I'd say, harness her up, have some guys behind her with a bungee cord, and give her a big yank (onto cushions) while you blast her with compressed air. Just don't break her back, y'know - see if you can find a stunt coordinator. And add the dirt & debris in post, a blind actress (with a broken back) will give you a reputation...
 
Pull the clip into after effects, make the girl a 3d layer and put a simulated gold spotlight that flashes on her face.

You can see that effect briefly in the guy with the machine gun in the clip you see when you click on the blue banner in my sig. He is facing a wall that just exploded and is flickering with fire. All lights are after effects. He was lit flat so we could tweak everything in post.
 
I'd personally try to avoid resorting to "fixing it in post". Effects that you do in camera and on location are, by nature, more real looking.
 
The reflector would really just flash for a moment, then there could be a little residual light as the main event turns into a fire.

For what it's worth, unless there is a bomb of some kind, cars do not explode. They can burst into flames. I've seen a lot of car fires and have never seen one explode like you see on television.

Course, what is real and what is good for TV are two entirely different things!

e
 
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