Fire Burning

[DDirector]

So, I am writing a script and the majority takes place inside a burning apartment building full of rubble and debris with walls and ceilings falling a part. I know how to pull everything off, but I dont know what to do with the fire.

A lot of the building will be on fire, and were not talking about a small fire. The walls will be nearly covered in flames.

But, how do I do this? How do I keep it under control or should this all be done in post?
How do the hollywood guys do it?

 

[clang]

They do it by spending millions, with a big SFX and safety crew. I really wouldn't recommend something like this unless you have a serious budget.

Or since you're writing as well, design your scenes so that little actual fire is shown, except in shots where it's well away from the actors, e.g. seen through doorways (where you may be able to fake it in post, by compositing in real fire).

Actually, I think a bigger issue will be smoke, which is both good and bad. Smoke seeping under a doorway or through a vent is probably just as scary, and considerably easier to do, and realistic - more people die from smoke inhalation than burning to death..

 

[Greg Smith]

The university in the town where I live runs a Fire Service Institute where they train firefighters. Among other things, they have some permanent, outdoor concrete "sets" that represent homes and office buildings. They can decorate the interiors of these as they wish and then burn them, over and over, while the firefighters practice putting them out and rescuing residents. I'm wondering if you might be able to hook up with a similar fire training academy in your area and see if you could get them to cooperate in shooting your scenes. You wouldn't have to worry about burning down the building (just the contents), and there would be plenty of trained firefighters and rescue personnel on hand to deal with the consequences. Firefighters tend to be a friendly lot, and knowing some of the people involved in this program locally, I think they would consider it a fun diversion to get involved in a film project while doing some legitimate training at the same time. I wouldn't expect all this to come entirely without cost, of course, but it could be a lot worse if you made a mess of things on your own and had to call the "real" fire department to save your crew and the building you're in.

- Greg

 

[David G. Smith]

The university in the town where I live runs a Fire Service Institute where they train firefighters. Among other things, they have some permanent, outdoor concrete "sets" that represent homes and office buildings. They can decorate the interiors of these as they wish and then burn them, over and over, while the firefighters practice putting them out and rescuing residents. I'm wondering if you might be able to hook up with a similar fire training academy in your area and see if you could get them to cooperate in shooting your scenes. You wouldn't have to worry about burning down the building (just the contents), and there would be plenty of trained firefighters and rescue personnel on hand to deal with the consequences. Firefighters tend to be a friendly lot, and knowing some of the people involved in this program locally, I think they would consider it a fun diversion to get involved in a film project while doing some legitimate training at the same time. I wouldn't expect all this to come entirely without cost, of course, but it could be a lot worse if you made a mess of things on your own and had to call the "real" fire department to save your crew and the building you're in.

- Greg

Ha, ha, ha... we did that... kind of, a long time ago, to make a music video. We were contacted by a band whose drummer owned a farm with a large abandoned house on the property. He made a deal where he would let the local county volunteer come in and do training burns for a day, and they would stand by afterwards and let us burn the house down while we shot the music video with the house in the background. Burning the house down was cool, the song and the band.... well, not so much. For the project the OP is talking about the local fire department involvement would be an avenue to look into, for sure. At the very least, you might be able to get some very cool real designed fire elements to use for your digital comps. If you do a film like this you would need to story board it and design the fire effects very carefully. Using a combination of digital fire effects, real fire elements shot and comped in and limited on set physical effects, you might be able to pull it off. I would highly suggest that you consulate with a very experienced special effects coordinator, with experience designing fire effects, before hand also. One thing also, you will need to make sure that you are insured on a project like this, and that is not going to be cheap, if you can get it at all. Good luck.

BTW, here is our burning house. We shot this in 1994, on 16mm film with an Arri 16BL camera. Like I said, the fire is cool; the song and band... not so much.

 

[RyanT]

Hire an experienced special effects coordinator along with a good production designer and you'll be there in no time.

Also, have your checkbook open and ready.