Setting fire to a tree....

Ewan L

Ewan L

Active member
Here's the thing. I'm doing a film that's set in the countryside and there's a scene where a tree get's set on fire by a bomb. Anyway, I'm good at Visual Effects and stuff...

I always seem to have problems when faking fire in post. It just doesn't look right....

I can't obviously just set fire to a tree without all the supervision and bother etc.... (On a very low budget)

So is there anything practical I can do to help me in post?

Thanks.
 
Raster said:
Why not investigate blowing up a real tree .. might end up being worth it. Make some low level calls.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I'm going to report you to PETT, People for the ethical treatment of trees.

FYI, unless it is a dry or dead tree, it won't burn easily. A live tree with green leaves will burn slowly and likely the fire will go out several times. Now if the tree has dead leaves, dry neadles, or is dead it'self you can get quite the fast and furious burn. My roommate accidentally burned down a dead tree in our yard. That thing went up like a match box.
 
You could get a small dead tree and put it upright if you aren't able to rig pyro. Faking fire is photo realistically is very high end work, don't expect to learn it with a few tips from a forum or to hire someone for cheap. I agree with actually burning a tree if you need it to look real. You only need it for one shot, then you can imply the fire during closeups for the rest of it. If you don't have the budget for that then you don't have the budget to include it.
 
Why don't you try shooting the fire in miniature on black and then comping it into your shot? The trick to getting it to blend would be realistic lighting on set, you might need to rig a light up high over the tree to give the ground the appropriate glow.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm thinking about the idea Andrew suggested about the miniature. How tall should it be? I'm thinking 2-3 ft?
 
One problem you will have with doing it in miniature, is when you enlarge the image, the flames will look too big. You will need to sweeten the shot with small flame elements in order to get it back to the right scale of fire.

But what has been suggested was very prevalent in the 70-80's. All you have to do is watch a few of those movies, especially lower budgeted scifi/action ones. You will see what I mean about scale issues.
 
Ok....

I'll need to see some of those older movies... Would it be any better getting the miniature then adding all of the flames and smoke/etc in post? And then on set, flicker some orange lights at it, to make the glow seem more practical?
 
Thanks for the link, Mark.

I think I'll use stock footage I've got (Action Essentials 2), but I'll come back to that stock if something doesn't go to plan.
 
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