Smashing a Broken TV

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wilka26

Member
Hey, I have a scene in my film where I want a character to smash a TV screen with a metal baseball bat. The TV itself does not work. Is there any safety issues I should be aware of (basically, is it going to explode or anything)?
 
I've heard the tube (or the electronics at the end of the tube) retain HIGH voltage electricity, which could be very dangerous. I do not know from experience, just have heard that.
 
Television glass is very thick as well. Anytime working around broken glass you are going to have safetly issues, and the bigger and thicker it is, the more damage it can do. Be very, very careful and take more caution than you think you are going to need.

-DES
 
Splinters of glass in the actor's eyes. You could shoot from behind the tv and take out the glass then do a front on CU of just the tv screen/bat smashing as the actor could wear safety glasses.
 
What happens when you smash a cathode ray tube is that first it implodes due to the fact that it's a giant vacum tube and then the chunks bounce off of each other and explode outwards at a great velocity. Very dangerous. So far as stored high voltage, that would be the large capacitors in the power supply. Some TVs have a drain off circut that well... drains the high voltage out of them when the unit is shut off but some don't. A wooden bat would be a better choice here. Might be best to have the talent in a kevlar suit and a full coverage racing helmet also. LOL But seriously I know what those puppies do when they explode as I shot a few of them with deer slugs and chunks flew fifty feet thru the air. Be very carefull and try and think of a way to make it look convincing by some clever editing.
 
He couldnt gut the cathode tube out first, could he? If it were just the glass and the casing seems it would eliminate many factors.
 
Knoxworth said:
He couldnt gut the cathode tube out first, could he? If it were just the glass and the casing seems it would eliminate many factors.
Click to expand...

Yep, that would be the safest way if he really wants to break the actuall picture tube. The rear end is realtivily thin and breaks quite easy. Still, best to do this with some kind of protection like from around the corner of a wall or building using a long piece of pipe or what ever. Won't get that big explosion sound when you actually break the tube but that can be fixed in post.
 
Yea, I would most definitely do some research and figure out the safest way to do this. Back in the day (before green mania), I tossed a TV into a dumpster and the tube imploded. I'm glad it happened in the dumpster because wow it was loud. It threw pieces of glass everywhere in the dumpster. Also set off about 8 car alarms nearby. I'm sure it doesn't happen like that every time, but I would go some careful research.
 
I've been on a set which we put a bat through a television. I would back light the tv so you can see all the nifty glass and particles flying.

Our actor went through the movements and acted as if he was going to smash the television with a bat. Then we switched to a close up and equiped him with safety goggles. Everything went fine. It was a big mess, but successful.

As far as the sound... we were all expecting a loud crashing glass noise. A high pitch shatter. Turns out it was the most sub-bass boom I've ever heard. It was extremely loud but VERY low pitch. Most interesting.
 
Just another thought. It's not just splinters or small shards of class we are talking about here. The front of the tube is very thick making for large, heavy and very sharp chunks of glass moving along at a good clip. So depending how close the camera is to the shot, you have to protect it's crew also. In the land of the blind the one eye camera man may be king, but he's going to be real pissed off. I met Raoul Walsh once and thought his eye patch was cool but that doesn't mean I want to wear one. Yeah Prodigy, it is a low boomy sound. That's the sound of the air rushing in and colliding with itself. Nature abhors a vacum! lol
 
In college, a buddy and I tried to swing an old Fender Stratocaster through a TV screen for the finale of a heavy metal video.

A solid bodied electric guitar was bounced off that damn tube about 120 times... and that mother F'er WOULD NOT SMASH. Finally, the guitar fell apart and neither of us had any arm strength left. Sooo, we just rolled on a profile shot of wood splinters bouncing off the front of the TV. It was a good fake-out.

I still lay awake and curse that 70's-era beast... rotting away in an Iowa landfill somewhere. Burn in hell you foul Zenith!

Good luck.
 
Shame on you. There's people in third world countries that don't even have electric guitars.
 
I have done this. Its relatively safe.

Except we used an Axe. I do not suggest you try a baseball bat. That is way too cliche'. There are so many other things you can hit something with.

I would not suggest any metal object. - That would be like sticking a fork in a toaster. In our film the character took an wooden handled Axe and swung it into a working 35' TV in an apartment. We didn't know what would happen...

We hooked the TV up to a VCR (to play a video relative to the story) which i suggest you do instead of having live tv. -Play something with a lot of talking in it for the sound distortion that will happen. It sounds cool. He swung the AXE and it took two big hits to smash all the way threw it. The glass did not fly outward in any extremely violent way as some have suggested.

The coolest thing was that it made a very distorted noise and lit up inside - before i got scared and pulled the plug - afraid of fire.

Anyway, be smart. Dont use a metal bat. And a wooden bat probalby wont be strong enough. You have to make sure the TV will not fall off the table. A wooden handel axe will do the trick well.
 
Glass sharp. Splintery glass annoyingly so.

But, just as important a consideration: those tubes are coated with stuff on the inside. Stuff that will fly out with the whoosh of air and glass shards. Stuff you really don't want to be breathing.
 
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