3 In our Elements
In the final section of their Second World War bomber project, InCamera get busy with the fun stuff, bringing together previs, pyro and post-production
As part of the proof of concept shoot for A Memory Owed, a specific sequence in the script showing a Lancaster being hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire was posed by the director. The engine and wing section was required to be seen exploding and quickly turn to a large, turbulent fire trail. After some consideration, it was deemed a practical proposition to build a scale section of the aircraft’s wing as a bigature, and to use it for filming fire and smoke elements. Those elements would then be composited and match-moved onto previously shot footage of the Lancaster miniature.
We knew from past experience that the strength in shooting practical elements can really come into their own when needing to depict natural phenomena such as fire, explosions and smoke.
SIMPLE TRICKS OF THE LIGHT
Take a creative approach to lighting low or no budget projects
To help sell the effect of a large explosion and fire to our damaged wing section, we wanted interactive lighting that would show some emitted light from the fire being cast onto the fuselage and surrounding wing area. A snooted Dedo 150W Tungsten lamp was positioned to project a small cone of light to the appropriate section of wing, with additional random light spill provided by slowly waving a mini Maglite torch across the model.
We had a last-minute idea to try and include an interactive fire light effect, and so we had Tommy slowly wiggle his fingers in front of the tungsten lamp during the motion control pass so as to add some random flicker and organic movement. It ended up looking really good! Given the slow exposures of each frame taken by the motion-control rig, once the frames were conformed back to 25 frames per second, the light flicker looked suitably fast and random.
The combination of elements from our shoots came together for a fantastic end result when the scene was finished