Shortly after leaving the Big Show (Blue, the Red was the Little Show) I was working on a movie where they were going to use a squib under an actress's hair, for the effect of shooting her in the forehead, and a spatter on the wall behind her. The Unit Director wanted a test shot of what the effect would look like so I held one of the squibs and they set it off with a huge Boom! Much louder and bigger than anyone expected, and I couldn't feel my hand at all. Everyone runs over to see how much of the gore is the effect, and how much is me, blown apart from the wrist down, but the steel plate the squib was mounted to protected my hand, and it was just a concussive injury, nothing broken or blown off, but if the thing had been stuck to a woman's head? Brain Damage. It turns out the FX guy used Silver powder instead of Black powder, because he'd read it smoked less. (Hadn't read it was also about 30 times stronger.) And he hadn't pretested any of them, because we were "Running short on time." That night, I invented The Brain Cannon, to do the same effect with compressed air. Much safer for the actress, and everyone else.
How similar that seemed to pyro class at RBBB CC 1984 when I was there. Frosty and Jim Voglesgang, along with David Berman, and even Lou standing around, had about 14 cans of black powder, open, with metal tools, and shotgun shells. David Leong and Rick Sordelet, who were both fight instructors that year, and with whom I'd become friends, urged me to get as far away from the table as possible. Nothing blew up. Or, I should say, everything blew up that was supposed to blow up. I had the squib belt gag. Loved it.
Ah, this brings me back.
ReplyDeleteShortly after leaving the Big Show (Blue, the Red was the Little Show) I was working on a movie where they were going to use a squib under an actress's hair, for the effect of shooting her in the forehead, and a spatter on the wall behind her.
The Unit Director wanted a test shot of what the effect would look like so I held one of the squibs and they set it off with a huge Boom! Much louder and bigger than anyone expected, and I couldn't feel my hand at all.
Everyone runs over to see how much of the gore is the effect, and how much is me, blown apart from the wrist down, but the steel plate the squib was mounted to protected my hand, and it was just a concussive injury, nothing broken or blown off, but if the thing had been stuck to a woman's head? Brain Damage.
It turns out the FX guy used Silver powder instead of Black powder, because he'd read it smoked less. (Hadn't read it was also about 30 times stronger.) And he hadn't pretested any of them, because we were "Running short on time."
That night, I invented The Brain Cannon, to do the same effect with compressed air. Much safer for the actress, and everyone else.
Tedrick
How similar that seemed to pyro class at RBBB CC 1984 when I was there. Frosty and Jim Voglesgang, along with David Berman, and even Lou standing around, had about 14 cans of black powder, open, with metal tools, and shotgun shells. David Leong and Rick Sordelet, who were both fight instructors that year, and with whom I'd become friends, urged me to get as far away from the table as possible.
ReplyDeleteNothing blew up. Or, I should say, everything blew up that was supposed to blow up. I had the squib belt gag. Loved it.
I'm Mr. Bill and I approve that Boom Boom!
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say people remember my loads on the blue show. Can you hear me now?
I laughed so hard that I peed a little. Thanks Pat!
ReplyDelete-Neal Skoy