I have a real interest in the pyro side of special effects. Always keen to assist Technicians.
I assisted a supervisor to wire some pyro on a short film in an evening after work. Working with Digby Milner we used a zd100 to break a toughened glass window after scoring the laminate that covered the window. This was then blown as a stuntman jumped through the window.
I also wired a couple of mini maroons in a cafe set on Harry Potter during my lunch break with some senior techs. Rigging and wiring a maroon inside a couple of pantone boxes and inside a pile of napkins as wand hits in a fire fight.
I worked on a night shoot on the Harry Potter courtyard where I assisted senior technicians and supervisors to wire and fill, strung bound maroons inside oil drums covered with 4” caulk, peat and balsa wood. I also assisted senior technicians in wiring petrol/ipa bursts, mortar pots and naphthalene bursts on the roof.
When on Narnia 3 with Special Effects UK I was given the job of creating a large amount of splintered wood for the side of a damaged ship. I was shown buy a supervisor how to use det cord safely using the correct tools and techniques. I then did various tests to work out the best way to use different weight det cord to break up large blocks of wood. I settled on 12g cord with commercial detonators as they were being used in a safe environment not around actors.
When creating a fuel dump explosion for a Sky News HD with Special Effects UK. We wired 2x 18g maroons, 1x gerb and 2x SDC 1s into large mortar pots with a 20L mix of IPA, diesel and petrol on top of the maroons. There were 4 mortar pots and 3 kicker plates in total each with the same mix of fuel and explosives.
When working with Special Effects UK, I was part of a 3 man team creating various explotions for a Magnum advert. This involved wiring Christmas baubles full of various sauces and colourants then inserting a small det to be captured on a stills camera. We also wired up magnum ice creams to explode. Capturing the fagments of icecream as they flew though the air.