Because ordinary flames tend to appear transparent on film, chemicals are added to enhance movie blazes.
In the early 1970s, the British special-effects expert Cliff Richardson and his son John developed the ‘Dante’ fire machine – a device which enabled him to produce spectacular fires that remain perfectly under control. A car engine mounted on a two-wheel carriage drives a pump through which two 200 litres drums of fuel mixtures can be squirted. Jet primers ignite the fuel and the machine can create a 60ft (18m) wide wall of fire.
City Hall ‘blaze’
Dante machines were used in the James Bond movie A view To A Kill (1985) when John Richardson was required to set fire to San Francisco City Hall – without causing any damage. He fireproofed the roof with insulation boards, corrugated iron and sand. He also fireproofed window frames through which the Dante units which spout flames to give the impression that a fire was raging inside. Powerful flares created a large aerial glow overhead.
Richardson ‘set fire’ to the City Hall 25 times during three nights of shooting, with city fire-fighters standing by.
Los Angeles Fire Department was also on standby during the blaze sequences of The Towering Inferno (1974). Officials insisted that each blaze – created by propane pumped from valve-controlled hoses – lasted only 20 to 30 seconds.
Some 57 sets were built, including a five-story, full-scale section of the tower, and a 110ft (33m) tall model of the whole building. Four camera crews shot the movie in only 70 days, and no one was hurt except a studio fire chief who cut his hand on broken glass.
London firemen stood by when Cliff Richardson rigged a Thames-side warehouse with 50 liquid propane gas burners to re-create a Blitz scene for The Battle of Britain. Richardson described it as ‘one of upon to do.’ The disused warehouse, already damaged by a real fire, was flanked by others still in use.
The illusion of an entire city ablaze was created for the 1936 Clark Gable movie San Francisco. It also featured a spectacular and realistic earthquake, for which an entire set was built on a rocking platform. It shook up and down and shifted to and fro up to 3ft (1m). Houses and walls collapsed, roads cracked open and furniture smashed around in a 20 minute quake.
Of 400 extras who were required to stand on balconies which crashed down at the touch of a button, none was injured.
Picture Credit : Google