Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Cinematography Flaming Toaster

  • Flaming Toaster

    Posted by Mark D’agostino on February 4, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    A few weeks ago I asked for advice on how to make a toaster look like it was short circuiting without burning the studio down. I received great feedback and used Mark Suszko’s advice and visited my local magic shop. After meeting the 4’11” 80 year old magician/owner I left with flash paper, flash powder and a sparkle additive. I placed one bundle of this behind the toaster and another inside. I made a flash paper “wick” to connect the bundles, laid a solder iron on the wick and waited for the magic. After two tries we nailed the timing and the effect looked great. I also shot a separate pass with just a strobe light inside the toaster in case I needed it. We didn’t have the budget to spend more time in post enhancing the effect but the client was very happy with the end result. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with advice!
    I’d like to post the 3 second clip but have had trouble getting the upload to work. I clicked the video upload button above but when it reaches 97% a window pops up saying this is not how to upload a video. How do I do this so the video appears in my post? It’s a 19.6mb, mpeg-4.

    Mark D’Agostino
    http://www.synergeticproductions.com

    Mark D’agostino replied 16 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Mark Suszko

    February 4, 2010 at 9:46 pm

    Glad it got you out of a “jam”, can’t wait to see that clip when you get it working. If you have a youtube account you could put it there then link to it here instead.

  • Mark D’agostino

    February 5, 2010 at 9:09 pm

    Here’s the link for the video of thew toaster. It’s very short but it’s exactly what we needed. Thanks again for the help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGOPElEmwOk

    Mark D’Agostino
    http://www.synergeticproductions.com

    Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

    This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

  • Mark Suszko

    February 5, 2010 at 11:49 pm

    Nice, I would have wanted more sparking, but that’s quibbling, it works.

  • Mark D’agostino

    February 8, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    We actually did one that resulted in a lot more flame smoke and spark but the client chose the more subtle approach. It’s so easy and fun to say ahh…just one more teaspoon, how bad could that be? That’s why I’m usually kept away from sharp objects here:)

    Mark D’Agostino
    http://www.synergeticproductions.com

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy