SPECIAL EFFECTS
Pyro as is called, or pyrotechnics, presents a special problem for independents, because you're competing with the majors on big action pictures and they can afford a lot of fire power, because of their huge budgets. What can you do to level the playing field a little.
The new rock'n'roll stage technicians have invented a lot of spectacular effects with exploding powders that are hardly dangerous while they look like big explosions. Of course, as with all explosives you have to exercise caution, but you can now do a lot of dangerous looking stunts and gags.
Fog looks great with some genres and there are all sorts of ways to create it; however, the ordinary mineral oil-burning fog machines, on rental at most equipment houses, work great and aren't very expensive. Try some fog on night scenes, it gives some scenes a magical look. Just don't use it everywhere!
Wetting streets at night, to create a reflective, shimmering look over the dark surfaces is nice. There are special water trucks that'll spray the streets for you. It depends on your budget whether you can afford it or not.
Again, rigging up for rain shots can be expensive and a slow process, so if you're doing low budget, "write out" rain from your script, if you can. You can't do the "Singing in the Rain" sequence without the "rain" effect!
There are a lot of special effects that you can do in the lab. Most are expensive, so try doing as much as possible in the camera. For example, if you need dissolves, fade out the scene at the end by closing down the lens aperture all the way. Then on the next scene, into which the first scene dissolves, start the shot with the lens closed and open up the lens aperture to its correct setting and continue the shot.
Later, IPs (Interpositives) will be printed for you by the lab, and dupe-negs (Duplicate negatives) will be struck and the dissolved scene will be workprinted for you. You can cut the dissolve into your work print and that's that. This process is not very expensive.
Not like the Blue Screen process for example, which will cost you over $3000 per shot for any type of effect that requires this type of special handling. I won't bore you with an explanation of the Blue Screen process, because one can write a book about it alone. I consider it a useless process for independent producers, because there are other ways of doing things which are a lot cheaper and easier. This process can only be afforded by majors now. Few labs can do it economically nowadays. If you're interested to learn about it, the American Cinematographer Manual has an excellent section on it. You won't learn exactly how to do it, but you'll know what's it about.
For action pictures, what with the proliferation of martial arts and the number of actors who take up the training for movies, you can do a lot of believable action by hiring an expert in the industry. There are martial arts magazines, tournaments and stunt co-ordinaters whom you should consult if you have an action picture. In my experience with martial arts experts, on both coasts, Europe and the Far East, I've found them friendly, eager and enthusiastic to work with.
There are always a number of car chase stunt drivers who'll give you a break on car stunts. Be aware of insurance requirements, but aside from that don't let an actor convince you that he can drive fast and knows how to spin a car! Don't even try it on a country road. Always use experts in this area.
The fee for flipping a car used to be $700 several years ago. There are all kinds of tricks to it. The gas tank has to be special, fire hydrants have to be on hand, ramps have to be built right -- it's highly specialized work. Get someone who's done it before! They have the right car, properly rigged, with reinforced suspensions and the whole nine yards.
Here is when you can shoot a couple of angles, with two cameras. Shoot only what you need and if you're budget is small, don't use up all your film! I know, it's exciting and it may be your first film. You've flipped a car, blown another one to smithereens and pushed one off the cliff (nowadays you've got to pull the wreck off the beach, clean whatever oil spill there is and have a permit to do it -- so if you must push a car over the cliff, make it a small cliff, with easy access to the beach, otherwise you'll use up the rest of your budget hauling the sucker out,) and so you now feel you've got a hot movie, what else can you do now?
Why, blow up a helicopter, of course! (Flying miniatures are available. Match the paint and models of the miniature and the real copter.)
But before you blow it up, you've got to first get some scenes of the thing flying, so find a Vietnam veteran pilot with his own copter, who likes to do movies! They're out there, believe me! And they are very negotiable, because, here's the secret, they love to fly! If you're doing a Vietnam epic, be careful about casting too many Vietnam veterans. They're too old, but you can't tell them that, they'll knock your teeth out, without warning! Some of them are great company though, and at night on location, they'll tell you all kinds of interesting stuff about the war. Use some of it for "texture," but don't rewrite your script! You're a dead duck, if you do. Your movie will be as big a mess as the Vietnam War itself!)
Tyler mounts are very useful for helicopter photography. Call the Tyler Company and they'll even supply you with the camera and rigging. Don't try hand-holding the camera, you'll waste all the money you spend on the copter rental -- you won't get much useful footage, because of vibrations alone!