Creating Special Effects for TV and Video, 3rd Edition

Fires and Furnaces

 

Open fires in the studio consist mostly of logs set in large baronial fireplaces or coal in old-fashioned fire grates. Both need to display practical flames and, sometimes, smoke, but generally they are fuelled by gas with the flames controlled to remain constant throughout the recording.

Open fires

A prerequisite for any open fire is its fuel. Logs, coal, twigs and even blocks of peat can be made from plaster of Paris applied to wire formers. Painted with water-based paint, these will eventually deteriorate where they are subjected to heat, but, nevertheless, will last for many hours. Ceramic logs and imitation coal are commercially available from the manufacturers of domestic gas fires.

The gas burners may be constructed ...