Sparks and Flashes

 

Requirements for flashes range from a bolt of lightning in the sky to a flash that illuminates the scene below. Sparks occur in electrical malfunctions, safe-cutting and across huge terminals in Frankensteinian laboratories.

Because sparks suggest danger they can occasionally be used to imply something menacing. For example, a close-up of an egg in a nest would imply nothing more than an everyday object – benign and wholesome. But if that same egg were to have tiny blue sparks erupting from its shell we would presume it to be evil.

The spark coil

High-voltage spark coils manufactured for laboratory use can be employed for TV and movie effects. These coils produce bright blue sparks across their terminals (as much as 6in ...

Get Creating Special Effects for TV and Video, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.