Tips on creating Smokey Environments?

[Patrick Wieland]

Shooting some product stuff in a a warehouse and I am going to light it with a couple lights. Shooting a lot of backlit stuff showing the light beams and such. Was wondering if anyone had a simple way to make some smoke to enhance those beams of light.

Any tricks? Doesn't need to be a ton of smoke. Would rather not buy a fog machine.

 

[Nimish Thapar]

I've never tried it myself but incense might be a good hedge for smoke. At least I've seen that around these forums before.

 

[Domenic Barbero]

done incense. it works in very very very small areas. I would go with a hazer. Also shoot your light through some texture to break up the light into rays. Just shooting a beam into a room of smoke only works really well if its a super large spotted light or if you have some texture to shoot through.

 

[Julio Quintana]

I think it will be very difficult to smoke a whole warehouse using incense. If I were you I would just pay the rental for a hazer that is designed for that purpose. That's the only way to know that the smoke is not harmful to your crew or your equipment. The last thing you want is for everyone on set to be light headed with watery eyes.

 

[Patrick Wieland]

Think I'm just gonna light a trash fire right in the middle of it. Should get nice and smokey.

 

[D Fuller]

Shooting some product stuff in a a warehouse and I am going to light it with a couple lights. Shooting a lot of backlit stuff showing the light beams and such. Was wondering if anyone had a simple way to make some smoke to enhance those beams of light.

Any tricks? Doesn't need to be a ton of smoke. Would rather not buy a fog machine.

Rent a hazer. Should cost $50-75 per day. They give you a lot of constancy to the level of smoke, which will help your production go a lot smoother.

 

[Paul J Steinberg]

Hahahahahahaha, sorry that is just a funny thought, trying to haze a warehouse with incense.

Just rent a hazer (you don't need to buy one) and you'll need a couple e-fans to circulate the haze. If you're in Orlando Christie Lites has a large shop there. They aren't expensive. They are safe and you can adjust the amount of haze in the room. Depending on the fire alarm system they have you may need the alarm to be put into bypass while shooting.

Burning stuff in an enclosed area WILL hurt someone. You'd be breathing in whatever vapors/toxins are released from the trash as well as a nice helping of carbon monoxide.

 

[Patrick Wieland]

I was kidding about the trash fire.

 

[Jon Carr]

On one shoot I did we had the "tube of death" as it was called by the rental house. Basically it's a industrial smoke machine with a 160ft expanding tube with holes on the top. Filled the warehouse we were shooting in very nicely.