American Cinematographer - January 2008 - (Page 40) Setting an Oil Derrick Ablaze efore working on There Will Be Blood, special-effects supervisor Steve Cremin had created flaming oil wells for Jarhead — so successfully, in fact, that effects artists at Industrial Light & Magic still use those fire elements as references for other shows. Here is his account of how the flaming geyser was created for a key scene in Paul Thomas Anderson’s period drama: “We used petroleum products, diesel fuel and gasoline in different proportions depending on the shot. For day scenes, we used a mix that would create more smoke. Smoke doesn’t read at night, but if we wanted some night shots to be brighter, we just changed the mix. “We made our own jet nozzle to shoot the juice through. The pumps we used were hard to find: high-pressure petroleum-transfer pumps that do a huge volume at huge pressure. They were powered by hydraulic motors, which eliminated the danger of creating sparks anywhere near the fluid. Using an electric pump with metallic parts can throw sparks all over the place, and the impellers aren’t explosionproof, so you’re taking a heck of a chance with that kind of setup. All our power was remotely activated. “When you do this kind of stunt, you’re subjected to environmental oversight the whole time. No B fuel can be shot through the nozzle unless it’s ignited; you can’t let any fluid hit the ground, because then you’re liable for a toxic spill. Before we shot anything, we had to test the whole area to verify the levels of petroleum in the soil. Once we’d finished the stunt, we had to pull soil samples within a 150-foot radius [of the fuel jet] to prove we hadn’t added petroleum to the soil. “Because the flames had to ignite on camera, we first ran simulated oil, a water-based non-toxic product that was okay to drop on the ground. That ran through one pump for a certain amount of time, and then we’d inject the other pump and safely follow the water with fuel we could ignite. “We had four igniters in case any of them failed. They included electronic coils, propane poppers, pyrotechnics and, as our fourth backup, road flares below the deck. If anything shot out of the nozzle and didn’t get lit, it had to go through the flares before it hit the ground. “The original proposal was to make the derrick out of steel and put a veneer on it that could burn. That would have allowed us to put out the fire and replace the veneer for subsequent takes, but building a steel derrick would have been more expensive and time-consuming. And Paul just prefers guerrilla-filmmak- Above: Flames quickly engulf the production’s wooden derrick, which had turned to kindling in the hot desert sun. Right: Ciaran Hinds and Day-Lewis react to the heat with authentic discomfort. 40 January 2008
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