For my super 16 short this summer I need a large amount of smoke or fog on a battlefield. The idea is that it's very hard for the camera to see past 20-30 feet away. I've seen this done in many films (Stalker, Samurai Spy, Samurai Rebellion) and I've always wondered if they simply found locations with natural mist in the morning or brought in some sort of machine.

Any suggestions on how to do this? It's important that it come across well.

I know that in Fellowship of the Ring, as they departed the elven woods, some sort of beastly machine was used to create that enormous fog bank. I'm betting that finding a naturally foggy area on the right morning would be easier, but time would be tight. I don't know how foggy Florida is. Parts of New England (especially in CT) are ALWAYS foggy in the morning, which makes stuff like that easier.

Fog in the morning can work,make sure to check locations and your weather channel.

or search to buy smoke bombs.

There is definitely quite a bit of fog in the morning, especially since it's been in the 30s at night. The problem is that it's gone by 8AM or so. Also, I won't start shooting this until May. I should run some tests to see what it looks like.

This is going to be on Plus-X negative, which isn't very fast. Low light (early AM) might be a problem, but it could also add to the obscure feeling of haze/smoke.

Smoke bombs aren't a bad idea for closeups... any idea where to get some that aren't incredibly carcinogenic?

for how many you'd have to buy to get the wide shots, you might as well make your own smoke bombs with sugar and potassium nitrate. It'll cost you 3 bucks a pound (probably one tenth what it would to buy).

But still, that smoke goes away pretty fast. You want fog. Google curtis foggers. If you could find a farmer that would hook you up with a large volume fogger, that would be the best. Otherwise, if you're so inclined, maybe make a few foggers from 2 stroke leaf blower engines found at garage sales(?). Convert the intake manifold so after it's warm, you drip fog oil in. (ask for "Igeba oil" at any SFX company).

But yeah, if you can steal shots with real fog, that would be the Indie way.

If you find yourself unable to make the smoke bombs, buy some called "Mammoth Smoke." They let out a continous stream of thick white smoke for almost a minute.

i did this a couple of times on my films and used ROSCO FOG MACHINES. They cost aprox 40 bucks each for a day. i'd get like 3 of them and enough fluid. Then you need to have someone with a flag in front of it and diffuse the fog comming out.

I also ordered smoke bombs before but they suck compared to smoke machines.

HOWEVER....it might look more like smoke but I think this is pretty much the only option

here some examples of my first film I did 1.5 years ago

http://homepage.mac.com/krisztian/PhotoAlbum1.html

picture Noise3 could be something you are looking for? Noise2 is just pure chaos....thats what happens if you let 2-3 machines run without diffusing them.

Both pics look pretty good. I want a thick cloud, blocking any view of the environment.

Making your own fogger sounds interesting... does it produce a large volume? I'll probably try to shoot in the early morning. I have no problem with breaking it over several days if I can only work for 20 minutes at a time.

It won't be as much smoke as a real igeba, but with enough trial and error, you'll get much, much more than a roscoe fogger (or any other electric thermal fogger). Gas is the way to go for big results (outdoor use only).

I did some research and the foggers look like they put the oil into the exhaust, not the intake... suggestions?

I saw 'lawnmower foggers' that look pretty good. I have many lawnmowers.

well, then you gotta build a vaporizing chamber for the exhaust.

I thought it would be a lot easier to just plumb in an oil line before (or to) the carburetor where you could use the motor itself as the chamber. Use as high octane as possible (110), keep the 2 stroke mixture very lean, and be sure to warm the motor up before you start fogging and after your done. You may foul plugs more often, but that's not the worst thing in the world. It would be less reliable, but much easier/cheaper to make. But hey, if you've got lawnmower motors, try one of those.

Building one of these doesn't look like fun... what about smoke bombs, to go back to Kyle's earlier suggestion? At many airsoft games I play at there are smoke grenades that produce a large, dense cloud of smoke. I think a couple of these would be OK. Obviously it doesn't last for an hour but I could quickly get the shots I needed. Any sources?

Damn I ordered 2 times a big ammount of smokebombs but forgot the adress. I will find it.

My problem with smoke bombs: it is not exactly healthy for the crew and actors and a pain to work in. Fog machines are much better for that purpose and also more controlable.

But I def. used bombs before with success...its just usually more epxensive than renting a fogger with a small geni

Airsoft rules.

I'd go with a fog machine too, smoke bombs are miserable.

"But I def. used bombs before with success...its just usually more epxensive than renting a fogger with a small geni"

Probably not in this area. Getting a large generator and fogger, setting it up, etc would take time and cost money.

Buying 5 lbs of potassium nitrate on eBay, OTOH, and making my own smoke material will be effective

How harmful is it? It's apparently the same stuff that's commercially sold as smoke bombs, so I don't think it's going to gas anyone or cause any serious harm.

My only concern now is not to get arrested while I use it. I'll shoot early in the morning and set everything up, then light the smoke and get the footage, then leave.

How much do I need? It's supposed to be really effective, so maybe 3-4 lbs is enough.

Once someone called the fire department when I lit a smoke bomb .

yea self made is cheap I bought them in the store....its likr 5 bucks a bomb.

Its not that they are killing people...but the smoke itself is not really a good thing to be in for a long time while with a fogger, you can stay in the smoke for a day.

But I guess it depends on the situation. Outdooors, smoke bombs are a good thing.


n my advanced film, we used 4 smoke machines and made small, real fires and a lot of orange lights

10 min later, the police was there but they just laughed at us