I recently did a job where we recreated an american military base in post-war iraq. this isn't a student film, but I thought it might be fun to see some of the pics and behind the scenes stuff.

Check out the pictures here

you guys might get a kick out of the tools we use to create dust/smoke. The big fan in some of the pictures is called a Ritter fan. And the dust is fuller's earth and walnut dust. The smaller fan is called an E-fan. Basically the idea is to get dust in front of the fan and let it particularize in the air. It's tricky to create the right ambiance and yet not cover the camera with dust. For one shot, we had to blow dust right at the camera so we put a 'condom' on the camera (which is a thin plastic cover). Other tools used to blow dust are a converted portable sandblasting kit, a wet/dry vac, and a converted fire extinguisher. To get really nice dust, we blow a little smoke through it using a mole fogger (which is a converted pesticide fumigator).

did you shoot this where they shot JAG or at an airfield?

Looks awesome! I bet it was fun!

incredible! man, I hope someday I can work on huge projects like that. what was it for? what is the project? and, where, geographically, did you shoot it?

It was shot in dagget, just outside of barstow, ca at the dagget-barstow airport. It's an old military base that's been converted to a civilian small airport. But directly next to it is a helicopter repair yard for the marine base a mile or two away. The crash crew came over in their off-road fire engine and introduced themselves, it was totally cool. This is in the same area as where they shoot jag, but it isn't the same set. We had to start from scratch. For those that don't know california geography, this is the high desert about halfway between Vegas and Los Angeles.

Wow, wish I had locations like that to work with.

I can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy . . . oh well.

Was this FX's new tv show "Over There?"