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Summary
In this scene, the audience approaches a large
tractor in front of them. Dim white headlights glow towards them and an
orange light is behind the tractor's grill. Doctor William Hendrickson's
voice comes on the PA system. He starts to scream, and static begins to
block his voice out. Suddenly, the tractor starts to rock in front of the
audience back and forth. Then, without warning, it explodes in a shower
of sparks and a puff of smoke, and flips over on it's side. The audience's
Doombuggy is then able to pass by, as they see the remains of the tractor,
and no sign of Doctor Hendrickson.
Special Effects Involved:
In this scene, we have a very large tractor that blows
up and tips over. Now, this scene has two major effects: the exploding part,
and the tip-over part. In order for the tractor to tip over, we use man-power.
But, if the tractor were normal, my assistants would have a TERRIBLE time
trying to pull over a heavy tractor like that. So, I used a tractor which my
dad bought at a yard sale for about $10.00. There was only one major problem
with it: it had NO motor. Fortunately, though, this allowed it to be very
light-weight and easy to pull over, making it possible to safely tip it over
with one assistant pulling it over. So, we attached a black rope to the
steering wheel and put it in a place in the woods where it would be best (see
figure 3 below). The second part is the explosion. I developed a type of
explosive hookup where you load on a charge and it will ignite, on cue, with
the push of a button. I refer to these units as 'flash pots', which is what
they were called by magicians who designed similar systems. This flash pot
can be loaded with many charges. Since I am also a magician, I had access to
many different types of explosives. For the tractor scene, I have a combination
of a electric-sparkle powder and a flash of light/smoke powder. These two
powders are wrapped together in a special paper called 'flash paper' by
magicians. The paper-wrapped charge is loaded into the flashpot, and, at the
flick of a switch, it goes off. This system is usually problem-proof, unless
it gets wet. One night, as luck would have it, it rained. So, I placed an
overturned aluminum can on the flash pot, and it stayed relatively dry until
about one minute before it had to go off.
This scene was very fun
to do, and looked really cool to watch!
Before
After
