35mm Course Project - Course of Action

For their 35mm final project, one class had a script for a WWII drama.  It included flashbacks to a destroyer on a foggy night, being targeted by a rogue submarine.  In addition to a courtroom location and an impressive set for the destroyer's interior, they used miniatures to establish both ships and for transitions in editing. 

We began by storyboarding with the director to come up with the kinds of shots he wanted.  Knowing that the water line against a miniature boat is the visual kiss-of-death, we specifically composed around that giveaway.  There were shots looking down at the bow, and across the ship in profile, as well as wish-list shots of flying past the submarine underwater. 

A key moment involved a torpedo impact in the bow section.  Based on the drawings, and of course with a tight schedule and budget, we built the front half of the ship (only dressing the camera side), a larger-scale piece of the bow for POV shots and the explosion, plus the entire submarine detailed sufficiently for wide shots.

Both destroyer models were framed with 1x2 lumber and surfaced with various thicknesses of sheet plastic.

They were brought to a lake and shot high-speed on 16mm, to slow the ripples on the windy lake surface to a more realistic rolling motion.  The faster speed also meant the half-ship could be carried through frame without giving away its scale.  Fog was shot separately against black to control its properties, and composited on top of this footage. 

While 1st unit shot interiors in one part of the soundstage, the miniatures crew fashioned a tent around the sub to contain dispersed fog, and shot dry-for-wet.  The 16mm camera was swung past it on a crane, and panned as it did so, giving us nice fly-around shots.  The sub was built by one student, basically from 2-liter bottles and Bondo, with a fixed center pipe for rigging. 

Only one length of monofilament attached to the conning tower helped support the weight, and he wasn't about to trust that.

Disinclined to bring actual explosives into the stage, an alternate method of compressed air was used for the torpedo hit.  A hole was cut in the bow (after all daylight filming was complete), and covered with 1/4" metal screen.  Over the hole were layered flash paper and random cuts of black aluminum foil, painted to match the ship.  Underneath was mounted a funnel filled with sand and small debris, with the compressor nozzle secured to it.  On cue, the flash paper was ignited by an electric match, immediately followed by a burst of air to scatter the particles. in a cloud.  As they often do, audio and editing helped to sell that moment.