The Smoke Genie is my secret weapon for small units
Right now, we’re going to create two wonderful scenes in an excellent small area, and nearly zero funds, however we have now a secret weapon, the Smoke Genie. The Smoke Genie is a conveyable smoke machine for small units. This video makes use of the Genie (buy here), however PMI additionally just lately introduced the Smoke Ninja, which has related options however for a smaller funds.
Promoting a set
We’re going to make use of the DIYP studio to stage the scene, and, it’s not a giant studio, so we’re utilizing a couple of tips to promote the magic. Primarily, props, lighting, and smoke.
In case you have ever produced a video on an excellent low funds, you understand that your finest shot is to achieve out to household and pals (and the greenback retailer). We acquired the typewriter from a pal, an ashtray from the greenback retailer, and the bottle was from my non-public inventory. None of us smoke, so we simply acquired one unit and let it burn to create some ash.
Creating the smoke results
I simply love volumetric lights as a result of they do wonders when it comes to ambiance. The factor is which you could’t actually see gentle rays. You’ll be able to solely see the sunshine as soon as it displays off of one thing. In a scene like this, it could be smoke. To create the smoke, we used a conveyable smoke machine referred to as the Smoke Genie.
To create our volumetric rays, we created two gobos out of froth core: a set of blinds and an industrial fan. Since foam core is so extremely reasonably priced, there’s a lot we might experiment with.
As soon as we had the room full of smoke, we used some onerous backlight on these gobos. The sunshine and the smoke actually gave the scene some depth and added a whole lot of temper.
The Smoke Genie
The Smoke Genie is a set smoke dispenser or a conveyable smoke machine. The one factor is, it’s actually tiny – a cellphone dimension. Because of this it’s an unimaginable instrument for small units.
To create smoke, you fill a small chamber with smoke fluid, and if you press a button, the Smoke Genie shoots smoke. You’ll be able to choose between 4 sorts of smoke:
- Haze – distributes a fair cloud of smoke in a really quick manner, and is nice for volumetric gentle
- Fog – This one is a bit bit thicker and has some options and shapes to it.
- Dry ice – for a low-hanging smoke blanket or filling up all types of tanks.
- Mist – which is analogous to fog, however a bit lighter.
The one factor is you wish to disable any smoke detectors earlier than you run it. Belief me.
Conclusion
We had a whole lot of enjoyable that day capturing a tiny movie noir scene. And regardless of the small area, we had been in a position to create a cinematic vibe however utilizing smoke. In the event you can afford the large Smoke Genie ($750), it’s a nice gadget to have on set, however even when not, try the smaller Smoke Ninja that begins at $199.
