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Thousands of miles from Montserrat, back in the studios in Rome, we had a unique challenge-- to produce a dramatic recreation of this tragedy... To bring a full scale volcanic eruption to life.... using storyboards by Art Director Mark Dubeau, we set out to build a half size model of the Chloupeks house (image), and recreate the fire burning sequence. The house was constructed of fireproof material, and we had a whole crew of pyrotechnicians, electricians, and special effects people on hand, under the supervision of Ricardo Ricci.
Our greatest problem was creating a realistic, three-dimensional fireball (image). The shape was so bright that it ran the risk of appearing as a flat white ball on film. But special gelatins on the exterior lights (image) helped us achieve the effect of the fire ball blasting through the house. We used a combination of fire and smoke to achieve the effect of a massive pyroclastic flow ripping through the home.
For the reenactments of the Chloupek family inside the burning house, we used actresses (image) who had to handle truly difficult conditions (image). They were working close to the fire in an atmosphere choked with smoke. Of course, for the moment when Mary’s hair caught fire we used a dummy (image), dressed in the actress's clothes.
But we were working so close to the fire that there were moments when we were concerned about everyone's safety, as the fire came blasting towards us (image).
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