10 August 2013 - The Smoke Box

Amanda Whittington's 'The Thrill of Love' is set predominantly in smoky London night clubs - specifically, The Court Club where Ruth Ellis worked and The Little Club which she was given the opportunity to run by Morrie Conley. It makes sense, then, that the set for the play should be smoked to some degree - not possible at the YMCA Mike Barlow theatre unfortunately, due to regulations*.

So, how to create a smoky atmosphere without using actual smoke on set? Step forward the videographer! For the backgrounds to these club-set scenes director Jules requested some smoky images overlaid against the projected backdrop image. Unimpressed with YouTube smoke scenes, I briefly considered getting a plug-in for the video editing program Final Cut Pro which would render CG smoke effects of different configurations - for a price, of course (usually quite a high price too!). Ultimately I opted for the cheap, cheerful and low-tech approach -  create and video the smoke myself.

Actual cigarette smoke being out of the question (kicked that habit a fair few years ago!) I chose the next best thing - incense sticks, provided by Fred. So I spent that Saturday morning painting the interior of an archive box matt black, fixing it to a workmate bench in my landlord's garage and poking adjustable cliplights through the top for illumination. Setting the Canon DSLR frame-rate to 50fps, I lit the sticks and let them do their thing. I must admit I did get rather spaced out on the fumes...

The results were rather wonderful; the smoke rose in the most beautiful twirls and settled into a pleasing mist in the background as others appeared, picked out by the rays of the halogen light. Given that the aspect ratio of the screen is approximately 1:3 (ie. long and thin), the images had to be captured by the camera in portrait format (and would need further slimming down in post). Importing the images into Final Cut then allowed me to slow the motion of the smoke and adjust the contrast to reduce digital noise and refine the appearance of the tendrils.

I am so pleased with the results I am even considering using them in a video project of my own at some point. However, firstly I need to overlay these smoky images on a suitable background. Better start working on those next...

Here be images of the smoky genesis, taken with my trusty iPad Mini.

*Not entirely sure what brought this about - something to do with reckless use of a smoke machine at some point - allegedly.