16 October 2010
Leaf blowers, hair dryers, fans - a blow by blow review of experimenting with special FX.

Having the first shoot of my upcoming project in glorious sunshine and with both model and vehicle in the same location – most of the storyboard concepts are pretty much complete. There’ll be a few extra bits and bobs to add in afterward, but nothing too overly complex.

My next model, Jessamyne, has been booked in and the date is fast approaching. This time it will be a studio shoot, in the same way all of Notorious Dames was shot, where the model will be super-imposed in various scenes during post production.

Jessamyne has long (and to give you the complete visual, wavy red hair) which I want to add movement to, so that when she ‘walks’ towards the camera, she actually looks like she’s moving with her hair flowing about in the breeze. Walk? Breeze? Studio?

Enter the studio wind machine.

There’s the $280 AUD looks-like-a-massive-hairdryer-but-more-expensive wind machine. This can either be mounted onto a studio stand or held by an assistant. Then there’s the $650 version which looks more like a fan that can be angled and has it’s own floor stand.

For a single use (and only possibly more), I couldn’t see myself spending either of those amounts. Add to the fact that I had many people throwing the “just use a leaf blower” suggestion… including a studio supplies store. Which brings me to today – my day of experimenting.

Prior to heading off to my local hardware store, to check out the latest and greatest in electric (not petrol) powered leaf blowers, I popped into my in-laws to ask if they had one. My father-in-law is one of those hoarder types, brilliant for when you need props (ala mechanics pin up theme). So with an affirmative on having a leaf blower, I convinced my mother-in-law who has longish hair, to accompany us to the garage and be my test subject.

First off, the leaf blower isn’t a delicate piece of machinery. Secondly, and much to all of our amusement, this thing really, REALLY BLOWS! My mother-in-law’s hair went very… upward! Perfect if wanting to do a shoot of someone skydiving perhaps!

The natural progression from the over-the-top leaf blower was to go back to basics and compare the effect given by a hair dryer. This was a disappointing but totally expected fizzle. The direction of air flow is too specific to look natural.

Next we tested out a modern, plastic floor standing cooling fan on the highest setting and… it just didn’t have enough power. One last object to test, another cooling fan – however this one, a retro metal fan. And we have a winner, it’s just the look I need!

So to summarise:

Leaf blower – ROTFLMAO.
Hair dryer – I think I saw a nasal hair move… a bit.
Plastic cooling fan – a mess of air that dissipated at about 30cms.
Metal retro fan – “It’s a Mistral.”

Note: All experiments were conducted about 1.5 meters from the subject.

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