FX003 EXPLODING CAVEWALL
Mighty Ducks 2 commercial.

A Full cave section -floor, wall and ceiling- was sculpted in 'green death' foam and hard-coated. A large center panel, comprising the full, blown-out center area was then carefully removed and silicone rubber molded. Multiple center panels were cast using chemically-corrupted A-B foam, softened to the point of crumbliness.

Each fragile piece was placed back in the cavewall center for each take, with cracks along join edges sealed up with oil clay and touch-up painted. In order to spread out the shatter pattern out as much as possible, we used a big metal cone fitting on an air cannon. We rigged the cone with a tethered plywood disc wood plug sealed into the cone with clay and filled over with pea gravel.

To increase on-set safety, we even individually coated buckets and buckets of all the pea gravel with A-B foam. A large sheet of thick plastic sheeting was draped between the cave wall and the minimal crew required, who also wore safety goggles. Everyone else watched either from a view point upstairs or outside on a monitor. Even with the foam coating on the pea gravel, we found a few holes in the tough, thick clear plastic sheet barrier. Film was shot at high speed to capture all of thes split-second performances. Getting the right explosion involved adjusting and finding the right air pressure and timing release interval for this setup.

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