The students in Ray Hocker’s video production class at Burroughs High School recently got an inside look into the challenging and ever-changing business of creating illusions for the big screen.
    Special effects artists Matt Sweeney and Lucinda Strub shared with students some tricks of the trade, as well as what is expected from a professional in the special effects field.
    Education and hard work are a must for the field, said the two. Strub also stressed the importance of being punctual, cooperative, communicative and flexible.
    “One reason we’re lecturing you on this is because if you want to get a career in the entertainment industry, you have to know what it takes,” added Sweeney.
    After passing around examples of some of the props that they use in their line of work — including realistic looking rubber bottles, dumbbells and broken glass — Sweeney demonstrated a getup he designed for a stunt in the Michael Douglas film “Falling Down.”
    The scene called for a knife fight between Douglas and a shopkeeper. Sweeney had to come up with a way to realistically capture Douglas and his costar to getting into an altercation where a knife was pulled, Douglas stabbing his opponent over his shoulder, and the shopkeeper pulling the bloody knife out of his shoulder – all without compromising the safety of the cast and crew on set.
    “The film industry has one of the best safety records of any industry,” said Sweeney. “Statistically, it is as safe as working in any office.”
    Special effects artists think of stunts in cuts, said Sweeney. For the first cut, he procured a realistic rubber switchblade that could be safely wielded in the scuffle. For the second cut, he used a collapsible blade that could be stabbed into a shoulder holster worn under the wardrobe. The knife had points that would stick to the holster without harming the wearer. 
    For the last cut, Sweeney had a third knife that could be pulled from the holster to reveal a bloody blade that was set to extend when removed.
    Because filming is so expensive, said Sweeney — tens of thousands of dollars a day in most cases — crew members must make sure they can deliver their services without a hitch.
    Unfortunately, said Sweeney, directors have “bright ideas” all the time that require crews to come up with solutions on the spot.
    One such incident happened on “Lethal Weapon 2,” where Mel Gibson was supposed to be the object of a similar knife gag when his opponent stabbed him in the leg.
    “About an hour before we were going to do this, the director, a guy named Dick Donner, said he thought it would be a good idea for the bad guy to THROW the knife.”
    So with only minutes to prepare, Sweeney and his team whipped up a target to strap to Gibson’s leg, then strung an arrow gun with piano wire and connected it to the target. “This is so we can safely guide the projectiles to an exact target,” said Sweeny.
    “The film business is a creative process. A script is written and a location is chosen. Then you get there and run through the scene and realize it doesn’t work. So you find a way to make it work.”
    Strub showed the students one of the custom harnesses she designs for flying, falling and jumping characters. She held up a child-size suit to show how strong the reinforcement is.
    “Each square inch is worth 100 pounds of stress,” she said. “So I could pick up a horse with this.”
    She has measured actors from such films as “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Lost Boys,” “Batman and Robin” to design and manufacture the flying harnesses.
    In another example of the importance of ingenuity in her field, she shared that because of her dyslexia she cannot cut and measure patterns the standard way. “So I came up with my own way of doing it,” she said. Strub wraps her models in cloth tape like a mummy, draws on the suit, then cuts out the tape to use it as a pattern. “As it turns out, my way works better than the traditional way.”
    In an example of how specialized expertise can find a broader use, Sweeney told students about his part in creating liquid synthetic air to produce the effect of lowlying fog for Mr. Freeze in “Batman and Robin.”
    “My understanding is that NASA used to supply breathing air to the space shuttle when it was on the ground by mixing oxygen and nitrogen on the site,” said Sweeney. “Now liquid synthetic air eliminates the onsite mixing process by pre-mixed cryogenic liquid that, in a gaseous form, is the correct ratio of oxygen to nitrogen for breathing air.”
    Sweeney also received a Technical Achievement Award from the Motion Picture Academy, along with James Foley, Charles Converse and Ed Gardiner.
    Hocker, who has known Sweeney and Strub for more than 20 years through their mutual hobby of car racing, said he invited the two to speak to impress upon the students the importance of taking safety measures when filming.
    With the accessibility of filming technology and proliferation of homemade films on sites such as YouTube, “I wanted the kids to hear from the professionals about all the precautions they take.”
    Sweeney and Strub also shared with students the importance of training and education in math, physics, chemistry, computer science, stagecraft and shop classes of all kinds.
    “That’s one of the things we really stress in the Regional Occupational Programs,” said Hocker. “Whether it is sales, construction or video production — all these courses reinforce the importance of the core curriculum by allowing kids to see how things are applied in a real-world working environment.”
    It also gives students a catalyst who would otherwise not excel in subjects like math and science. “Once you show them a career path, they light up and get excited about the other related studies.”