Filming a bright spark

I had a very short filming session at Fusion Ironworks in the beautiful countryside setting of Matching Green, Essex this week. This was a side-shoot shoot of the Eiger Safety promotional video as Fusion carry out all their fabrication work on bespoke walkways, staircase and man-safe roof systems.

Filming welding and grinding action at Fusion Ironworks

A little warning for those of you that have not done this type of work before – it can be fraught with danger!  Apart from not being able to wear welding glasses (otherwise you couldn’t see what you was filming) there is also a fair bit of debris flying around when the grinding stage starts – some of which is white hot!  One of these little blighters could do some nasty damage to the face of your lens if you are not careful – not to mention your eyes.

Lucky I got away without either of these but I did get the odd reminder here and there that there was molten metal flying around.  Don’t you just love the smell of burning human skin and hair?!

Welding with the iris closed down

I’ve done a fair bit of weld filming in the past and I still find it fascinating as you can see so much detail as you close the iris down. I even remember trying to film some welding with an old 3-tube camera and spending the next few hours trying to remove the burns from the tube surfaces by shooting a white sheet with full lights and iris open to the max.  The older shooters will know what I’m talking about.

I also find that the rules of colour balance go completely out of the window as the blue cast from the weld makes for more dramatic images. Trying to balance this out is just bonkers.

Anyway – if you are looking for a steel fabricator then do get in contact with Wayne at Fusion.  He’s a very nice chap to deal with.