 Phil Cory has been in the Special Effects business for
over thirty years. In the beginning he learned his trade from those that
went before him. But he soon discovered that many things were done in a
very crude fashion. For example, "nail boards". A nail
board is a device consisting of a row of nails pounded into a board. The
wires from bullet hits attached to an actor were strung several feet off
camera and attached to the nail board and a battery. Another wire attached
to the other pole of the battery, would be dragged across the nails to
fire the hits. The result, the actor was quite often "shot" in surprise
and the flying wires could be seen in the shot.
Phil has always asked himself, "Is there a better way to do this?" The
answer is frequently, "yes." In this case, he supplied the actor with a
small hand held switch connected to a tiny electronic timer. This
battery-powered assembly was completely self-contained upon the actor and
allows him to trigger the bullet hits at the proper time. For this device,
Phil required small, flat batteries that are not commercially available.
This did not stop him, he removed them from packs of Polaroid™ film.
In the early 1990’s he started working on a problem that has plagued
productions, the creation and control of sparks. Sparks are used in many
situations, for example, the shorting of an electrical circuit, in
explosions, the skidding of a vehicle on payment, and the firing of a
imaginary weapon. Sometimes only a small spark is required while at other
times, large, dramatic showers are called for. In the past there were only
two methods used to create sparks. The first was a grinding wheel and
flint, the second, the use of pyrotechnics. The first method does not
allow for fine control of the sparks and is cumbersome to say the least.
The second is costly to produce and requires a great deal of preparation
for each take or re-take, not to speak of the requirement for a licensed
pyrotechnic specialist and permits.
In 1992, Phil Cory developed a prototype of a non-pyrotechnical
spark generator that creates a
continuous spray of sparks. The generator provides fine directional
control of the sparks, from a few inches to showers over 30 feet. It can
be used on both stationary and moving objects to simulate both electrical
and abrasive spark sources.
The spark generator was designed and built by Phil Cory. Cecil Cory, an
electrical engineer, designed and built the electronics. It is registered
with the US Patent Attorney and received an US patent in 1998. The Model
PCSE0003 Spark Generator is available for rental from
Creative Effects. |
Special Effects, Inc.