Lindsay Turner On Fire SFX
Lindsay Turner, a fire dancer, is interviewed by Film Center. Lindsay shares her background and expertise in practical effects for fire dancing and using practical fire on film. Film Center also discuss fire safety protocols, the transition from practical to digital fire in film and TV, and the challenges of creating realistic digital fire effects. We talk about the creation of fire effects in film production, costume changes during performances, and the importance of safety in fire manipulation. Listen in to this special episode!
Check out the Firemingos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHz6EkH9YUI
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hey, what's going on everyone?
Speaker:Welcome to Film Center, your number one place for studio news.
Speaker:My name's Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we are here with...
Speaker:Lindsey Turner.
Speaker:Lindsey, how are you doing?
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Now, I know Lindsay from working with her, and Something that's
Speaker:quite interesting about Lindsay is that she does things with fire.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:She's a firebender.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Firebender.
Speaker:One thing that we haven't had on the show yet is someone who does,
Speaker:who's really into practical effects.
Speaker:A lot of fire stuff that you see on TV and in movies is VFX.
Speaker:It's really great to have you here as someone who actually knows what
Speaker:it takes to do stuff in real life.
Speaker:A little bit of background.
Speaker:Also, we're here at the Hand Brewed Beer.
Speaker:Thank you for letting us record this.
Speaker:We're in Chatworth right now.
Speaker:Lindsay, if you mind telling us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker:The audience a little bit about yourself.
Speaker:I know you.
Speaker:But the audience doesn't know you.
Speaker:I Grew up here in Los Angeles and I've been pursuing a career
Speaker:in art and graphic design.
Speaker:I just happened to get into fire dancing because it was awesome.
Speaker:What initially drew you to fire dancing?
Speaker:Back up.
Speaker:Some people might not even know what that means, fire dancing.
Speaker:To them that just, is it, they might not know what that is exactly.
Speaker:So fire dancing is the performance art of dancing with fire.
Speaker:And there's lots of different types of props.
Speaker:There's definitely like fire dancing started in many other cultures.
Speaker:Like you have the Polynesians and stuff like that.
Speaker:And The New Zealanders, with their poi as well, so there's like a long history
Speaker:of fire dancing in all these different parts of the world, and it's just really
Speaker:cool to see it evolve into a dance form that we can share with everybody.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:So is there a certain type that you are more towards, you're more
Speaker:towards the New Zealand side, more towards the Polynesian side?
Speaker:I personally love to spin rope dart, that's my favorite prop.
Speaker:A rope dart?
Speaker:A rope dart.
Speaker:Like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
Speaker:But what style is that?
Speaker:So that is a Chinese rope dart is actually a form of Chinese martial arts.
Speaker:So typically you would have a dagger at the end of your rope and you can do all
Speaker:these fancy tricks with it in order to like, accurately shoot it or just wrap
Speaker:somebody else up and cause abysmal pain.
Speaker:We try not to do that.
Speaker:And then you just add fire to it.
Speaker:Yeah, so we just light a wick on fire.
Speaker:I would strongly encourage it.
Speaker:I've given myself a black eye once before, so then that was not fun.
Speaker:Luckily, not on fire.
Speaker:Not on fire.
Speaker:I did not Zuko myself.
Speaker:Thank goodness.
Speaker:That's all good.
Speaker:What would you say initially drove...
Speaker:What initially captivated you to start?
Speaker:Honestly, it was when my husband and I had just got into festival culture
Speaker:and going to these events and we love camping and being outdoors so it just
Speaker:seemed really fun to be in these places where we could be in the outdoors and
Speaker:then also enjoy music all weekend.
Speaker:And it was very common to see fire dancers on stage while the DJs were
Speaker:performing or even at smaller events that we went to and it was just, I
Speaker:just thought it was really beautiful.
Speaker:And there was one day where I saw this woman named Sam Tobey dance on stage and
Speaker:I had never seen a woman named Sam Tobey.
Speaker:She's incredibly talented and such a wonderful teacher.
Speaker:Was she your like, fire mentor?
Speaker:Yes, eventually.
Speaker:I was geeking out so hard.
Speaker:But I saw her dance on stage and she just looked so powerful and
Speaker:I was like, I want to do that.
Speaker:I want to do fire.
Speaker:I just want to do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was so cool.
Speaker:And that was just the first prop I really connected with.
Speaker:I just buried my hand, head in the sand and just tried learning as much as I
Speaker:possibly could and I've been doing it for about five years now and actually spinning
Speaker:my rope dart on fire for about three.
Speaker:Because I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to give myself a black eye again.
Speaker:Yeah, I just really did not want that to happen.
Speaker:What made you choose to specialize in the rope dart?
Speaker:It was just the prop that called to me the most.
Speaker:I just thought it was really cool.
Speaker:I loved the martial arts.
Speaker:style movements because they felt really strong.
Speaker:I have avatar, less everything basically.
Speaker:It is, like I said, it is a form of martial arts.
Speaker:So a lot of our dance moves are based on the moves, but they've
Speaker:definitely been changed and altered.
Speaker:I can't say that it's like super accurate to the original martial arts form.
Speaker:Now when you say are, because some people might not know, who are you referring to?
Speaker:You are part of a group.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'm part of a, I'm part of two different dance groups.
Speaker:One is called the Fire Mingos, and we are basically our whole goal is to perform at
Speaker:Burning Man, which we did this last year.
Speaker:Which was awesome.
Speaker:And a lot of us are also part of A dance company called Lumia
Speaker:Dance Company where we do full on productions with just flow props.
Speaker:And you've done some work in different video projects and things like that?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:When it comes to fire, so as...
Speaker:I was also in the circus, I was in the circus, which we had fire we had
Speaker:fire breathers and stuff like that.
Speaker:Oh heck yes.
Speaker:But I wasn't skilled enough to do it myself.
Speaker:What is what is some special tips you would give to someone who is
Speaker:looking to get into it possibly?
Speaker:Because I know there are some.
Speaker:Some things that you've talked about, that we've talked about
Speaker:obviously off of the show.
Speaker:But, one of the things that you said you really stood out to me was like, Oh, I
Speaker:have to put on my makeup a certain way.
Speaker:Because what people don't understand is fire, I mean everyone knows that
Speaker:fire is hot, but they don't really understand how hot it actually is.
Speaker:Where it can melt whatever you have on your face.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't want to look like a scary goblin at when I'm
Speaker:trying to perform for people.
Speaker:It's...
Speaker:But, honestly, it's just a lot of makeup setting spray.
Speaker:Usually that does the trick.
Speaker:It's not...
Speaker:Every girl knows that, Makeup and setting spray?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What is some of the...
Speaker:You eventually did Rope Darts.
Speaker:What did you start off in?
Speaker:I started off learning hoops, and it was fun, and I...
Speaker:What is hoops?
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:Like a hula hoop.
Speaker:A hula hoop on fire?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That sounds like it would be something you'd do later on.
Speaker:No, I didn't start with it on fire.
Speaker:I had a...
Speaker:that I was learning how to do the tricks with.
Speaker:And while it was really fun, and I loved that I could get more dance
Speaker:y with it, because I do have a dance background before I got into
Speaker:fire dancing it didn't just, it didn't click with me the same way.
Speaker:It was like a big lightbulb went off the first time I saw
Speaker:someone dancing with a rope dart.
Speaker:And I was just, like I said, that went, oh my god.
Speaker:And, but once you learn one prop, then you eventually want to learn a whole
Speaker:bunch of other ones, because a lot of the movements are very similar As, as
Speaker:how you would like navigate doing it.
Speaker:So I've learned fans.
Speaker:I still play with Hoob.
Speaker:Once again, we are here at the hand brewed beer.
Speaker:We take a film center on the road and yeah, shout out to them and we appreciate
Speaker:them for letting us use their spot.
Speaker:That's why you hear all these people in the background.
Speaker:As film center actually goes to the road on the road.
Speaker:We don't like to stay in the studio.
Speaker:So one thing that I would.
Speaker:Particularly ask you and be particularly curious about is the fact that you
Speaker:said you've been doing this for five years But you said you've been doing
Speaker:the props on fire for only three.
Speaker:Can you talk about the process?
Speaker:of learning it and then learning it well enough to then put it on fire.
Speaker:What does that look like?
Speaker:Honestly, it's just, trying to be really consistent with my movement.
Speaker:Rope dart is very difficult in the sense where like I'm, I just have a thing at
Speaker:the end of a rope and I'm wrapping it around different parts of my body in
Speaker:what we call empty knots or to do shots.
Speaker:And you never get it right the very first time, cause it's difficult, it's a string,
Speaker:and, you don't know where it's gonna land on your body if you're not familiar
Speaker:with it yet, you don't know how to...
Speaker:Have you ever burnt yourself before?
Speaker:Yeah, I've definitely burnt myself before.
Speaker:Not, nothing super bad, but, that's...
Speaker:That's just, definitely got some love taps in.
Speaker:That's why I can just kinda go into it really confident.
Speaker:And even now there's...
Speaker:Still plenty of moves that I do when I'm practicing, say with my non fire dart,
Speaker:that I will not do on fire yet, because I never get it right consistently.
Speaker:Not yet anyway.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For the audience at home, how long would you say do you typically have to
Speaker:practice before you feel comfortable?
Speaker:comfortable putting an object on fire.
Speaker:Like, how did you know the first time, okay, I'm ready to put this on fire.
Speaker:Or do you just have to just, trust your gut type of thing?
Speaker:It's definitely different for every person.
Speaker:Everyone will suggest get comfortable with the prop before you light it on fire.
Speaker:Because once you light it on fire, it is definitely overwhelming the first time.
Speaker:Specifically...
Speaker:Do you feel all that heat coming from it?
Speaker:It feels different probably.
Speaker:You feel the heat.
Speaker:You hear the sound.
Speaker:You feel the power.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You hear the sound of the whooshing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And before when you're concentrating on your movement, the first
Speaker:time, at least for me, when I lit my rope dart on fire, I was
Speaker:like, it just, it suddenly felt very different.
Speaker:How do you guys keep it lit like that?
Speaker:There's not I've seen some of your performances and it's always lit
Speaker:with all your different movements.
Speaker:Is there something special you put on it?
Speaker:On your objects?
Speaker:Sometimes we do.
Speaker:Most of the time I just use like white camping fuel.
Speaker:Which you can get at the...
Speaker:What is white camping fuel?
Speaker:It's the liquid fuel that you would pour on a fire for camping or something.
Speaker:It's very common in camping stores.
Speaker:Oh!
Speaker:And that's typically what I use.
Speaker:Some people use lamp oil and there's like pros and cons to each type that you use.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you can also add special effects on your fire if you have, glitter or like
Speaker:other like titanium or aluminum powders that you just sprinkle on your prop after
Speaker:you dip it and then it'll create some fun firework effects, so That's pretty cool.
Speaker:What so when you saying?
Speaker:so I Know that you've done some work on video also with fire.
Speaker:Is there any sort of Special ways that you have to interact with the camera
Speaker:and things like I've seen some of your work some of the Fire Mingo's work.
Speaker:And, you've also performed on stage as well.
Speaker:Talk to a little bit about the audience when it comes to placement
Speaker:between the camera and fire.
Speaker:Isn't there some sort of distances?
Speaker:Is there, like, how do you prepare for that and make sure you're not...
Speaker:Oh my goodness.
Speaker:It, again, also very much depends on the situation.
Speaker:If I'm performing at a private event or something, I definitely make sure I'm
Speaker:far enough away where I'm not going to be hurting anybody, because, specifically
Speaker:with my rope dart, it's very long.
Speaker:The fans I perform with are a little bit more tight and close to the body, unless
Speaker:I, Accidentally let go and throw it I can get a little closer to people with that
Speaker:and you know Some people really like it.
Speaker:Some people don't so I have to read the room and feel it out feeling But
Speaker:when it comes to specifically our fire mingos videos we have a lot of
Speaker:girls in our group and, sometimes we have all 20 a lot of fire.
Speaker:All 20 of us with all of our props on fire.
Speaker:And, when you shoot something on camera the lens obviously
Speaker:distorts what you're doing.
Speaker:Even though we had our choreography set and figured out, whenever we're
Speaker:filming we always have to check with the camera and make sure that our
Speaker:lines look good so we have to re mark everything and kind of figure out what
Speaker:that spacing is going to look like.
Speaker:But sometimes we have to get really close to each other, especially
Speaker:towards the front, in order for it to look right, how do you, like, how do
Speaker:you, so because, once again, for our audience listening, she does practical
Speaker:fire, which, so there's no VFX, right?
Speaker:It's all real.
Speaker:It's very warm.
Speaker:There's no...
Speaker:How do you prepare for that ahead of time?
Speaker:I know there's probably some dance choreography practice, because I
Speaker:know you have background in dance.
Speaker:Some of the other people in the Fire Mingles have background in dance.
Speaker:Does that help you when it comes to placement?
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:We definitely learn our choreography as best we can and have it, rock solid
Speaker:in our brains before we go to film.
Speaker:We always make sure to do a practice run on fire before we
Speaker:film, just so we get used to it.
Speaker:course when we're on our own our fearless mingo leader encourages us
Speaker:to practice on fire safely at a safe location because you don't want to
Speaker:light anything on fire in California.
Speaker:Obviously.
Speaker:It's a little scary.
Speaker:You just have to get used to it, especially if you're learning new moves
Speaker:specifically for the choreo and whatnot.
Speaker:And it also helps you figure out how long you're.
Speaker:Prop is going to be burning for because the time can vary drastically.
Speaker:So if the wick is smaller, it obviously doesn't last as long.
Speaker:If the wick is big, it'll soak up way more of the liquid gas.
Speaker:And when you're trying to film, uh, sometime and you're trying to do your
Speaker:whole performance in one shot, which is something that our troop typically isn't
Speaker:a lot of one shots because it's on fire.
Speaker:Like you had to get it right.
Speaker:Now, compared to doing a take and take again, because it is literal fire.
Speaker:Yes, but see we had something really interesting happen this last round
Speaker:where we noticed that all of our fans weren't staying lit long enough
Speaker:because our dance piece was a little bit too long for fans in general.
Speaker:Sounds like a math problem to keep it lit.
Speaker:I tried to get as far away as I could from math.
Speaker:Yeah, yet here we are talking about it.
Speaker:No White gas obviously burns the fastest and the cleanest.
Speaker:It leaves little to no smoke.
Speaker:Some people like to use lamp oil, like stuff that you would put in tiki torches.
Speaker:But it's a lot smokier because it's a lot more viscous.
Speaker:And since our fans kept going out too quickly, we decided let's make
Speaker:one dip station where we have...
Speaker:50 50 fuel.
Speaker:It's going to be Dip station.
Speaker:What is that?
Speaker:The dip station is what we call our area where we put all of our
Speaker:fuel so we can dip our props.
Speaker:We keep it very far away from wherever we're dancing or performing because the
Speaker:last thing you want is like a little flame to fly off your prop and Oh, hold on.
Speaker:Explode things.
Speaker:Before you continue, I we've forgotten to say, please do
Speaker:not try any of this at home.
Speaker:She is a trained professional.
Speaker:Yeah, Please don't do that.
Speaker:That would not be good.
Speaker:Speaking of which, have there ever been any serious accidents
Speaker:while dancing in your group?
Speaker:Thankfully, no.
Speaker:We're always very careful.
Speaker:We always have extra people on hand to be our safeties.
Speaker:We actually...
Speaker:We joke that many of the partners to all the women in our group
Speaker:are our emotional support mangos.
Speaker:Because we call ourselves the mangos.
Speaker:The mangos.
Speaker:So our emotional support mangos will come in and help us and they
Speaker:have the safety blankets out.
Speaker:And it's solely their job just to watch us to make sure that
Speaker:no one's getting lit on fire.
Speaker:And there's What is the protocol just in case someone, someone's, cause you,
Speaker:I think you have to put your hair up maybe a certain way to prevent Wait,
Speaker:so what is the protocol just in case someone's hair might catch on fire?
Speaker:The first thing you do is you yell out what body part is on fire and then the
Speaker:dancer will know to try and put it out themselves, and then if it lasts longer
Speaker:than three seconds then we come in with the fire retardant blanket and try and
Speaker:smother it out as quickly as possible.
Speaker:How did you come up with three seconds as the time to...
Speaker:Would you want to wait longer than three seconds if you're on fire?
Speaker:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker:I don't know, maybe that's like a, I don't know, just curious.
Speaker:To be fair, if you're struggling and you, like I've seen a friend get their
Speaker:hands caught in their rope dart and they couldn't get it off fast enough.
Speaker:Whoa.
Speaker:And then they burned themselves, but they were okay.
Speaker:But like all of us were like, can we jump in?
Speaker:Should we?
Speaker:And he was like, I'm fine.
Speaker:And then he was not fine.
Speaker:So we should have just listened to ourselves and just jumped on it.
Speaker:And did the three seconds.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Is this, so there's been when it comes to movies and television.
Speaker:Less and less practical stuff has been happening, more and more CGI.
Speaker:Part of the reason why is, they say, for safety.
Speaker:But, as someone who's a professional working with fire, do you really
Speaker:think it's a safety reason?
Speaker:Or do you think it's because um, maybe sometimes they try to cut corners?
Speaker:That's a really good question.
Speaker:Working with fire is definitely expensive, because you have to make sure you have
Speaker:the fuel, you need to make sure you have all the safety people designated
Speaker:space in order to be able to dip, or, however you're going to light your
Speaker:stage, it probably depends on the production, but if it's, if you can do
Speaker:it digitally, then that's cool too, but.
Speaker:As someone who works with fire a lot, what do you think of some
Speaker:of the digital fire that you see?
Speaker:Do you think it's good, do you think it's bad?
Speaker:A lot of my friends who work in VFX, they're always complaining that, fire
Speaker:isn't liquid exactly, but in Blender and a lot of different VFX stations,
Speaker:it's very hard to recreate because it's like this plasma effect, so they always
Speaker:complain that they never get That.
Speaker:And they say they never get water.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Would you suggest that maybe they just try it practically or
Speaker:would you say it just depends?
Speaker:I think it depends.
Speaker:But also as an artist, I feel like I never do certain things
Speaker:exactly the way I want to.
Speaker:'cause there's like a picture in your head of how you want it to
Speaker:be, and if you don't reach it, then you're gonna be very self-Critical.
Speaker:Also, fire's unpredictable.
Speaker:Yes, fire is also unpredictable, so that's probably another reason why people
Speaker:would like to, create it in for VFX rather than actually working with it.
Speaker:Cause you don't know if an accident's gonna happen, and God forbid
Speaker:something really bad happens.
Speaker:Especially if you're working on like a crazy feature film
Speaker:and you've got, going on.
Speaker:Also, one question that I would have for you...
Speaker:Speaking of not getting fire quite right as a digital effect now that you
Speaker:have been doing it for a considerable amount of years whenever you're watching
Speaker:something, can you spot the digital fire?
Speaker:And then when they're doing legit practical fire?
Speaker:Sometimes.
Speaker:I'm not an expert in VFX at all, but but sometimes you can just tell it looks
Speaker:bad and it's usually pretty consistent throughout whatever you're watching.
Speaker:Do you prefer to see real fire over the VFX fire?
Speaker:Oh, heck yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Heck yeah.
Speaker:Does it take you out of, does it take you out of the movie
Speaker:since you are so proficient with.
Speaker:Does it take, does it suspend the suspension of disbelief?
Speaker:Yeah, does it ruin the movie for you?
Speaker:Yeah, does it ruin the movie for you, now that you're a bit
Speaker:of an expert in firebending?
Speaker:If it's done really badly, then absolutely.
Speaker:It's almost like when you Watch a foreign film or something and you
Speaker:speak the language and you realize that the subtitles don't actually
Speaker:match up to what they're saying.
Speaker:That's the experience of seeing bad fire in a TV show or movie.
Speaker:You're like nah.
Speaker:Point the finger at it.
Speaker:Because I, for people who don't know Lindsay also speaks
Speaker:German, um, Just a little bit.
Speaker:Just a little bit.
Speaker:She's also bilingual.
Speaker:Lindsay, when it comes to your firework that you've done, Is there some of your...
Speaker:Cause you've done both theater and you've also done things on film.
Speaker:Do you have a preference?
Speaker:I really love the video productions that we make with the fire mingos
Speaker:because we always do our audition video for Burning Man, but then we...
Speaker:make a super conscious effort to make a more creative version of our video.
Speaker:And I feel like that's where the magic really happens because that's where we
Speaker:get a lot of the storytelling because when you perform at burning man, you're
Speaker:not going to have your own music.
Speaker:You're not going to be wearing the costumes because you're out in the
Speaker:middle of the desert and there's no place to change your own costumes.
Speaker:We do pretty, we pretty much make all of our own costumes.
Speaker:And that's incredible.
Speaker:We put on the whole production with just our own money.
Speaker:wE don't really we fundraise a little bit, and that was mostly to help us with
Speaker:filming locations and stuff like that.
Speaker:And we've definitely had a really supportive fan base friends and family
Speaker:who helped us make our dream come true this year, and it happened we're, I
Speaker:think they're still in the process of editing the video right now, but
Speaker:hopefully in the next month or so, our new film noir inspired show will be out
Speaker:on YouTube that'll be really exciting.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:In terms of, Production as far as firebending.
Speaker:I'm going to call it firebending.
Speaker:That's totally fine.
Speaker:Because that's what I can equate to it.
Speaker:It's not coming out of my hands, but I am manipulating what direction
Speaker:it's going in, so it works.
Speaker:Have you seen that on YouTube where the guy, he like he
Speaker:hooks something to his wrist?
Speaker:I forget what it is, because it's not a canister exactly.
Speaker:But he puts this sensor on it where you can push your hand hard enough.
Speaker:It does shoot out fire.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Do you think that someone who does a whole bunch of like fire
Speaker:stuff either would use that?
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:Can you imagine someone who can like fire breathe and then they could
Speaker:just like Spider Man their next move?
Speaker:That'd be awesome.
Speaker:Because if you're fire breathing, normally you have a little torch that you keep
Speaker:lit on hand so you can relight yourself.
Speaker:But, it's probably not safe if it's like a giant flamethrower on your wrist.
Speaker:Probably less safe.
Speaker:There's probably a better way of doing that, but Probably way less safe.
Speaker:It'd still be cool.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In terms of film production is there anything that we
Speaker:the audience don't realize?
Speaker:I think one of the biggest things for us, especially with our audition video for
Speaker:this year, is that you see the pieces come on and come off and they do their stuff.
Speaker:What you don't see is the mad dash on the side of everyone, re dipping
Speaker:their props, changing their costumes, helping each other in and out of things.
Speaker:It looks, like something's happening on stage.
Speaker:Beautiful and fun and effortless.
Speaker:But you just don't see all of us on the sidelines.
Speaker:Oh my God, I have to get to my next piece of time.
Speaker:You got to rush off and re dip it or something.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:So you basically have a NASCAR pit crew on the side.
Speaker:We're each other's NASCAR pit crew.
Speaker:The fire safeties only make sure that we're not lighting ourselves on fire.
Speaker:Cause they're, they're just there to watch and make sure everyone who is on stage.
Speaker:The people who do the fire safety, are they like firemen or who are they?
Speaker:lIke I said earlier, a lot of them are our friends and family.
Speaker:Our emotional support mangos.
Speaker:Or other friends.
Speaker:And typically they're also fire spinners because they know what's up.
Speaker:And they know how to stay safe.
Speaker:And they know exactly what it's like to spin a prop, too.
Speaker:My husband loves to help out and be a fire safety, and he's only touched a prop
Speaker:for funsies, but he's always been very supportive of wanting to come with me to
Speaker:my gigs and making sure I stay safe, and he's been an excellent spotter thus far,
Speaker:a spot a fire spotter?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:Because I have lit my hair before on fire, and it scared the audience.
Speaker:And I just had to keep smiling, and I was like, Oh, that's nothing!
Speaker:Oh, it's holy fire!
Speaker:And you were just like, Holy crap, my hair's on fire!
Speaker:I put it out really fast, Because there's a very distinct burning hair smell, And
Speaker:you hear a sizzle, so I was just, I just swiped my hand behind my head as fast
Speaker:as I could, And then didn't hear the sizzle anymore, And I was all fine, is
Speaker:there any I know that you have a whole bunch of little techniques and tricks
Speaker:that you've developed over the years.
Speaker:When it comes to fire breathing, cause one of the, I've seen one of
Speaker:Lindsay's performances, and in one of the performances, everyone there was
Speaker:a little girl screaming for you to eat this giant rope dart, even though it was
Speaker:huge and like impossible but, there's a lot of people who listen to this
Speaker:show who are either in the industry or trying to get into the industry, and
Speaker:that includes people who are armorers.
Speaker:And an armorer's job is to make sure that everyone's safe when
Speaker:they're doing these type of effects.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Is there anything that you can tell to eating fire?
Speaker:Cause I know there's a lot of...
Speaker:Indie productions out there where they want to have fire
Speaker:breather or hire a fire breather.
Speaker:Is there anything out there that they should really know when
Speaker:they're doing those type of things?
Speaker:A fire breather is definitely different than a fire eater first and foremost
Speaker:because there's it's a whole different set of skills you know knowing what
Speaker:it is that you really want out of the performance will be key for Who you're
Speaker:going to be hiring for the gig What?
Speaker:Safety measures are going to be involved because it's going to be different
Speaker:depending on how much fire there is, what the kind of prop is, how many
Speaker:people are going to be involved.
Speaker:So making sure you know those differences is always good and the fire community
Speaker:are just Absolutely wonderful people.
Speaker:And they'd be happy to explain things and help out and, Whenever I was,
Speaker:whenever I saw your performance last time we came here at the Hand Brew Beard
Speaker:Bar in Chatsworth You, I asked you, because I myself was curious, how you
Speaker:looked like you were eating the fire.
Speaker:And then I asked you how you did it.
Speaker:Could you explain to the audience how you did it?
Speaker:That's an industry trade secret.
Speaker:Oh, it's a trade secret.
Speaker:No, but there is certain technique involved so you don't hurt yourself.
Speaker:Sometimes you can burn the inside of your mouth a little bit.
Speaker:But there's...
Speaker:You have to find a good teacher and you definitely need to practice
Speaker:before you ever light it on fire.
Speaker:Do you like spicy stuff?
Speaker:I do love spicy stuff.
Speaker:Do you think that helps?
Speaker:Do you think eating fire, does Definitely not, it's not the same kind of burn.
Speaker:But we do like to joke that our wicks are just spicy marshmallows.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:There, there was Danger Mellows.
Speaker:Danger Mellows?
Speaker:There was a moment after the performance, in which you helped some of the
Speaker:kids were, like, really interested.
Speaker:You used stuff for the kids.
Speaker:Can you explain a little bit about, like, when someone who's a literal child...
Speaker:When you're doing fire things with them, what is that obviously, I
Speaker:obviously wanted to be really careful and I didn't want to, Give it to the
Speaker:kids without the parents permission.
Speaker:I made sure every the parents were cool with it and It was just fun introducing
Speaker:them to fire dancing in a very small way.
Speaker:So I have these really tiny props called palm torches, which you
Speaker:just put on the top of your hand.
Speaker:There's no string, there's no crazy technical moves that you
Speaker:have to know in order to enjoy yourself and play with them.
Speaker:You still need to be very careful and do not light things on fire
Speaker:without, safety personnel or a blanket or things of precaution.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You never want to spin fire alone.
Speaker:That's one of our biggest rules in the fire communities.
Speaker:You don't do it alone, cause God forbid something really bad happens and
Speaker:there's no one there to spot you, or.
Speaker:You're just on fire.
Speaker:Yeah, then you're just on fire, alone, somewhere.
Speaker:That's horrible.
Speaker:That's horrible.
Speaker:Awful.
Speaker:Just skin burning.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:Just crackling.
Speaker:No we don't want anyone to be a toasted marshmallow.
Speaker:It's not fun.
Speaker:No, I know.
Speaker:Or a burnt marshmallow.
Speaker:Are there any movies or shows that involve fire that's oh, I would either a love to
Speaker:be the person doing this or be like this They really got that right because there's
Speaker:a whole bunch of fantasy shows and TV like that It's like for example Game of Thrones
Speaker:the dragon breathes fire all the time.
Speaker:A lot of times It's not realistic so if there's any movies or TV shows
Speaker:where oh, dude, this looks awesome and I would love to do it if I could.
Speaker:I love it when I watch these different fantasy shows and whenever there's some
Speaker:sort of festival or night of celebration going on, there's always a fire dancer
Speaker:in there somewhere in the background of the scene, like every single time.
Speaker:And every time I'm like, ooh, what trick are they doing?
Speaker:I wanna, dang it we moved away.
Speaker:You never really see them for very long, so it would be cool
Speaker:to see more storytelling that involved fire dancing, in a sense.
Speaker:I'm definitely super stoked about the new Avatar coming out soon.
Speaker:Hopefully they do it well.
Speaker:They will.
Speaker:They will.
Speaker:The cast looks.
Speaker:We don't talk about the other movie.
Speaker:It does not exist.
Speaker:WOuld you love to be a firebender in this series if you got a chance?
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:I feel like it fits my personality totally.
Speaker:We'll definitely get you in contact with the new avatar people.
Speaker:So that we can have, nah, I'm just kidding, my heart stopped for a second.
Speaker:I was like, oh my god!
Speaker:I didn't know we had these powers!
Speaker:You didn't tell me!
Speaker:Do they need someone for their rap party?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:That won't be on film, the rap party.
Speaker:No, but I could perform for them.
Speaker:You know what's really interesting about when people there's a lot of
Speaker:Indie productions that try to use fire when it comes to explosions, or
Speaker:they try to use it for whatever crazy reason they're trying to use it for.
Speaker:Is there anything that that you would say is probably a bad idea
Speaker:when you, cause I like fire can go wrong so many different ways.
Speaker:I know there's a lot of people who try to do things with explosions, but,
Speaker:that thing is you do fire dancing.
Speaker:And it is really hot It's not fake, and it's really close
Speaker:to your skin all the time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is there like a certain amount of times you can be near it before
Speaker:it's okay, this is a problem?
Speaker:If you can definitely get like overexposed, and I've had this happen to
Speaker:me before, where like my fans got too hot, and, we're trying to reshoot the scene
Speaker:over and over again because fans that are not moving get hot very quickly, because
Speaker:the whole frame is made out of metal, so if we're just holding it steady...
Speaker:Oh, they're metal frames, I thought they were, I thought they were something else.
Speaker:No, they're metal.
Speaker:And the flame is pretty close to your hand, like at
Speaker:least specifically with fans.
Speaker:So I have been holding on to them while we were waiting to shoot
Speaker:something and my hand got too hot and I've had to throw them down
Speaker:because I was like, I can't take this.
Speaker:And after that, because I was already burned, I was more sensitive to the heat.
Speaker:so It definitely got harder to keep going eventually.
Speaker:So burning actually makes you more sensitive to it.
Speaker:Yeah, right away.
Speaker:If you've got the red skin that's starting to bubble.
Speaker:But you have to keep the motion going so that it's not as hot?
Speaker:Yes, that's usually ideal, but that doesn't always happen when you're trying
Speaker:to do a choreographed piece, and you're trying to get different camera angles.
Speaker:wE try and not light the prop until we're absolutely ready to go.
Speaker:We always have to wait until the very, very last second.
Speaker:And even then, we can't wait super long because the gas on
Speaker:your prop can start to evaporate.
Speaker:Especially if it's really hot outside.
Speaker:Temperature and weather will definitely affect how long your
Speaker:prop will last during a shoot.
Speaker:So that's why we've done things like mixing the different types of fuel in
Speaker:order to get a certain effect and make it last longer and stuff like that, but...
Speaker:She mixes fuel.
Speaker:She's a chemist.
Speaker:We've had to learn.
Speaker:Neil, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker:Is there any advice that you'd give to someone who's trying to,
Speaker:who might want to do what you do?
Speaker:Definitely reach out to the community if you happen to follow someone
Speaker:online, or just, you can even find Facebook groups of meetups of
Speaker:people wanting to teach lessons.
Speaker:There's lots of stuff that goes on, especially in Los Angeles.
Speaker:And I personally highly recommend it because I've made some of
Speaker:my best friends these last five years through this community.
Speaker:And it's so supportive and it's so wonderful because we all just want
Speaker:to have a good time and be safe.
Speaker:We're gonna also watch the Fire Mingles.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You can find The Fire Amingos on YouTube, and it's The Fire Amingos.
Speaker:All one word, no weird punctuation in between things.
Speaker:And yeah, we've got a few videos up there of previous basically
Speaker:productions that we've done.
Speaker:We have a Star Wars and Alice in Wonderland fusion inspired one.
Speaker:Last year the Fire Mingos did this incredible show called The West of Oz.
Speaker:Which was really fun, just a very western themed Wizard of Oz story.
Speaker:Stone, red, ruby, cowboy boots.
Speaker:Super cool.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker:And Lindsay, once again, it's been awesome.
Speaker:One, and I must stress, do not do this at home.
Speaker:She is a professional.
Speaker:Please do not listen to this podcast and be like, Oh, I'mma be a fire master now.
Speaker:Like she said, I'mma be a fire bender.
Speaker:She is a professional.
Speaker:Please.
Speaker:Please.
Speaker:Find a class or find someone you know who does do it and start
Speaker:learning slowly from there.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:If you really want to.
Speaker:Guys this has been Film Center.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we are here with...
Speaker:Lindsey Turner.
Speaker:And we will see you next time.
Speaker:See y'all.
Speaker:Bye!
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at FilmCenterNews.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:Sign up for our newsletter and get the Hollywood trade straight to you.
Speaker:You can follow the show at...
Speaker:Film Center news on all major platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next week for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been Film Center.
