Tricycle Video Shoot (part 5): Burn! The Night
I woke up the next morning shattered.
My knee was stiff and sore from my bagel fall the previous morning and I felt pretty close to useless. I hobbled to that back of the house to survey the damage from yesterday’s work to find André in the back with his drums completely torn apart and washing every single piece with a damp rag. Actually, a lot of damp rags. There was a thick layer of dirt over everything from the day before and his drums seemed to take the worst of it.
I was almost starting to feel bad about not helping him when I realized that the night before I had told the director, Jared that I would mix up a batch of napalm for today’s final shoot.
“Napalm?”
When I was a kid I found out how to thicken a quart of gasoline so that it would form a sort of gelatin that you could then apply with a paint brush. The jellied gasoline would burn for a very long time. We (and people that know what I’m talking about) called it ‘napalm’ even though the DuPont corporation would most likely disagree with us.
“Why…do you…need…napalm…to shoot a…music video?”
Simple. We planned on burning a tricycle.
A man and his tricycle
The final shot, and the one that the band had insisted on was of a tricycle burning. Preferably at the end of the video, but we were flexible on that point.
“Why a burning tricycle?”
The song Tricycle is a reflection on youth. The fun, silly, & not-so-smart things that one does growing up. The song spends all of it’s time reminiscing about the past. However, we as a band do not put a lot of stock in the past and are far more interested in the future. Our lives point towards the future. The past helps define who we are, but it is not the entirety of who we are. The burning of the tricycle is our statement that the viewer has had a chance to reminisce and now they should grow up and move on. Destroy the past and create a bright future for yourself.
“Umm, OK, so why use napalm?”
We needed the tricycle to burn for a while. Straight gasoline or other flammable liquid would probably burn out quicker than we needed for the shot. The napalm mixture would also burn better in the high winds at the beach.
Jared added the beach part of this story. I loved it. Still do. Burn the tricycle at the beach. At dusk. Makes me smile just writing it.
OK, before we burn the tricycle at the beach we need to make the napalm. I really didn’t want to make it after all but I knew someone who did, so I called on our friend Rex.
Rex had provided a stellar job as the set electrician on Saturday. He wired up two separate 20 amp circuits exclusively for the production to use for lights and all of the amazing power-sucking tools that are required for a film shoot. He had offered the night before to help make the napalm. We love the guy and I loved him even more for taking the napalm job off of my plate. Awesome. I’m going to go inside and take a couple of more Advil and Rex is now the Production Pyro.
I get Dave the ingredients for the mix and he starts in on the redneck chemistry. Jared is fascinated at first but soon realizes that Rex is mixing the napalm up with a cigarette in his mouth. Jared gets on his tricycle and moves to a safe place to watch from a distance.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, we were planning on lighting a tricycle on fire on the beach. A city beach. There is no such thing as a permit for this. This will land your ass in jail. Period. We decided weeks before that this part of the shoot will be only essential personnel. DP, AC, Director, Pyro, & performer. No other people to slow us down, no other people to have to bail out of jail.
And speaking of jail; I checked my wallet before we headed out to ensure that we had a healthy portion of bail money and that the right people knew to be ready to come get us if we had to be bailed out.
Once Rex has his napalm slurry ready, he poured it into a container and we grabbed our equipment and props and headed to the beach.
Our next location
Once we get there we realize that the wind is monstrous. However, we’re convinced once we set Rex’s napalm alight that the people still out at the beach are in for a hell of a show.
We get one establishing shot of me walking up to the camera with the tricycle, setting it down on the ground and pouring lighter fluid on it. After that shot we set up for the burn.
Marinading a tricycle
Rex covers the trike with napalm using a paint brush. Brian and Nick set up the camera and get ready for the big boom. I can’t help but laugh thinking that the people at the beach tonight are in for a hell of a show. I also can’t help looking around nervously for police or anyone who might force me to sleep in a holding cell that night.
Everything is set, the coast is clear (literally), and we are ready. Rex lights a match and…the wind instantly blows it out.
We form a wind block behind him. Nothing. The napalm catches sightly, but the wind blows it out before it can get going. And this continues to play out over and over again. Rex lights a match, wind blows it out. Rex lights a book of matches, napalm goes out.
After 15 minutes and a full box of matches we finally concede defeat. Rex tries his best to wash off the napalm from the tricycle, but it behaves almost like grease and there is no washing it off at this point. As I am being a sore loser at that moment, I take the napalm-covered tricycle and stick it in the trunk of my new car with no regard to the fact that it is covered in seawater and gasoline grease. We head to pick up more gasoline and to a new location to make sure that this trike burns. Tonight.
Rex quickly mixes up a new batch of burn-goo while I pull the napalm-covered tricycle out of my trunk. Holy crap! The entire trunk is now covered in napalm. Matted into the new carpet from the tricycle rolling around in my trunk. I try to half-heartedly clean my trunk but I gag on the gasoline smell that smelled nothing of victory at that moment. We drag the tricycle to it’s new spot and start the burn.
We tried one more time with just napalm on the trike but the results were so weak that we started over again with a half-gallon of gasoline just to help push it along. That did the trick! Instead of describing what happened watch the video below for a behind the scenes video of the final burn:
After three attempts we finally were able to light a tricycle of fire. It turns out that it’s not that easy to burn a child’s toy these days. Not as easy as one would think.
With the burn out of the way, the video shoot was over. 39 hours later we had all of the footage needed in the can. All 3,200 feet of 16mm film. Everyone worked very hard and long hours and no one probably expected it to take as long as it did, but we’re all proud of the work that was put in and the stories that we have from the shoot. Now the band has to finish mixing the song and the footage has to get to the editor. All 3,200 feet of it.
I wonder how long it will take to edit?
