Sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly speak­ing, there are worlds in between, but due to their visu­al sim­i­lar­i­ty on screen, we usu­al­ly group fog, smoke and dust togeth­er under the term “Atmo”.

With­out them there is no smoky cor­ner pub, no fog­gy streets, no staged sand­storm. Sun­beams in rooms would not be vis­i­ble and indus­tri­al envi­ron­ments with­out thick fog and steam­ing pipes lacked credibility.

The require­ments here are high. We have more than 60 dif­fer­ent devices to choose from and some of them in sev­er­al sizes. We know exact­ly what mate­ri­als we use and know if and for how long actors are allowed to expose them­selves to them. This is of par­tic­u­lar impor­tance when using dusts on the set. Some atmo and set effects can only be achieved by using them and require pre­cise knowl­edge of suit­able materials.

Today, cer­tain­ly every equip­ment rental com­pa­ny will rent you a “fog machine”; but pay atten­tion to the amount of time it takes you until the effect final­ly is ready on set if set­up by an unex­pe­ri­enced team. And if you don’t already know the fol­low­ing prob­lems:
Too much, too lit­tle, does­n’t sink to the ground, is gone after two min­utes, the whole set is fogged up, machine does­n’t do what it’s sup­posed to do, flu­id deplet­ed, wind problems…

For us, deal­ing with fog, smoke and dust is part of our dai­ly work and we cre­ate every atmos­phere in sets of any size — be it small rooms, indus­tri­al halls or in the for­est over 100,000m².

BASICS

Depend­ing on the desired result, we have to use spe­cif­ic equip­ment and mate­ri­als and for this rea­son we then com­mit our­selves to a spe­cial effect cat­e­go­ry. For exam­ple, a haz­er-sys­tem can­not pro­duce an extreme­ly dense fog and fog machines are not suit­able for haze. There­fore, pre­cise and advance plan­ning that takes into account the scenic require­ments and local envi­ron­ment is essen­tial.

The dura­tion of use also plays a role, as some atmo flu­ids are not suit­able for mul­ti­ple days of expo­sure. In such cas­es, we then offer to work with alter­na­tive technologies.

ON LOCATION

Please note that in some his­tor­i­cal build­ings many atmo effects may not be car­ried out for rea­sons of mon­u­ment con­ser­va­tion. How­ev­er, we can usu­al­ly work out alternatives.

This is usu­al­ly not a prob­lem out­doors, but the fac­tor wind has to be tak­en into account. The fin­er and more uni­form an effect, the less wind we can use. We can com­pen­sate wind to a cer­tain degree by using spe­cial tech­nol­o­gy, but in case of an emer­gency it can some­times be impos­si­ble to achieve an effect.

Build­ings must be checked for the pres­ence of a fire alarm sys­tem before per­form­ing atmo effects and it must be deac­ti­vat­ed. Exist­ing ven­ti­la­tion sys­tems should also be switched off if necessary.

IN THE STUDIO

Atmo effects in a stu­dio are usu­al­ly trou­ble-free; how­ev­er, you should also pay atten­tion to fire alarm and ven­ti­la­tion systems.

ACTORS

For a lim­it­ed peri­od of time, all our effects are well tol­er­at­ed. Should actors suf­fer from a res­pi­ra­to­ry tract prob­lem, please con­tact us if applicable.

CREW & EQUIPMENT

In the rarest of cas­es, prob­lems arise for equip­ment on set. How­ev­er, the crew should be pre­pared for poor­er vis­i­bil­i­ty con­di­tions beyond illu­mi­nat­ed areas.