What would movies like “Sin­gin’ in the Rain” or “Per­fect Storm” be with­out rain and water scenes — even in times of dig­i­tal effects, such ele­men­tal effects are often used because the inter­ac­tion of the actors with the medi­um water can­not be real­is­ti­cal­ly played and dig­i­tal­ly sim­u­lat­ed. The attain­able band­width in such films ranges from romance, dra­ma and action to catastrophe.

As easy as it seems to por­tray “water” in the scene, as dif­fi­cult and com­plex it can be in real­i­ty to present this con­vinc­ing­ly; espe­cial­ly rain. Whether a light driz­zle of rain or a cloud­burst — den­si­ty, quan­ti­ty and size of rain­drops result in part­ly com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent image impres­sions. In addi­tion, any kind of rain­fall can be changed by dif­fer­ent direc­tions of fall; most­ly in con­nec­tion with wind.

We also take care of any oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion of water and its effects. These can be wet roads, floods, tidal waves, heavy seas on ships or only thin streams on a windshield.

Our work­shop has an exten­sive range of tech­ni­cal equip­ment for a wide vari­ety of tasks, both out­doors and in the stu­dio. With our own tanker trucks we can also take on larg­er tasks at short notice, away from a suf­fi­cient water sup­ply; more on this sub­ject here.

BASICS

An impor­tant para­me­ter is the area to be sprin­kled; it deter­mines the amount of per­son­nel and tech­nol­o­gy required for an effect. Then the desired strength is applied, as the required amount of water per minute is mea­sured. To do more than sprin­kle the wind­shield of a car, we will always have to test the effi­cien­cy of the water sup­ply on the set beforehand.

Large-area rain­fall also con­sumes con­sid­er­able amounts of water. The sprin­kled car in the set above on this page needs e. g. 500–800l per minute. If the local water sup­ply is not able to deliv­er this quan­ti­ty, we can com­pen­sate for a lim­it­ed peri­od of time via the tanks of our vehi­cles for 2–3 min­utes. In between, there is a manda­to­ry wait­ing peri­od until the tanks are filled up again. If wait­ing times are unac­cept­able or if there is no water sup­ply on site, we work with mobile stor­age tanks and tanker shuttles.

ON LOCATION

In a pub­lic area, water is usu­al­ly no prob­lem even in large quan­ti­ties. In pri­vate areas, it is of course nec­es­sary to con­sult with the respon­si­ble per­sons.
Some­times we have to clar­i­fy where the water can dis­ap­pear to; in some cas­es we have to work with bar­ri­ers and pump tech­nol­o­gy in order to pre­vent the set from turn­ing into a mud bath with­in a short time.

When work­ing with water inside build­ings, it may also be nec­es­sary to check the build­ing sub­stance for suit­abil­i­ty, as some floor con­struc­tions, for exam­ple, are prone to rapid mois­ture pen­e­tra­tion and result­ing damage.

IN THE STUDIO

Water in quan­ti­ties of more than a few liters in the stu­dio or on stage must be approved by the admin­is­tra­tion and/or the respon­si­ble stage manager.

Larg­er amounts of water, e. g. in set con­struc­tions, can rep­re­sent sig­nif­i­cant addi­tion­al loads, not only for the build­ings them­selves but also for the stu­dio floor. There­fore, we usu­al­ly coop­er­ate with the con­struc­tion depart­ment in order to avoid the use of unsuit­able mate­ri­als and sta­t­i­cal­ly inse­cure con­struc­tions with­in the set.

Also, all used water must be col­lect­ed and dis­posed of, as well as mea­sures need to be tak­en to pre­vent dam­age caused by mois­ture afterwards.

ACTORS

For actors, per­form­ing in wet con­di­tions is a con­sid­er­able bur­den that should not be under­es­ti­mat­ed. Although we do have the tech­nol­o­gy to bring dozens of cubic meters of water to accept­able tem­per­a­tures, your actors will still have to recov­er and warm up regularly.

Not every per­former also loves to sur­round her-/him­self espe­cial­ly with large amounts of water, we can offer a tar­get­ed train­ing here and if nec­es­sary we can also use a safe­ty crew under water.

CREW & EQUIPMENT

Tech­nol­o­gy on set hard­ly ever reacts pos­i­tive­ly to water, espe­cial­ly to larg­er quan­ti­ties of it. Rain pro­tec­tion hoods for cam­eras are there­fore oblig­a­tory if your DOP wants to move close to the action. Oth­er devices should also be pro­tect­ed as good as pos­si­ble, respec­tive­ly the use of bat­tery-oper­at­ed devices is some­times safer.

How­ev­er, the crew should also be well pro­tect­ed if they have to work in the area of the effect; an umbrel­la is rarely suf­fi­cient and water­proof footwear, as well as rain­wear is def­i­nite­ly the bet­ter choice.

Pow­er and con­trol cables must be laid in such a way that they can­not be flood­ed. Run­ning water also pos­es this dan­ger aside the set!