Mayfair, that story makes me very happy. Thank you for sharing it.
There were some hilarious moments, working on that film. You may recall the scene where Big Ben got blown to smithereens. Our model shop had built a magnificent miniature with beautifully wrought detail. It was a work of art, and I just couldn't believe that it would soon be atomized, but that's showbiz. We shot the scene at night in the parking lot next to the facility. Adjacent to the parking lot was a small pocket park with a padlocked gate.
We had hired one of the top pyro guys in the business and he had set up charges all through the miniature. We had people stationed with fire extinguishers to put out the miniature after we got the shot. We had several high speed cameras set up so if one jammed we would still have coverage as this was a one time shot.
Our visual effects supervisor called camera, which started the high speed cameras rolling, then called action, which signaled our pyro expert to set off the charges. There was a spectacular explosion that blew the miniature to atoms, much stronger than we had ordered, knocked us on our collective butts, and sent flaming chunks into the park. While some were putting out the miniature, others grabbed cutters to open the gate and put out the flaming bits before the trees caught fire.
One of the assistants went into the building to grab more fire extinguishers in the supply room. As he grabbed the extinguishers and turned to run out the door he discovered that the couple who provided janitorial services for the facility were busy doing "it" in the storage room, and unable to take his eyes off them, ran straight into the door frame and knocked himself out. When he didn't reappear another assistant was sent in to get the extinguishers, saw the first guy on the floor, the couple hurriedly putting on their clothes, grabbed the extinguishers and ran back to the scene where he passed them to the people putting out the wreckage in the park. The blast was so strong that pieces of the miniature were found 1/4 of a mile away. Pure pandemonium.
The next morning, I taped a large crimson heart, with a bullseye on it, to the storage room door.
