In the second of our series of ‘Elements’ behind-the-scenes videos, we’re looking at how fire played a part in Ren, including a dramatic scene with a phalanx of Kah’nath archers.
Archers at the ready
Tasked to make the Kah’nath fire arrows was production assistant Claire Finn. We’ll be posting a full interview with Claire soon, but for now here’s the lowdown on how she made the fire arrows.
Claire: They were originally orc arrows from Born of Hope. New fletching and a lick of paint transformed them into Kah’nath arrows for some of the forest scenes earlier in the shoot. To make them into fire arrows, the wood shafts were treated in fire-retardant chemicals, and then had strips of kevlar fibre cloth wrapped tightly round the head and held on with wire. We dunked the tops into paraffin; a little experimentation showed that about 10 seconds was plenty to keep them lit for each take. Fortunately all of our Kah’nath archers were good sports as well as excellent shots, and the scene looks absolutely cracking.
Claire in the art department area giving the Kah’Nath arrows a lick of paint.
Painting the white bits of fletching black.
Kah’nath bows and arrows in the workshop
Tune in again for next week’s third and final ‘Elements’ video: Wind. Remember, you can subscribe to the Mythica Entertainment YouTube channel to make sure you never miss a video.
