Walter is our special effects guy. He's 62, a big lad missing the tip of one of his fingers on his right hand. Walter enjoys blowing things up. Walter set himself on fire t'other day.
The film we're making has been unfortunately underfunded and over staffed. The term time is money applies more to the film industry than any other I've worked in. We were running out of both. When people run out of time they attempt to make up for it by rushing. Rushing leads to mistakes.
On this particular day, Walter was creating a series of large fiery explosion to replicate the misfire of a rocket. Being pushed to fit in as many explosions as possible, some black powder Walter was carrying came into contact with a pot that hadn't cooled enough and went up. The flame climbed his left leg and arm. Walter simply jumped into the nearby river. He was picking bits of burned powder out of his skin on the way to dinner that night.
When I asked Walter if he was OK after his little ordeal he said he was fine. Brushing it off as a minor incident compared to some of his other mishaps. One time, I think while working on The Thin Red Line (but I could be mistaken I listened to quite a few stories) a hard packed explosion went of between his legs. Milos, Tom and I looked at him in awe.
"You know what a palm tree looks like eh?" he said spreading out his right hand. Then he pointed to his outstretched thumb. "That's where me dick was"
A collective gasp went through our group was we clambered on down the patch work roads of Vang Vieng. Walter's mishap cost him 4 months in the hospital and several skin grafts to repair the damage.
Over dinner Walter told the three of sabot working on The Matrix, Thin Red Line, Australia and others. He had stories about other people getting blown up, insane but brilliant requests from out of control directors and different techniques to getting better explosions. It was all very enlightening. It make me feel like film was the right choice. Lets wait and see.
