Fire Filmed from Below Reveals Surprising Details in Super Slow Motion

After watching the James Bond film GoldenEye, Gavin Free of The Slow Mo Guys couldn’t shake a childhood memory. The explosions on screen were something else to say the least, but what really caught his eye was a tiny detail in the corner of the frame. He then discovered that the crew utilized a method in which they recorded real flames from underneath to achieve that effect.

Gavin and his partner Dan Gruchy decided to try it for themselves, with a simple but compelling goal in mind: film fire from directly underneath in super slow motion. A conventional fire pit was flipped upside down and then a large ring burner loaded with propane was suspended above it, while a sturdy framework of curtain poles, tin sheets, as well as metal fittings was rigged up to keep everything stable.

Down on the floor, their camera, the Ember 2.5k, was sitting well, calibrated to shoot between 300 and 1,000 frames per second at a shutter speed that kept everything in sharp focus. That transformed ordinary seconds into minutes of the most intricate movement on film, but even with simple gas flames, the pictures lacked drama and force, so Gavin began sprinkling in cinnamon as a fine burning powder. The cinnamon took fire well, sending sparks flying everywhere, creating the clear sources of light and interest that they were looking for.

When the slowed down footage played back, it was unlike anything they had seen before. The flames moved in ways that felt almost biological, stretching lazily outward in every direction as they searched for oxygen, their edges folding and rolling over in smooth, unhurried waves that looked more like silk than fire. Swirling patterns rippled across the edges as the gas dropped lower, and the colors shifted from teal into deep blues, forming small delicate structures that resembled inverted clouds drifting down toward the camera.

Adding cinnamon brought the whole thing to life, with particles sparkling and scattering through the gas cloud like a shower of tiny stars. The extra material pushed the temperature up and the flames grew brighter and more frantic in response. Without oxygen near the bottom the fire had been dim and almost eerily calm, but the moment it found air higher up it took off in an instant. Cutting the gas supply brought everything to a controlled stop quickly and safely.
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