蜜糖直播

Goodbye, Liquid Nitrogen

October 1982. Los Angeles. Ghouls rise from a fog-fingered graveyard and join a zombified Michael Jackson in one of history鈥檚 most iconic bits of choreography in the watershed 鈥淭hriller鈥� video, a mini-horror flick built around the eponymous hit song.

All that fog crawling through the tombstones looks deliciously creepy. But to special-effects hand聽Jim Doyle聽(Thtr鈥�78) and crew, it was also 鈥渁n expensive pain in the ass.鈥�

鈥淲e used tons of liquid nitrogen, which froze the set solid for 20 hours,鈥� says Doyle, who later won an Academy Award in technical achievement. 鈥淭he guys had a terrible time breaking it apart. I thought, 鈥楾here has got to be an easier way to do that.鈥欌��

Doyle went home determined to invent a theatrical fog machine that would neither freeze a set nor choke performers. Months later, he introduced a prototype on the set of the TV show聽Kids, Inc.

His 鈥渄ry fogger鈥� blasts cold, dry nitrogen over a hot-water source in a small cloud chamber. The nitrogen attracts molecular water, condenses it into tiny droplets and vents cool, dry fog.

Doyle arrived at a formula allowing him to build dry foggers on any scale.

鈥淭his device provides an atmosphere at 100 percent relative humidity, so it is wringing all the fog possible per unit of [nitrogen],鈥� he says. 鈥淭he bigger the machine, the more efficient and controllable it becomes. Theoretically one could make one the size of a semitrailer.鈥�

Later he met a props assistant for shock rocker Alice Cooper.

鈥淗e wanted to have dancers lying in the fog for four to six minutes,鈥� Doyle says.

Cooper鈥檚 producer, Joe Gannon, fronted money for a machine that could fog a large stage, which Doyle delivered in time for the Santa Barbara opening of Cooper鈥檚 1986 鈥淣ightmare Returns鈥� tour.

鈥淭hat was the first one,鈥� says Doyle, 59, who also created Freddy Krueger鈥檚 blade-fingered glove for the聽Nightmare on Elm Street听尘辞惫颈别蝉.

Once operated manually and now automated, the technology became and remains the industry standard. It has been used in countless films, by musicians as varied as Alabama and Janet Jackson, and in major opera and Broadway productions, such as聽The Lion King. Doyle received the 1992 Academy Award for the dry fogger鈥檚 use in Arnold Schwarzenegger鈥檚聽Terminator 2.

Today Doyle designs high-tech water features for Los Angeles-based WET Design. He was lead engineer on the fire-and-water cauldron for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and he designed the fountain for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He鈥檚 created dream-sequence effects for Le R锚ve at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and a pool in the University Theatre for 蜜糖直播鈥檚 2014 production of聽Metamorphoses.

鈥淲ater, fire, fog, smoke, ice,鈥� Doyle says, 鈥淚 do it all.

漏 Karpov Sergei/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis