FIRE & PYROTECHNICS
Fire on screen. Controlled from the first flame to the last frame.
Anyone can make something burn. The skill — the part that takes decades to build — is making it burn exactly as planned, exactly as safely, every single time.
LONDONS BURNINGAny Effects worked on every series of London's Burning — the ITV drama built almost entirely around large-scale fire, rescue, and the human cost of both. Series after series, season after season, on a working production schedule with real performers in real proximity to real fire. That kind of sustained work doesn't happen without an exceptional safety record. Ours is exactly that.
What fire effects are really about
Fire is one of the most powerful tools in production — and one of the least forgiving. A flame in a grate that reads as period-authentic. A cigarette that behaves like a cigarette. A performer's face lit by something real, reacting to something real. A fireball that hits its mark on green screen, clean enough to composite without a day of roto work.
None of that happens without meticulous design and preparation. Every fire effect we deliver — from the smallest practical flame to a full structural burn — begins with the same question: what does this need to do, and how do we make it do that safely, every time we ask it to?
The answer to that question is never improvised. It's engineered.
Scale is relative. Standards aren't.
Productions come to us with very different needs. Sometimes it's intimacy — an actor who needs a flame close enough to feel, controlled tightly enough to trust. Sometimes it's scale — a vehicle, a building, a sequence that requires coordinating fire effects across a full day of shooting with multiple departments on set.
The scale changes. The approach doesn't. Every effect — regardless of size — is designed, tested, and operated to the same standard.
Period & practical detail
Grate fires, torches, candles, authentic cigarettes — small-scale, controllable, and convincing on camera.
Performer-facing flame
Fire close to talent — positioned precisely so the reaction is genuine and the risk is not.
Fireballs on green screen
Controlled gas fireballs shot clean — repeatable, compositeable, and safe to operate around crew.
Vehicle burns
Cars, boats and large-scale props — partial or full burns, rigged for camera, safe to reset.
Structural burns
Buildings and sets — coordinated burns planned in detail with locations, H&S and the VFX team long before the shoot day.
Explosions & detonations
From single charges to complex sequences — designed to hit the same mark, at the same intensity, on every take.
Repeatable, because productions need coverage
A director needs options. A camera operator needs to know where the flame will be on take four. A performer needs to trust that what happens next time is the same as last time. And a producer needs to know that if the shot needs to go again, it can — without a lengthy reset or a conversation nobody wants to have.
Spectacular is easy to promise. Repeatable is what a production actually needs. Safe and repeatable is what we deliver.
Every fire and pyrotechnic effect we design has a clear safety envelope, a tested reset procedure, and a crew who know exactly what they're doing. That consistency is not incidental to the work. It is the work.
In the room early, across every department
Fire effects touch more departments than almost anything else on a production — health & safety, locations, stunts, art department, VFX, and often the insurer. Any Effects is experienced at being part of those conversations from the start: contributing to the risk assessment, aligning with the VFX plan, making sure every department knows precisely what to expect well before the shoot day arrives.
Some of the most complex sequences we've delivered began as a short conversation in prep. The earlier we're involved, the more we can do — and the smoother the day will be for everyone on set.
If you have a production that requires our expertise, please submit an enquiry or give us a call. One of our team will be happy to discuss the project and provide a quote.