Sometimes, special effects are not done in post. They are sometimes done on-site with some ingenuity and camera framing. Check out how our team worked their practical magic in the desert on the set of the Vegas Golden Knights Teaser Trailer for the 2018 Opener.

 Video Transcription:

What's going on, everyone? Welcome to another edition of How It’s Made here at PEG. I'm Jeffrey Pritt. Today, we’re going to walk through how we did a few select shots from the end of a recent video we created for the Vegas Golden Knights. This was from a trailer they released on social media about six months to a year ago. Let’s check it out—this is the second half of that clip.

Nice. Okay, so as you can see, what we had going on there was a helicopter appearing to pick something up. You don’t know the full story from just the teaser, but what it's doing is lifting the helmet that the Vegas Golden Knights ultimately skate through during their intro sequence. In the final production, that helmet lowers from the rafters. What we’re teasing here is that the helmet was “lost” in the desert—and now, the helicopter is retrieving it.

As a viewer watching the teaser trailer, you’re led to believe you’re watching an actual helicopter lifting the helmet. That is, of course, not true.

Let’s take a look at what really happened.

Here’s a shot of the actual location—out in the middle of the desert as we set up the camera. This gives you an idea of what we were working with. We had props made specifically for this and some gold chains ready to go. We were out there filming with a crew of about five or six people, building the scene.

Next, you might be wondering how we got that shot of the gold chain snapping up out of the sand. Let’s take another look at that final product.

What you don’t see is Josh Kuss, from our team, doing a great job as the anchor point for the entire shot. His hands are under the sand, holding that chain in place.

It’s a little tricky to spot in the next behind-the-scenes angle, but what’s happening is this: his hands are buried here under the sand, and we’ve got a few people up on ladders holding the loose gold chain above. On cue, they yank it hard to make it snap taut and pop up just the way you see on camera.

But to sell the effect of a helicopter overhead, we needed wind and dust—lots of it. That’s where our “helicopter” came in. And by helicopter, I mean… a leaf blower.

Here’s Dan McCormack—one of our longtime collaborators and one of the best grips in the business—operating our “helicopter.” That’s right, a handheld leaf blower was all we needed to create the effect of violent downwash from a chopper. The camera shot is super tight, so the illusion holds perfectly. We had a generator running in the background and everything set for that dramatic reveal.

As for the helmet itself—you might think that part was CGI. It wasn’t.

Here’s the actual prop we used. It’s a scaled version modeled after the real helmet used in the Golden Knights' arena intros. It has the same finish, the same contour, and was built by the same prop company. Of course, the real one is much larger, but this version allowed us to get those tight, realistic sand-pull shots.

It took five of us to haul this hundred-plus-pound sand-covered prop out of the ground for the shot. Turns out sand is very heavy. But it gave us the gritty realism we were looking for, and the teaser ended with a powerful, cinematic moment.

Those four points on the helmet are where we attached the gold chains, just like they do in the real intro. It all worked to mimic exactly what you’d see on the ice.

That’s it, guys—thanks again for joining us on another episode of How It’s Made with PEG. See you in the next one!