World's Strongest Man 

Always ready to flex our creative muscle, we sprang into action when IMG Media asked us to create some breakable props for their iconic strongman competition.

The promo featured shots of heavy duty chains and ropes straining and breaking under pressure from some beefy competitors, and an atlas ball smashing into the ground.  Behind the scenes, of course, it was a different story.

Artem’s technicians cast a series of 12mm thick chain links in fast cast to achieve a series of brittle fractures and breaks. These were rigged to a section of real chain and a tension rig was built to mount both the welded chain and model links, which were manually tightened to break. 

Additional elements of breaking chain fragments were achieved using air rams against green screen. We also pre-weakened multiple sections of rope to break when shot on the same tension rig.

Our atlas ball was created from an EPS sphere clad in GRP, hollowed out and surfaced in an artworked gelcoat. We tested it at several weights to get the perfect impact effect on a chroma key green floor and ensure that it would withstand repeated drops. Again we used air rams to supply dust and debris on impact.

Each prop was tested at Artem’s workshops prior to shoot.