Fire on film...

[william newell]

Okay, all you photography nuts, here's something I've wondered about for quite some time...I've noticed that alot of the time, when you see something on fire in a movie or video clip, the flames seem to be retreating into, rather than out of,the burning object. 2 examples I can think of off the top of my head are, the advance trailer for Resident Evil;Apocalypse where the camera slowly zooms in on Milia standing in the street and the car behind and to the left of her is burning and the other example is the burning Yule log that Channel 11 out of New York shows around Christmas. Is this an optical illusion along the lines of how a spoked wheel seems to reverse rotation the faster it goes or is there so other phenomena at work? Anyone know?

[CyHunter]

[william newell]