We produced a video to showcase a test facility. But this was no ordinary test facility.

The story.

NP Aerospace asked us to produce a video that showcased their testing facilities. But this was no ordinary test facility. It was a firing rage that fired live ammunition from a rifle.

They wanted to showcase their capabilities and the rigorous testing procedure they go through to ensure that the body armour they manufacture will protect the users.

The manager of the section talked me through the process, so I was able to understand what they did.

We filmed the preparation for the test first. This is where they prepare the clay at the back of the armoured plate. Then, they set up for firing in the test range by wheeling out a trolly and setting it at a determined distance from the rifle.

Then, I set up all the cameras and lighting needed to capture the impact. This included two at the point of impact and two by the rifle pointing at the barrel and away from it. We used the slow-motion cameras at 125 FPS to capture the bullet's impact.

The test is designed to simulate what would happen if an armoured plate was hit in the field, so live ammunition is required.

We could not be in the test area whilst the live ammunition was fired, so I used the timers and remote trigger to operate the cameras.

We did not use an ultra-high-speed camera to keep the test facility in the shot. Any faster and the lighting would have been tricky to achieve for the footage we wanted. The impact at 125 fps was good for what we wanted as it showed the bullet's force on impact.

You can view the video below.