11.23.2011  12:53 pm     rubber ice for renewal by anderson.

Last weekend I worked for production designer Gino Fortebuono on a commercial for Renewal by Anderson window replacement. It was a short job with a fun challenge— the treatment called for a full cooler of ice to be dumped on a man’s head, so we had to find realistic fake ice that would be soft enough not to hurt the actor and easy to clean up between takes.

I was excited to learn that our shooting location in Doylestown, Pennsylvania was only thirty miles away from the Smooth-On headquarters in Easton, where we picked up a gallon of Encapso® K, a clear silicone rubber that solidifies from two liquid parts in about twenty-four hours. After the rubber cured, we cut it into rough cubes, and the result was everything we had hoped for— convincing ice cubes with a soft, gelatin texture.