Cinematic Volcano Eruption

As a kid, one of my favorite activities was creating small volcanoes in the ground, adding baking soda and vinegar, and watching the magical “eruption” unfold. It was simple, messy, and endlessly entertaining. Now, I’ve taken that childhood experiment and given it a fresh, creative twist!

In this project, we’re elevating the classic vinegar-and-baking-soda volcano to a new level. Instead of just making it erupt for fun, we’ll focus on capturing the eruption in a visually dramatic and cinematic way. Using basic materials (red food coloring, brown spray paint) and some creative video editing, I’ve turned this nostalgic activity into a small filmmaking adventure.

bowl

newspaper

small empty plastic water bottle

cardboard box

liquid glue

baking soda

scissors

vinegar

spray paint

video camera (or smartphone)

food coloring

unnecessary but helpful:

funnel

hair dryer

Put a fin layer of liquid glue on the bottom of the small plastic bottle and place it in the middle of the cardboard box.

Wait 10 minutes for the glue to dry.

Pure some water to the bowl (around 100mil)

Pure the liquid glue (about a third of the amount of water)

Mix it together until you get a uniform milky texture (you can do it with a stick or with your hand)

Tear a few newspaper pages and squish them to paper bolls.

Place the paper bolls around the bottle.

Take a shit of paper and make a hole in the middle.

Place it on top of the paper bolls so that the bottle opening can pass through the hole.

Use the scissors to cut the newspaper into strips.

Note that you can cut a few layers of paper simultaneously, to save some effort.

Dip each paper strip in the mixed bowl.

place the dipped paper strip on the structure until you form a volcano shape.

Place the structure in the sun for an hour.

Alternatively, dry the structure with a hair dryer (set it to the highest heat setting and the lowest airflow level).

Spray paint the volcano from a fair distance (about 30 cm to prevent drips and uneven coverage)

You can choose the colors you would like (I chose brown for a realistic look).

Make sure you have a suitable surface (like newspapers) to prevent staining.

Waite 10 minutes for the paint to dry.

Place the volcano in a place with a nice background (I chose white).

Pure 50 mil of food coloring inside.

Pure 400mil of vinegar inside (or until the bottle is close to be filled).

Place you're camera in a study place and set it to high frame rate mode (slow motion).

start filming.

Pure 50 mill of baking soda inside the hole (or enough to make it erupt).

Edit the footage using CapCut or other editing tools.

You can add music or sound effects and edit it according to my taste.