Don't try this in a studio
Interesting subject.
We have recently finished filming a new safety video for an airline who shall remain nameless. On set we were told to not inflate the jacket for the purpose of the video. On account that on some routes, non frequent flyers, shall we say, actually copied the video and lo and behold a cabin full of passengers with life jackets fully inflated was observed. An urban myth ?
Perhaps. For our purposes we decided to film an inflate and deflate. Soon realized that we were in fact asphyxiating the actor. It seems they inflate quite tight, so as to support the head in water. Fortunately we were able to release air through the manual inflate tubes and restore said actors now purple head back to pink. So I'd wait until I felt the cold freezing water sink through my clothes before pulling the red toggles.
One other thing, the light that activates in water !! Well it didn't and when we finally got one to work after soaking it in a bucket for half an hour, we fear that no one would spot a fairy light in the middle of the ocean.
Coopz