I’m referring to those old black and white videos of US atomic bomb tests – it always shows buildings and other constructions being literally blown away but the camera seems fine
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Mirrors and bunkers.
The camera does not need to be exposed to the shockwave it only needs to receive light from it. So one simple way is to have a concrete bunker with a mirror on top that gets blown away but the camera is safe inside like in [https://twitter.com/BraumLincoln/status/1257553592527060992/photo/1](https://twitter.com/BraumLincoln/status/1257553592527060992/photo/1)
That can be used to capture the explosion but film like the building where the camera is clearly close to the explosion. That it is closer it the key which meant the camera can look away. So build a bunker, that do not have a flat side toward the explosion but an inclined surface, it can simply be a pile of dirt again the back wall. The camera looks out the back away from the blast.
Look at a munition bunker-like [https://c8.alamy.com/comp/J59EGH/weapons-storage-bunkers-J59EGH.jpg](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/J59EGH/weapons-storage-bunkers-J59EGH.jpg) the concrete wall would point away from the explosion and you have windows that the camera points out at through it. The shockwave will hit the inclined area on the other side.
House films have a camera quite high up, So you might not build a bunker just like that but use the same principle and build a concrete structure that does not have a flat side towards the bomb but an inclined surface. You know where the blast is common from so a structure a bit like the tail fin of an airplane can provide low surface area toward the blahs but a lot of material to handle the blast.
The house video shows a wooden building being blown apart. Wood is a lot weaker than concrete so building something that can handle the blast is not that hard. Test [https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/](https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/) with a surface detonation.
There is a Heavy blast damage radius (20 psi) described as
>At 20 psi overpressure, heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished; fatalities approach 100%. Often used as a benchmark for heavy damage in cities.
Moderate blast damage radius (5 psi)
>At 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings collapse, injuries are universal, and fatalities are widespread. The chances of a fire starting in commercial and residential damage are high, and buildings so damaged are at high risk of spreading fire. Often used as a benchmark for moderate damage in cities.
The building we see is wooden so the pressure might be around 5 psi. compare that to 20 psi for heavily built concrete buildings, that is buildings of the types that exist in cities, not a bunker you build to handle nuclear blasts. You can build bunkers so you need a direct hit on them to take them out. Direct might be an exaggeration but let’s say inside the fireball the bomb creates. A wall can be meters thick with reinforced concrete, and the shockwave at the distance the building it recorded will not damage a wall like that.
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