Drastic times called for drastic actions. We chose the handle from the sword of Chocolate, and the blade from the sword of Ice Cream. Tremble, world, there will never be an iSundae 3 ever because the swords of Ice Cream and Chocolate have been destroyed. They were thrown into the firey Mount Doom known as the craftroom and reborn as this sword. (Please hold applause until the end of the article.)

Not too shabby, eh? Now, granted, it still doesn’t look like something out of Weta, but it does look better than a Halloween prop.

In case any of you want to try this at home, let me give you a quick walkthrough of sword disassembling. First things first, find the little screws hiding in holes all over the handle and start unscrewing. You will need a ridiculously small screwdriver. Every single screw needs to come out. All of them. Otherwise the handle will snap while you’re removing the blade. (Why do you think I know this?) And, while this may sound ridiculous, that was actually the first time I had used a screwdriver for a prop. Big things were afoot in the prop world.

Once you unscrew both handles and carefully pry them apart, they should open up just fine, revealing something rather like this.

For both Ice Cream and Chocolate, the blades were barely glued into place. A quick twist and they were out. (Ugh. Sounds like getting a tooth pulled. Let me try that again.) A light yank and they parted ways with the hilts.

Then the idea was to take the good blade and stick it into the good handle. Easier said than done. I had to snap off the hidden end of the blade to make it fit, which, thankfully, made the “Made In China” nightmare vanish into the depths of the handle, never to be seen on film. (Permit the prop maker a satisfied chuckle.) Then, because one blade was thicker than the other, I had to resort to stuffing bits of cardboard and fake leather (to disguise the cardboard color) down inside the handle before screwing it back together. It was a bit wobbly after that, but sturdy enough for hero shots.

Once that was done, we still had to address the nasty plastic look of the handle. Now, here let me state that I was operating off of an over-arcing principle for all the props and costumes. I had very little detailed visual references, so I applied this simple rule: Tell a story in the item.

Kale’s costume, for example, had specific tears and rips because of what may have happened to her the day before. The mending had various stitches because of what the mender was possibly thinking. You get the idea. With this sword hilt I wanted to tell a story about Dar, the doneel whose sword it is. So, due to the doneel’s furry nature, a metal sword hilt would be rather slippery. I wrapped it completely in black leather. Dar is a rather dressy fellow, but he’s also a good soldier, so I made the leather have a somewhat fancy weave while keeping it fairly serviceable. A good grip, and all that. Copper accents and a jewel for a bit of bling, and there you have it. A Frankenstein of a sword that doesn’t look half bad.

You can insert the usual disclaimers here. Don’t go about snapping plastic blades without adequate eye protection. Refrain from running with the screwdriver, even if you’re excited about using it. Keep your fingers away from the crack between the rapidly tightening handles. Don’t eat any of the fake leather strips. You get the idea.

We don’t have much time left before the Northern branch of Phantom Moose heads back home, but we think we’ll be able to pull it off.

And no, we’re still not going to say what book we’re doing. But we’ll drop some hints both here and in our new About Us page photo.

Rebekah is hard at work on the needed props and costumes as I type.

Yesterday, Ruth and I did a bit of location scouting and found a nice creek that will work perfectly.

Well, almost perfectly.

We’ve also been working on a new idea. Actually, we’ve tossed around a lot of things, but we have a neat story that we’re really excited about.

Given my disapproval of the all-too-common practice of putting enchantresses in childrens’ movies, I wanted a more or less logical and non-magical way for Gwenanda to do the things she does. A key element of this was the Rain Maker 2007. (Yes, the movie wasn’t released until 2008. What can I say? Even Gwenanda could use a software update.)

To create the Rain Maker I started with a series of sketches. We wanted something that looked complicated, but also allowed for travel to and from the filming sites.

 (The most hair-raising of which was stuffing the Rain Maker in the trunk of a van, driving to the park, and then hauling it out into the middle of a field.) The base is just two wrapping paper tubes and some large cardboard boxes. Once that was in place I stuck on whatever odds and ends we had laying around. Pieces of old pens, telephone wire, beads, a keypad from a really early movie, Dixie-cup dials, paper towel tubes, and an old circuit board. I think there was even part of an old bell and one of those plastic rods you use to turn the window blinds.

Then, of course, we had to put the gag items on it. One of which is a keypad with Roman Numerals instead of numbers. Another is a dial that ranges from “Light Mist” to “Typhoon”.

Our special effects department then added a little (logically explained and non-magical) movie magic to bring the machine to life. Hey Presto! Fonsugar’s Bane.

Have you ever been bored and brilliant in the space of a minute? You’re sitting there, minding your own business, and suddenly lightning strikes. A large part of the iSundae II script came about in that way. The whole concept of Fonsuger being after something, and what that something was came out of a bored doodle during a movie discussion. And Reyshar’s hat.

I stopped and looked down at the paper. Now, that prop looked cool. How could we fit it into the movie? And the piece on top . . . where have I seen that shape before? “Hey,” I said, “What if the thing Fonsuger is after has something to do with the first movie? Relating back to why Reyshar wore that weird helmet thing.” The idea took fire and we soon found ourselves with a slidey-puzzle box that contained something that could make you immune to being utterly vaporized. Granted, the “relating back to Reyshar” part changed a bit in the finished movie. We didn’t explain that what was in the box was kept in the point on Reyshar’s helmet, but the general idea mushroomed out of that.

With the storyline in place, I was assigned the task of coming up the visual side of the prop. What would a medieval slidey-puzzle box look like? So many possibilities! Thankfully, on the original doodle page, along with a snail wearing sunglasses, was a pretty good concept sketch of what the box would look like. Tall, thin, pointy top a la Reyshar’s helmet. The concept for what was inside the box was there too, but I’m not going to give that away.

The next task was to find a giant slidey-puzzle to stick on the front. Big slidey puzzles are hard to come by! We finally found a four pack of small ones in the party favors section of Party City. I took them home and disassembled them, then reassembled them into a bigger puzzle.

The Secret Item itself is, of course, cardboard. I also used a plastic spring, a pebble, and one of the empty slidey-puzzle backs. Pebbles make great push buttons if you use the right shape.

I put the whole thing together and gave it a few coats of paint, during which I also managed to effectively adhere the puzzle pieces to each other. We solved that problem with a razor blade and some patience.

It was time to film! We mixed the puzzle pieces up and set to work. As the movie progresses, and Fonsuger gets closer and closer to solving the puzzle, we had to show the puzzle slowly coming together. Why we didn’t think to film it backwards is beyond me. Trying to solve a 40+ piece slidey-puzzle so we can film the next scene is so tedious! Finally, we cheated. I took the entire puzzle out of its holder and put it back in correctly. It took time, and we had a couple close shaves with losing pieces, but it worked.

And then another problem rose up and made us kick ourselves. Due to some special effects that had to be added later, and the lack of any sort of marks on the Secret Item, motion tracking became a pain. Dark paint, dark room, how are we supposed to know which way the item is moving? Thankfully, our wonderful special effects guys made it work. And Fonsuger came one step closer to the discovery…

Have you ever been slammed that way? The perfect costume design has to be thrown out because it would cost too much to make. The detailed beadwork that you absolutely loved goes away or becomes fabric paint. The ornate helmet has to be scratched and replaced with a hat. A felt one. With a bright red feather. Situations like this are depressing, annoying, and even downright ugly.

Here are a few things you can do to help bring your ideas to reality.

First: You can design with your budget in mind. I know it’s not fun, unless you enjoy the challenge, but I’m not talking about having a dollar amount looming over you all the time. A basic concept of cost will do. If you only have a little money to work with, don’t plan on using thirty yards of velvet! Look to see what you might already have that you could work with. Anything look promising? If you changed one color, would it save you twenty dollars? Or how about swapping kinds of fabric. Remember the thirty yards of velvet? Swap it out for an old bedsheet or curtain. Be flexible. You don’t have to throw out a good idea; just try to make it better.

Second: Time is money. If you have one week until filming starts, and a hundred costumes to make, don’t plan on hand-embroidering trim on all of the pieces. Find a trim at the craft store that has the same look you want. If price becomes an issue, keep in mind these little questions: “How much time will this save me?” “Is there something else that will work just as well?” and, more importantly, “Will I get in trouble with the other producers if I spend the money?” If the answer to the last question is “Yes,” walk away now. Budget is somthing to be respected by all members of the cast and crew.

Third: If you are lucky enough to actually have money to put through the budget, save the big bucks for a few costumes. The knock-your-socks-off ones. Although, keep in mind that you don’t want to end up with two fabulous costumes and ton of slapped together, bathrobe and towel costumes. Unless you have a really good bathrobe, that is. Which brings us to . . .

Fourth: Modify clothing. You might find an old dress in a garage sale or thrift store that, which a few alterations, would make a good cloak and hood. Or a shirt that can become a jacket. All this approach takes is a little imagination! (And some scissors, of course.) We did this for the Norse, and I hope we can do more of it for the next movie. We’ve received lots of old clothing donations in the last couple years.

Fifth: Don’t be afraid to reuse things! Particularly on extras and sub-characters. This is a really quick way to come up with a costume. The work is already done. Lydia’s costume is Somindeo’s robe from the first movie. All we did was add a rope belt and a scarf. If you have something laying around, use it. Put last movie’s hero’s puffy shirt under a coat for the herald. Make a cloak into a skirt. If you want to modify them a bit so they won’t be as recognizable, remove distinctive trims, or change colors. Just keep an eye on the fine line between minimal work and not disguising the piece enough. If the audience catches on, your realism is toast.

So get out there with your designer sketches! Scrounge, sew, tape, glue, modify, and substitute your way into a great bunch of costumes. Let the idea become reality.

A good friend of mine (another movie-maker, and she’s made some really great stuff) recommended these books to me, and I want to share them with you. They’re great for learning the basics on modifying clothing into costumes.

Costuming Made Easy by Barb Rogers

Instant Period Costumes by Barb Rogers

Alright, tell me frankly, what would you do if you were confronted with the problem of creating an army of extras that serve the badguy? If I had to start completely from scratch I would probably flip out. Thankfully, I got lucky on iSundae II’s “The Norse.”

The concept of the Norse had been in the script since I don’t know when. Maybe it grew out of a scene in an earlier version, or maybe it got thrown in randomly. I can’t remember. But I do know that design concepts for their “look” are all over some pretty early sketches. There’s an axe with a symbolic icon right next to a costume sketch for Emcracy and a cloak clasp next to Cone armor. I got pretty fancy with some of the sketches and concepts, but one thing I didn’t think about: These were background characters. Extras. A generic “set-dressing.” Thus, no fancy costumes or props! Awww, man. Here’s what we ended up with.

For costumes—Oversized, white, long-sleeve t-shirts with the ribbing on the sleeve cuffs cut off. Simple, cheap, and you can dirty them up all you want. Or cut holes in them. (We didn’t do that.) Then we topped them off with raggedy vests, cloaks, and coats made from whatever we had available. We used everything from an old plaid blanket to a sleeveless polo shirt. A little cutting, a very minimal amount of sewing, and you’ve got it! We didn’t even hem most of the cut edges. These were Vikings, not fashion statements. Oh, we also threw old belts on some of them. Thankfully we weren’t going for historical accuracy, a general look sufficed.

Of course, we had to throw in some axes. Store-bought ones. (Guess who was planning to make all the axes? Cough, cough.) A bow and arrow set a la Stelen from the first movie (re-use your props; they come in handy!) and a few swords. The Norse had to look semi-fierce, after all.

I did get to make some fancier props, though. There’s a rather ornate horn.

And the battering ram. 

I also made some Celtic-knot style clasps for the Norse with cloaks, but they never made it on set more than once. Which is probably a good thing, because the “Celtic look” was strictly for the Cones. And who wants to add ten minutes to the movie length just to explain what Cone stuff was doing on the Norse? 

We discovered that the mix-and-match abilities we ended up with lent themselves to a plethora of Norse really, really well. It also allowed us to create more Norse than we had extras. (More about that later.) But let me just say, if you’re going to have a specific Norse (or anything) show up in more than one scene, write down what his costume is like. In detail. What color is his helmet? How about the thingies holding the horns on? What size is his shirt? What else did he have on? Was he wearing a blue or green shirt underneath? Etc., etc., etc. Trust me, it saves a whole lot of time. You don’t want to leave the film site, run upstairs to turn on the computer, launch your editing software, find a clip that has that Norse in it, run back downstairs and forget what he looked like. Things can get messy.

There are two basic types, though you may find variations.

Soft Plastic

We had three of these for iSundae II, and we discovered a couple facts about them:

They flop when hit too hard. These swords just don’t like to be used. Good for show, but if you’re doing a fight scene, get something a little bit stronger.

Painting them is a bad idea. Rebekah decided to paint all three of our swords with some metallic spray paint, and we discovered very quickly that the paint just flakes off when you fight with the swords. We have several takes of fights with these swords that are ruined by flying paint chips.

So the conclusion on soft plastic swords: Costume prop only, don’t paint them, and definitely don’t fight with them.

Hard Plastic

We were not sure how these would hold up at first, so we bought extras of two swords. Well, the extras are intact, and have survived two movies with fight scenes. Things we discovered about them:

They are almost impossible to bend or flop. However, they tend to break when dropped onto hardwood floors. This is easy to fix, though, because they go back together with hot glue pretty well.

These hurt if somebody gets hit with one. Not as bad as getting sliced by a real sword, but you can be left with a stinging hand if your partner forgets their moves.

Some are better than others. We had two different brands of swords. One brand chipped easily along the edges, while the other brand was a little harder to damage.

Conclusion: Hard plastic swords are good for what you need them for.

Where to Buy Them

Unfortunately, the hard plastic swords are difficult to find in stores. Recently, I’ve only seen soft plastic swords around in places like Wal-Mart and Target. You might think that it gets easier around Halloween, but, alas, no good swords were to be found in my local stores for the last two or three years. (Halloween is a good time for battle axes, and the plastic black ones hold up pretty well in fight scenes.)

We bought our best swords online, I think from Amazon. Check around, they have a pretty good selection.

Sound Effects

Obviously, if you use plastic swords, they won’t sound right at all. It’s a little tedious to add a metal sword sound for every little clash in the movie, but in my opinion, dubbing sword sounds is a lot better than getting sliced by real ones.

If you haven’t guessed by now, that was a conversation I had with myself during the pre-production of iSundae II. The director won. The propmaker was sentenced to a week in the craftroom, or until the double doors were done, whichever came first. I had already made a much smaller door for a different part of the movie, so I couldn’t plead inability. I fired up Boomer, my hot glue gun, and started cutting. And cutting and cutting. And gluing. And cutting some more.

I got empty fabric bolts for free from the JoAnn Etc. in our area and used them for the exterior of the doors. I glued them together in a large sheet, then added rings of thinner cardboard to support the shape, since it had to be a thick door. Whoever heard of a throne room door a half of an inch thick?

The back and edges were attached to that, and it was time for the decorative stuff. Cardboard slivers, corrugated edge up, became fancy trim. Cardboard triangles added to the effect, and a cardboard handle finished it off.

I spray painted it brown, which was a mistake because I let the paint spatter and it ruined the wood grain effect. Then some copper accents and you have it. The director was happy, the propmaker was tired, and the double doors looked good.

How did the doors hold up in the movie? Here’s a video of three different entrances, each showing a different way we can use the doors.

Tip Number One:

When building a heavy duty prop, start with something you already have and build onto/around/under/through/over it.
For example, we needed a throne with a very distinct look, and I didn’t want to use only cardboard because of safety problems. Trust me, you don’t want the actor falling through the prop in the middle of the first take! Our solution? A folding chair. I simply surrounded it with cardboard to change its shape, and voila! A safe, nice-looking Cone Throne.

Tip Number Two:

Get rid of pesky outlets and light switches by covering them.
This was a major problem for us, since we were filming a medieval movie. So we created squares of posterboard or paper with a little design on them and stuck the squares onto whatever we couldn’t hide behind props. You could use blank paper the color of the walls, sci-fi-looking wall units, fake plants, or whatever you want. Just be careful about sticking tape on wall paint, and watch out for falling camouflage. Every so often they’d let go and sail off in the middle of a shot.
Also, while this works well for wider shots, it might be obvious in a close-up.

Tip Number Three:

Work around irremovable parts of the room by disguising them.
This is a biggie. We couldn’t remove a modern-looking bannister from a stairway we were filming on, nor could we tear the fireplace out of the living room. Solution? Cardboard, of course! A little cutting, painting, hot glueing, and, hey presto! A medieval-looking fireplace and bannister. Another way to duck those annoying elements is to try not to show them, although this is sometimes impossible.

Windows! Windows can be awful. The wonderful, modern-looking, white bars criss-crossing the glass. Cardboard to the rescue once more. You see how you can work around these things? Of course, the blinds are a whole ‘nother story.
If your window has an air-conditioning unit in it, check the safety precautions before you try to cover it.

Tip Number Four:

Use things around the house to create “atmosphere.”
We had all the things for this set laying around the house. We just made it look nice and neat. Just keep in mind what time period you’re working with. Don’t put an alarm clock beside a medieval bed (unless it’s part of a joke).

If you want to do this on a much grander scale, check this set out. Only the two white walls existed there. We created two more walls out of bookcases, then filled them with things from around the house, along with a few props I made specifically for it. Now, granted, I did throw in a few joke items. But you see how you can create whole rooms with things from around the house?
It might not be time-saving (it took us all morning to get that set ready), but it’s inexpensive and the results are great.

This brought up a small problem. I am not nearly as good at fabricating sets as Rebekah and Ruth are. Being a rather difficult to daunt individual, I went ahead and tried it.

Obviously, I needed to think of a snowy set on little animal scale. Poster board gave me the base for my landscape, which I then scattered with fake snow, like you would use for decoration at Christmas. Now it looked like snow on the ground, but I still needed a fort and some trees, as well as a good background.

Originally, my background was going to be green poster board, which I would then key out later on the computer, then add a snowy mountain background. I shot some video with this setup and it didn’t work at all. Back to the drawing board.

The background ended up being a simple white sheet. I propped it up with some cardboard bricks, and then hoped fervently that it really looked something like cliff. Of course it didn’t, but the little stuffed animals don’t look real either.

When I contemplated the fort, I pulled out the white card stock paper and fashioned some blocks. My goal was to create something that looked like a fort you might build in the snow, but it also had to be destructible for an effect later in the fight. I set these aside while I built some trees.

I had gathered some little sticks from a bush in the front yard earlier. They were about dried out now, so I did the obvious. Clay bases to make them stand up, and then off to the garage for the snow treatment.

The snow treatment consisted of a coat of spray-on snow, which you can buy almost anywhere at Christmas time. It’s the kind that people spray on their windows to make them look snowy. My can even came with a free set of cheesy stencils. But anyway, both the fort blocks and the trees got a nice spray-down with the aerosol snow.

That left me with only a catapult and giant snowball to fashion. The catapult was simple. One small piece of scrap wood and something to prop it up on. The snowball was trickier, but I finally ended up creating a large ball of clay, baking it until solid, and then painting it white. I tried spraying the snowball with the snow stuff, but the stuff rubbed off after the first take.

So there you have it. My lovely snow set. Overall, it worked rather well for being built by a low experience person!