iSundae Bloopers Reel from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

“He’s right, Somindeo…”

We did this scene on a stool, because Malfhok had to float down from the ceiling. I’m wearing a green box so that I can’t wave my arms around, and so we can key it out for the floating head effect. Well, it’s really hard to step off of a stool with a box that comes down to your knees! Needless to say, the box got the worst of it.

Clocks

This was one of the worst interruptions we had while filming iSundae. Normally, it’s perfectly lovely to have a clock that chimes every quarter hour. But when you are trying to finish a scene ASAP, a chime every fifteen minutes is quite annoying. We learned our lesson and ran the clock down before we started shooting iSundae II. My advice? Think carefully about what makes noise in a location before you decide to shoot there, and if you can, silence them.

Weather Conditions

Man! We had such a hard time on that day. The place where we were filming was right next to the road and right out in the open. Plus, as you can tell, that day was windy. So we shot in between cars going by and gusts of wind. However, it was fun to watch all the people in their cars turning to look at us while they went by.

Sword Belts

This was a recurring trouble. The belts were made of cardboard covered with fabric, so they tended to spring open a lot. For iSundae II, we used real belts.

The Garage Cave

Yes, we know. That scene was shot in a garage. Shocking, isn’t it? Now you know why we darkened the scene so much.

“Have you seen my DVD collection?”

This is what happens when you tell your actors to have a conversation, and then tell them that the audio won’t be used. Consequently, I’m the one with the remark about the DVDs.

And I can’t show you goofy pictures of them without showing a picture of me.

So, based on the other crazy freeze-frames posts, which frame was your favorite?

Here’s your freeze-frames for this week. Have fun!

Fonsuger’s eyes:

Emcracy gapes:

Gwenanda decides to try:

Two lovely heroines:

The badguys’ solemn greeting:

Marelac must have been grouchy that day:

• Step 1: Get up.
  As easy as this sounds, getting up after days of hard exercise involves muscular skill and will power. I want to hear those alarm clocks ringing!
• Step 2: Eat Breakfast.
  One bowl of cereal and some fruit juice, followed by a brisk session of KP. Dishes don’t hop in the dishwasher by themselves.
• Step 3: Pre-filming.
  Spend most of the time you have left before lunch in hauling the furniture out of the way and moving the necessary props into place. Lift with the legs, not with the back.
• Step 4: Film.
  If you’re an actor, this means you stand or move about in the exact same way for take after take. If you’re a director, you run about checking on things or hold the boom over your head. If you’re an actor and a director, you multitask.
• Step 5: Take down.
  Wait! Before you enjoy your lunch (a sandwich or two) you need to clean up the set. Put the props away, all the costumes back on their hangers, then haul any furniture back into place.
• Step 6: Repeat steps 3 through 5 for a longer interval.
• Step 7: Repeat steps 1 through 6 for 30 days.
  (If you feel that this may not give you all the exercise you need, we recommend a few months of pre-conditioning. Try making thirty costumes or so, a room full of props, and around eighty pages of storyboards. We also recommend wrestling large pieces of cardboard as a great biceps builder.)

And the beauty of this system is that not only are you back into shape, but you should have a wonderful movie to show for it.

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