We recorded this over the Internet between two states, so please excuse any garbled audio or quiet points. Turn down the lights, crank up the sound, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the commentary!

And now that you’ve finished watching it, what’d you think? Leave a comment and tell us!

Until now. Read on to see what changed my mind.

I had heard how on indie films people had used a green or blue screen outdoors. This supposedly had the advantage of even lighting without any real work. I’d always wanted to try it, but I had no frame and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to hang the screen.

My dad came to the rescue last week with a great idea: Grab a few clamps and hang the blue screen from the gutter on our house. Hanging the screen in front of the garage door ensured enough room to back off for a wide shot.

I hurried outside to try it. The day was pretty windy, so the screen was constantly in motion. This is unfortunate, since that messed up the key a little. But still, I got results at least as good as those in iSundae II with about ten minutes of work. Compare that to the hours I spent on a single shot for iSundae II!

Here’s my test video:

I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do when the wind isn’t ruining my shot!

By the way, on the subject of chroma keying, I’ve been messing around with the demo of DVmatte Blast recently. It does a very nice job!

The Guard Movie from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

The first thing we worked on was costume. Jordan’s sister Becca came to my rescue and made the wonderful little shirt and pants that Kitty Cone wears. (At the time we knew we were going to be spoofing a certain science fiction badguy, so a lot of black in the costume was a given.) So, we had a costume that the audience could associate Kitty with. Then we pulled a switch. You only see Kitty in his official costume part of the time. A lot of the filming was done with Kitty wearing a sort of elongated black skirt. That allowed us to stick our arm up through under cover of the black fabric and hang onto his feet. Kitty is a very stiff little critter, and you can get a lot of wiggle out of that position. We used this “sock puppet” approach in a lot of the close ups, and particularly whenever he popped up from behind something.

Now, that method was all well and good, but if a character is always standing behind things you start to wonder whether he has any legs at all. It worked with Kitty Cone because he was short—so obviously, if he wanted to talk to anyone he had to stand on something tall. I guess we could have left things at the puppet stage, but we decided to push the boundaries a little bit. How hard could it be to make Kitty look like he was walking on his own?

We ended up with a combination of strings, dowels, and computer magic to make it work. There’s this great spool of gray-brown thread that’s been in our movie kit forever and ever. It blends in with practically everything, and especially our basement carpet. All we have to do is attach it to Kitty somewhere and then tie the other end to a long dowel. Someone stands out of camera view and makes him bounce around. His long sword was a definite plus for this because it weighed him down and kept him from revolving while in midair. Then, if all else failed, we simply edited out the arm or string that Kitty was attached to.

Kitty Cone Puppetry from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

The duel presented a whole new set of problems. I remember one idea we bounced around was that Kitty would grab one of the Norse Guards and have him push a little wheeled cart around so Kitty could duel from the top of it. Thankfully we didn’t have to deal with that. A simple paintbrush attached to the sword made it possible for the two blades to reach each other. (At the time we were keeping the lightsabers as a big secret. We filmed the duel when the parents were away and had plenty of pre-thought out answers, just in case anyone asked what the paintbrush was for.) The fancy flip that Kitty does over Stelen wasn’t really that fancy. We just threw Kitty and told Stelen to duck.

As with any good puppet, you have to add sound effects to make it come to life. Jordan was our vocal and foley artist for this. He did everything from shuffling in slippers to thumping on the wall.

All in all, it was a positive experience. For almost everyone concerned. We had to sew Kitty’s eyebrows and mustache to his face. I’m pretty sure he didn’t like that. They must have itched.

Your patience has been rewarded. Here, at long last, is the tower top behind the scenes video.

Behind the Scenes of the iSundae II Tower Top Scene from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

This is the last behind the scenes article we have planned. Is there anything that you want to know about from iSundae II? Leave a comment and tell us, and we’ll see if we can accommodate you.

 
iSundae II Bloopers Reel from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

And for those of you waiting for the tower top behind the scenes video, hang in there. I’m working on it!

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 10 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Stay tuned! We’ll have outtakes for you later on, and I’m planning on a behind the scenes video on the tower top scene.

Believe me, after twenty minutes of acting under two-thousand watts of light (and more than five yards of velvet) you feel like you’re flying, and it’s not a pleasant sensation.

Staying cheerful and hydrated during the Flying Machine Sequence was one of the hardest and most personally challenging things I did during the production of iSundae II. The staying cheerful part especially. Bad attitudes can spread like wildfire on the best of days, and filming in a tight area just makes them spread faster. I think the extra effort showed as Gwenanda getting steadily crazier. We got quite a few outtakes and “behind the scenes” clips. I guess those made up, in a small way, for the difficulties.

The room we were filming in would have been a great size if we had taken all the furniture out, but that wasn’t really practical. So all seven of us crammed in between the couches, television, speakers, bookcases, recliner, and foosball table. Us, and two of our biggest production lights. When you get that many heat-producing bodies in that size of an area, things warm up really quick. With the lights it was just awful. Oh, and then we lost about three feet off of one end of the room because the weather-balloon of a blue screen had to hang a ways out from the wall. But somehow we all crammed in there and made it to filming.

As soon as you can get over not being able to see much and the vague feeling that you’re in a giant microwave, filming with the big lights isn’t too bad. I’m here to testify that you can get used to it! Just make sure that none of your costume fabrics are flammable.

Acting for this scene was easy. We actually got to sit down almost the entire time! We faced the flying machine left, and said our lines. We faced the machine toward the camera, and said our lines. We turned to the right, and said our lines. You get the basic idea. And you’d think we would know our lines really well by the end of the first two times through, but you’re reckoning without the heat. And it didn’t help that as we got more loopy, things seemed more funny.

All in all it was a . . . good experience. I now know how to survive under all that velvet. You don’t think about it, and try to help everyone else forget that we’re presenting a passable imitation of baked trout. And it did pay off. We got some great footage and ended up having fun.

Here’s a video of some of the craziness from the flying machine filming day:

Behind the Scenes of the Flying Machine from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 9 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be sure to stick around for a peek behind the scenes of the flying machine sequence and all the craziness of shooting blue screen all day.