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!

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.

Some people learn slower than others. That’s got to be the only explanation for why we decided to throw not one, but two musical numbers into our second movie. Wasn’t iSundae I hard enough? Maybe we’re gluttons for punishment. Or maybe the songs just begged to be written. But however it happened, we wound up with two scenes that involved singing. Singing in the middle of the woods, no less. Are we nuts or what?

I have it! We were lured into thinking it would be easier because the basics aren’t that hard. We create the music for the song first, then pre-record the vocals and burn them and the music to a CD. When we want to film the actor singing, we play the CD and the actor sings along. This lets the actor get really close to the original timing of the song and makes the lip syncing look even smoother. Once we have it all filmed, we erase the sound from the visual clips and replace it with the pre-recorded audio. How easy! But wait until you try to film it. Things can get out of hand really quick.

Although we are by no means competent (much less comfortable) with filming musical numbers, here area few tips we want to pass along to anyone who is . . . uh . . . (crazy, nuts, intrepid, confident . . . what do I say?) . . . bold enough to try it.

Make sure the actors can sing the song in their sleep

(And I’m not referring to dream sequences.)

They need to know the lyrics and the tune so well they can sing them backwards! Well, maybe not that well. (Yes, we can sing parts of Cheese Soufflé backwards.) They need to be able to sing the song at a moment’s notice and sing it well. Trust me on this one. As a director, it’s so frustrating when you lose every other take because the actor who is supposed to be lip-syncing can’t remember the words. As an actor, it’s very discouraging when you have to concentrate so hard on remembering the words that you forget little things like moving your mouth and singing to the other characters instead of the floor.

Double check everything, but especially the batteries in your portable boom box

We got caught with this one the day before we were going to film. No C batteries to be found in the house. And the adapter power cable for the cigarette lighter in the van wasn’t going to work.

Streamline your storyboards

If your number has been arranged as a whole song, and you’ve been practicing it as a whole song, try not to film it one verse at a time as you move the camera around. You lose your place very easily and get a lot of messed up entrances and exits. Things flow best if you do them the way they’ve been rehearsed. Set your actors up for success! Put the camera in position once and film the whole song. Move it to a secondary location and film the whole song. If you need an angle that’s weird enough . . . I mean, different enough that you only want one shot of it then it’s okay to just do a piece of the song. I’m not trying to force you into filming the whole song a gazillion times. Just keep your (and your actor’s) patience in mind.

Make lists and prioritize

Time constraints are not good friends of mine. In order to combat them efficiently we need two wonder weapons. Checklists and Plan Bs. Think about it. If you have a checklist that says:

Full Front Shot – entire song
Close up on MC – entire song
Close up on Secondary Character – verses 9, 10, and 12
Wide Angle – verses 2 and 7
Character reactions – entire song

You can hand it to virtually anyone and they can instantly become sub-directors for as long as you need! That will leave you free to think about other things. No worries about them missing an angle or a line. It’s all spelled out. The more detailed the better. Comprehensive lists are your friends. It takes prep work, but it’s totally worth it.

The other necessity is Plan B. Or Plan C. Or even clear through to Plan Z. (I have never personally gone that far.) If you think you’re going to run out of time to film all you had planned, what should you do? The actors and crew are waiting for you to suddenly tell them exactly what they need to be doing to make things work. Do you know what to tell them? Do you have the foggiest notion? Be prepared.
If you know an actor has to leave part of the way through, film everything with him in it first. If you’re getting ready to film for an hour and you look at the clock and almost faint because you realized it took you a half hour to set up, how will you best redeem the situation? Film all the basic shots first?
I think you get the idea. A little thinking ahead never hurt anyone. Just don’t turn your plans into a worst-case scenario survival kit. No need to flip out over something that might not happen.

One of the trials of being an aspiring filmmaker is the small amount of people you have available to work with. We watch movies with casts that seem to rival the population of a small country and sigh. These big productions can put more people in the line behind a main character waiting to buy a box of Tic-Tacs than we have in our entire cast and crew combined!

Maybe our budget doesn’t allow for more people, or we simply can’t find anyone willing to help out. But however it comes about, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma. How can we make the best out of a bad situation?

The trick we’re most fond of here at Phantom Moose is not the most professional, or best alternative, but it works. We reuse people at any opportunity. If you’re ever filming with us, don’t ask for a stunt double because we will probably ask you to be the stunt double. (Except for the time when Stelen stood in for Malfhok, but that’s another story.)

And now, for a practical demonstration of our doubling efficiency, let me refer to the “Cauldron number” scene. Anybody notice that Marelac and Stelen are in there twice? Once as themselves and once as Norse guys. We worked the shots and angles so they would never show Marelac with Marelac Norse, or Stelen with Stelen Norse. It’s easier than blue-screening anyone in and out of the scene.

And, as I’ve mentioned before, Alyah and the Badgal are played by the same actress. Didn’t notice? Blessings upon you. You’ve just encouraged some filmmakers.

The important thing to keep in mind is the realism. Think to yourself, “How would I convince myself that these are two separate characters and two separate actors?” Use establishing shots, good fakery, some slick special effects—whatever you can pull off well—and go with it.

The Making of Bob from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

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