48HOURS - The Visual Companion
Here's a few of the photos I took during the filmshoot. For those of you who think it looks like we're playing with dolls - we are. The film had to use puppets, so we used dolls for puppets.
This was one of the first scenes we shot - in the cafe. The guy being sat down is the main character of the movie. His name is Protagonist. We filmed the indoor scenes during the day, so that we could shoot the outside scenes (which were set during the day) as the sun set. As a result, the movie was suddenly set during the night and the scenes that were shot at sunset (which were supposed to come after the scenes we shot later at night) suddenly became set at sunrise.
This is Mike and Steve shooting one of the final restaurant scenes where the bad guys are leaving(?)/going after Protagonist(?). I think it's Grace holding the backdrop and Mike holding the lighting equipment, but it's kinda hard to tell.
Here's Mike holding down one of the minor characters. It's his death scene. He's just been taken out by a softball. In some scenes like this one people's dark jackets served as backdrops when the backdrop wasn't so important. In the backround you can see some extras hanging around.
Here's Steve crawling around in the sand on Eastern Beach. It's now sunset/sunrise. The cafe scenes took all afternoon. This here is an awesome-shot-to-be in production. Just visible under Steve's arm are the trenches where the army is entrenched. To the left are the attacking dinosaurs (don't ask - just go and see - The Civic 7:40pm Thursday $10). This shot starts looking up at the army helicopter as it flies over, then swoops down over the trenches as a Hum-Vee drives past, and further down to see the dinosaurs approaching.
The funniest part of the shoot was when we had buried a rope in the sand under some dinosaurs. Me and Mike were to pull it out as fast as we could, making sand fly everywhere to look like an explosion and knocking over the dinsaurs. We pulled it out as fast as we could, and the result was that several dinsoaurs flew a good 5 metres up into the air and into the sea! The force of it also caused Mike to stagger backwards and join them in the sea!
You can't see much in this one, but it's Steve and Mike rehearsing another cool scene where a guy (in Steve's hand) is attacked and killed by a dinosaur (in Mike's hand) before the camera turns and follows a Hum-Vee as it plows through the jungle (pulled by Rebecca). The black thing obscuring Steve is some of the lighting, which I was holding. In this scene my task was to co-ordinate the lighting system so that it stayed directly above the Hum-Vee as it plowed. It looks a bit like Steve has three arms, but that's coz the bottom one is Rebecca's - she's holding the string that holds the Hum-Vee (you can see it in the middle-bottom-right if you know what to look for).
The penultimately awesome shot happened here in the jungle. It involved the camera watching Protagonist as he turned to see something in the sky above him, it then panned past a fire (yes a real fire in the jungle) and up to the helicopter flying overhead, spotlit from below. To do this we had a cool rigging system to control the helicopter's flight, a complex lighting system to cast the different lights in their required directions, and people to hold all the wires involved out of camera shot. I would have loved to have got a photo but I was too busy operating the complex lighting system.
This was back at Steve's again after a significant break (involving Jackass, pizza, and half of The Empire Strikes Back) filming the road chase. Operating the car motive system is Mike (far left -he's holding the string that pulls the car - the string is invisible), operating the camera is Steve, the viewers are Grace and Rebecca, the light operator is Simon, and standing to the left of Grace is Janks. I was backdrop-boy again for most of these scenes (I got to take this photo in between backdrop-requiring scenes). I got a cameo appearance in one of the scenes. I hope it made the final cut. If it did it should be hilarious (judging by the on-set feedback it received).
It was really, really cool day! Thanks guys for letting me be involved. If you ever need someone to help out in a movie in any way, shape, or form, let me know!
I leave you with the plot of the movie, as far as I can make out (I never read the script):
Warning: Spoilers and/or plot details follow:
Protagonist and his girlfriend are sitting in a cafe. They are having relationship troubles, the guy is bored. He looks around the cafe at the other patrons, thinking they are having much more exciting lives than I am. He drifts off into a fantasy...
His girlfriend gets up and goes to the bathroom. While she's gone, a guy comes in and gives an important briefcase to Protagonist. He is killed by a gigantic softball to the head. Protagonist looks around. Two menacing bad guys get up from their table and come towards him. He picks up the breifcase and flees.
Outside, a Ferrari pulls over and the fairy man inside tells him to get in. They hoon off. The bad guys get into a car and give chase. Suddenly Fairy Man stops and kicks Protagonist out. Protagonist runs into an alley where he is attacked by a dog the size of a house, which grabs and eats the briefcase. Protagonist keeps running, leaping over a bed where two people are having sex. He glances at them as he passes and the lady is actually him. He keeps running. A few corners later, he meets her again. The plot becomes so convoluted that I can't tell what's happening. Then he runs into a mirror which falls back to reveal more alleyway.
He runs out into a jungle. He runs through the jungle. In the jungle are dinosaurs attacking an army presumably sent to destroy them. There's lots of gunfire and blood and fires and a helicopter.
He runs out of the jungle onto a beach. The army have entrenched themselves on the beach, and the dinosaurs are launching an assault. A whole lot of them are bombed by the helicopter. Mike falls into the sea.
Suddenly he wakes up, back in the restaurant, with his girlfriend.
Night~
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12995142/
This was one of the first scenes we shot - in the cafe. The guy being sat down is the main character of the movie. His name is Protagonist. We filmed the indoor scenes during the day, so that we could shoot the outside scenes (which were set during the day) as the sun set. As a result, the movie was suddenly set during the night and the scenes that were shot at sunset (which were supposed to come after the scenes we shot later at night) suddenly became set at sunrise.
This is Mike and Steve shooting one of the final restaurant scenes where the bad guys are leaving(?)/going after Protagonist(?). I think it's Grace holding the backdrop and Mike holding the lighting equipment, but it's kinda hard to tell.
Here's Mike holding down one of the minor characters. It's his death scene. He's just been taken out by a softball. In some scenes like this one people's dark jackets served as backdrops when the backdrop wasn't so important. In the backround you can see some extras hanging around.
Here's Steve crawling around in the sand on Eastern Beach. It's now sunset/sunrise. The cafe scenes took all afternoon. This here is an awesome-shot-to-be in production. Just visible under Steve's arm are the trenches where the army is entrenched. To the left are the attacking dinosaurs (don't ask - just go and see - The Civic 7:40pm Thursday $10). This shot starts looking up at the army helicopter as it flies over, then swoops down over the trenches as a Hum-Vee drives past, and further down to see the dinosaurs approaching.
The funniest part of the shoot was when we had buried a rope in the sand under some dinosaurs. Me and Mike were to pull it out as fast as we could, making sand fly everywhere to look like an explosion and knocking over the dinsaurs. We pulled it out as fast as we could, and the result was that several dinsoaurs flew a good 5 metres up into the air and into the sea! The force of it also caused Mike to stagger backwards and join them in the sea!
You can't see much in this one, but it's Steve and Mike rehearsing another cool scene where a guy (in Steve's hand) is attacked and killed by a dinosaur (in Mike's hand) before the camera turns and follows a Hum-Vee as it plows through the jungle (pulled by Rebecca). The black thing obscuring Steve is some of the lighting, which I was holding. In this scene my task was to co-ordinate the lighting system so that it stayed directly above the Hum-Vee as it plowed. It looks a bit like Steve has three arms, but that's coz the bottom one is Rebecca's - she's holding the string that holds the Hum-Vee (you can see it in the middle-bottom-right if you know what to look for).
The penultimately awesome shot happened here in the jungle. It involved the camera watching Protagonist as he turned to see something in the sky above him, it then panned past a fire (yes a real fire in the jungle) and up to the helicopter flying overhead, spotlit from below. To do this we had a cool rigging system to control the helicopter's flight, a complex lighting system to cast the different lights in their required directions, and people to hold all the wires involved out of camera shot. I would have loved to have got a photo but I was too busy operating the complex lighting system.
This was back at Steve's again after a significant break (involving Jackass, pizza, and half of The Empire Strikes Back) filming the road chase. Operating the car motive system is Mike (far left -he's holding the string that pulls the car - the string is invisible), operating the camera is Steve, the viewers are Grace and Rebecca, the light operator is Simon, and standing to the left of Grace is Janks. I was backdrop-boy again for most of these scenes (I got to take this photo in between backdrop-requiring scenes). I got a cameo appearance in one of the scenes. I hope it made the final cut. If it did it should be hilarious (judging by the on-set feedback it received).
It was really, really cool day! Thanks guys for letting me be involved. If you ever need someone to help out in a movie in any way, shape, or form, let me know!
I leave you with the plot of the movie, as far as I can make out (I never read the script):
Warning: Spoilers and/or plot details follow:
Protagonist and his girlfriend are sitting in a cafe. They are having relationship troubles, the guy is bored. He looks around the cafe at the other patrons, thinking they are having much more exciting lives than I am. He drifts off into a fantasy...
His girlfriend gets up and goes to the bathroom. While she's gone, a guy comes in and gives an important briefcase to Protagonist. He is killed by a gigantic softball to the head. Protagonist looks around. Two menacing bad guys get up from their table and come towards him. He picks up the breifcase and flees.
Outside, a Ferrari pulls over and the fairy man inside tells him to get in. They hoon off. The bad guys get into a car and give chase. Suddenly Fairy Man stops and kicks Protagonist out. Protagonist runs into an alley where he is attacked by a dog the size of a house, which grabs and eats the briefcase. Protagonist keeps running, leaping over a bed where two people are having sex. He glances at them as he passes and the lady is actually him. He keeps running. A few corners later, he meets her again. The plot becomes so convoluted that I can't tell what's happening. Then he runs into a mirror which falls back to reveal more alleyway.
He runs out into a jungle. He runs through the jungle. In the jungle are dinosaurs attacking an army presumably sent to destroy them. There's lots of gunfire and blood and fires and a helicopter.
He runs out of the jungle onto a beach. The army have entrenched themselves on the beach, and the dinosaurs are launching an assault. A whole lot of them are bombed by the helicopter. Mike falls into the sea.
Suddenly he wakes up, back in the restaurant, with his girlfriend.
Night~
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12995142/
posted by David | 11:53 pm
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