As a present to you my blog readers this Xmas I give you the WHOLE of Action Figure High.
Included are the links to the actual Youtube postings. Be sure to pop on there and give them a rating (you don't even have to watch them to do that!)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Showing posts with label Action Figure High. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action Figure High. Show all posts
Dec 24, 2006
Final Action
The final chapter of Action Figure High Part 5. Also comes with end of story of its production. Note: Good grammer or compelling narrative not included.
Our drunken filming from the night before gave us the bulk of the movie. However many of the key cool scenes were needed. Just going to show how important and key action sequences are to movies today.
Our first order of business was the Pooky Wooky battle. This was stressful for me the story editor as if it turned out we had missed a scene with the monster after our torching it there was no going back. In the end we proceeded.
First we filmed all the action figure vs. Pooky Wooky clips. Then it was onto the actual flame thrower. This was accomplished by borrowing gasoline from Cam's neighbor Claymore and filling the Pooky Wooky's mouth to the top, and spreading it around Cam's front porch. We had everyone's still cameras filming it as well as my camcorder to capture different angles of this ONE time shot (kinda made us feel like a real production company filming that one multi million $ sequence). Unfortunately the other cameras would prove unusable.
The good news man did that thing burn! For 9 whole minutes! So well in fact we were worried that the fire department might get called in. Didn't happen. I had more then enough footage from the camcorder to pull off the scene in editing. The one bad side effect. The toxic smoke that rendered me and Cam coughing unhealthily for the rest of production (and in my case for 2 more days).
Then it was on to Dinoworld and all its fun. By far the most entertaining was making Yoda's car fly!
With that wrapping up me and Peter hastily set up Futureworld in the computer room using all available funky things in the house as well as 2 boxes worth of XMas lights.
Lastly too the basement we went to film the Sally confrontation. Was a fairly simple set up as Cam's basement is among the creepiest places in the world (still mad I couldn't rent it as my summer home!).
As we wrapped up Cam had to fly off to work, and me and Peter had to hit the road for Calgary. Was by far the most intense and efficient shot Prehistoric Insanity has done, and we have MANY short shots like this under our belts.
Enjoy this among our greatest achievements (though I wonder how much better it could have been had Dan been around that summer).
Stay tuned after Xmas for our greatest experiment and possible only folly. The Hardcore Apocalypse After Next Tuesday
Our drunken filming from the night before gave us the bulk of the movie. However many of the key cool scenes were needed. Just going to show how important and key action sequences are to movies today.
Our first order of business was the Pooky Wooky battle. This was stressful for me the story editor as if it turned out we had missed a scene with the monster after our torching it there was no going back. In the end we proceeded.
First we filmed all the action figure vs. Pooky Wooky clips. Then it was onto the actual flame thrower. This was accomplished by borrowing gasoline from Cam's neighbor Claymore and filling the Pooky Wooky's mouth to the top, and spreading it around Cam's front porch. We had everyone's still cameras filming it as well as my camcorder to capture different angles of this ONE time shot (kinda made us feel like a real production company filming that one multi million $ sequence). Unfortunately the other cameras would prove unusable.
The good news man did that thing burn! For 9 whole minutes! So well in fact we were worried that the fire department might get called in. Didn't happen. I had more then enough footage from the camcorder to pull off the scene in editing. The one bad side effect. The toxic smoke that rendered me and Cam coughing unhealthily for the rest of production (and in my case for 2 more days).
Then it was on to Dinoworld and all its fun. By far the most entertaining was making Yoda's car fly!
With that wrapping up me and Peter hastily set up Futureworld in the computer room using all available funky things in the house as well as 2 boxes worth of XMas lights.
Lastly too the basement we went to film the Sally confrontation. Was a fairly simple set up as Cam's basement is among the creepiest places in the world (still mad I couldn't rent it as my summer home!).
As we wrapped up Cam had to fly off to work, and me and Peter had to hit the road for Calgary. Was by far the most intense and efficient shot Prehistoric Insanity has done, and we have MANY short shots like this under our belts.
Enjoy this among our greatest achievements (though I wonder how much better it could have been had Dan been around that summer).
Stay tuned after Xmas for our greatest experiment and possible only folly. The Hardcore Apocalypse After Next Tuesday
Action Stations
Onto Part 4 of Action Figure High. Here's what happened next.
We began filming at about 8pm thursday evening. We had exactly 24hrs to complete the shot as me and Peter needed to be back in Calgary Saturday to attend a wedding.
The production plan was simple make up the story as we went around a general premise of Luke and friends get throw out of their typical nerdish/outsider existence at skool, and thrown into a wacky adventure/quest.
All the lines and comedy are improvised (not unlike our other movies LOL just this stuff is comparatively better). Helping fuel this perhaps was the beer we were all drinking as the night went on. If you watch the scene in Part 2 where Luke starts running to Yoda's hill you can see a brief cameo of a Carlson beer can (the official beer of Prehistoric Insanity... if only they still made it).
By the end of the first night we had the majority of the film done. Our only incomplete scenes were the outdoor shots of Dinoworld, the crazy Xmas lights of futureworld, and the confrontation with Sally at the end.
Though this was a short list of unfinished scenes complicating production the next day was Cam having to work his day shift at the museum followed by an evening shift at the Bar. How did we pull it off?
Tune in for Part 5. First watch Part 4.
We began filming at about 8pm thursday evening. We had exactly 24hrs to complete the shot as me and Peter needed to be back in Calgary Saturday to attend a wedding.
The production plan was simple make up the story as we went around a general premise of Luke and friends get throw out of their typical nerdish/outsider existence at skool, and thrown into a wacky adventure/quest.
All the lines and comedy are improvised (not unlike our other movies LOL just this stuff is comparatively better). Helping fuel this perhaps was the beer we were all drinking as the night went on. If you watch the scene in Part 2 where Luke starts running to Yoda's hill you can see a brief cameo of a Carlson beer can (the official beer of Prehistoric Insanity... if only they still made it).
By the end of the first night we had the majority of the film done. Our only incomplete scenes were the outdoor shots of Dinoworld, the crazy Xmas lights of futureworld, and the confrontation with Sally at the end.
Though this was a short list of unfinished scenes complicating production the next day was Cam having to work his day shift at the museum followed by an evening shift at the Bar. How did we pull it off?
Tune in for Part 5. First watch Part 4.
Jumping into Action
Time for Part 3 of Action Figure High. Its story already in progress.
With our cast of props gathered (one of the few instances that having your props means you have a movie together) it was time to come up with a story and setting.
The initial idea surrounded a murder mystery in which characters would be killed off scene by scene. In the end the murders were going to have been perpetrated by the Ninja Turtles, but as we'd bought the Pooky Wooky (whose name won't be invented till filming) it was realized that we were going to need a whole new premise.
Cam and Peter came up with the fitting setting of a high school, and that we should have the cast be a group of questing students. Now I started on a first draft of the story which was a LOT more complicated and convoluted.
This story would have had a subplot of Thor's dad being overthrown as the mayor of action figureville, and multiple potential villains so that Sally's reveal would be a "shocker". Fortunately I was vetoed as filming began. The production motto was "keep it simple".
Cam and Peter eagerly spent an hour designing set pieces on the computer printing them and making the school. All the doors, windows, lockers, flags, and posters were made in this fashion. I was kinda third wheel during this process. My major contribution was gathering the AstroTurf from the basement.
With the school set up and two days to film we cracked open a few six packs of Carlson Beer, and began the filming.
The rest of the story to follow on Part 4. Till then enjoy
With our cast of props gathered (one of the few instances that having your props means you have a movie together) it was time to come up with a story and setting.
The initial idea surrounded a murder mystery in which characters would be killed off scene by scene. In the end the murders were going to have been perpetrated by the Ninja Turtles, but as we'd bought the Pooky Wooky (whose name won't be invented till filming) it was realized that we were going to need a whole new premise.
Cam and Peter came up with the fitting setting of a high school, and that we should have the cast be a group of questing students. Now I started on a first draft of the story which was a LOT more complicated and convoluted.
This story would have had a subplot of Thor's dad being overthrown as the mayor of action figureville, and multiple potential villains so that Sally's reveal would be a "shocker". Fortunately I was vetoed as filming began. The production motto was "keep it simple".
Cam and Peter eagerly spent an hour designing set pieces on the computer printing them and making the school. All the doors, windows, lockers, flags, and posters were made in this fashion. I was kinda third wheel during this process. My major contribution was gathering the AstroTurf from the basement.
With the school set up and two days to film we cracked open a few six packs of Carlson Beer, and began the filming.
The rest of the story to follow on Part 4. Till then enjoy
Dec 21, 2006
Production In Action
So here we are at Part 2 of Action Figure High. The year was 2005, and this movie almost wasn't a reality. If not for the well timed visit of Peter Bond in the last week of that summer this movie never would have happened.
Peter's visit coincided nicely with my freedom from museum responsibilities. We had just wrapped up camp, and were in the process of disassembling my home for the summer. With that out of the way I was free to worry about such things as filming.
Now granted I wasn't the driving force behind this particular movie. Cam takes full credit as the advocate and champion for this one. Having filmed some demo clips with his still camera he was able to sell me and Peter on a Team America style movie.
We had no idea as to a story, and our cast of characters was limited to the few franchises Cam possessed action figures of. The best decision we made during this pre production stage was going to the dollar store, and the Salvation Army store in town. Here our cast suddenly expanded and diversified, and with it so did our story potential.
At the dollar store we bought the most. Thor made his controversial origin here, and it won't be till we started filming that my pushing for him was accepted. The treasure discovery though was that of Wolfman Jack. I found him on the stand, a marine/soldier figure sprawled with crouch projecting. I laughed so hard picking him up and telling the guys we HAD to buy him. Best find ever.
There were also a bunch of unused purchases. We acquired a whole set of pirates who in the end were never used. Their mermaid love interests fortunately made it into the dance as Landos backup singers.
At the S Army we found things like R2's car, and Thor's dad. The treasure there was my discovering a giant blue fuzzy toy. It was creepy as all *%&$, and not "cool" by any means, but I saw in it a great potential as our villain. One that could be exposed to fire with no regrets.
A quick sidenote I claim credit for these great discoveries (Thor, Wolfman Jack, and Pooky Wooky), but don't get me wrong this isn't a ego trip. As you'll see this was probably my only big contribution to the pre-production. I also picked most of the stinkers that either didn't make it into the movie at all ($ wasted) and or were cut from the movie (my VERY regrettable Fing Fang Foom character). I was just along for the ride on this movie for the most part. This was Cam's masterpiece...
His debut movies tale continues with Part 3 soon... Enjoy Part 2 in the meantime!
Dec 20, 2006
Lights, Camera, Action... Figures that is
As promised yet another movie from Prehistoric Insanity's past. This round we jump forward in time to the interesting year 2005.
This year marked a sad note in the Insanity's history. Out of the original three stooges only I the weapon of mass imagination returned to Drumheller for the summer. Peter was off in University completing this education degree, and Dan had scored a sweet gig up at Fort Edmonton. This naturally made making a new movie difficult too impossible. Especially as I was living AT camp that year, which is a story in and of itself.
So for the majority of the summer it looked like a movie just wasn't going to happen.
The only thing that probably saved the whole year was that Cam became ubber interested in making one. Now talk was for a space movie of some kind. However due to both our schedules and a lack of interest of ANYONE else that worked at the museum that year (the majority of the new people were lame that year) this never materialized.
Where our eventual break through would come was the two of us talking about Team America World Police, and how awesome it was. Somehow we got on the idea of mixing Anakin Skywalker with Napoleon Dynamite (probably due to my being able to do Napoleon's voice really well).
Cam towards the end of summer was so into this idea that he filmed a demo with his still camera. This coincided very nicely with the arrival of Peter for a visit. Before we knew it we were in preproduction for a movie that would be filmed in less then a week at the VERY end of summer (all too formiliar from our desperate 2003 video adventure).
The rest of that tale awaits. In the meantime enjoy part one of what would become Action Figure High.
This year marked a sad note in the Insanity's history. Out of the original three stooges only I the weapon of mass imagination returned to Drumheller for the summer. Peter was off in University completing this education degree, and Dan had scored a sweet gig up at Fort Edmonton. This naturally made making a new movie difficult too impossible. Especially as I was living AT camp that year, which is a story in and of itself.
So for the majority of the summer it looked like a movie just wasn't going to happen.
The only thing that probably saved the whole year was that Cam became ubber interested in making one. Now talk was for a space movie of some kind. However due to both our schedules and a lack of interest of ANYONE else that worked at the museum that year (the majority of the new people were lame that year) this never materialized.
Where our eventual break through would come was the two of us talking about Team America World Police, and how awesome it was. Somehow we got on the idea of mixing Anakin Skywalker with Napoleon Dynamite (probably due to my being able to do Napoleon's voice really well).
Cam towards the end of summer was so into this idea that he filmed a demo with his still camera. This coincided very nicely with the arrival of Peter for a visit. Before we knew it we were in preproduction for a movie that would be filmed in less then a week at the VERY end of summer (all too formiliar from our desperate 2003 video adventure).
The rest of that tale awaits. In the meantime enjoy part one of what would become Action Figure High.
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