Pick Up Shots Day 7

So, last Thursday, Alex, James, Dan and I troop back to Wellington to finish gathering the last of the shots for Pernickety. There's a list of six shots, and it takes us 11 hours to shoot them. Gordon's perfectionist streak has rubbed off onto all of us, and there's no point in doing anything half-heartedly now! Alex and I had to be body doubles for Gordon and Penelope, which was highly amusing... I got to wear Kellie's crasy boots, and a cushion cover to hide the fact that we didn't have Kellie's costumes on set. Luckily, we had all of Gordon's attire, and Alex fitted them a treat, although it become obvious that they are certainly not the same body shape! But by making us out-of-focus, James managed to achieve the shots effortlessly. I was worried that the amount of moles I have on my arms might get picked up on, but having watched the edit today, I'm fairly satisfied we've done a good enough cover-up!

Here's Alex watching back the shot of the female figurine smashing on the piece of marble we placed under the carpet to give it a better chance of shattering. It worked a treat, only I was out buying fish and chips for lunch and the boys neglected to wait for me before they got into destruction mode - not fair, I'd been gagging to see them perish, as I'd spent so much time making sure they stood together safely before this moment. (Remember me saying that we only had one set of each...)
Here's one of the figurines used in the finale, but notice a slight alteration to his arm... he has two hands! Oh the fun we had with these figurines, I've still got the whole collection at home, in various states of grotesque disarmament!

We couldn't have asked for better weather for these establishing shots, the sun was shining on the front of the house to highlight the features and add yet more grandeur to the establishment... You'd never guess that it's a b-u-n-g-a-l-o-w!

Alex, (still wearing Gordon's outfit on his lower-half), James and Dan work out how to frame the shot, as I watch for traffic on this road outside my Grandma's house... They're aiming for a sweeping pan across the hedge and up to the sign I so lovingly made, shame it only gets about two seconds screen time and you can't even see the bit that reads, "Proprietor Mr. G. Pernick". Oh well, it still looks authentic though.


Mid-way-through this tricky pan, Dan sticks the camera through the letter box and paps us in full-concentration mode...

Alex and Holly looking oh so professional using the crane to pan up to the door bell and then up to the light above the door. Turned out to be quite a tricky shot as there was only two of us to maneuver the crane and I also had to body double in order to press the bell!



The video clips below include high-lights of smashing the figurines on a marble slab under a piece of carpet, assembling and moving the crane so as not to get run over by traffic, Alex throwing a newspaper (ie the paper boy) at a gnome for a 'realistic' morning establishing shot. Then there's Alex pondering about how to make the figurines fly to the floor realistically, whilst He and I act as Gordon and Penelope's body doubles!