The Dark Side of the Earth: December 24th, 2007

The new videomatic, one of the most complex so far, was time-consuming to film. Ian’s Lady Vain deck model was about three metres long and took up much of the loft play-room where we were shooting. To represent the underside of the balloon, we suspended several bin bags from the sloping ceiling. This resulted in a lethal web of threads akin to that game in The Crystal Maze where touching the neon rods three times led to automatic lock-in. We managed to avoid tripping and falling on the model at any point, which was just as well since it was covered in cocktail sticks acting as deck railings.
Setting the model up took so long that, by the time Ian had to leave at 7:30pm, we were little more than halfway through the shots. The usual problems of manipulating the tiny figures were compounded by the bin bag ceiling and the difficulties of moving around the room without garrotting ourselves. However, despite the frustrations, by lunchtime today I had completed all the shots on the set and was able to pack it away for future use.
Merry Christmas!

The Dark Side of the Earth: December 24th, 2007