MakerFiveSeven
New Member
This previous Halloween build revolved around a movie theme and the Hollywood film set to film it. We do non-scary Halloween displays often based on a scene from art, history or a movie and the visitors seem to enjoy guessing the source. In this case we thought a skeleton could handle a certain dance scene in the front yard, next to his plastic garage sale Christmas lamppost.
For the foreground of the yard and action near the visitors we found this shot of the MGM crew actually filming the same 1952 movie. From these two shots and an additional part of the scene involving a disapproving police officer, the concept was complete for the four skeletons we had at the time.
A couple dimensions of the 1950’s version of the famous 1930’s Technicolor camera turned up in a museum website, along with the usual relative dimensions that could be gleaned from period photos of people standing next to it. Enough photos of it are available from the internet for the details, and thankfully there is at least one excellent picture of the rear of it.
This provided enough information to roughly deal with the structure. Our prop then was sized slightly down from the real thing to look proper up against an 85% scale skeleton. Everything was completely drafted out on paper before construction. Layered 2" pink construction foam was used for a sturdy unit and the delicate lens hood would be glued to a heavy PVC pipe.
The relatively convincing tilt/pan mount was quickly built up from scrap plywood and bits from a home remodeling a couple months ago. It was made to actually tilt and pan since at this point we did not know how the camera would be aimed once we had the tall boom built.
Details were added before sealing and painting as usual. I wanted to make sure we included the prominent drive belt and ribbing to add color to the otherwise large reels. The large rear motor is a coffee can. Plumbing parts and applesauce single serving cups were also used, and an assortment of washers and metal bits from the junk drawer and some electrical twist caps standing in for switches.
Online resources as usual showed the color to vary widely but the most average and pleasing version of the two different blues was matched with a minimal mixing. Drive belt pulleys were turned on a lathe. Aluminum duct tape over thin ripped strips of wood provided the stainless-steel looking edges. Since many of the parts were wood, everything was liberally coated in marine varnish to survive rain and snow for a month.
We have 40-70mph windstorms in October here so the support structure and its boom truck had to be securely mounted with electrical conduit driven a foot into the ground. The lift piston and support arms are also steadying influences. The peculiar double-layer platform was seen in the studio pictures and roughly approximated, and sized to be only large enough for the camera and one operator skeleton to sit on with legs crossed. The director skeleton would be on a ladder to the opposite side, sporting a dashing ascot and smoking a pipe like in the studio picture (carved from scratch!). The boxy body of the truck is left over 2” pink construction foam. We have a running inside joke that we have to use microwave lunch plates that accumulate around here for something in every yearly build, so this time they were hub caps on the wheels
The star of the movie, Gene, wears an unusually styled suit jacket, and though we searched some vintage supply and stagecraft stores we were unable to find anything close. A Goodwill store supplied at least a similar material suit and since I have to tailor it down to size anyway for the skeleton, the cut-offs provided the material for a nod to the prominent and unique belt. The officer sports party store police hat, craft foam badges and a hospital lab coat with a sewn on hood brush-painted dark blue acrylic. Then everything including the stars fedora was liberally coated with marine varnish to appear forever wet.
A hospital I.V. stand and a food service bucket were paired with a science surplus store Fresnel lens to create a studio light near the director. Surprisingly it actually helped the lighting of the scene. This prop was also securely staked down to survive the October storms, and it did. Our only casualty was the film reels when the rain soaked into the Liquid Nails adhesive below it, and softened that enough let go and be blown off across the yard.
Lighting was found to be initially inadequate at night, so a Christmas town house light was placed in the cameraman’s lab to highlight the action up on the platform. A clapperboard was created from scrap pressboard and hints to the visitors to guess the movie were added, plus a spilled coffee from one of the crewmembers was glued down.
The display proved to be very popular with the neighborhood, and as always fun for kids who seemed to enjoy the dancing theme, the stern policeman, and the interesting equipment high up on the boom. The director and cameraman were just hard at work, but they seemed happy with the take too.
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