Filming outdoors with puppets means setting up a mobile studio. Just out of frame is the hatchback fitted with a computer, portable desk, sound deck (which we didn't use due to all the uncontrollable noises like freeway cars, surface street cars, six trains, sirens, a few jets and a partridge in a pear tree). We will do voice-overs later.
Oh, and did I mention the wind? The golfing umbrella took off a few times even though weighted down. RIP Umbrella.
This is what is on the other side of the blue fence at Happy's Greenhouse, a field full of organic crops (filmed at Petaluma Bounty Farm). We were so lucky to be able to film this in winter with such incredible weather. Yea, California!
Here is our first movie trivia moment: Happy's blue fence was originally used in what Hollywood film shot in downtown Petaluma? The answer when we return.
OK, here we are, the film was Inventing The Abbotts, 1997, produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The fence (then white) was used as a backdrop in the display window of Lily's Apparel. I had rented my native American Indian antique arts gallery to the film company which they transformed into...Lily's Apparel. As I watched and met the different crews build and prep the sets (I maintained my office at the back of the gallery during film work) I became hooked and decided to pursue a career in film arts. I was awarded the official Lily's Apparel backdrop fence when they struck the sets. This month-long interaction with the film world led me to stop-motion animation and then to working with puppets.
Speaking of stop-frame animation, we will have one short titled "Exercising With The Couch Potato Family" within the Happy's Greenhouse lineup. Now, back to work.
Happy holidays from Magic Drawer Workshop!
