Production moved from a tolerant prop and special effects business in a near-northern suburb of Minneapolis to a basement studio in an industrial building recently. It's our own spot, though it also means we have to make some compromises. There's less electricity, and less floor space, though we make it work.
The set is flexible, and built of carved foam on wooden frames, with some freestanding pieces built by Gordon, who also made the puppets.
It's set in what is supposed to be a TV station in a Transylvanian vampire's castle. The great thing is, it's unconnected to anything resembling reality, so we have a pretty free hand to do what we want in terms of...well, just about anything!
Above, we see Michael in the process of readying the set for a scene. The monitors are for the puppet operators ("fleece animators") to see their puppet's orientation and how it relates to the other characters in the scene.
The setup to the right, seen in detail below, features two instruments - a small (300W) light with crumpled foil and a green gel over it creating the breakup pattern on the wall, and an open-face 750W light bounced off a large piece of white foamcore, with a similarly-sized piece of black foamcore "flagging" it off the background wall to increase the intensity of the green breakup.
Here, we see characters Dwayne Frankenstein and Furry J. Ackermonster (operated by Michael and Gordon) preparing for a shot. Note the texture on the walls, highlighted by the side-lighting, which accentuates the dimensionality of the surface.
Below, our camera operator prepares for a Furry shot. He's using a special adapter to fit Nikon 35mm still camera lenses to the camera, which allows for a very "cinematic" narrow depth of field.
Here, the same wall surfaces behind Furry and Dwayne have been moved and turned into a cul-de-sac for a dramatic moment in the show.
The small piece of foamcore on the light overhead keeps too much light from falling on the back wall.
And we see Furry and Batfink preparing for the climactic scene in the cul-de-sac here.
This is preparation for another scene, in the control room of the Transylvania TV station. Note the blue pattern in the back corner and the foamcore "flag" on the softbox overhead. The flag shades the corner allowing the blue to be more intense. Also, the small "monitors" in the console (far right) are backlit to make them appear active, as well as many small lights on both consoles, which range from Christmas tree lights to bicycling LED lights.
And a detail of the blue corner light, also showing the light coming in from beyond the barred window in the "wooden" door.
Here, we have a new character, Rob the Zombie, emerging from a hallway into the control room. Note the light play on the drape in the hallway.
And the small light inside the "hallway" creating that play, giving depth to the set.
These are not taken from the angle of the show camera, and are much more brightly exposed than the finished image in the edited show will be. The shots are for illustration, and meant to show how lighting is used to create atmosphere for a set. If you want to see what TVTV looks like once it's shot and cut, take a look at www.transylvania-tv.com. And again, this show is not meant for kids.
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