Movie Making Part V: A Spy Movie

As I ponder what I'd like to remember about movie number 4, Operation Uncharted, the Roman battle scene keeps coming to mind.  We thought long and hard about that scene.  How in the world could we make Roman army helmets that would look as real as we could make them?  Without enough money to buy them, we would HAVE to make them, but how?  We looked at plastic bowls at the Dollar Store.  Too big.  We looked at little trash can lids at Walmart and almost convinced ourselves that we could make them work-- too expensive and too round.  After talking through the problem with my mom on the phone one day, she said, "What about paper maché?"  An idea had been born!  We set to work immediately gathering supplies--old newspaper and sheets of cardboard.  We made up a prototype using Grant's head, but when we tried it on him, it just sat right on top of his head--too round!  After more thinking, we realized that every boy's head in that scene would have to be measured.  We made a day of it.  "Come to our house after church and get your head measured!"  We spent the next several weeks cutting strips of cardboard and taping them together to make the structure of the helmet to fit each boy's head.  Then, we paper machéd the helmets, painted them gold, and glued red feathers on the top.  They. were. beautiful!  We prayed that they would all fit the boys, and set out on a hot, sunny, Monday morning for the park, where Allison would film the much awaited Roman battle scene.  We took an hour or more dressing our soldiers for battle.  Once in costume, we lined them up and marched them out to the battle field.  As Allison led them to the filming site, I couldn't believe how remarkable they all looked.  Their golden Roman army helmets gleamed in the sun!

The day grew hot, and we thought we might lose a few soldiers to heat exhaustion, but we made it through.  It wouldn't be the last scene that threatened to claim a few actors, however.  The spy scene, where all the spies were dressed in black, definitely challenged the kids as the sun rose higher in the sky and the temperatures began rising with it.  The Greek scene, the tourist scene, the Roman senate scene---all were filmed under the hot Albuquerque sun.  One scene did need to be filmed in a pizza place.  Ahh!  Airconditioning!

 

Not all of the scenes were filmed in the heat.  One particular scene took place during a rain storm.  A rain storm?  "How are you going to film a scene in the rain?  We live in the desert!!"  I asked the kids.  One thing you must know about my kids and movie making:  Nothing is too impossible for them.  If they want it, they will make it happen.  They must have prayed for rain because one hot, sunny day, I took Grant and Chloe swimming.  The sky darkened, thunder began rolling, and rain started to fall!  The pool closed, and we drove madly home hoping the rain would last longer than the usual desert rain.  Allison packed a bag with cameras and an umbrella while Grant threw on his costume and out the door we went.  We drove just 2 minutes from the house to a coffee shop where the scene was to take place.  The rain poured down in sheets while thunder sounded and lightning flashed.  Soaking wet, trying to keep the camera dry, Allison managed to get her scene.

Heat and lack of rain were only a couple of obstacles the kids had to overcome while filming Operation Uncharted.  The tomb scene needed to look dark and underground, so 96 feet of brown butcher paper took care of that problem.  We had to buy treasure for the tomb scene, find a location for the graveyard scene, make a gravestone, figure out how to build a sarcophagus, create a heavy-looking tomb door, and locate a metal detector!  Can you believe my niece owns a metal detector??!  Nothing was too impossible for BamProductions.

Location, location, location.  Yes, location is important, and Allison filmed her movie all over Albuquerque and Las Cruces.  The spies shot guns at each other on the walkways over Tramway in ABQ, and Victoria Ryan, AKA Abby, discovered tomb treasure in the Egyptian desert of White Sands.

We showed this movie on the big screen twice. New Mexico State University rented their theater to us again for the Las Cruces showing, and ABQ Studios in Albuquerque allowed us to show our film in their brand new theater.  We closed out the experience with a cast party and went about our lives for a little while until January of 2012 when script writing, auditions, and casting began all over again.  The new movie?  Murder at the Masquerade.  Coming Soon!

View the trailer to Operation Uncharted here.