Thursday, October 13th, was a fairly busy day for us. Four scenes were shot during this day. The first was the outside scene of the dinosaur Museum, the next shots took place inside Chad Troftgruben’s car, the third scene was the Duct Man’s lair, and filming wrapped up in the evening with the Bryce Wade Manor scene. I’ll break down each of these scenes, so sit back and relax, for things are about to get weird.

Brandon Pelling, Frank Hurt, and I (Chad Troftgruben) arrived at the dinosaur museum at around 4:30 PM. Brandon and I started to get into our costumes. I, of course, was putting on my Batman uniform, but Brandon was laying in his truck trying to slip into something a bit different.

It was a tight fit, but Brandon got them on.

After that, Frank and I watched Brandon put the next part of his costume on, which made us forget about his other article of clothing for the time being.

Our Brandon is blossoming into a beautiful woman. *Sniff* they grow up so fast!

Brandon put his over coat on which was a nice leopard pattern. I then helped him apply the makeup to his face (which I’ve never done before). We slipped the dog ears on his head and wow la, Dog Woman was born!

He’s so sexy!

Now, there’s something to keep in mind here. The dinosaur museum is located near a pretty busy street. I’m surprised we didn’t cause a car crash. Not to mention it didn’t help when a family walked by staring at us. But to top it all off, the dinosaur museum is located near a correctional facility. So I’m sure Brandon made some new male friends (or in some cases, female friends).

After filming the scenes needed by the dinosaur museum, Frank left for his house while Brandon and I filmed the interior Guy-Mobile scenes. This simply required taping green screen onto the windows and setting the camera up on the outside of my car with the passenger door open. This took about five to ten minutes, it was a pretty short sequence.

By taping green screen onto the windows, we can simulate movement in post-production.

After this, Brandon (who kept his Dog Woman uniform on by the way) and I piled into my car and headed to Frank’s to film the final two scenes for the day. The first scene we decided to do was the Duct Man’s Lair scene. We filmed this in Frank’s garage with an increased exposure setting on the camera to simulate an interrogation room. The result was pretty cool looking.

By adjusting the exposure settings, we can make the surrounding area dark and mysterious.

Besides the fact that Frank and I had a hard time remembering lines (I think I see a trend here), everything went very smoothly. Frank did hit his chin on the ground when doing his roll out sequence, but after pointing and laughing at him, he seemed to be fine. I also got a rash on my wrists due to duct tape being wrapped around them. So I guess Duct Man is my arch nemesis after all. However, the rash went away right after the duct tape was removed, so I guess that just shows good always triumphs over evil (or maybe I’m just looking too much into this one). The scene was shot three separate times. Once with a panned out shot, the next with a focus on Batguy, and the final run through focused on Duct Man. This will allow us to switch angles at ease later on when in post-production.

Duct Man (Frank Hurt) reveals his diabolical plot.

After finishing this scene, we headed into Frank’s house to film the Bryce Wade Manor shots. The Bryce Wade Manor scene was shot in Frank’s living room. It’s a very short scene of Batguy’s alter ego, Bryce Wade relaxing and seeing the Guy Signal shine in the air. We shot the scene with a variety of different angles. It went smoothly with no hick ups to speak of. I just shamelessly stuck out my gut and Brandon filmed the scene.

Note to self: I should probably lay off the Commander Riker fat jokes in my upcoming Enterprise: Flashed cartoon.

Overall the day was very successful. I discovered creating a filming schedule makes a huge difference in production. I also discovered the Rancher pizza from Papa Murphy’s is pretty good too. Tomorrow I will discuss our first green screened scenes. See you then!

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