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Shots against all odds

Courtroom: the overhead shot



So, for that widest shot of the Courtroom I've placed the camera high above the Judge, thus rendering the floor pattern important. Having all the other elements rather othodox, it occured to me I should try an optical trick. I wanted the floor to appear more flat in relation to the camera, by giving it different perspective than to everything else in the shot. To achieve the effect, I needed to put all the elements in place and frame them first, only then I was able to draw patterns on test shots. Then I had to match positions on the set with imaginary lines of the pattern I chosed to use. After that, it was a simple matter of producing the floor piece from sheet plastic and painting the pattern on it. Et voila! But, before getting to the floor itself, at first I had to lay out all the elements, raised floor pieces, benches and puppets.












I've placed about 35 - 36 puppets in that shot. Not all of them were animable, but most were fitted with, at least, moveable head. The space conditions were so cramped, I couldn't reach all of the puppets from the back edge of the set, so I animated the group on the left first, than removed them and that whole portion of the set, together with floor and whatever was under it and held that floor segment. Only then I was able to animate the right group, and then, separately, Santa and the Prosecutor, the Judge, and the typist. It wouldn't be that tricky if the studio would be more spacious. But it wasn't.


	I have had some more shots to come, in that same direction, but with the back wall in them. I decided it'd be the best simply to turn the whole set for 360 degrees, in order to have enough space. There was nothing simple about it, especially when I figured out that I don't have enough puppets for these shots.

There were more than 42 different puppets in that set assembly. That was the biggest number I gathered for a shot, ever. The sheet on the top of the picture plays the role of the first floor; it's sole purpose is to cast the shadow, so that the viewers could sense that somewhere up there's a balcony, over the rear end. None of this, not the puppets, nor any of the details in the background, or that shadow, could be really noticeable while viewing the film, so I didn't bother too much with all that. But I had to make the shot (s) to work, at least to some degree. All of this could, of course, be done much better, much nicer, with prettier puppets and finer "carpentry" detailing but I think it's just, well - good,.. enough.