This set was built for Disneyland. We shot Mickey Mouse surfing on the wave. It was funny because when Mickey walked out of the dressing room in his costume ready to go I suggested that they take Mickey’s head off so we could get him into place. There was panic in the room. I was informed that Mickey could never take his costume off in public. Everyone was very serious and I started to laugh. I know there is a person in there. No one is fooling me. What am I 13? They had to call and get clearance. When the shot was done we decided to shoot the surfer. This was done in one shot. The surfer is suspended on a welded structure that winds behind the wave, the shark, and the surf board behind his arm and then his body. There is a platform about 18 inches sq. that holds the talent in place. He was belted in so he would not fall. It was a bit scary for him.
The wave was carved out of green foam and painted. We put it into a water tank and used fan nozzles to spray the water onto the wave. There was a water hoses running from the fire hydrant to give us pressure. The water never looked good until we back-lit it. That gave us the look of more volume. We had two soft boxes one over head and one to the side. There is a bear head on the floor up front and bear heads from behind for the water. The backdrop was lit with 3 strobe heads on the floor and 3 in the ceiling. I used a diffusion material on each head to soften and spread the light on the background. I love these large set ups.
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