The Making of Moon Madness

On a day, kind of like most other days, i decided to hop into forbidden planet ( I do that actually every day in the vague hope it would be the one day they have a sale). Amongst all the things that are ridiculously expensive but i have no interest in (un-posable busts, seriously) in the corner of one of the display cases was a 2001 a Space Odyssey Moon-bus. Having just watched 2001 with Guy I actually ended up very drawn to this ship and the sequence it had appeared in the film. However, at a price-tag of £64.99, double the price of my cherished and beloved Zero X model I decided to give it a miss. This strange craft lingered in my mind. I liked the design, there also isn't probably many of them in existence. 


In the end I decided the only way i'd end up buying the thing is if i made a movie with it.

The set up we used featured:

• A 3x1 meter Blackscreen.
• A pole.
• A bent clothes hanger.
• Blue Tack.
• A G-clamp and table.
• Underpants (Black)
• Cloth and other soft things to catch the models if they fell off.

The Models where held in place by the clothes hanger which attached to the pole through a hole in the cloth. The underpants where then used to hide the pole. This technique worked great with the moon bus but not quite so well with the Eagle, as its heavier.

To achieve movement we tried various methods, holding the camera like a stedi cam, trolleys etc. In the end we duct taped the camera to a rowing machine and moved it back and forth with that. It greatly limited the distance it could go, but at least it was smooth.


To get y axis movement we wound the tripod to maximum height, loosened the winder control, and let her drop back down slowly.

Once we had the shots we needed we put them into final cut, changed the composite method to "screen" and there you go. Any background issues can be graded out and things like stars and landscapes can be graded in.

Thats how you do model fx, Old school.