Reposted with permission:
In 'filming' the second comic book certainly the most challenging, yet oddly fun, scene to film was the scene of the "Outlaws' Den", or the bar scene as we all called it.
First, it was madly hectic. We had Amber Dragonblood (this was filmed in her home) running around as our Propmaster, trying to get the props just right, and also trying to control and readjust the pets. We were using pet Salamanders as waiters for the bar.
The Salamanders worked perfect as waiters. They looked the part, and they would run up to our characters, put their hands together in a supplicant fashion, and then stand there as if they were asking our characters if they wanted a drink, or a table, or something to eat, and then they would rush off as if fulfilling the order.
They were also infuriating, as right when we had our characters 'expressing' and the shot was perfect, one of them would run up and get in the way, materialize halfway into a table, get stuck in a barstool, or put their face in someone's crotch.
Then somehow a pet skink showed up, and Amber couldn't move it or pick it up or get rid of it. So there were several shots with a skink walking around the piano...
Jessica, Kane, Taryn, and Amber would all hide in the office just around the corner while our actors were filming. In this scene, Stephanie Dragonblood, Valkoor Legend, Taryn Silversword (when she was doing her scenes), and Alexandria Dragonblood were doing all the shooting. Valerian couldn't do any shooting because his place was over in the corner against the wall. The camera just floated around him, and his character was so big you couldn't see past him!
Then we needed some gold on the table, 'cause Valdus was paying Kragus for his mercenary services. Well, the only prop we had for gold was gold bars, and they would not fit on the table with the turkey legs and steins of, uh, root beer. So, turkey legs and steins had to be removed, and replaced with gold bars, then back to filming.
Everyone did great with placement. Stephanie and Alexandria were acting as extras. There was a pet Yellow Elf who was also acting as clientele of the bar. And then, in another scene where Taryn is telling Valdus to get lost, Stephanie real quick bought a "Tough Cat" transformation, and she got to be the bouncer for the bar (she had way too much fun with that).
I had mentioned that the entirety of the first comic book had been shot in three hours. It took us three hours just to shoot the bar scenes! It went very well with our people -- Kane walked everyone through the entire set of scenes before we even started shooting, and he kept dashing out of the office into the bar to make sure that the angles were right, that everyone was in place, then he would dash around the corner out of sight and then everyone would wait until the salamanders were just right in their placement, and then grab what shots they could. With three salamanders and a yellow elf randomly running around, and the occasional dragon flying past in the skies, there was a lot of interference with getting our shots right.
-- Jessica
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