One more classic movie falls to the bastardizing touch of the Movie Parody Network.
The Town Next to Casablanca
January, 2011 was a busy month as the Movie Parody Network spent two weekends shooting “The Town Next to Casablanca”, a parody of the Warner Brother’s 1942 classic, Casablanca. According to the Burrheado Brothers, the movie, Casablanca, has so many recognizable and iconic scenes that the decision was made to create a double length movie. Now, Movie Parody Network fans will have months of webisodes to enjoy.
The cast and their costumes
Casablanca is a bit of a departure for MPN because of the variety of costumes. The movie is full of German and French military, as well as Moroccan costumes. Hats and costumes had to be created, some from scratch. It was decided, too, that it would be a good movie to shoot some crowd scenes in Rick’s Cafe Americain, so Jane was kept extra busy costuming a dozen extras. Casablanca is also unique in that it has only one female character of note, so in the time honored tradition of girls getting stuck playing male roles, Bethany Hubbard appeared as Captain Renault and Krishna Smitha rocked the role of Signor Ugarte.
Steve blocks a scene
Once again, working behind the scenes on this parody was Dave Franzina and Steve McGregor on camera and lighting and Greg Jones on audio boom mic. For weekend number two, Movie Parody Network welcomed the skills of young video Jedi, Raven Thibodeaux who ran boom mic, and camera. Jane McGregor again handled costumes and Kelsey McGregor provided makeup for the cast.
Snow falls on Lucas, Texas; the Hollywood of North Dallas.
Fortunately, all the taping took place indoors, because on the first weekend of shooting we were treated to one of Texas’ rare snowfalls. We wrapped just in time, put away our toys and everyone was back home safe and warm before the roads and schools were closed the next morning.
Photos courtesy of Bethany Hubbard
