Movie Parody Network wraps on last full day of shooting.

The cast and crew on the last full day of taping

The last of the full cast and crew shoots for The Movie Parody Network was held on the weekend of March 26th and 27th, 2011. While there is still plenty of production to be completed, no longer will the entire cast and crew be gathered to play make believe… or will they? Perhaps the busiest shoot for the actors is the dressing room shoot. Because of the demands of costume and makeup changes, there’s a lot of hustling going on.

The cast get's serious... not.

The purpose of the dressing room scenes are to inform the audience of the work-a-day world that the actors inhabit and to provide cutaways from the black and white scenes. All of the dressing room footage that will appear in “season two” is shot at one time, which presents challenges of it own. First, the dressing room scenes aren’t even written until all the parodies are completed and a rough edit is made.

Patrick, Krishna, Chris and Coleman share a laugh.

This way, jokes about the unplanned elements of the productions can be incorporated. A secondary challenge of shooting all the backstory at one time is to figure out where each character is at any given time during the “live” production.  Meaning, are they on the set, in the dressing room or in transit between the two areas?

Dressing Room Set with Dave Franzina

One of the things that’s made the production of Movie Parody Network unique over perhaps other productions is the cast’s willingness to pitch in on the production itself.  Invariably at the end of the weekend’s shoot, there is a set that needs to be put away. The tradition from day one has been for the cast to dismantle the set and take it back to storage, while the crew packs up the gear.

The cast strikes the set

What takes two people hours to set up is taken down and put away in as little as 15 to 20 minutes. Not only is it a huge help but it fosters a feeling of camaraderie and ownership. In fact, throughout production the cast has been instrumental in moving sets, and helping with other aspects of production. In addition, Bethany Hubbard and her all-seeing camera has documented the production from the beginning.

The director directs, Kelsey texts.

Once again, returning on the crew side, is the unflappable, Dave Franzina on camera, with Raven Thibodeaux on audio and Steve McGregor running the second camera. Once again, Jane McGregor had her hands full with costume changes. These were happening at a furious pace throughout the weekend. It’s been estimated that over the course of the 13 parodies, MPN has supplied over 100 costumes. Between getting in her quota of 1500 text messages a day, young Kelsey McGregor played Monkey Monkey and performed her usual makeup magic.

Still to come is a photo shoot of the cast, video shoots of Mrs. Grudcian, the TV lady, Mr. Ogg, the technician, the director, Kenny Valiant and script girl and the camera guy.

Photos by Bethany Hubbard. (I know, you’re wondering how did Bethany take this photo of herself. I’m telling you, she’s that good).