So, I'm in pre-production for my next short film. It's inspired by the mid-nineties Nickelodeon show Weinerville, that is, puppet bodies with human heads. The main innovation is that my short will be filmed from more than one angle, and has no jokes (it's a gritty mob story) but it exists in a universe full of tiny bodies and humongous
heads.

I've finished the script, although I may do another draft, and I've built most of the sets, which I will gladly show you now: these first two are from the first scene in the film in which one character comes to visit his old friend and lounge singer in Las Vegas. This is the seat the visitor is at.

<--- I have also built a table that will fit in nicely here. I don't have the body for this character yet, but I have the materials to make him, as well as a cocktail waitress who will come by. It's a front row cocktail-booth for a Vegas show. The show he is watching will be done in the next photo.

<--- This is where the lounge singer will perform. The

front curtain actually opens and closes. I can't decide wether I want to hang stars or other decorations. I hope to light t

his so the shadow from the front curtain casts total black against the back curtain, so the viewer will imagine a back-stage area to exist.

<---This is the body of the lounge singer. The head will be a real person's head. The thing I was most proud of with this body was the tuxedo lapel, which took my quite some time to get right. However this photo doesn't really do it justice. I'll make sure the video I shoot will catch more of the details.

<--- This is something of a work in progress but it will be a diner that our two lead characters visit. The table top isn't flush because I'm holding it with my hand in this photo. Instead of making two sets for this scene I decided I'd just shoot both characters on the same side of the table, then make a mirror-image of one. The end result should (fingers crossed) appear to be a complete diner booth.

<--- This is a private black-jack table in a casino's high-rise. I have built a green felt table that is not pictured. This will be the first set to be filmed because I plan to flip the image like I will with the diner scene, but in this case, I will need to a) repaint the city skyline seen through the 'windows' b) cut another head-hole (the first angle will be a single on the black-jack dealer, and the second will be the two leads in a

two-shot.)

<--- And finally, this is the dealer's body. This is another reason I want to shoot the casino first, this way, instead of buying another doll, I can get the dealer character out of the way, then use his body for another character. In retrospect, this project would have worked fairly well by shooting either one set at a time, or one character at a time. This way I could re-use all bodies and display boards. The way I've done things, it only makes since to shoot the whole thing at once, except perhaps, the dealers coverage in the casino scene.

It has been a rigorous pre-production, and I anticipate a rigorous post-production. As for production itself, I'm not sure. I've never done a film like that. There are a thousand questions racing through my mind and I'm sure unseen problems will rise up during production, as they always do, but I'm excited to put myself to this test in this regard. I'll keep my readers posted on this film's progress.