Production Diary: Shoot the Freak – Making the Wonder Wheel

After weeks (months?) of planning, cutting tiny holes, testing paint samples, running to Curry’s for some random supply I didn’t realize I needed, the tiny scale model of the Wonder Wheel is finally complete!

Sketching out a circle this size was a real bitch, let me tell you. But cutting out tiny lattice work with an exacto knife was even worse. Hello, early onset arthritis.

Next it was on to the cars. Stark had the brilliant idea of using the largest pieces cut out from the wheel itself. That way they would be all the same size and it would save me the effort of having to cut out eight more pieces. Also, it saves paper! Brilliant! All I had to do was trim the corners a bit.

I also had to sketch out the support that will hold the wheel to the background piece, complete with tiny American flag.

Commence painting!

And finally, I worked on the cars. I trimmed the corners, cut out the windows and painted all eight cars. The colored cars will be the swinging cars and the white cars will be the stationary.

Next up, I would like to finish painting the background. Stark had an idea for making the boardwalk look how it used to, with space underneath where people could sit. Since I have the sand already taken care of with a sheet of beige paper, I figure I can just draw on the rest of the white paper below the storefronts. I was thinking that it would be the space below, then sand, then maybe even a world beneath the sand, like skeletons and garbage and even a dinosaur or a UFO… Anything is possible (and will add approximately seven more years onto the project).

I also have to work on the puppets for the credits sequence, starting with the Astroland Rocket and hamburger man. I am feeling by Michel Gondry and want to make a movie of me making the puppets by setting up a camera on a tripod to take a series of photos that can be animated.