The Ballad of Mary and Ernie - Robert Stadd

Posted by Steve on 26 March 2010 | 24 Comments

Where did the idea/concept for your web series come from?

I've worked for a long time as a visual effects supervisor (Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Collateral), and as a visual effects producer (The Nutty Professor 1 & 2, Galaxy Quest, The Mask, etc.). I was working on a movie that had some big city miniatures and right before they were about to tear them down I looked at them, and thought that it would be funny to do something with them. Like...a Western. About...a big sheriff in a miniature town! I shot some tests which turned out pretty well, and thought about it for a few years. Then webisodes started to take off, and shooting HD became easier (the original tests I shot were in 35mm! Not practical or cheap). That's where it all started. The whole time I was doing Public Enemies, I was thinking about Mary and Ernie, and literally the day after I finished I started working on the sets.

Name some of your sci-fi influences. Any favorite movies, TV shows, novels?

Favorite Sci-Fi movie of last year: Watchmen. Other favorite movies: The first Matrix. The Thing (the original). Gattaca. The Day the Earth Stood Still. Favorite Sci-Fi TV show: Time Tunnel. Favorite sci-fi webisode: Space Hospital.

Tell us about the technical production of your show. What camera & equipment did you use? Editing software & hardware? For visual effects, etc?

We used the Canon 5d. Ran the footage through the ProRes codex, cut on Final Cut 7 on my MacPro laptop, hooked to a G-Tech 2 tb drive. VFX (there were 80 shots in the show, of varying kinds) were all done using After Effects. The sound was mixed on ProTools, and the color correction was courtesy of Baselight.

Every day we shot about 20 gb worth, which was downloaded onto a removable hard drive. Sound was recorded onto a separate hard drive with a boom, although we recorded onto the camera as well with the built in microphone. This helped to double check in syncing dailies. We shot in available light to save time and money, and because if we didn't use any electricity, we wouldn't need a fireman (we filmed in a fire area)! Saved money there for sure!

Can you tell us any interesting facts or trivia about your show? Any funny stories?

We filmed at a secret location, deep in the mountains of Malibu, almost to Oxnard. It was very, very hot each day, some days hitting 116! We drank a LOT of water. It was a hot, dusty location. Instead of fighting the dust, we used it. One of our PA's, Wes, would try and throw some dust into every shot. Looked good, not too much fun to do.

It's a show about a full size sheriff in a miniature world, but the little people are actually represented by two different scales. The character dolls (The Kid, Nan, Vinnie, Blad Bart), are a certain size, and the townspeople are a smaller scale. We had two sets of buildings for each scale. In other words, Nan would be in front of her own scale of buildings, and the townspeople would be in front of another one. At times we mixed it up, using the larger scale buildings as foreground elements to give us a greater sense of perspective.

Every day, driving in to location, a coyote would cross my path at the same time, and at the same spot. We also saw owls, rattlesnakes, and on the last day a mountain lion. No crew members were eaten during the filming of this show...

You can find The Ballad of Mary and Ernie on Twitter @maryandernie or visit www.maryandernie.com.

The Ballad of Mary and Ernie: SciFinal Page

Additional photos below show cast & crew at work on The Ballad of Mary and Ernie:

DP Patrick Mead Jones sets up a shot on the platform

Shooting a blue screen element of Nan

Killer sheep framed by Canon 5d

Rachel X Hobreigh, critter designer

DP Patrick Mead Jones shoots a blue screen shot

Vanessa Celso as Mary Venezuela, in the miniature town (in Episode 4)