JOE PENNA: Shooo.
What's up, guys?
How's it going?
My name is Joe Penna, known as
MysteryGuitarMan here on the internets.
I'm going to be doing a video for "Written By A Kid."
The first thing that we asked for was for kids to submit an
original Christmas song.
So we had a bunch of kids record themselves singing a
song that they came up with.
Then we ended up picking a kid named Micah.
He had a really great original song about Santa, and the
troll, and he only has a half of a baseball bat.
It's really funny.
MICAH: [SINGING]
JOE PENNA: But our next step was to add some
orchestration behind it.
We worked with a guy called Rich Witt, which we've worked
with before.
He made an awesome song, which sounds like this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And we decided that the actual story is going to be told in a
book like this, which actually made out of cardboard.
So because the book is made out of cardboard, all the
story that's being told in here we decided to also make
out of cardboard.
The prop, the set, everything's going to be made
out of cardboard.
It's going to be a bit of a challenge, but I think it'll
look good in the end.
Our first big step's going to be storyboarding.
We're going to be shooting the majority of it on green
screen, so we absolutely have to storyboard so that we know
what angles to shoot, what lighting to
do--that kind of thing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOE PENNA: We've spent all week cutting miniatures, full
set pieces, drawing all out of cardboard.
We bought, literally, 90 pounds of cardboard.
So we're spending all week cutting it out and we're going
to be shooting this weekend.
Our DP is going to be someone who we've worked with before
and we really trust.
His name is Jan, and he was the DP in a previous project
of ours called "Meridian."
RYAN MORRISON: What's up, Jan?
What's going on, man?
JAN-MICHAEL LOSADA: Oh, you know, same old, new day.
So did I hear you right when you said Joe was
going to be the troll?
RYAN MORRISON: Yes.
Yes, you did.
JAN-MICHAEL LOSADA: Tell me he has to be shirtless.
RYAN MORRISON: In almost every video, he finds a way to be
shirtless, so I'm sure he'll find a way for this one.
Would we like to cast a child for this video that we're
doing this week?
JOE PENNA: Children are tough to cast, because they come
with that crazy dance.
RYAN MORRISON: So do we have someone from the office dress
up like a kid or something?
JOE PENNA: Megan.
RYAN MORRISON: That's exactly what was I was going to say.
I just didn't want to be the one to say it.
Hey, Megan.
MEGAN: What is up?
RYAN MORRISON: You are the awesomest person in the world.
Just wanted to say that.
MEGAN: What do you want?
Why am I always the little kid in all those vignettes?
RYAN MORRISON: Because you're the one who looks the most
like a little kid.
MEGAN: You're so mean.
JOE PENNA: Hi de high five.
Because I'm playing the troll, we want to make my face look
completely different.
So we're going to have to find a really good makeup artist.
ERIC FOX: All right.
My name's Eric Fox.
I am the make-up effects artist on this project.
And today, we are going to do a face cast.
OK, so Joe, what we're going to do today is we're going to
put a bald cap on you.
That's to protect your hair.
Then we're going to use a
material, it's called alginate.
It's basically what dentists use for doing dental
impressions if you ever have braces or any
extensive dental work done.
It dries up in about five to eight minutes.
So it will be relatively quick.
Yeah.
It should be fairly comfortable.
You're not too claustrophobic, are you?
JOE PENNA: Well, no, I just don't like small spaces.
But I'm not too claustrophobic.
ERIC FOX: Yeah, this is fine.
So all right.
Cool.
JOE PENNA: We're here at this really dirt cheap sound stage.
That's actually the name of it.
It's called Dirt Cheap Sound Stage.
It's really big and it's really awesome.
And we have some space to move around, unlike our office,
which we have to move like this and sit like this, like a
troll, which I am going to be.
So we've got some of the troll elements being
created right now.
It's going be a fun day of shooting.
-I guess they told you you have a belly?
JOE PENNA: I have a belly.
-Like a prosthetic belly.
JOE PENNA: OK?
RYAN MORRISON: Oh, my god.
Oh, my god.
I felt it.
OK.
So Jan, myself, and Joe just went over the storyboards and
the shot list.
JOE PENNA: [INAUDIBLE]
RYAN MORRISON: How am I supposed to focus?
JOE PENNA: [INAUDIBLE]
RYAN MORRISON: So Jan, myself, and Joe just went over the
shot list and storyboard and we're all on the same page,
and we're ready to go.
We've got it all up on Post-Its.
We're just going to try to crush it today.
ALEX DELVECCHIO: I'm Alex.
I was in charge of the set design and some of the props.
I've got a car jack, picture of the troll's girlfriend,
picket fence, a watch--
it's a Trollex.
We have a Trollman grill and a book by JRR Trollkien.
It's really cool working on this project, because
everybody's kind of pitching in and helping out to make
sure that everybody's job's getting done right.
You really feel like you're part of a team.
So it's a good feeling, lot of camaraderie.
Nobody's left alone to do their own job while somebody's
off just taking a break or resting.
CHRISTIAN FERGERSTROM: My name's Christian.
I am doing wardrobe for this video.
And if you can't tell, I'm also playing
the character Santa.
JOE PENNA: You're putting that in.
When you're here, you go, oh.
[LAUGHS]
Whoa!
CHRISTIAN FERGERSTROM: I went around the city of Los Angeles
this week, visited some different Halloween stores,
and picked out some cool-looking stuff-- armor and
a big old axe for the door.
ERIC FOX: (IMITATING JOHN RHYS-DAVIES) And my axe!
RYAN MORRISON: We can make the troll really, really short,
and we're going to put little fake feet on his knees, and
he'll be walking around on his knees, and we can key out his
legs so that he just looks like a tiny, little troll.
We are just about ready to get our first shot going, so we're
going to get all of the Santa Claus stuff going while Joe
gets into make-up for all of his troll stuff.
ERIC FOX: Right now, what we're doing is we're going
back and kind of patching a couple of spots, as well as
trimming up all the flashing on the pieces that we're going
to apply today to this make-up.
After the pieces are trimmed up and patched up, we're going
to apply a base coat to the pieces to get it a little bit
further along for the application process.
JOE PENNA: One thing that trolls really hate--
and by trolls, I mean me-- is stuff touching my eyes, hence
the reason for the sunglasses.
So I've never put contact lenses on my life, and I've
tried before, and I've never been able to put them on.
So it might be a bit of a challenge.
Oh, it hurts so much.
RYAN MORRISON: It does.
I'm sorry.
JOE PENNA: It's OK.
It looks great.
It hurts so much.
Oh, the rest of the face is OK now in comparison.
Oh my god, it hurts so much.
Ah.
-You all right?
RYAN MORRISON: Yeah.
JOE PENNA: So I didn't know that there was going to be so
much movement and, you know, possible things.
The way the troll-- troll be singing, [SINGING]
you see--
RYAN MORRISON: Oh, OK.
JOE PENNA: Santa doesn't give treats.
RYAN MORRISON: Oh, you didn't realize that there would be so
much dexterity to the face and expression?
JOE PENNA: [SINGING]
All literature grand.
RYAN MORRISON: That's, like, disturbing.
I'm very uncomfortable with you singing to me
looking like this.
Yeah.
You look repulsive.
JOE PENNA: Oh.
RYAN MORRISON: Yeah.
JOE PENNA: Oh.
RYAN MORRISON: You do.
[LAUGHS]
All right.
So it looks like we have some creative rewrites that we've
had to apply to the show now that Joe's
makeup looks so good.
It's simultaneously the most beautiful and horrifying thing
I've ever seen in my whole life, especially
when he does this.
Give me a little smile.
JOE PENNA: No.
RYAN MORRISON: Come on Joe, smile.
JOE PENNA: Nuh uh.
RYAN MORRISON: Smile.
JOE PENNA: Nuh uh.
RYAN MORRISON: Come on.
JOE PENNA: So because of the yellow, we won't be able to
use the green screen.
RYAN MORRISON: Because there's yellow all over his face, we
won't be able to use a green screen.
JOE PENNA: Yeah.
And so we rented a blue screen.
RYAN MORRISON: So we rented a blue screen.
JOE PENNA: And I have a blue motion on my feet.
RYAN MORRISON: And he has blue motion in his feet.
JOE PENNA: And I have a blue morph suit on my feet.
RYAN MORRISON: He has grown more feet on his feet.
JOE PENNA: No.
I have a blue morph suit on my feet.
RYAN MORRISON: He has blue malt soup on his feet.
JOE PENNA: Yeah.
Yeah, that's it.
That's good.
Whoa!
[LAUGHTER]
ERIC FOX: Hello, YouTube.
How are you doing today?
RYAN MORRISON: Let's get the slate in and
we'll be ready to rock.
ERIC FOX: We're rolling.
Got it.
RYAN MORRISON: Cue music.
On you, Christian.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
RYAN MORRISON: Cut music.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ERIC FOX: And camera is set.
RYAN MORRISON: All right.
[SINGING]
Because troll's sleeping during the day.
Cut.
Well done.
Beautiful.
JOE PENNA: And that's it.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
Make sure you subscribe to Geeks & Sundry.
Make sure you're subscribed to my channel, MysteryGuitarMan.
And I'll see you guys around.
Whoosh.