NICHOLAS HUMPHRIES: We had to create our sets, and then we
had to create scale miniatures of those sets so that the
spider puppet, which is only about yea high, looked like it
was 12, 15 feet tall.
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NICHOLAS HUMPHRIES: So we had to create a scale
miniature of our cave.
Because we have shots with the actors in front of the cave,
but then we also have the giant spider
emerging from the cave.
Our art team brought together a bunch of people who had been
building models and things like that just as hobbies for
years to create the fantastic models that
you've seen this episode.
ASHLEY BRATKIN: I planned out what I wanted this spider
cemetery to look like, and then I worked with a number of
people who actually specialize in working with miniatures.
NICHOLAS HUMPHRIES: Some of my favorite movies from when I
was a kid growing up feature miniatures.
Things like the Indiana Jones movies and Tim Burton's early
stuff all incorporate really high-quality miniatures.
You can't tell the difference, when it's shot properly, if
you're looking at something full-size or tiny.
So we wanted to do something of that scale.
BRANDON PETERSON: This was the most elaborate and ambitious
project that I've ever worked on, just because
there was so much.
It was such an art-heavy production.
NICHOLAS HUMPHRIES: We created this spider cemetery which
originally was just going to be kind of a small thing with
a gate, but when they started building this thing-- and it
goes on a table that's probably about 8 feet long and
4 feet deep--
just the amount of detail on the scale of what we were
seeing was so impressive.
BRANDON PETERSON: We started with placing Styrofoam objects
and recycled goods like computer cardboard boxes and
laying out the land.
And after that, we took fabric, covered it, and then
put layers on top of that.
And we used things like coffee grind to make the dirt, twigs
to make trees.
ASHLEY BRATKIN: We used things like oregano and herbs to make
a little bit more detail in the dirt, for leaves.
It's a lot of stuff that you can just get at home and put
together, and it really turns out looking amazing.
The biggest challenge was just the scope of everything.
When you start looking at the fact that we had almost eight
or nine different set builds, and just a limited amount of
time, a limited amount of money, and a limited amount of
people to do it--
we really had to all come together.
NICHOLAS HUMPHRIES: So after I started working on my shot
list, we realized that we needed three puppets.
We needed the full-on spider puppet so that we could see
the whole thing.
We needed the face of the spider so that it could eat
things and take hits and stuff like that.
And then we had these big spider legs on sticks to poke
at the actors.
All those things had to look like they were part of the
same beast.
The first person I went to go talk to about building these
spider puppets was a man I know, Chad Costen.
He's skilled at both building puppets and puppetry.
I went and talked to him about it.
He was pretty excited and started putting concepts
together and stuff.
CHAD COSTEN: So I did up some sketches of different heads,
and we kind of narrowed down the one that we thought would
work the best.
I basically went back to when I was a kid and I used to
build things.
And so for a mock-up I thought, well, I'll
do it out of LEGOs.
So I built a leg out of Technic LEGO, and got the
tendons working.
It's made out of dental floss.
And then as I was building it, I realized this stuff was kind
of meant to be temporary, just being played for getting my
head that space.
And in the end, I actually used all those things.
So I built the small hand puppet version around a
gardening glove, and the middle finger
was to move its head.
The front four fingers were the front four legs.
So I could control those and they could bend right over on
basically a cable system.
And then the back four legs were connected to wheels and
geared up with the Technic LEGOs so I could roll across
the ground and get them to move left and right and walk
as he went.
Michael becomes a zombie spider so I had to take him
from giant, semi-scary spider to scarier spider.
And the change was actually really subtle, but the main
thing was I put glow paint on the eyes, made it an alternate
head that was a little bit more rough-looking, and added
some powder and dust to the fur, and then did some glow
paint highlights on all the detailing.
So some of that pops through when he comes out of the
ground and he just looks a little bit more undead.
As soon as you put on a puppet, the puppet becomes
alive, and you're not really there anymore.
It's just doing whatever it does on its own.
Watching people see that only and not you, you kind of
disappear and they're really entertained by the character
that's in front of them.
Whether you're scaring someone through your character, you're
making them laugh through the character, that's the joy of
being a puppeteer.
It's having an emotional impact on your audience.
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