This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

In this blog post I am going to talk about filming questions two and three.

Filming Question Two of DBA in Space

Question two features Miss Friday only, where she reveals that she is actually a top operative (perhaps she exaggerated a little) of the National Space Defense Network, and whose real name is Agent Verity Blunt. Unfortunately, Verity is not particularly very bright, but at least she is ambitious. She has discovered the crashed alien space craft and hidden it away so the alien who escaped from it can’t find it. She hopes that by finding the alien, that her job prospects at the National Space Defense Network will improve. We also learn that the spacecraft landed on Jar Jar, which doesn’t seem to be of much concern of Verity. At the end of the episode, Verity gets an alert from SQL Monitor, which tells her that someone, the alien, is searching the spaceport’s servers for the location of the craft, and that it is your job, the viewer, to identify who it is.

Question two was a Friday episode, so it featured a task-based question. Task-based questions include two videos, an initial video where the question is asked, and a follow up video that is played after the contestant  completes the task. You can view both of them above.

While I wasn’t involved with this scene, it was probably the most complex scenes that was shot for all of the episodes. This is because Nell Mooney (Miss Friday) not only had to talk to the camera, but she also had to move backward through a labyrinth of corridors and curtains, all in a single take. This also meant that the camera operator had to strap on the camera and follow her along, leaving a lot of room for mistakes. If Nell, the camera operator, or any of the crew who were helping out made a mistake, they had to start all over again. I can’t remember how many takes it took, but I think it was only about 6 or 7, which is not too bad, considering how difficult the scene was to film.

From left to right: The script supervisor, Will (Director), and Nell Mooney waiting for the shot to be set up.

When filming question two, a hand held camera was used by the the director of photographer, Chris Sabogal. While Nell was walking backward through the corridors, Chris had to follow Nell while looking at his screen.

There was a controversy  about this scene. Want to venture what it was? Will thought that “killing” off Jar Jar, and the remains put in a “doggy bag” might offend some viewers. In the end, Will lost out and the joke was kept in the scene.

Filming Question Three of DBA in Space

Question three occurs in the “History of Computing Exhibition” museum at the Roddenberry Launch Center. This is the first time you have seen Brad since the alien craft crash-landed. As you may have noticed, Brad doesn’t seem to be himself. And that’s because, as you probably now know from watching later episodes, that you are really not seeing the real Brad at all, but the alien, who has taken the form of Brad’s human body.

Because the alien has just taken over Brad’s human form, it doesn’t know how to properly control its body. It can’t speak, it moves oddly, the skin color is a little off, and there seems to be a bit of slime around the neck. Apparently the alien had some difficulty creating the duplicate body, but apparently it is not conscious of the fact that it looks a little odd. In fact, Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt), isn’t exactly sure what is happening. She is just thinking that Brad is acting just a little bit odder than normal, but she has no idea she is standing next to the alien.

As you might imagine, this scene was fun to do, especially as I did not have to remember many lines. My first few attempts at speaking sounded more like I was grunting and burping (some sound effects were added). Later, when alien Brad hears Miss Friday mention Jar Jar, I am able to utter Jarr-Jarr, but this is only the alien repeating what it is hearing, not because it knows who Jar Jar is. The same thing happens later when Miss Friday tells us that Steve Jones will be asking the questions, as certainly alien Brad is not up to the task. My “Steeeevvveee” line was an improvisation I added during our rehearsals that Will, the director liked, so it was added to the script.

Steve asked the question from his home studio where he does his regular podcasts. That is why the quality of the scene is not as high as the other scenes which use high-end hi-definition studio cameras.

The microphone you see here actually belongs to Steve Jones.

In the scene you may also notice that Miss Friday lies about what really happened to Jar Jar. This is because she doesn’t realize Brad is the alien, and she doesn’t want to upset Brad with the bad news about Jar Jar’s demise.

As with my scene in episode one, we first shot this scene with a wide angle shot, then shot the scene twice more, each with close-ups of Nell and myself. Since this scene was fairly easy, we only needed a couple of takes for each different shot. This scene is also the first one where I begin to wear a lot of makeup, and as time progresses over the episodes, I wear more and more makeup as the fake human Brad body isn’t up to the task of hosting an alien, and the human Brad body begins to deteriorate.

The two mainframe tape drives in the “History of Computing Exhibition” were fakes made out of wood, but in the far right hand side of the screen you can see an Apple IIe in full working order. There were a lot more classic computers in exhibit, but they ended up being excluded from the scene.

The fake mainframe tape drives drove the sound men crazy as they made so much noise when they were running.

In my next installment, I talk about filming questions two and three.