Dollhouse design by Carla Remy Norton

 

The fence area set contains several scraps
from the miniature sets for Hellboy.

 

The bong-like casing of our nuke was actually
a piece of a miniature missile prop
from xXx (Triple X). Notice the airfoils?

The Making of

PRE-PRODUCTION

The first thing we did was to outline the basic story ideas. For most filmmakers the next step would be to write the script, but one benefit of filming action figures is that the mouths don't move and you can fill in the dialogue later, like the old Popeye cartoons. We started shooting right away based on our general ideas, and the script was developed and tweaked along the way, and wasn't finished until after filming was completed.

The next step was to start building sets and shoot screen tests. This movie required over 20 different sets plus 3 digital environments created in photoshop. For several of the sets we used styrofoam, dvd cases, picture frames, and other household items, enhanced with various action figure playsets, as we always do.

But this time we were able to build bigger and more complex sets than we've ever attempted before. We created a miniature urban environment using set fragments salvaged from the dumpster of an actual Hollywood visual effects company. I was working there at the time and got a first hand education on miniature photography, model making, and pyrotechnics working on the miniature and pyro FX sequences for Hellboy, The Punisher, and Resident Evil 2.

Our urban sets were enhanced by some cool mini-graffiti painted by a talented Hollywood Miniature Scenic Artist, Aprile Lanza Boettcher.

I was able to borrow a few miniature props from the FX house to enhance the Probot sets. ALIEN 5² contains miniature props and set pieces from Hellboy, Triple X, CQ, and the original Land of the Lost TV series.