Debunkathon Production Photos (Patreon)

I was looking over the few pics I managed to grab during this strange project and they make it seem like I wasn't having any fun. But I don't remember being as gloomy as I look! I mean get a load of this guy!

For all the room transformation VFX, I needed to mark the walls with carefully spaced tracking markers so I could always tell what part of the background the camera was seeing, even in closeups. I also slapped some decals and gaffer's tape on the most sci-fi looking boxes I could find at Office Depot and cut a bunch of extra "players" out of foam board.

Looks a little boring... until you light it all dramatic-like:

Because the lighting had to gradually change throughout the video, I went to the trouble of connecting all the lights to a computer that controlled them like theater lighting, with preprogrammed cues. I was worried I'd need a lot of light to simulate the glow from the countdown on the wall, so I nailed together this whole array of LED lights.

But in the end I discovered that just one ARRI panel did the job so I didn't even end up using that Light Centipede!

I also had to create CG versions of the room and the props for later shots... in... 🎶Blender!

To keep the cinematography interesting for monologue scenes in an empty room, I sometimes use a jib (a small crane the camera can glide around on) but the one I've had for years is very cumbersome and low-tech. For this episode I decided to invest in a new one that's more versatile and easier to set up.

We got a TON of use out of it throughout the shoot.

Even when we weren't doing moving shots, I'd often park the camera on the jib so it could be swiftly repositioned for the next angle. During later shoot days, I'd even do it on my own, set up the shot with a ladder or appleboxes as my stand-in...

Then jump in and try to remember what lines I'm supposed to say.

Speaking of additional shooting days, I even had to return to grab a few shots on literally Christmas Eve. Here's me demonstrating my displeasure with that fact:

This setup with the smaller camera is actually for capturing the image for the lenticular 3D Captain Disillusion postcard I really made as a prop. I'll do a separate post about it.

Most of the extra shooting was for green-screen stuff. There's something about filming yourself thrashing around on the floor over and over, on a bright backdrop, that eventually just gets you into a studly modeling mood. I guess in the end I didn't have that bad a time.