Category: The Series

Art Department

Art Department

– The Art Department recreated a bright looking beachside town and surfing community where everything was ‘not as it seemed’. Flowers hung from the street lamps, surfboards were carried around like handbags and everything and everyone was abnormally happy! Fake seagulls hung from the ceiling in the school café, and weird and wonderful culinary delights were on display. – A local school was transformed to become the sunny beachside school – Atlantis High. The exterior was completely repainted bright, light and dark blue, huge palm trees were planted at the school entrance, hot pink signs lined the exterior walls, the grass was always green and the sky always blue!

– Several rooms were ‘dressed’ as Headmaster Q’s office with large goldfish tanks, huge bookshelves as secret doors and a creepy crawly dark atmosphere. ‘Q’ sat at his desk spying on life at Sunset Cove and Atlantis High through his monocle.

– A unique and specially-equipped spaceship was made in the Cloud 9 studio. Its main feature was a global shell built with a large open screen at the front, to which special effects were added. The inside of the ship was made from a type of fluffy material and there were three special seats within the spaceship where the aliens sat while spying and flying through life at Atlantis High.

– The entire show featured a special image, as though manufactured from an idyllic magazine, where all was rosy/cheerful/bright and multi-coloured and where every member of the community displayed strange behaviour. This all stemmed from the fact that there was a covert spy network/alien force surrounding Sunset Cove which also ultimately affected the life of Giles Gordon.

– The school field was transformed into an American football field with huge plastic/rubber moulded goal posts flying in the breeze at either end. A couple of days the breeze was stronger than expected and the posts almost bent in half!

– The Props Department had the task of finding suitable props that were often meant to be tacky and fake, for extra special effects or for the purpose of making life at Sunset Cove look abnormally idylic! These included fake flower leis, birds, daisies and other such items.

– Many props were also required by the multitude of strange and eccentric characters, such as Commander Vermont, who because of his love of military style life, carried around big toy guns and huge spray hoses for protection. His wife, Mrs Vermont, had a liking for endorsing many products that also had to be carefully designed so as to be unique and original. This required many special computer graphics for the wrappers, signs, photos, posters and banners.

– A number of unique and often luxury vehicles were required on set, most of which are not readily available in New Zealand but were loaned to Cloud 9 by classic car collectors. These included US army jeeps, a jeep wrangler, a black Lincoln town car, a bright yellow bug VW, an old style Mercedes Benz and a classic Mustang. These types of cars were necessary to create a typical American-style beach life.

 

Post Production

Post-production
When all the cast have gone back to their normal lives, the crew are on “downtime” and the studio resembles a ghost town, the post production team are still hard at work in their darkened rooms!Once filming has been completed for each episode, it goes through the post production process. This department works closely with Chief Executive Raymond Thompson to make sure that the overall look and sound is the one that he wants for the series.

First stop is with the editor who, along with the assistant editors, has the huge task of choosing shots from all the footage and piecing it together to form a rough cut of the episode. This rough cut gets sliced and glued many times in order to pull the story together in just the right way.

Next stop is with the music editor who chooses the right music for each scene. There is a vast amount of music for him to choose from on Atlantis High as the soundtrack was written specifically for the series and there is a lot of it! This editor has to watch each scene carefully in order to get a feel for it and to know which piece of music suits it best. The track is then cut together and laid down.

On to the sound designer who adds all the strange and wonderful noises and sound effects from the alien spaceship and the aliens themselves, to the running water in the shower. This designer works closely with the dialogue editor who has to make sure that the dialogue can actually be heard and that it fits in with the lip movement of the actors. ADRs (or Additional Dialogue Requirements) are sometimes needed and the dialogue editor re-records the actors speaking their lines. Other ADRs such as crowd noise is also recorded.

Across the corridor is the mixing suite where the dubbing mixer works his magic from a NASA style control board. All the levels are checked so that the music is not too loud, the dialogue too quiet, etc.
Last stop is with the post production manager who colour grades the episode and makes sure that the sky and sea are suitable for the high standards in Sunset Cove!

 

Locations

Locations
Location shootingCloud 9 employs a location manager who has to scout the countryside for wonderful places in which to film the series. This manager then goes out on a “recce” with members from the production team such as the director for the upcoming episode, first assistant director, the production manager, art director and director of photography. This team make sure that the chosen location will suit the requirements of the episode and is a safe area in which to film. It is then up to the location manager to liaise with the owner of the property or land and to obtain any permits from the council. Cloud 9 works closely with the council to make sure that no flora and fauna is harmed during filming. Most locations are dressed by the art department to suit the feel of the show during the filming of Atlantis High, and locals from a nearby town grew used to seeing armoured vehicles, motorbikes and American cars cruising down their streets! Outdoor locations were chosen for their resemblance to California as the series has a definite surf-culture vibe to it. We did not have to look very far for wonderful locations in New Zealand and managed to find an empty wing of a local school that became the home of Atlantis High school itself. Many golden sandy beaches were used in the filming of the series, beaches that stretch as far as the eye can see, and so it was that Sunset Cove was born.

 

Episode 6

LATEST EPISODE
EPISODE SIX

The aliens, VORTEX, NEBULA and XERON have washed up on the beach.

In spite of the success of last episode’s Romeo and Juliet GILES is back to square one. He is not fitting in at Atlantis High.

DOROTHY is “cleaning” the Vermont’s house.

ANTONIA gets a break-up note from ANTONY. ANTONY confides to GILES that ANTONIA is doing his head in – literally. GILES wants to help them/her/him/it by splitting them up. He convinces ANTONY that he needs to leave Sunset Cove. This upsets SOPHIE and her pal.

JOSH is advertising his Silver Hotline. He has no new messages.

Q tells OCTAVIA that her father knows more than he thinks.

DORSEY has not heard from the aliens for a week. He despairs.

The Beach Volley Ball final is held. Cheerleader ANTONIA is upset. GILES, JET, BEANIE and DON try to console her with food.

Meanwhile the miniaturised spaceship on the beach has been picked up by the volley ball. The aliens are thrown back and forth.

Back at the Vermont’s residence DOROTHY has found an old photo of MRS. VERMONT. Unbeknownst to her she is being watched.

The pizza takes too long to order so GILES and the gang decide to take ANTONIA shopping. SOPHIE, still upset at ANTONY’s departure, causes a gust of wind that picks up the volley ball (with the aliens) and flings it at SABRINA’s bikini bottom. SABRINA now has an annoying itch and goes to get some cream.

OCTAVIA is caught and sent to the store for cigars.

GILES and co. arrive at the store to find crazed ANTONY with a dangerous frozen chicken. Everyone is hostage. The store owner secretly dials the Silver Lining. The aliens distress signal is operating again, attracting the attention of DORSEY and VERMONT.

GILES convinces ANTONY that if he changes to ANTONIA then he will not be arrested. A fly bugs SABRINA and it picks up the aliens.

The military storm the supermarket hoping to trace the signal. JOSH the superhero makes a smashing appearance… a tad too late.

ANTONY is sent off in to the sunset by a farewell party… that includes ANTONIA… ??!!

 

Episode 5

LATEST EPISODE
EPISODE FIVE

GILES is thrilled – he has two friends at his new school

GRAMPA notices a lot of strange military people digging up the ground. But the big news of the day is Atlantis High’s forthcoming production; ‘Romeo and Juliet’. GILES would give anything to play Romeo and impress OCTAVIA.

The aliens, VORTEX, NEBULA and XERON are lost inside KISSINGER-THE-DOG.

VIOLET appoints COACH SHANE to direct the school production. Casting begins. SOPHIE wants ANTONY to audition for Romeo, so she can be Juliet. SABRINA recoils at the idea – as if. GILES auditions but the competition is tough – JOSH in particular. VIOLET realises that the play’s violence will need to be toned down for the sponsor’s sake. She asks GILES to butcher the script.

Both DORSEY and VERMONT’s camp are separately tracking the aliens signal. They are followed by AGENCY operatives who are followed by LEW SIFFER, who is followed by KISSINGER-THE-DOG (and the aliens).

OCTAVIA reports to Q. He wants her to find out the meaning of the extraterrestrial messages they’ve detected.

JET explains the concept of love to BEANIE. Someone mistakes them for boyfriend and girlfriend. Me thinks JET doth protest too much.

COACH SHANE tells JOSH the game plan. JOSH will be Romeo, but SABRINA can’t be Juliet – she’d steal the spotlight and that’d be a major downer. GILES is scathing of the decision. ANTONIA arrives late and finds ANTONY gone. She sobs and gets the part of Juliet.

The aliens are on the move inside the dog. They surface again in the Vermont’s Garden, are trodden on by CMDR. VERMONT, then hosed off and white water raft down the sewer.

GILES delivers the condensed play. He is now worried about the audience and OCTAVIA’s reaction to the 15 minute Shakespeare.

DON’s backstage ladder trips up JOSH. Who will now play Romeo? VIOLET, DOROTHY and GRAMPA attempt to convince GILES that he is the man for the job. Meanwhile, it seems that ANTONY has upset ANTONIA so much that she can’t go on and play Juliet.

GILES is pushed on stage to see OCTAVIA playing the part of JULIET. He is thrilled. The play ends happily with a wedding, and the audience applaud the author. Success at last?