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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.
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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!
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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.
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