Kerry's Kostume Komic

Notes on Page Four

Lots of action on this page, which necessitated the extra length (something a hard-copy comic book can't do!). There is more white space on this page than we've seen before but overall I think it serves the action well.

Frames 1 & 2: Like the previous page, everything here was shot in my house and then composited onto shots taken earlier in a warehouse. Genetic female Allegra plays the woman, with me as both the Invisible Girl and Mystique.

Frame 3: Some clever compositing by Stephen was necessary here to make it appear like Invisible Girl was grabbing Mystique from behind (seeing as I was playing both parts).

Frame 4: I had no idea whether this would work until the finished shot was completed. I had to mime fighting thin air as both characters and hope it would look realistic when composited together.

Frame 5: It took nine takes to get a good shot of me falling.  I was very sore for several days afterwards (even with a pillow to break my fall).

Frame 6: I recycled a shot for this frame but I'll let you figure out where.

Frame 7: A simple shot (at last!): me as Invisible Girl and Allegra as the woman.

Frame 8: <gasp!> Betrayal! One of the difficulties in a still medium like this is showing quick action like someone getting stabbed. We took a lot of shots trying to find the frame that would succinctly imply the action we wanted to show.  In the end, we decided to just show the hypodermic (kindly donated by a local drugstore) poised to strike, and in the next frame the reaction. I love the red field Stephen put in the background here.

Frame 9: The dialog may be cringe-worthy but we're not doing Shakespeare either. Be thankful I cut the dialog I originally had in mind during the fight scene.

Frame 10: Allegra, like all of us, doesn't have much acting experience, but I thought she really delivered the goods in this sequence with her dispassionate look. I thought it was important here the audience wonder why she is doing this without her giving anything away.

Frame 11: This relatively simple shot was actually a bit of a pain in the ass because of color correction problems. Allegra's hair came out blue and Mystique's face was just a blob.  I ended up taking their heads from different shots to replace them here.

Next week...the exciting conclusion!

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