Village Church of Gurnee recently approached me to make a shot-for-shot remake of The Mod Squad television show intro for their Vacation Bible School program. My first question: what’s The Mod Squad?
A quick YouTube search brought me this:
I watched this intro clip maybe a hundred times, taking in every detail. I then created a series of storyboards highlighting each character, including their movement, the camera’s movement and the lighting set-up that would best capture the look of the original sequence.
We shot in a warehouse that had been donated by a member of the church for weekend use. I had two film lights and a basic construction light to work with, and some really solid actors who had done their homework. Some of the details that I missed they picked up on, pretty much nailing the mannerisms of the original actors. It helped to have a few phones with YouTube handy.
The dolly shots at the beginning and end of the video were accomplished by the use of a wheelchair and a long-suffering crew member who was tasked with running backwards and stopping abruptly for a good chunk of the shoot. I sat in the chair and handheld the camera. These two shots were the most difficult and the most rewarding to get right.
Because the Church program required one more character, I had to insert an extra cutaway, with the character Red jumping up from behind some boxes. To shorten the shot, I jump cut from her jump up to her dash out of frame, giving the video a bit of lo-fi charm.
Overall, this project was a blast. It was great to work in such a large environment with solid lighting equipment and good actors. I’ve always enjoyed trying to capture the feel of different eras of filmmaking, and this was a prime opportunity to do just that.