The evil chicken and 'Quest for Magical Leaf'

The kids and their friend E. decided to make a movie yesterday. Like thousands of kids, they love YouTube and always seem to be planning their next video contribution to our channel.

The 'Quest for the Magical Leaf' was an interesting movie to make and I was vastly entertained by not only the kids, but their animal actors as well.

Here's the basic story line: An orphan girl Marie (played by L.) escapes the evil orphanage to find the magical leaf that will destroy the evil-doers at the orphange. But while searching for the leaf she runs into the evil chicken (voice of G.). Marie is saved from the evil chicken by Wilbeena (E.) and her magic fork. Then together Wilbeena and Marie continue the quest and find the leaf but have to get past the princess protecting it (played by G.) and the "kung fu master" (played by Toddy), which they do and everyone is happy in the end.

As one would guess, there were some interesting production issues to deal with while making this movie with our pets (and I was charged with recording with my digital camera but had little say on the plot or character happenings).

Here were some of the 'learnings':

Accomodate your actors. L. is learning to ride a bike (better late than never) and insisted it be in the movie. With much reluctance on E. and G.'s part, they agreed to have the beloved bike in every scene.

Trying to film a talking chicken without getting the handler's hands and/or body in the shot is not easy. I did my best but was told I needed to work on this skill in the future.

Being flexible and substituting actors when they prove uncooperative. A hen laying an egg had to fill in for the Evil King because the girls could not get their rooster to stay in one place long enough to film the scene. And several different chickens had to be used while filming because the kids could not keep track of the one they started out with (there was a lot of "flying" away and once the chicken did that, it was hard to track her down again).

Trying to get a chicken to curtsy is nearly impossible. But spreading its wings in a gesture of evil grandeure is much easier.

'Real life' can be helpful in getting your actors to show more emotion. There were no issues with flying insects (the kids were too busy having fun to notice) but the ticks were out. During filming L. spotted one crawling up E.'s back right at the moment that E. was doing her 'injury' scene. The look on L.'s face is one of genuine concern and a really great addition to the scene.

Heros do not need magical wands to defeat evil chickens; a kitchen fork will do just fine. And to the preteen actors, hysterically funny.

When your lead chicken doesn't fly away as originally planned, you change your dialog from, "I must fly away" to "I must fly, fly ... or walk ... away."

Kids that grow up with chickens don't say "cluck" to imitate their sound. They do a much more realistic, "bahgaaw."

You can't plan everything but sometimes things work out perfectly. Toddy meowed at a key moment when the princess handed over the leaf to the orphan. It was as if he was offering his own bit of dramatic skills with his reluctance at giving up the leaf.

Getting chickens to scatter in fear of the magical leaf proved harder than planned. The Almeida chickens simply aren't scared of the kids and therefore strut - more than run - away from them.

When the cameraperson says the movie has to stay short to adhere to YouTube guidelines, some compromises have to be made. Lines like "I've been sent by someone to get you there safely..." is used in favor of a longer explanation. Or having the princess argue with the orphan and Wilbeena that they can't take the leaf but then quickly agreeing to it. The consolation for the actors was the agreement of a sequel.

Out takes can be as funny as the actual movie when your actors forget their character's name, or a tick crawls up their back (the out takes are at the end of the movie).

The Movie: Quest for the Magical Leaf