Making of a Mini-Clone Dance Video from an Orphan Black Cloneclub Fan's Suggestion

It was exactly one month ago that we posted the video of our daughter Cynthia doing a parody of the 4-Clone Dance party from the season two finale of Orphan Black. I've retold the story behind it enough times that I've decided to blog about it.

Cynthia & Tatiana on the set of Orphan Black

First of all I should mention that my daughter, Cynthia Galant is fortunate to have been cast in a small role in the TV series 'Orphan Black'. If you don't know the show, I highly recommend you checking it out. It's terrific. Original, great characters, and very exciting. Tatiana Maslany plays several clones in the show and each one has a completely different look and personality. I can't say enough good things about her, the show and its cast and crew. Even if my daughter wasn't involved with the show I'd be a fan.

My daughter has played the younger version of one of the clones named Rachel and another, new clone named Charlotte. I will say nothing else in case you haven't seen the show or that episode yet.

After season two's finale aired, the cast and crew thanked the support of the fans with photos specifically for Cloneclub (the nickname for the fans of Orphan Black). Cynthia modeled hers after Tatiana's pose from last year, and gave herself the moniker 'mini-clone' when signing her name.

There were a lot of positive comments and appreciation from the fans. One sent me a message saying they'd love to see Cynthia in a webseries dressed up as a mini version of all the clones. I read it aloud to my family and we all thought that it would be fun, but from being in show business for a while, we knew that unions and copyrights would make it problematic. We didn't want to accidentally infringe on any cool ideas that the writers of Orphan Black might use in the future, either.

Now, I should mention that even though my daughter is in the show and there is another adorable little actress, Skyler Wexler, who is about the same age and plays the daughter of a clone, this show is not for kids to watch. So, as a responsible parent, my daughter has never seen a full episode. She has been shown the scenes she's in, and select clips that I thought she would enjoy (her favorite is Helena's Sugar Sugar). One of those was the 4-clone dance party in the season two finale. It was a great moment in the show where Tatiana Maslany plays four of the clones dancing together. It is amazing to watch.

When I found the 'making of Orphan Black's 4 Clone Dance Party on YouTube, I showed it to my daughter. This is a montage worth watching. Even if you've never seen an episode of the show you can marvel at the work behind making four clones played by the same actress dance together:

My daughter watched this video over and over and over and over again. She then asked me, "Can we do a video of me dancing like this?"

I looked up to ask her what she meant and saw her dancing smoothly and gracefully like Cosima, then suddenly switched to the prissy, reserved bops of Allison, then the funky shoulder sways of Sarah and then the frenetic frenzy of Helena... all within a few bars.  I laughed because I forget how good of a mimic my daughter can be. It was just too good not to share.

Cynthia Galant as Helena

I thought about that for a moment. Not only would this be a fun way for Cynthia to 'play' the grown-up clones, but also a learning experience in case she has to do blue- or green-screen work for the show.
I said, "Sure! A parody of the dance would be funny and easy to do."

Did I say 'easy'?

Well, my wife pooled the costumes together from what we had around the house, including wigs we had in storage. We only needed to buy the one wig for Helena which was an 80's Rocker Wig (ala Twisted Sister) for $12.00 at a party store. Then on one of our hottest days of the summer so far, I set up my green-screen and 1K lights in our living room. Yes, we have odd costume pieces, wigs and our own green-screen... doesn't everyone?

Since we didn't have a 'Felix' for the video, we decided to honor his character by having a couple of pieces of 'his' art as set dressing. Cynthia and my wife recreated two of the pieces together. Compare the two videos and see if you can find the two that they chose.

Cynthia Galant as Sarah (Green-screen)

We quickly decided where each clone needed to be, practiced a few times with the same music as the original (Water Prayer Rasta Mix -  Adham Shaikh) and shot it all in an afternoon. One very long afternoon. Unlike the one in the episode, I did not include any camera movements because I don't have the resources of Intelligent Creatures (the visual FX company for Orphan Black). We also didn't have any close-ups to worry about. When the shooting was complete and my daughter had changed her hair, costumes and make-up five times, she exclaimed, "Tatiana does this every week??"
Cynthia suddenly had a whole new appreciation for what Tatiana goes through and how much work the hair, make-up and costume department do to achieve the different looks.

After two days of editing on my laptop using HitFilm 2 Ultimate to composite the different layers, I uploaded it to YouTube. We had hoped to get 300 views, mostly from our friends and family and a few fans. The first to 'like' it, comment and share it was BBC America who produces Orphan Black. The second was Orphan Black itself, who also put it on their Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. By the end of the first day we had 10,000 views. We are now up to 45,000 views and counting. There have been several blogs and articles about the video and even an animated gif made by a fan comparing the two routines on Tumblr (click here to view).
We had no idea how many Cloneclub fans there were in the world until I started seeing the stats from the video. It has been viewed and shared in over 75 different countries - even places I didn't think would watch Orphan Black... like the Middle East. We think this is wonderful!

If you haven't seen it, here is Cynthia's 55-second version - The Mini-Clone Dance Parody:

The very last frame shows the 5 clones, including Rachel scowling at them. We had originally planned to do a gag near the end of the routine where Rachel disapproves of the dancing shenanigans, but Cynthia's mimicking of the dance was so good that I didn't want to interrupt it - so I cut that idea during the editing.

Here is a still of Cynthia in Rachel's costume. Those who have seen the finale of season two will get the inside joke in this photo:

Cynthia Galant as Rachel (green-screen)

It has been awesome to find so many Mini-clone tributes from Cloneclub fans (including original art). Many can be found here:  https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/charlotte-bowles

Thanks to everyone, and looking forward to season three! And if you haven't watched the show, seasons one and two are available on DVD/Blu-Ray and iTunes.

Aging Titanic Newspaper Prop

Currently blogging on DEPTH OF DECEPTION website.

Today's blog has to do with my daughter assisting me in the art of aging props.  This one is for the book's promotional trailer.

http://depthofdeception.weebly.com/

My daughter aging the print in coffee.

Depth of Deception can now be purchased at an introductory rate of $0.99 from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O3IKTY as well as in other e-book formats from Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/144531.

Inspiration

Back in 1990, I was standing in line at the checkout of a supermarket. In the pre-digital age, I had no device to check my emails while waiting.  I had no choice but stare at the wall of tabloid magazines vying for attention. I hate tabloid magazines. Every year there is an end of the world prediction. No one ever calls them on it when the world doesn't end. And it's anti-climactic.

This particular day one cover caught my eye. The headline read:

Titanic Survivor Found On Iceberg
Trawler Picks Up Young Woman Dressed In 1900s Clothes!
She Thinks It's April 15, 1912 - And Her Dress Is Still Wet!

There was an illustration of the Titanic sinking, a photograph of an iceberg and a sketch-artist's rendering of the woman`s face but didn't show the 1900's clothes. I didn`t even pick up the issue. Even though there have been similar tabloid headlines from the same publication such as:

Titanic Captain Found In Lifeboat!  He Thinks It's April 15, 1912 - And His Pipe Is Still Lit!
And there was also: Titanic Descendents found Living on Iceberg.

It was all laughable and lame, but the first one that I had seen had struck a chord with me.  I knew it was a load of crap. But I was very familiar with the Titanic, having studied the ill-fated ship in great detail out of interest alone. The wheels started turning in my head... What if? What if that really happened?  It would make a great movie... in a Twilight Zone kind of way.  So I wrote it down in my notebook - remember old fashioned spiral-bound notebooks and pens? All I'd have to do now is come up with characters, plot and a reason for such a bizarre thing to happen... hmmm. I would have to mull that over. 

Sixteen years later, I decided to enter the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest. It's such an insane idea to produce a decent story in 72 hours, I wanted to see if I could do it. I was allowed to prepare an idea and even an outline but no allowed to do any writing until the clock started. When I paid my $50 entry fee, I had no idea what I was going to do. I looked through my filing cabinet (junk) drawer and found my old notebooks. Skimming through them I found my scribblings of the headline, "Titanic Survivor Found on Iceberg". 

At this point in my life I had a one-year old daughter. Having a child changes your whole life's perspective. There is nothing I wouldn't do for my daughter to protect her. I would sacrifice my life and if it were possible, I would bend the laws of time and physics for her. From that, the plot for my story began to evolve.

I completed the story over that 72-hour period. It was rough... not only the process but the writing itself. It was just under 70 pages. Which such an insane timeline things like elaborate character development and scene description go out the window. So do grammar and spelling. Still, I was pleased that I did it.

I had planned to expand it to a proper novel and was going to do so in 2007 but the first three chapters of this novel got me another gig: working for the next few years on the novel "Dracula the Un-Dead".  It started out well but there were too many cooks in the kitchen and, in my opinion, it eventually disintegrated into an unholy mess. Though I was pleased with my 'work', it was a huge learning experience in how the publishing world worked and it opened doors for me.  I was proud that it was on the New York Times Best Sellers' List and many reviews praised my historical research.

Moving on, I was then encouraged to expand my short 70-page (17,000 words) story into a full novella. I did so - it was up to 26,000 words. Then my literary agent read it, loved it and felt it would do better as full-length historical-thriller novel. She suggested at the very least 60,000 words but preferred over 80,000. That's a massive expansion. Armed with notes and suggestions from her, I restructured and re-wrote the novel, adding another storyline inspired by a true unsolved murder from 1910. The novel was over 90,000 words when finally completed.  

From a tabloid headline 20 years ago, to this stack of paper pictured here. Inspiration can certainly come from anywhere. What a great journey!

Manuscript for The Depth of Deception.

 UPDATE: (April 2012) My novel Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery) can now be purchased at an introductory rate of $0.99 from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O3IKTY as well as in other e-book formats from Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/144531. 

http://www.depthofdeception.com/