Red Hot Millions heats up Atlanta

Kevin the fire breathing goat is a huge hit in Atlanta GA. In fact the buzz was so big it will air during the Super Bowl.  Read on to see the steps I took bring Kevin the fire breathing goat to life. Click here to see the commercial. 

In commercials, a script about a fire breathing goat is like sweet manna sent down from the spot-gods. I put my strongest ideas and a few visuals into a treatment that won the business.  My main argument was that the people of the household should not gasp or point out the strangeness of this fiery housepet. He was just one of the family, hanging out, breathing fire when needed to help out. No big deal. We’ll take an unusual situation and treat it as completely normal. This is a rule used extensively in improv, sometimes called agreement.  Del Close said “Conflict is as about as necessary as the mad scientists daughter in a science fiction film. It’s an arbitrary convention that need not be respected.”  

CASTING

There were some animal wranglers in Florida that claimed to have a trained goat but I wasn’t convinced we’d have luck with some goat that had just endured a 400 mile road trip. Plus its very expensive to move animals for a commercial, and unless its a tiger or kangaroo, it seemed like a waste of money.  We needed a goat.  Luckily Greg Teslan the local animal guy knew of some goats on the outskirts of Atlanta.  He sent over a portfolio of the abvalable local talent.

When shooting animals you want to ideally cast two that look alike. This is because if an animal becomes fed up on the set, they may shut down. When they’re done, they’re done. You can’t offer a goat an additional 100 bucks to work through his goat-crankies.  The goats owners said goat 6 had a gentle sensibility and goat 8 had a similarity and could perform closeup work if need be.

But I was immediately taken by goat 9.  Despite his general awesomeness, I wanted our story to be about a couple of dudes. You know, buddies hanging out around the house, one just happens to be a goat. And goat 6 looked dainty, feminine. Goat 9, was fierce, manly with big horns and a billy goats gruff. He also has almost a mythological quality which i thought would look funny inside a house. 

CALLBACKS

So from his photo alone, Goat number nine had earned himself a callback. We drove 90 minutes outside of Atlanta, through a pine forest, then up a muddy dirt road.  Young farm kids buzzed around the property on four wheelers.  A cacophony of bleating goats indicated we were getting close.

We got out shook hands with the goat owner and there he was, goat number nine in all his glory. Look at this goat! 

As it turns out goat number 9 is actually a she, and her name is Cricket. I guess gender is not readily apparent with goats. While visiting the farm we took the opportunity to rehearse with Cricket, looking for a way to have her to open her mouth on cue. This would be necessary for the moment when she breathes fire. The wranglers tried some food, peanut butter on a cracker, then molasses.

It all looked pretty fake, like she was licking sugar off her lips. And we learned that my original plan - to make the goat bleat, or baa was unrealistic. A goat bleats when it feels lonely, or anguished. So a good way to make a goat bleat, is to abandon it. On the set, we would not have this luxury, so we needed a plan B. We discussed the fire coming only from his nostrils, but that seemed less funny.  I knew we could manipulate the lower jaw in post if need be. Therefore we focused our efforts on getting Cricket to push her neck forward, like a dragon would when it breathes fire.

For this the most natural method was to lure her with food in a hand or a bucket. It was very helpful if there was something in her way so she wouldn’t take steps forward, but would push her head out (seemingly with purpose.)  

Our callback and our rehearsal was a success. Cricket had landed the role, and we headed back to Atlanta to play with some fire. 

Onwards to prop effects specialist Lisa Reynolds.  I had asked her to prepare several types of flammable liquids and delivery methods to test in her shop. A prop effects guru in her own right, Lisa is the daughter of famed effects supervisor Bob Shelly. His shop is amazing. Every time I go there I try to take some pictures. Click on the image above to see a high res panorama. 

One time with cameras rolling I whipped out a prop gun like this and pretended to mow down a crowd of extras like I was suddenly Scarface. It was a lame duck attempt to put fear in the eyes of 100 faces in a single moment. Didn’t work. Not at all.  It reminded me of the time I used ketchup for blood in a failed April Fool’s suicide. The smell reveals the stunt immediately and Instead of fear you get raised eyebrows, as if to say, “really? ketchup?” I speak from experience people, when attempting to scare loved ones, use professional fake blood.  

This is their largest air canon. It will blow an entire table setting into the air from 15 feet away with the press of a shiny red button.

I cannot improve this image with words. 

Not sure what this does but its awesome. 

The fire demonstrations began.  Who knew my years of pyromania, age 12-16 would someday come in handy?!  By the way for visual effects, when you shoot people as elements you shoot against green. But when you shoot fire as elements you shoot against black.

Ether wins.     

After the fire test I had to rush off and catch a plane. They gave me some wet wipes to clean my shoes on the way to the airport.  Lisa warned me, a random security check could be a problem.  Evidently when traveling, trace amounts of black powder on your person is considered a no-no. 

I didn’t have a problem and flew that day.  

When I returned to Atlanta we went location hunting. When looking for a location you want something memorable, not just any house, any backdrop. And you’re looking for that space says something about the character.  We wanted our hero to have a sweet pad.  In the script the girl asks, “how does your goat breathe fire?” that means they’re newly aqcquainted. That means she’s been invited her back for a romantic evening at home he might put on a little teddy p and turn off the lights. This is what we found, in Coldlanta (it was a frigid December scout)

Since our third vignette features a fireplace, we back-design our location scout based on that requirement.  ”Which available locations have working fireplaces?”  I asked.Also - for any students reading this, never sugarcoat a location. If the shoot requires hammering petons into the drywall wall and climbing it like a its El Capitan, you must say so beforehand. As we were talking to a sweet couple that owned this home,  it became clear they had no idea our intentions. I said, “did no one tell you that we would have a goat in your house for 12 hours?” They were less than excited. Next! 

This is what I call an “invisible location.” It is standard, normal, unremarkable. 

I liked this fireplace but it looks so rustic, a goat wouldn’t seem very out of place standing next to it. Since this is this is a “fish out of water” joke, onward. 

I liked this room, and fireplace, it was unique. I could see removing the vases and propping the shelves to have more guys stuff. My only concerns were that the white goat might get lost against the white hearth. Also, there are these giant ceramic logs inside. Hiring a plumber to remove them would have been a headache.  Next! 

Last on our scout we saw this. One of a kind, swanky, pad. You can shoot and work from from all sides of the fireplace. Strangely perfect for working with our farm animal. The owners were cool with us using a real goat in a house. 

When looking for the right location its a good idea to block the scene with anyone thats available. The producer and location manager were kind enough to stand in for this test. 

One hilarious challenge was lighting so many candles between takes. We only had 3 cakes. Later when we were done shooting the scene the cakes went to craft service. 

The plan was to use the real goat in the real space, I knew the goat would lunge towards the cake since it smells sweet and yummy. We added an interactive light from off frame so the actor would appear to be hit with the light from the goats fire. As well we did a “cowboy switch.” so we could have a real burning cake for the second half of the vignette.