Upside down world

[muppetlover123]

I was just wondering how did they film this amazing scene. It really seems like they would have to actully film in a plane or green screen maybe i have no clue.

 

[D'Snowth]

This was before the days where they lazily just relied on green screen/chromakey almost exclusively.

It was clever camera angles, and more than likely a wind machine or two; they did something similar with The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.

 

[muppetlover123]

oh ok i just thought it might have been REALLY hard to film those airplane scenes lol

 

[Mo Frackle]

Yes, the close-ups of Bert and Ernie were done with clever camera angles. However, the longshots of the plane were performed by professional stunt pilots wearing Bert and Ernie "heads". So no puppeteers were harmed in the shooting of this scene.

 

[D'Snowth]

I DO wonder though about the operation of the Sloppy Jalopy, and the Countmobile and such, which I assume they did similar to TMM, where they had little people in the trunks operating the vehiles by remote control, with directions given to them via headsets.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

I DO wonder though about the operation of the Sloppy Jalopy, and the Countmobile and such, which I assume they did similar to TMM, where they had little people in the trunks operating the vehiles by remote control, with directions given to them via headsets.

From a Tough Pigs article...

Peter has another question: How did the Muppets in FTB drive? Caroll says they have a "little person" in the trunk with a TV monitor, which is hooked up to a camera on the grill of the car. The driver actually drives the car by television, from the trunk. Oscar's car was actually wrecked during the filming -- there's a scene where he swerves off the road across an open field, and they hit a rock and ripped the bottom off the car. "We got the shot, but that was the last time that car rolled."

 

[D'Snowth]

And that probably actually made Oscar happy.

 

[Bridget]

Interesting, I had no idea. Thanks for sharing that!

 

[Mo Frackle]

From another ToughPigs article:

When they filmed Bert and Ernie’s “upside-down world” song, Jim Henson and Frank Oz were actually in an upside-down biplane rig eighteen feet of the ground. It looked dangerous.

 

[D'Snowth]

Gosh, I figured they wouldn't risk Jim or Frank possibly injuring themselves, I'd think they would just film as is, and flip the picture upside down during the editing process.