Hollywood King

"This scene can be a bit tricky, so let me explain it to you. This Kevin's trick includes you, coming through a blowtorch and getting your head on fire."

Hearing this, Hyde Wilkins, who plays the role of Harry, nodded and smiled. He was a middle-aged man who was comparatively fat than an average body, yet was someone who did his role perfectly. He almost perfectly is like the real Harry who played Home Alone. But, Ian had to make the make-up artists create fake wrinkles and construct the bald head during the shot. But most of the time, Harry was in a cap so it was easier for them.

"Are you going to set my head on fire?" He asked with a joking smile.

"We can't do that, can we? We're gonna do an old magician's trick. The fire will be blown onto a dummy head, which will be painted black."

He turned to the cameraman and continued what he was saying, "The camera will be pointed at the glass at a 45° angle. And when Hyde hits this very specific mark on the setup, the reflection of the dummy head will be blocked, leaving the flame visible. And appear to burn your head."

They all nodded in understanding. "So in the end, my head will be on fire," Hyde laughed, making everyone laugh.

They were astonished by how good Ian is with everything. But Ian wanted to get over shooting quickly, so he used tactics like these that had been used in Home Alone 1 in his previous life.

His memories provided him with all the strategies he needed.

It's been more than one week since the shooting started. They decided to go to Canada after successfully filming the air-flight scenes in the studio. They rented a house in Canada that looked almost exactly like the house in the original movie.

The specificity was, that Ian wanted furniture which screamed Christmas just like in the original. It had been said that the original director used furniture, and house decorations in red and green colors depicting the nature of Christmas.

Knowing that Ian rented the house and the furniture along with it. The house looked perfectly like the McCallister house in no time.

In the original, Some of the house interiors, and many other interiors, were built inside an abandoned high school. Ian was lucky enough to find a house and rent it without wanting to create stuff and spend more money.

They started shooting different scenes which included Marv and Harry getting tricked by the nine-year-old.

"Quiet on the set!" Ian shouted.

"Sound!"

"Set!" The sound manager, Robert replied.

"Camera?"

"Set!" Niko, the cinematographer replied.

"Roll sound" Ian commanded.

"Roll camera"

The Clapper board moved into the scene with the scene number and 'take 1' which was visible on the clapper board.

"Action!"

The previous scene started on the outside when Harry aka Hyde went up the stairs while checking the doorknob, to make sure it wasn't hot, unlike one of Kevin's stunts. After touching it two or three times, he went inside.

The current scene takes place inside the house, where Harry's head gets burned. After putting his head inside, just like they had planned, the blowtorch blew fire, and Harry's facial expressions were on the spot. Just as if his head was burning.

"Owwww!"

"Cut!" Ian shouted.

They all stopped their work. The scene wasn't perfect and they had to do it a few more times before Ian decided it was perfect. In times like these, doing the same shot over and over wasn't an easy task for them.

"Cut!"

The final shot was perfect.

"That's it for today!"

It was already 10 p.m. and just like he knew, Kevin has to go home after 10 because of some laws regarding child labor. Even in the original movie, it is said that Columbus had to play Kevin's coverage first during the night, then he would be there to shoot the scene fully.

Ian wanted Kevin on the set, so he let everyone go home at times when Kevin took off during some days, but he kept working and shooting with others on several other days, till late at night.

-

Different scenes took different turns. Some were perfect, some were almost perfect, and some were even better than the originals.

Like how the snow at the end of the movie was fake, mashed potato flakes yet it was already snowing in Canada. It will be easy to make future scenes realistic, Ian thought.

Ian had to use so many tricks from the original movie, to quicken the process.

The scene in which they were shooting currently was when Marv gets in from the window and steps on the ornaments/toys.

They were candy glass, where the original idea is from the original movie which Ian used shamelessly.

"Action!"

Marv, who entered from the window with an evil grin thinking that the kid forgot to lock the window, stepped on the toys unintentionally and shouted while falling and touching his feet. For the role of Marv, they had found the perfect actor who looked a bit different from the original Home Alone Marv. Will Murray, who was a 35 years old C-grade actor had curly hair, a tall body, and the perfect beard and mustache which succeeded in leaving an expression on Ian during the auditions because he saw Marv through Will.

"I'm going to kill that kid!" He shouted.

"Cut!"

Ian watched the tape over and over, yet wasn't satisfied.

"One more time, but does it hurt?" He asked Marv who still kept jumping slightly from one foot to another.

"Yeah," they all chuckled.

After two more shots, it seemed okay to Ian, so they moved on to the next.

Prop Master, James Rogers brought a prop of a fake tarantula which was a spider breed, and a real tarantula in a glass jar.

"Is that harmless?" Ian asked with the idea of using the real one.

"Yeah, see." The tarantula kept running in his hands, here and there without giving a shit to anyone around. It was harmless, he knew and he felt.

"It's alright, let's use the fake one," Ian shouted aloud for everyone to hear but winked at the prop master. James nodded and smiled seeming to understand his plan. The scene started after explaining what Marv had to do.

"Roll camera"

"Action"

During the scene, just like Ian wanted, the real tarantula was used, making Marv scream for his life. It was the most realistic shot so far, Ian thought yet apologized to Marv after he calmed down. He was lucky that Will had no special fears of tarantulas, and if he did, Ian was doomed.

The very next moment Marv stood up, and the spider was taken away. After a few seconds of laughing and making fun of his screams, they called it a day. Ian thanked him personally for not making a big fuss about it.

"I'm glad I could give a realistic shot," was Will's reply.

-

Just like that, the majority of the scenes inside the house were taken and they still had almost half of the movie to be done.

They shot the scenes which take place inside the house, first. And decided to shoot several scenes which took place outside, in the cold for the last.

There was a scene where Marv and Harry had to stop their van short to not crash into Kevin on the road, and it would be risky to really stop the van like that, the kid could actually get hurt if something went wrong.

So, Ian did the same just like in the originals. They took a shot of the van pulling away, then reversing in editing.

'Safety first' when Ian said it, the whole crew agreed with him.

In the shot, Harry was driving with Marv in the passenger seat. In the thought of editing it later just as if Kevin was about to get hit, they took a few scenes of the van pulling.

[...] They were shooting the rest of the scene.

Kevin screamed loudly after almost getting knocked by a van and kept walking to the front to see the drivers of the van. After he saw Harry, Kevin's frightened face was shot on the camera (2) perfectly while he walked away quickly. There were two cameras to get a closer view and a distant one, which was normal during making movies.

"Cut! It was awesome! Do you guys need a break?" Ian asked. It was cold outside, but they had to keep going.

"Nah," they both shook their heads.

"Okay, next you, Harry needs to be confused. Then just like the script, say the two lines. And then, the van should start to drive. Are we clear?" He asked while they nodded.

The scene started and Harry gave out perfect expressions.

"What's the matter?" Marv asked.

"I don't like the way that kid looked at me," Harry replied.

"Cut! Make it more… natural! One more time!" Ian shouted not being satisfied with the shot.

-

The days got exhausting for all of them. Coldness made it tough to shoot much in it.

Nevertheless, they enjoyed every moment. Kevin was the most enthusiastic one among them all. They had so many inner jokes going on in between actors which didn't make any person bored for a single second.

Hyde, who played Harry, and Adam, made fun of almost every person on the set. They got along so well that Niko got a clip in which Hyde was sleeping on the couch since it was early and Adam's head was on his lap. They both were snoring lightly, which made it even funny.

After seeing the small video, the entire crew made fun of them.

Niko filmed little stuff happening behind the scenes in his private camera to make another small documentary as Ian requested. Moments of them joking around, talking, laughing, shots-gone-wrong, and sleeping were in it.

||__A word from me__||

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