Water Water Everywhere

 A glimpse of the Halfland magical mystery water movement effect.

Whenever something extraordinary happens during Halfland making, whether it is intended/planned/known/or a total surprise like this, I always tell my partner that if we are ever asked about it, “We will swear we had intended this outcome all along.”

But we didn't/hadn't/not even close! This is the most recent example. The wonderful Dick Kaneshiro and I had been dreading the impossible task of adhering the $85 large carnival mirror I bought to the expensive special delivery 4' x 8' luan wood panel that was going to stand at the far end of the cottage set as a distance illusion/distortion maker for certain long shots.

We had to lug the panel downstairs because we needed to sand its surface as smoothly as possible to have the mylar mirror sheet stay blemish-free for the Lona gentle curving mirror distortion effects I wanted to create for this project. We were both concerned about how to lay such a large surface as the mirror flat with adhesive, whether there would be tons of trapped air bubbles, etc. I decided to go for it without even first testing the materials; just let's spray it on while wearing respirators and try.

Oh, boy. We were ready for a fight with it, but it all went down smoothly/easily/and surprisingly well. We clipped one end of the mirror to the sanded panel and folded back one half of the big mirror, sprayed both surfaces with an industrial (yet low voc) spray contact cement on both surfaces. Smoothed the glued half of the mirror down, starting from the center, with soft cotton rags and a squeegee. Then, we repeated that process on the second half. After it cured for a couple hours, we brought it back upstairs, through narrow hallways, and reinstalled it on its base with giant dowel pegs shaping the curves.

Bending the panel during transit caused the very middle to come away from the backing, I'm sure only temporarily. I plan to curve it in the opposite direction to see if that corrects the issue. Luan boards remain flexible, so there wasn't a way to keep it perfectly flat. I can make it work no matter what.

But here's the surprise gift that came along with going for it. Somehow, the combination of the board texture, the spray adhesive, and the mirror material adhered this way created a strange diamond point reaction in the mirror surface. And this diamond point texture gives the most beautiful water effect I've ever seen! We did nothing to deliberately create this effect, yet there it was across the entire mirror panel. So many stop-motion water effect uses sprang to our minds as soon as we saw it.

It's the TRANSITION moment from when Kyra the mermaid sees Halfland from under the sea! A watery reveal of the Halfland landscape in all its glory appears to the audience as if they have just arrived on its shores.

It's the FLOWING STREAM in front of Rana's cottage! Underneath layers of translucent shimmering fabric, the slowly moving water illusion is perfect either by panning the camera or sliding the mirror panel under the opening in the set.

It's the SPARKLING DISTANT SEA on the horizon in view behind the cottage!

It's the nearly still water in the TIME FROG's POND!