Behind the scenes!
Photos from our 2010 Christmas  
video shoot! Check them out and tell us what you think on Facebook!

David, Chris, and Jill, clowning around for the camera. Sam played the shepherd in our video, and for those who have seen the show, the sheep are regular F&S cast members!
Here are all of the puppets, dressed in their costumes, sitting on the studio piano and ready for filming. It was fun to see the entire cast assembled like this.
Here are the three Kings, played by Antony (blue), Andy (yellow), and Stuart (pink), Most people don't know that all of the F&S puppets are named because they are usually playing "other" characters in an episode, though Stuart Stewart got to use his real name in Things With Teeth!
When puppets need to have both hands and arms functional, you need a second puppeteer, often called a "right hander." Here David plays the right hand for the character Pete. Pete's mouth, body, and left arm are operated by Chris.
In scenes where the puppets need to walk around, we have to film the puppeteers standing. That means the set, lights, and camera all need to be elevated over our heads! Here David makes a few adjusments to the camera before the next shot.
For filming the song, we place Jill (Susie) on a stepladder, so she would be the correct height for Fred and the other puppets. Jill danced on the ladder in every take, including doing some kicks!
For some of the shots, Jill (Susie) wore a hat and sunglasses, which was great, because the lights can be really intense. The green screen behind her will be replaced with digital desert sets when the film is edited. This way we didn't have to bring truckloads of sand into the studio!
Here's "electric" Fred, ready to make his entrance. The next photo shows what Fred looked like once the green screen was removed from the shot. Incidentally, Chris wears a green hat so his head doesn't show up in the shot. When it does, we affectionately call those fluffy tufts of hair "mushrooms"!
Here's the final "electric" Fred. We hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek into how we made the Fred and Susie Christmas song. If you hadn't guessed, we have a lot of fun on the set. Thanks for looking at our photos and Happy New Year! - Fred, Susie, and the production team
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