Making a Fred and Susie episode is really fun, so we thought we'd share some behind the scenes photos with you!
Filming DVD 3
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Filming DVD 3 gallery.

Welcome to the "Behind the Scenes Look" at filming a Fred and Susie episode. Trixie the cow is here to greet you, along with her creator, Chris. This shot was taken in December, 2011, during our Show 3 publicity photo shoot.
The very first thing filmed for Show 3 was the Model A outdoor shots. They were filmed on a beautiful October day in 2010, more than a year before Show 3 would be completed. The car is owned by Neil Besougloff, and we convinced him to appear on camera as Susie's Uncle Stanley.
Here's Jill (Susie) and Neil (Uncle Stanley) with the car. The neighborhood had been super quiet that morning, right up to the moment we were going to film the dialog in the car. Then David's next door neighbor decided it would be a good time to cut the grass. We bribed him to wait 15 minutes!
In November of 2010, Chris, who plays Fred, as unavailable with other work, so we filmed the two cooking sequences with Susie. Here she is on the set for the banana bread project. We used David and Ingrid's kitchen, instead of building a kitchen set, but had to completely block out the windows.
A week later, we filmed the Chef Susie parts for Sam's Lasagna Song. Danny, a good Friend of Ingird's, loaned us one of his chef uniforms for the segment. Jill loved wearing the mustache, but her husband Ben was a bit freaked out by it all. Once we filmed, we ate the lasagna. It was excellent.
Filming on Show 3 was suspended in January 2011, when Jill and Ben announced that they were expecting and Chris (Fred) was still unavailable with other commitments. We brought in some new puppeteers in June to do some web spots, including Craig, our graphic designer, shown here with Edward.
The other new puppeteer was Susie Wiedmeyer, shown here with David during her screen test. We used Susie, Craig, and David to make the short film "Audition Day" as a DVD extra for Show 3 and website video. Susie and Craig made a great team and we hope to do more with them in the future.
September saw the official return to filming Show 3, and we put Fred and Susie back together for a day of shooting, starting with the scene on a new set for us, Fred's bedroom. Along with Jill and Chris, Karen (on the floor) was included in the shoot that day to run Fred's hands.
Anytime we film Jill with the puppets, she is usually raised on boxes or ladders to make room for the puppeteer. In this case, she's seated about 18" above the floor on a box. Chris can see Fred's actions in a TV monitor under the bed. Karen also watches the monitor from her position.
We use a variety of sets for Fred and Susie, and because they take so long to build and install, we try to get as much work out of them as we can. We shot the Sheep part of Show 3 on our new beach set, but then also filmed a clip with our two crabs for future use on the website.
Here's a trench shot of Craig and Chris running the crabs. They wear sleeves made of the same material that we used for the sand, so you don't really notice their arms when they appear in the shot.
When we have to bring humans into the puppets' world, we need to raise the sets, sometimes quite high. Here Susie and Fred run through their park scene together. Craig, who was running Fred's hands earlier, is holding the script for Jill in this shot. He's much less expensive than a teleprompter!
Chris, Craig, and David are the main puppeteers on the show. Here they are running puppets for one of the park scenes. Jill voices Lacey, and she is off camera in this scene speaking her lines into a microphone. It takes a little practice to work this way, but it's actually quite easy to do.
As you can see from this shot, much of the sets are built with flat pieces clamped to various aluminum bars and wood rails. We also use a variety of boxes to support larger pieces such as plants.
To make a puppet's hands move properly, we usually use two puppeteers. In this scene, Lisa and Jill are assisting Craig and Chris with the Fred and Sherman puppets. David is running the Kevin puppet, which normally takes two puppeteers, but his other hand is out of shot in this sequence.
Camera and sound work are set up by David, but then run and monitored by a number of different people. Karen, when not doing puppet work, often runs the camera.
Chris, Craig, and David film the stick-up scene around the banana cart. The cart is built from mostly wood and fabric. It sits on a wood rail, and it can be slid along the rail to appear that it is being pushed by one of the characters. We used the same technique for the Bunny Car in Show 2.
Jill and Chris practice the "reach for the sky" move for the robbery sequence in Show 3. The limited articulation in the ball joint in the puppet's arms makes this pose somewhat difficult and it took several takes to get it right. It's something to keep in mind as we design newer puppets.
Chris is running Sam in this shot, and Craig is running Pete the Cowpoke. They watch their puppets' movements in the television monitor. The real trick is that the monitor shows right and left backward, so it takes some getting used to making your puppet face the correct direction.
Jill is preparing Fred's costume for the next scene. While we make a lot of the specialty costumes ourselves, we often buy infant clothing for regular street clothes. Sizes 0-12 months usually fit the best, but since the puppets don't have shoulders, there's always some adjustment needed.
Puppet props come from just about anywhere. Here Lisa adjusts a pair of sunglasses on the puppet called Jill. Although the glasses came from a costume store, many of the props are built for the show, such as the concertina used by Baxter in the Lasagna Song.
Ingrid is our production coordinator, and the chef behind the Fred and Susie catering service, "Swedish Meals on the Run." Here she is helping install a set piece for the next scene. Sam's Road House is made of foam board and painted to look like wood.
The Kevin puppet is our first "live hand" puppet on the show. That means that the puppeteers' hands are inside the puppet's hands. It takes two people to run Kevin, and here Chris and Karen operate him for the Good Banana song green screen shots.
Here is a view of what Chris and Karen see as they operate the puppet. Handing things from the right hand to the left is hard enough when two different people operate each hand, but try doing it in a television monitor where the action then appears to go in the opposite direction as well!
David is "voicing" a puppet on camera (run by Craig and Lisa) while Jill monitors the audio for the shot. From her smile, it's obvious it isn't going according to script. On any shoot day, we probably do more laughing than any real work on set, but it makes the job really really fun!
In this scene, Chris is running Fred and Craig and Lisa are running the character of Anthony. What makes things more difficult is that David is off camera (previous photo) voicing Anthony's lines. Still, with concentration, it actually runs more smoothly than one puppeteer trying to do it all.
Chris, Lisa, and Craig running the same scene. As cramped as everyone looks, this shot is in front of the set, so it has a lot of room for the puppeteers. On some shots, such as the crabs on the beach shown earlier, there is just room for the puppeteers and the TV monitor.
The last thing filmed for Show 3 was the Good Banana song. Jill and the puppets were all filmed in front of our green screen and then had different backgrounds edited in later. The group shots in the finished film were made from individual clips like this. Here Craig is running Fred's arms.
In early December 2011, we took all the publicity shots for the DVD cover, ads, and website. Here Jill is clowning around with the bananas for her DVD cover shoot. I think you can see why we didn't use this picture on the finished product. It was the last thing we "filmed" for the show.
Since we had the camera out, we pulled together all the team members we could get on short notice to shoot a picture for our first Fred and Susie company Christmas card. From left to right are David, Anthony, Ingrid, Sam, Fred, Lacey, Chris, Jill, Trixie, Edward, Karen, a sheep, Craig, and Sherman.
Behind
the 
scenes!

Filming DVD 3

Ever watch a Fred and Susie show and wonder how we made it, what holds the sets up, or how the puppets work? Here's your chance to look behind the scenes at the making of Being a Good Banana, the third episode of the Fred and Susie Show. Filming started in October 2010 and completed in December 2011. The DVD was released in March 2012. 

Each photo has an informative caption, telling part of the story behind DVD 3. Enjoy the trip!