MidMod Squad

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Home > Archives for Neighborhood

Building the NEW Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – Part 5

June 13, 2017 by the Chief

An important part of the original Mr. Rogers’ show was the opening shot of zooming into his miniature neighborhood set. Pee Wee’s Playhouse used a similar device in its opening shots as well. There is nothing quite as charming and engaging as a miniature world of make believe and the Green Room is determined to follow in the steps of the greats!

Detail Shots

Many of the buildings have homages to special people who have been part of the historic preservation scene in Los Angeles and beyond. Their names appear on billboards, building signs and other hidden spots around the set. These are often called “hidden mickeys” (from Disneyland) or what they call “easter eggs” in the business. Radio DJ Javas Bachelor Pad has a coffee shop, historian architect, Alan Hess has a hotel, historian author Chris Nichols has a bank, the Pasadena Doo Dah parade operate a motel, musician Mark Tortoricci runs an Italian restaurant / jazz club, and other friends are represented throughout.

The city is filled with ecology conscious buildings or concepts, from an organic farm to an alternative energy power substation based on hydroelectric power, to a clean green vegan snack bar.

  

The Final Project

The establishing shot starts on Fred Rogers’ house and sweeps across the city following the monorail up to the green house green room. Since we did not own or know anyone who owned a steady cam or fancy hanging camera setup, we tried using a tripod and all sorts of makeshift dollies. But in the end a steady hand held camera – along with some anti-shake software helped us get the final shot. Here you can see how shaky some of the original footage was!

http://www.midmodsquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Neighborhood-Passover-test.mp4

You can see the entire neighborhood for yourself. It is on display at the Valley Relics Museum in Chatsworth, CA. They are open every Saturday afternoon and admission is FREE! http://www.valleyrelics.org


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The Green Room Sizzle Reel

Filed Under: General News, the Green Room Tagged With: alternative energy, ecology, fred rogers, Little city, miniature, model city, monorail, Mr Rogers, Neighborhood, Pee Wee Herman, PeeWee's Playhouse, progress city, vegan

Building the NEW Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – Part 4

June 6, 2017 by the Chief

An important part of the original Mr. Rogers’ show was the opening shot of zooming into his miniature neighborhood set. Pee Wee’s Playhouse used a similar device in its opening shots as well. There is nothing quite as charming and engaging as a miniature world of make believe and the Green Room is determined to follow in the steps of the greats!

Building the Buildings

The first and most important building was to find the house that would be Mr. Rogers’ home. There is a company that actually made that very model building. We acquired it, but it had to be slightly modified to match the original. from left to right (original-model-our adaptation).

Mr. Rogers’ home now is surrounded by fruit bearing orange trees. We think he’d like that!

The main “Green Room” green house was next in line. It had to be something fairly fun and innovative. And there was a wonderful Googie inspired MidMod house HO scale model from the 1960s that fit the bill perfectly… once it was painted lime green.

The remaining main character next door neighbors homes were all specially customized. Best gal pal Ruby’s house is done in red and pink colors. Colonel Bombay is maroon-white-and-blue. And Billy the Beachcomber lives in an A frame tiki shack surrounded by palm trees.

  

Then there was an entire neighborhood blocks and city buildings to make, paint, and customize… Some were vintage HO models from her dad’s train set that Mary-Margaret grew up with. These were old German HO model house buildings repainted and spruced up to look fresh and new.

 

Stay tuned for Part 5 with some wonderful detail shots of the final set.


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The Green Room Sizzle Reel

Filed Under: General News, the Green Room Tagged With: fred rogers, model city, monorail, Neighborhood, Pee Wee Herman, PeeWee's Playhouse

Building the NEW Mr. Rogers Neighborhood – Part 3

May 30, 2017 by the Chief

An important part of the original Mr. Rogers’ show was the opening shot of zooming into his miniature neighborhood set. Pee Wee’s Playhouse used a similar device in its opening shots as well. There is nothing quite as charming and engaging as a miniature world of make believe and the Green Room is determined to follow in the steps of the greats!

Building the Base

The plywood base was 4′ x 5′ with detachable galvanized pipe screw-in legs making it easier to transport. Some of the initial buildings were rough placed to see how it would all fit together.

Everything had to be very lightweight for easy transport, so rather than build the hills out of the standard chicken wire and plaster, 2″ thick house insulation styrofoam was glued to the plywood.

 

http://www.midmodsquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/building-the-base-set.mp4

Once the foam base was built, additional realistic geographic features were added, including grassy hills, a stream and waterfall. Prior to finalizing these details, rough assemblage of some buildings was done to check placements:

  

Then to apply the concrete (grey cardboard) pavements and grassy hills and make the stream and waterfall.

   

Stay tuned for Part 4 where we discuss the model buildings.


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The Green Room Sizzle Reel

Filed Under: General News, the Green Room Tagged With: model city, monorail, Mr Rogers, Neighborhood, Pee Wee Herman, PeeWee's Playhouse, styrofoam, train set

Building the NEW Mr. Rogers Neighborhood – Part 2

May 23, 2017 by the Chief

An important part of the original Mr. Rogers’ show was the opening shot of zooming into his miniature neighborhood set. Pee Wee’s Playhouse used a similar device in its opening shots as well. There is nothing quite as charming and engaging as a miniature world of make believe and the Green Room is determined to follow in the steps of the greats!

Designing a Layout to Accommodate the Monorail

The scale chosen was standard HO scale due to the availability of a wide variety of building, trees, accessories, and other “set” pieces. A layout was designed that would include places where alternative energy could be demonstrated: solar, wind, hydro-electric, as well as a gardening and recycling centers, etc. The initial layouts looked like this:

About the Monorail

Like Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood Trolley, a moving monorail is essential to the script and story development. It serves as a transition device between real world events and imaginary world events. The Australian Darling Harbor Harbourlink toy was chosen as the best for scale and design.

 

Tests were done with various transformers to make sure the vintage HO monorail purchased through ebay worked.

http://www.midmodsquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Monorail-test.mp4

Background movement was provided by a Matchbox Motor Speedway which would allow matchbox and hot wheels cars to move around the city. We had a 3 car pileup at the Giant Donut shop while testing out the track! Luckily, since it was a donut shop, the police were nearby!

 

http://www.midmodsquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Succesful-installation-of-new...-The-MidMod-Squad.mp4

Stay tuned for Part 3!


Please like our page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/midmodsquad/

The Green Room Sizzle Reel

Filed Under: General News, the Green Room Tagged With: fred rogers, miniature, model city, monorail, Mr Rogers, Neighborhood, Pee Wee Herman, PeeWee's Playhouse, styrofoam, train set

Confidential. This document and the information contained therein is confidential and should not be disclosed, duplicated, in whole or in part. Television Treatments and Pilots are REGISTERED WGAw. Show Bible and Pilot Script available on request.
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      • Sponsorship
    • Lotta Livin’ Modern Lifestyle Show
    • Sugar! Sugar! Musical Comedy Theater
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    • MidMod Squad Principle – Michael
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  • Home
  • Projects
    • Dear Cherry PRX (Public Radio Exchange)
    • The Green Room Children’s TV
      • BETTER Tomorrow!
      • What is a Green Room?
      • Diverse Players
      • Merchandising
      • Underwriting
      • Sponsorship
    • Lotta Livin’ Modern Lifestyle Show
    • Sugar! Sugar! Musical Comedy Theater
    • Additional Show Treatments
  • Principles
    • MidMod Squad Principles m&m
    • MidMod Squad Principles – Cary
    • MidMod Squad Principle – Michael
    • MidMod Squad Principle – Steve
  • Latest News

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