Candy Eye Factory Blog

We hit our stride on the second day of shooting the Models Movie and knocked off another 27 silly little scenes. When JoEllen wasn’t on screen playing the most secret-filled of the 4 Schiller Girls, she was fluttering about behind the scenes making certain the rest of the cast was Factory-fabulous, head to toe. Witness her hard work below.

SCENE: 14b, Re-Cap Hugs Montage
WARDROBE: Liz = Helena Merchant sparkle sweater, dark denim skirt, Karen Mulder hair-do.
Jo = Birdy blouse, tan corduroy vest, brown waitress skirt, Facts of Life barrettes.

SCENE: 09d, Trend Trackers
WARDROBE: Tina = Rainbow stripe suspenders, black leotard, sailor-legged jeans, white gloves.

SCENE: 10a, Allison Storms Off
WARDROBE: Allison + Liz = Peachy bath towels, coral shower caps.

Two days down, only one more to go!

Our first day of shooting “The Schiller Guide” was a dizzy little whirl. We had aimed to conquer 29 scenes, completed 28 of them amazingly, somehow – but then realized soon enough we’d probably face some re-shooting down the road.

But C’est la vie for Le Factory.

Having skipped wardrobe and hair tests for this project, mostly we were relieved to have successfully created the JC Penny catalog circa-1979 look we had been working toward for all 4 of our leading ladies. When a girl makes us giggle in her get-up, then we know we’re on the right track and our first day of filming was “fulla giggles”.

For Tina the key was tinted eye-glasses (wait ’til you see)! For JoEllen, it commonly was a pair of Mindy Cohn-ish barrettes. Allison’s brand new bangs were hot ‘n hip for 2007 and yet oh-so perfect for ‘79 as well. And Lizzie’s lush locks were straightened Brady-Girl style, and her collection of high-waisted mom slacks were instant MVPs.

So now, get this: In our nearly two decades of mini-moviemaking the Factory Friends had never employed the use of cue cards for any of their productions until now!

The crew banded solidly together to guide Lady Lizzie valiantly through her on-screen reading of her lines that we needed stilted seeming – yet cutely charming.

Leave it to Lizzie, of course. Her stilted was some of the most charming we’ve seriously ever had.

So this 12th video of ours was intended as a simple mini-movie (aren’t they all?), but we knew it had blossomed into something a bit more substantial when we realized the film was going to require 69 different outfits! That’s gotta be some sort of Factory record.

We dove deep into our Candy Eye Costume Closet to complete the mission and will be presenting on-screen, at last, some fabulous pieces that have been sitting around in our fashion stashes before the Factory was ever even officially founded. Get ready for your close-up, purple wool bell-bottoms!

Aside from costumes, one of our main pre-production missions was to decide how to shoot the project in order to give it an Instructional Video-looking rawness, without losing the polished sheen we coat our creations with usually. The magical solution seems to be shooting at a 1/30 shutter speed, in case you care.

Aside from that we’re discovering pumpkin-orange bedsheets as backdrops and swarms of silly 70s eyeglasses will be “crucial-crucial pieces”, as the trashy Mallory would say, in turning this ‘lil video into a big ol’ winner.

Um…

Remember the Mystery Movie we announced way back in July that we’d be shooting throughout the fall and documenting via our blog? Obviously that project was sidelined and all that remains of that dream is a trio of happy-colored hats our heroines would’ve worn in the epic film.

But out of the ashes of that ill-fated film rises our latest flick we’ll call The Schiller Guide for now. We’ve booked all three of the Mallorys girls to appear in the piece, while Lady Jo will make her triumphant return to the big screen as the 4th member of our all-female cast.

Let’s cut to the chase, though. What in the world will our Candy Eye cuties be wearing in The Factory’s 12th film? Our thrifting adventures focused around scoring some killer culottes, at least one prairie jacket, and a collection of turtlenecks we plan on pairing with anything and everything.

It sounds a bit pedestrian, perhaps, but cross our hearts, there’s tons of glamour, gorgeousness, silliness and sexiness waiting in the wings as well. (Plus our trademark sunglasses and a hat that lights up.) Come back and see for yourself over the next few weeks!