BTS: The Making of Prince Charmless
Click on image to open larger version.When I first opened negotiations with Kyle Steele to be my Prince Charming, he didn’t think for too long before he agreed. A moment later he asked suspiciously, “You’re not going to shrink me or anything?” referring to Snow White Part 1.
I laughed. “Prince Charming is definitely not a dwarf!”
Presently, Kyle grew thoughtful, and fearful that he might renege, I asked him what was on his mind. “I’m just trying to think what I could wear,” he murmured absently.
I knew what I wanted him to wear: the puffy-sleeved shirt of Seinfeld fame. I had my doubts as to whether I could find one though.
It was he who, after several fruitless excursions to op-shops, hit on the idea of a bogan Prince Charmless, and I immediately fell in love with the concept. Of course my sassy Snow White would not fall for a stock-standard Prince in a silk shirt!
I organised to borrow a sword from our taekwondo instructor Ivan; Kyle picked it up the night before, bundling it up carefully in a pashmina in case he had a run-in with a policeman on the street. His supplier of flannelette shirts unfortunately did not come through for him, so on the day of the shoot, Kyle made a detour to a local department store where he bought two flannies for the princely sum of $6 each.
… the actual shoot was a long series of gags and bloopers interspersed with a small number of fluke good shots
We soon found out why they were so cheap. “I think they’re made for really fat, short people,” Kyle grinned as he modelled the extra large one for me. The sleeves were about 20cm too short and the body could almost have held two of him. When he buckled on his studded belt however, it was perfect. The last touch was a pack of Winnie Blues, with one cigarette tucked behind his ear.
If putting Kyle’s costume together was not hilarious enough, the actual shoot was a long series of gags and bloopers interspersed with a small number of fluke good shots.
The first time he picked me up we heard a loud clunk. “What was that?” I asked, mystified.
“The sword fell out of my belt,” Kyle answered wryly.
“Oops, better not tell Ivan that.”
Then the camera decided to play up, the setting for the remote shutter control flicking off whenever we took too long to get into position; the battery of the remote was discovered to be waning (I had no replacement, and Kyle desperately pulled apart his car keyfob only to find the battery was the wrong voltage); I deplored the camera angle for showing too much of my rear (“It’s too low,” Kyle pointed out helpfully). But Kyle nobly bore it all, and in fact became quite good at lifting me and gently lowering me to the floor in a princely fashion to deal with these emergencies – if it was an Olympic sport I’m sure we would be champions.
By the time we attempted one fireman’s lift (painful for us both) we were so in character each of the five shots fired off turned out to be perfect.
I hope you enjoy this little peek behind the screens!
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