 – The Art Department recreated a bright looking beachside town and surfing community where everything was ‘not as it seemed’. Flowers hung from the street lamps, surfboards were carried around like handbags and everything and everyone was abnormally happy! Fake seagulls hung from the ceiling in the school café, and weird and wonderful culinary delights were on display. – A local school was transformed to become the sunny beachside school – Atlantis High. The exterior was completely repainted bright, light and dark blue, huge palm trees were planted at the school entrance, hot pink signs lined the exterior walls, the grass was always green and the sky always blue! – Several rooms were ‘dressed’ as Headmaster Q’s office with large goldfish tanks, huge bookshelves as secret doors and a creepy crawly dark atmosphere. ‘Q’ sat at his desk spying on life at Sunset Cove and Atlantis High through his monocle. – A unique and specially-equipped spaceship was made in the Cloud 9 studio. Its main feature was a global shell built with a large open screen at the front, to which special effects were added. The inside of the ship was made from a type of fluffy material and there were three special seats within the spaceship where the aliens sat while spying and flying through life at Atlantis High. – The entire show featured a special image, as though manufactured from an idyllic magazine, where all was rosy/cheerful/bright and multi-coloured and where every member of the community displayed strange behaviour. This all stemmed from the fact that there was a covert spy network/alien force surrounding Sunset Cove which also ultimately affected the life of Giles Gordon. – The school field was transformed into an American football field with huge plastic/rubber moulded goal posts flying in the breeze at either end. A couple of days the breeze was stronger than expected and the posts almost bent in half!  – The Props Department had the task of finding suitable props that were often meant to be tacky and fake, for extra special effects or for the purpose of making life at Sunset Cove look abnormally idylic! These included fake flower leis, birds, daisies and other such items.
– Many props were also required by the multitude of strange and eccentric characters, such as Commander Vermont, who because of his love of military style life, carried around big toy guns and huge spray hoses for protection. His wife, Mrs Vermont, had a liking for endorsing many products that also had to be carefully designed so as to be unique and original. This required many special computer graphics for the wrappers,  signs, photos, posters and banners. – A number of unique and often luxury vehicles were required on set, most of which are not readily available in New Zealand but were loaned to Cloud 9 by classic car collectors. These included US army jeeps, a jeep wrangler, a black Lincoln town car, a bright yellow bug VW, an old style Mercedes Benz and a classic Mustang. These types of cars were necessary to create a typical American-style beach life. |
The Chief Executive/Executive Producer, Executive in Charge of Production and Producer have the responsibility of auditioning and casting the core cast members during the pre-production period several weeks before actual production starts. Negotiations with the actors, usually through their agents, are held. and timetables are then planned by the Cast Coordinator.
There are a multitude of special effects used in Atlantis High from the green laser beams that shoot out of Mr. Dorsey’s eyes to a specially made (and quite revolting) oesophagus! As well as the actual special effects, certain tricks of the eye are used in scenes such as the one where Mr. Dorsey eats a mouse and the aliens eat rats! The stunning spaceship is the one effect used most frequently in the series and was created by a team of experts in Wellington especially for the show. It houses three alien beings that come from the strange world of Fenorg, a star system in a far away galaxy undiscovered by mankindÜun
When all the cast have gone back to their normal lives, the crew are on “downtime” and the studio resembles a ghost town, the post production team are still hard at work in their darkened rooms!
ut gets sliced and glued many times in order to pull the story together in just the right way.
On to the sound designer who adds all the strange and wonderful noises and sound effects from the alien spaceship and the aliens themselves, to the running water in the shower. This designer works closely with the dialogue editor who has to make sure that the dialogue can actually be heard and that it fits in with the lip movement of the actors. ADRs (or Additional Dialogue Requirements) are sometimes needed and the dialogue editor re-records the actors speaking their lines. Other ADRs such as crowd noise is also recorded.
Cloud 9 employs a location manager who has to scout the countryside for wonderful places in which to film the series. This manager then goes out on a “recce” with members from the production team such as the director for the upcoming episode, first assistant director, the production manager, art director and director of photography. This team make sure that the chosen location will suit the requirements of the episode and is a safe area in which to film. It is then up to the location manager to liaise with the owner of the property or land and to obtain any permits from the council. Cloud 9 works closely with the council to make sure that no flora and fauna is harmed during filming. 