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weird. I had to learn everything.
The first thing we had to figure
out was where to hide while we
shot the film. So, often I was under
the camera, on the ground, huddled
inside the tripod. It was really
fun. We quickly learned that in a
360 degree film, you concentrate
on the near and far. So I would
have the kid that was the star of
the film close to the camera and
the other people in the middle distance
ten feet away. I would have
things miles away. We put the
camera on boats and in cars,
hanging from cranes, and made it
as insane as we could. I also
under-cranked the camera for a lot
of fast-motion stuff. It was meant
to be just funny, like a kid’s home
movie.” When the film premiered
in Seville, Bartlett returned to Spain
for the screening at the Expo ’92
pavilion.
Stranger and Stranger...
Next, he continued his
association with Bob Rogers,
although he had an open invitation
to return to Rugrats. Rogers
hired Bartlett to direct a nine-camera
film, similar to the CircleVision
films at Disneyland. The film,
named “Postcards,” was sponsored
by Korean Air for Expo ’93 in
Taejon, Korea. It took a full year
from pre-production to completion
and was shot in seven countries
on a budget of US $4 million. “We
just went nuts,” Bartlett recalls.
“We traveled all over the world for
a year — Korea, Paris, France,
Botswana, South Africa, Grand
Canyon, Canadian Rockies, Bali
and Rio de Janeiro at Carnival.
Completely filled up our passports.”
It was, however, intense
and grueling work. Bartlett would
hit the ground in some new country,
set up and start scouting or
shooting. He quickly got used to
air travel and falling asleep on
planes. The Taejon Festival played
the summer and fall of 1993.
After that Rogers put
Bartlett on his next project for the
Southern Californian amusement
park, Knotts Berry Farm. Another
pavilion show, Mystery Lodge has
become a permanent exhibit at
Knotts. Mystery Lodge is based on
a pavilion show Rogers had done
for Expo ’86 in Vancouver, Canada
Craig and Doug Miller discussing the storyboards for Mystery Lodge (top) and on the
set of Mystery Lodge with Bill Cranmer (Cultural Advisor for the film and Hereditary
Chief of the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe) and Bob Rogers. Photo © BRC Imagination Arts.
Craig on location in Botswana for the filming of Postcards (left) and in Paris with the
star of the film (right).
called Spirit Lodge. The story is
based on the culture of the northwest
coastal Indians, the Kwakwaka’xwakw
who lived on the
northern end of Vancouver Island
in the town of Alert Bay. For the
new film, Rogers went back to the
same Native American advisors he
had worked with before. Bartlett
and Rogers went to the island in
the fall of 1993 and visited with
the chiefs of the tribe, took notes,
attended Indian ceremonies and
worked up a script for Mystery
Lodge.
Rogers hired Bartlett to
direct a nine-camera film,
which was shot in seven
countries on a budget of US
$4 million.
The illusion of the show
involves an old Indian who comes
on the stage, which resembles a
big house made of cedar logs.
There is a fire in the middle of the
room. As the old native tells his
story, the smoke of the fire starts to
illustrate it. Bartlett created the
special effects film that appears to
rise out of the smoke using BRC
Imagination Arts Holavision 3D
system. Mystery Lodge went into
production in the fall of 1993 and
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE December 1998 17