He-Man and Skeletor do battle in Station Park

Sparta — Under Saturday’s scorching sun, former Sparta resident Adam Gilbert and a film crew waited for a cast to assemble in Station Park to start filming a music video. Gilbert is the Music Director at the Vernon United Methodist Church and is currently living in Jersey City. He recruited about 20 friends to help film a video for his song “Breakthrough Today,” from his second album titled “Fishing for Water.” Most of the participants were schoolmates of WDK Films owner and director of photography Will Kaufman and were eager to lend a hand. The basic story line of the video is the main characters are high school age when He-Man starts picking on Skeletor. Skeletor can only take so much and a fight breaks out that will be seen as the final battle in the video. The first scene was the Skeletor team marching over the hill and down toward He-Man. The second scene was a running attack, and the next several scenes were the He-Man team marching and running uphill. Considering the heat, it would seem the action sequences are a younger mans game. Eight crew members of WDK Films were supervised Kaufman and co-owner and producer Gary Wilkins. WDK has done business and corporate work. When asked what the most unusual job they had done was, several crew members replied, “this is the weirdest one”. Gilbert and Kaufman reviewed each scene before the camera started to roll and each sequence was shot at least twice. “It takes about an hour of video to get one minute of finished product,“ explained Kaufman. With several takes and time spent setting up each scene it made for a long, hot day. Kaufman spent the first two hours weighted down by a 30-pound rig containing batteries for his camera. An electronically gifted friend created the battery harness from separately purchased parts. Kaufman explained that “a long-life battery from the camera manufacturer would have cost about six hundred dollars.” Water balloons added some challenges for the film crew. They used an umbrella and two pieces of cardboard to protect the camera while filming an incoming water balloon barrage. The camera stayed dry but the actors seemed to have no qualms about throwing over the video crew and aiming for the newspaper guy. The final scenes were of various characters flying through the air with the help from a small trampoline. Kaufman positioned himself under the flight path and shot upward at the soaring actors. Lego Man had limited visibility from his costume so he removed his full costume head, estimated the distance to the trampoline and reinstalled his head. His calculation was correct as his approach and flight went smoothly. Shooting wrapped up around 5 p.m. The other musicians in Gilbert’s New York City-based band are Matt Arnoff, Shawn Baltazor and Steve Bernstein. Their first album is entitled “K-16.” Gilbert studied music composition at the University of Miami. Gilbert stressed the video won’t be released for a few months as several more scenes need to be shot in different locations. Phew! It’s boiling in here Skeletor, played by Mike Petracelli of Sparta, simmered under a coat of blue body paint and a rubber skeleton mask. Sparta resident, Pat McGurrin as He-Man was relatively cool under a blond wig and his only makeup was painted on abdominal muscles. The ultimate 30 second abs! Rob Feely from Sparta really suffered in a full Mario suit with a foam head that was difficult to see out of. It also restricted his hearing and Sparta resident Adam Gilbert had to yell directions at him. Around 3:30 p.m. Feely was not looking very healthy but some one raided the cooler chest and iced him down for a few minutes. He bounced back and finished shooting his scenes. The best example of a creative costume was worn by Michael LePlattier of Vernon playing the character of Bowser of Mario video game fame. Wearing a tuft of orange hair and yellow sweatpants his spiked back was simulated by a garbage can lid festooned with traditional cone shaped party hats. Two tall paper maché heads worn by Eric and Kyle Read were poorly balanced and both actors frequently lost their heads during the action sequences.