Author Topic: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”  (Read 3441 times)

Offline GrahamB

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The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« on: October 08, 2016, 15:58:37 »
Inspired by skypurr’s recent topic here ,
I decided to do a making of.. for my entry in the recent Movie-themed PF competition.

First of all, if anyone has never seen this film (it’s a real gem IMO),
keep on eating the juniper berries!


Here are a few stills from the stoning scene:














I chose this scene to recreate in Playmobil
(a) because it is VERY funny (watch it on YouTube Stoning
WARNING: this clip could be regarded as offensive to adherents of
at least two major world religions.)

and
(b) because the false beards worn by the women at the stoning
are easy to do with PM.


The actors in the scene in the film are mostly men, some of them
pretending to be women pretending to be men (!)
I realised that I needed figures with bare arms and legs to get the
authentic period costumes, so I looked through what I had to hand
and found mainly women. So apart from the prisoner guy (who is
wearing just a loincloth and chains; he had to be a male PM figure)
and the Official (John Cleese in the original), ALL my figures were
female, including the two guards holding the prisoner!

The immediate problem with this was how to disguise them as men.
In the movie, the crowd all wear baggy clothes (and false beards) to
conceal the fact they are women (quite apart from the fact that most
of the actors were men). I used a variety of aprons, cloaks, hoods,
bibs, a sling full of rocks and a poncho.

The beards were easy to fit: mostly they were just pushed on, a couple
were clipped in place under the hair and one was on a string. Only two
of the beards matched the hair colour, as befits false beards.

Three of the women also had shaggy hair, like wigs.



The guards were both based on female figures too (to get the bare arms and legs).
Bathrobes, collars, ACW Southerners hats (backwards), slippers, beards
and a few pieces of felt disguised them as guards.



The prisoner was a male klicky, a swimsuit guy with shaggy hair and a loincloth.



And finally the official. To make his enormous hat, I stacked up a pith helmet,
a motorcycle helmet (backwards) and a gold hair-net. His long scarf was felt
(quickly but inexpertly marked with felt pen) draped over his headgear.



A sand-coloured sheet of paper, a steck wall and careful arrangement of the figures
to hide the blutack and clips holding things together, then I took the photos.





A little inexpert Photoshopping to remove the arrow slits in the wall and
addition of the speech bubble using another photo-editing program (ACDSee)
and the picture was finished.



And the donkey leaning on the wall?


A reference to the previous scene in the movie
“I haven’t got time to go to no stoning- he’s not well again.”



I meant to put a large rock in the scene too (a reference to what happens
right at the end of the scene) but forgot! Oh and I also forgot to include Brian!

At that moment the ship suddenly stopped rocking and swaying, the engine pitch settled down to a gentle hum. 'Hey Ford.' said Zaphod, 'that sounds good. Have you worked out the controls on this boat?' 'No,' said Ford, 'I just stopped fiddling with them.' (With thanks to Douglas Adams)

Offline Raven

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2016, 18:02:26 »
Really interesting - especially about the official's big head covering.  I would never have guessed how that was created!

(Though the women with the fake beards remains my favourite part of the scene.)
Have a good time, make life cheerful and bright, dance if you want to, sing if you can, play as long as you live and leave the world with a smile - Lemuel K. Washburn

Offline Hadoque

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2016, 01:47:16 »
I twuly enjoy youw pictuwe, Gwaham  :)

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Offline Tacbe

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2016, 05:03:15 »
Amazing and inspiring at the same time. Besides the whole setup, love the individual figures.
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Offline skypurr

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2016, 02:07:38 »
Love how you dressed the individual figures, especially the use of the bath robes for the guards,
Great to see how it was all put together.
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Offline Salamander

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2016, 22:19:50 »
Ah! Love this! A great scene to recreate and you did an excellent job!

I was living in England in the '70s when Life of Brian was released in the cinema. It was the first movie that I went to with a friend where I was underage (with my parents blessing, I should add!). I believe I was 12 and one needed to be 13. But the ticket seller didn't question us, so we were quite proud of ourselves!  :lol:

Offline GrahamB

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2016, 08:50:47 »
Haha! You rebel! I don't think there's much in the film that could corrupt minors!

I too went to see the film when it first came out. The cinema was being picketed by Christians! Luckily the mate Phil I went with was a member of the same church and he asked them if they had actually seen the film (they hadn't). Mind you, there are some bits in the film which could cause offence, and not just to Christians. The stoning scene features the Name of God, for example!
At that moment the ship suddenly stopped rocking and swaying, the engine pitch settled down to a gentle hum. 'Hey Ford.' said Zaphod, 'that sounds good. Have you worked out the controls on this boat?' 'No,' said Ford, 'I just stopped fiddling with them.' (With thanks to Douglas Adams)

Offline Macruran

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2017, 22:40:17 »
Finally responding: brilliant, hilarious and very well done. Many masterstrokes. Though I too questioned the absence of Brian himself, who is easily represented by the Joseph in 5179.

BUT! I believe you suggested we do more Life of Brian themes, perhaps in a new thread. Not only would I be willing to participate in this project, I am also very well positioned to contribute, having gone out of my way to collect almost any plausibly "first century Judean" figure that PM ever put out (as part of my quest to fill my colosseum seats). So I have all the nativity figures, plus all the "jihadi" figures (grave robbers from the first Egyptian theme), plus some other assorted types like St Martin's beggar. So: let's roll!`

"We like things in little." - G. Stein  
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Offline GrahamB

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2017, 18:57:22 »
I accept the challenge!
At that moment the ship suddenly stopped rocking and swaying, the engine pitch settled down to a gentle hum. 'Hey Ford.' said Zaphod, 'that sounds good. Have you worked out the controls on this boat?' 'No,' said Ford, 'I just stopped fiddling with them.' (With thanks to Douglas Adams)

Offline Macruran

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Re: The Making of.. “Stoning scene from Life of Brian”
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2017, 03:21:23 »
 :yippee:

We should start with a breakdown of scenes. I think we'll have to skip the spaceship one.
"We like things in little." - G. Stein  
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