What REALLY happened - the first MMPR Movie

THE GREAT MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS MOVIE
PRODUCTION FACT FILE

1.) THE HISTORY OF THE POWER RANGERS MOVIE PRODUCTION

In March 1994, the phenomenal success of MMPR TV show led to the desire by Saban's to create a movie version. Fox Television (who had purchased the rights to the TV show) forwarded the project to "20th Century Fox" for consideration and eventually the plan was successful. MMPR:The Movie was very unusual in that it had succeeded to "jump the queue" that normally proceeds high budget productions. The desire was to produce a high quality product VERY FAST. Only one problem - no director!

Initially it was arranged that Steve Wang would direct the feature and that it would be filmed in Canada and the USA. By July 1994 the director had changed to Bryan Spicer, and co-producer David Coatsworth had been recruited to the project from Canada. A script was formulated after Bryan and friends "spent ages watching hundreds of episodes of the MMPR TV show with the luxury of a fast forward button". Bryan and his team were successful in convincing FOX to try using computer animation for the third act instead of the initially planned miniature city with suited actors (A-La the TV show).

But the short history of the project quickly caught up - there were simply no studios capable of carrying out the project. To add complications, they had been informed by Saban Entertainment that the only period in which the original Hero Actors (i.e. the rangers from the TV show) were available to work on the movie were October to December 1994, which clashed with winter in the northern hemisphere. The third requirement were a large number of exacting locations which could not readily be found. Accordingly, the salesmanship of then Australian fox representative John Landau paid off with the project officially being shot there in July- at that time it was envisaged the Queensland "Warner Movie World" studios would be used however these were booked until January 1995.

Cue John Landau & crew from Sydney to make a bid for the project to move there- a move seconded by producer Suzanne Todd who was excited about the location possibilities of Sydney as a substitute for Angel Grove. However there was still a problem- now they had locations but no studios. Problem is, John knew a vibrant little bloke called Colin Gibson. The following four weeks saw some of the fastest talking ever seen in the industry.

Between August and 15th September :

-John Landau and John Meredith spoke to NSW Politicians about using the Sydney Showgrounds, citing the existence of very suitable stages that were currently booked for the mundane task of marking school exam papers.

- A slinging match ensued between two Government ministers which resulted in the exam marking being relocated at the 11th hour, and the subsequent booking of the Showgrounds for "Mighty Morphs".

- The establishment of "Tengu Productions" - an Australian production company arm of "Rita Enterprises", itself the LA based production of FOX responsible for producing the movie.

-The lease and setup of a production office in nearby Waterloo.

-The hiring of an initial crew of around 80 personnel including a complete construction department of 15 carpenters and complete art department, consisting entirely of freelance workers from agents and/or their contacts.

-The commencement of construction of the "Command Center" and "Zedd's Palace" at the Showground site, which commenced September 15th.

All this in FOUR WEEKS! It was a shade of things to come, for Sydney's film industry was to feel growing pains it had not before.

During the following weeks the top brass from America and the Australian crew began to thrash out the movie together. Australian cast were assembled, and along with the 16 American cast, production began on 31st October with the "Hornitor crushes cars in city streets" scene. In the background was an actor known as Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, successful in getting the role as Dulcea- and she was to have an effect on the production no-one could foresee. Also relevant at this time was another casting decision - Catherine Sutherland - who originally auditioned for the Dulcea part. Although she did not get the role, 12months later the producers remembered her and invited her to replace Amy Joe Johnson as Pink Ranger in the LA based TV show.

The final cut of "Power Rangers" was very different to that envisaged in October 1994. The principle difference in the first few weeks was the absence of visors on the helmets of the Power Rangers. It was initially felt that the total covering of the Ranger's faces removed any ability to express emotion, so the visors came off- and initial shoots in October and early November took place using the Hero Actors in costume with no visors on the helmets. (Note - the Rangers from the TV show were called "Hero Actors" on set whilst their stunt doubles were called "Ranger Actors".)

By mid November it had become clear to Bryan and his team that this was a ghastly mistake. The Power Rangers in Morphed Mode are not supposed to show emotion- they are supposed to be a powerful unforgiving fighting force. The dailies looked horrible- something was terribly wrong. The speed at which the production was set up had taken it's toll - the lack of pre-production time, experimentation and consultation had resulted in a disaster. In the words of one Fox executive, "It looks like a TV show!". Also, questions were being asked as to the ability of the Hero Actors to be everywhere at the same time - and also some of their stunt capabilities (although impressive). It would be better to have stunt actors in the Morphed Mode suits- that way both filming units could be kept busy filming our heroes. The decision to replace the morphed power rangers in mid-November came after screening of dailies for the first night City Streets shoot on 18/11/94. Standing nicely right there were a team of putties who had originally been recruited to play Tengu Warriors. They quickly became known as the "Ranger Actors" and donned the colored uniforms (actually, new ones were cast for them in a mere 4 days!) - from that point all morphed mode shots with helmets were done by;
White/ Tommy       -         Hien Nguyen
Pink/ Kimberly                 Sophia Crawford
Blue/Billy                       David Wald
Yellow/Aisha                   Bridget Riley
Black/Adam                    Danny Stallcup
Red/Rocky                      Stuart Quan
Occasionally these actors did swap roles, particularly in fights with the Oozemen (as they also played the Oozemen!) and in some Cockpit shots (for example, Danny Stallcup played Red Ranger in Monkeyzord but Black Ranger in Megazord)

On 2nd November however, an event took place which was to alter forever what might have been. Gabrielle Fitzpatrick was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst which required an operation for immediate removal, only hours before her first set call. In an amazing 11th hour casting change, Mariska Hargitay (daughter of " sex idol" Jayne Mansfield) replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as "Dulcea", and production commenced on Dulcea parts (with the hero actors) the following day. This was a ghastly mistake. But unfortunately this was not to be recognised until after several weeks' filming had taken place at the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour (known on script as "Dulcea's Compound"). This section of the film contained much of the "plot" behind the existence of the Ninjetti powers and the effect on the rangers.

Again the dailies told a tale of woe- Mariska really was "B-U-I-L-T" (as the script called for her to be) however she just didn't cut it as the Master Warrior of Phaedos. On 20th December she was stood down - and the entire 4 weeks (solid) of footage shot with her and the Rangers became unusable - and was cut from the film. By this time (of course) Gabrielle had recovered from her operation.. and so returned to the role of Dulcea in time for the location shots at Kiama (Phaedos Shoreline) on 8th January 1995.

So by late November we had more than 70% of footage useless- all that involving visor-less Rangers and anything with Mariska was OUT. Dozens of reshoots were commissioned including "City Streets" and weeks more of shooting at the Construction Site. A further bungle at this time was the "Rat creatures" debacle. The original script called for the Rangers to fight Rat Creatures which would be created by Ivan. The "Rats" were typical Saban cheapies which even I doubt Bryan had seen until the night of the shoot. The scenes were shot and instantly hit the floor the next day - the Rats were out!
To replace them the overworked Wardrobe and Prosthetics departments (and especially a Sydney based effects shop called "Studio Kite") gave birth to the Oozemen, (everybody works better under pressure, dont they?) while the Rat Creature costumes occupied a dirty corner out the back of the production office (more on that later..).

By December, things were looking grim. Although no "plans" came down from the "top", deep down in their hearts every crew member knew where the Morphins were heading - and no Ninjetti powers were going to save them. Shooting continued in ernest, with the producers determined to complete by Christmas- the original wrap date. Further disasters occurred- it was decided that a suitable "location" Chemical Plant for Ivan Ooze couldn't be found, so it would have to be built. Craig Stearns and his team worked round the clock to develop the Chemical Plant- and drawings, plans and specs flew in every direction in the construction office at the showground as demands came to finish it. Carpenters and painters were pinched from their current tasks to do the "Chemical Plant" - Zords were loaded on trucks and driven round Waterloo with Yours Truly chasing them to find out where work had been relocated to. It was absolute chaos. The daily call sheets and production schedule were totally useless, they were out of date before they were typed. The final week before Christmas was sheer hell, the impossible demands really became impossible and as Christmas came there was no direction, apart from the fact that the original Command Center and Zedd's Palace had now been demolished to make way for "Phaedos Outlook" to be built at the showgrounds.

Remember how the Hero Actors were only available between October and December? Well you guessed it- as we all knew- the Morphins had now come too far to back out and it was time to remake the movie. As Bryan and the producers went away to re-write the script (taking into account the unusable footage aswell as taking the advantage to work in a number of new ideas made possible by Fox's backing of the project - particularly the bone creature scene) the Hero Actors hit the camera early in the new year to battle the Wizard of Deception- thats right- Saban's had no option but to move part of the TV show production to Sydney aswell. The episodes "Return of the Green Ranger" and "The Wedding" were filmed in Sydney alongside the movie production, with "Morphed Mode" scenes still being shot in LA (ever wondered why they never took off their helmets in that abandoned theatre?). Indeed a number of shots in "Return of the Green Ranger" were done at the Showground, one alongside the very same hall in which the set for "Phaedos outlook" was being constructed, at a table made famous by crew lunches, and one shot even features a black triangular frame behind the Rangers which was too heavy for the (feeble) TV crew to move so it just stayed there. It's actually part of the gimble that supported the prop-plane set that the Rangers jump out of at the start of the movie!
Remember those Rat Creature costumes? Thats right - you guessed it- suddenly they "vanished" from the production office and reappeared in colonial Angel Grove with humans (familiar ones, in the form of the stunt actors again) inside them.. and as for Angel Grove's history well.. if Angel Grove was supposed to be Sydney Australia then "Colonial Angel Grove" is actually a tourist park known as "Old Sydney Town" on the NSW central coast. During this time poor old Bulk & Skull sat around and did little (Jason Narvy bought a classic 1965 Ford Falcon and became the envy of several crew, but other than that nothing happened). Paul & Jason asked if they could be 1st Assistant Director for the TV episodes and consequently got the job!

So now we find ourselves over the Christmas-New year break and ready to film once more. The producers now had their heads together, a new script, and a production schedule that actually made sense. The "Phaedos Jungle" which was to be built at the Showgrounds never saw the light of day- a real alternative location (where the bone creature scenes were shot) had been found in Queensland alongside the now "available" stage space at Warner's Movieworld studios where the final MMPR set was commissioned, and where the Gargoyle / gatekeepers were to fight the rangers as they tried to get their new powers. The main reason for the move north to Queensland was the impending end to the lease on the Showground which was initially only available until Christmas. They had overstayed their welcome but managed to squeeze one more set in before finally wrapping in Sydney in early February. (The Showground was at the time owned by the Royal Agricultural Society which holds a massive agricultural show called the "Royal Easter Show" in late March every year on the site. It is now (2000) known as Fox Studios Australia, the show having been relocated since 1997.)

Still to be done in January were virtually all of the cockpits, the chemical plant, a host of greenscreen shots and the "Phaedos outlook"- this time with Gabrielle in the green bakini. The distant planet Kiama (as it became known in the press) was to be used for the Ranger's arrival on Phaedos and took one week to shoot. January proceeded unusually well compared to the chaos of the previous year, with the humble pie now fairly where it should have been. Virtually all the shots from this period made it into the movie. Why couldn't it all have been like this?

And so Bryan decided to go out with a bang- literally. The last Sydney shot was to be the end of the movie where the crowds and fireworks gather to congratulate the Power Rangers. The Producers asked if it was possible to get some "Extra" extras for the night. Suddenly the crew were afraid. Are you going tomorrow night? Nope!! Not me either! Nor me! Count me out!! I was confused- Whats going on?

The Sydney print media and radio stations the next day confirmed what had happened - the "shoot" had suddenly become an invitation for the entire city of Sydney to come and see the Power Rangers! Touted as an extravaganza- "Meet the Rangers- Free Giveaways" etc, some entrepreneur had grabbed the chance to make it big. Noting that half of Colin's art dept. crew had suddenly vanished without a trace I volunteered to be present (as only a true fan would.. I couldn't let the Rangers down now, could I?..) only to find out why the others bowed out so quickly.

The result was "interesting" if not a little cruel..

They had about 8000 meat things (human bodies) present that night "on set"- many dressed as junior Power Rangers &c. Normally for this size crowd a major event should be planned- but this was a movie set and 1st AD Steve Love had only one thing on his mind- the camera and the movie. To add to the amusement, at that time Season Two of the TV show had not aired in Australia, which meant that none of the non-crew could possibly know that Johnny Bosch, Karan Ashley and Steve Cardenas were.. well.. power rangers..
They wandered and mingled in the crowd for what seemed like ages without being recognised. Even AmyJo and David and Jason mingled for a while unrecognised, until Jason Narvy and Paul Schrier wandered over, in costume. Suddenly everyone knew what was going on and found the other Rangers had been mingling. Autograph signing began in ernest but it was hopeless. The crush of 8000 people on a hot night was too much, and there was no way everyone could see or begin to understand what was going on. Somewhere an embarrassed promoter yelled into a hopelessly overloaded PA system saying .. well.. he had no idea either.

Where are the stunties? Where's Danny? David? Hien? Eventually they went over to the distant stage area and began some stunt routines, however many of the young kids could not understand since they were not the "power rangers".. when in fact they were. Costumes? Well given the heat, Danny & crew were glad they had been "forgotten". Wardrobe had no idea the costumes were to be used that night so they were left behind at the showground. So the confusion and disappointment for many young fans compounded.
The crush became tighter, the first fireworks batch were let off and shooting commenced however the wind was changing direction constantly- the shot was spoiled by the fact that you could not make out the "Thank You Power Rangers" sign (in the movie this shot has been "digitally enhanced" and faked- the writing you see is not the fireworks). The crowd, now partly appeased, spread out to watch. Suddenly the wind changed completely and became very strong for the rest of the night and the remaining fireworks scenes were cancelled due to safety concerns. In between shoots, the hero actors (particularly David and Jason) were madly doing autographs for the crowd, as Steve called them back every time. These guys were incredible that night as I can personally attest to the fact that David was literally sleepwalking, not having slept for days, and the others had survived on an average 4 hours per for virtually the whole production. Over 80% of the movie was shot at night, mainly because of the endless time spent at the construction site filming the stunt scenes.

Then the payback. A small child loses her mother and runs past the barrier into Steve Love's leg and grabs hold. He picks her up and frantically uses his directors' megaphone to try and find the missing mother amongst the throng of thousands. He looks hopelessly at the crew- at Colin- at Paul Murphy- then at Noni Roy- and we all turn away. Even the rangers pay no attention. He's standing there hopeless - all filming has stopped because Steve's got a renegade kid in his hands. And we think quietly, looking briefly at the crowd of 8000 crushed, hot, disappointed kids and angry parents- and back at Steve and his newfound friend - we think- serves you bloody right mate! Next time you'll think more carefully about an "open set".....

Anyway the Darling Harbour shoot signified the end of "Morphins" in Sydney, and by March 10, the "Tengu Productions" office was a bare shell and there were no traces that the Rangers had ever been in Sydney. They were however in Queensland fighting the Gargoyles. After a further short visit to the Northern Territory to shoot a single Phaedos outlook scene, the movie wrapped in what could only be described as a puff of unsmoke.. suddenly the USA contingent were jetting back to L.A. and the whole thing was over.
But not quite. In the intervening months the project left it's mark:

- The Perth Symphony Orchestra entered the studio in Western Australia to record the incidental soundtrack for the movie.

- Jamie Croft and Gabrielle Fitzpatrick entered studios in Sydney for a 6 hour ADR session linked to L.A. via digital ISDN lines - believed to be the first practical use of such technology between LA and Sydney.

- Sydney special effects group "Conja" won a number of contracts including the "Ivan Ooze" morphs and the external matte shots of Phaedos.

THINGS YOU NEVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MMPR:TM PRODUCTION
(in order of their appearance in the movie)

The Skydiving Scenes:
These are cuts back and forth between real skydiving footage (produced by an Australian stunt team over south-western Sydney in late November) and a set replica of the prop-plane in which the Rangers interact and jump out of. The flying scenes where you see ranger faces were done in front of greenscreen on the same night as the prop-plane.
One interesting aspect about the prop-plane set was that virtually all the paint on it was dripping wet whilst filming. Rain had forced the abandonment of regular schedules and so a substitute indoor scene was required fast, which was to be either the crane-zord or the prop-plane. You can imagine why the paint was wet.

Ernies:
Richard Genelle was present in Sydney as paid cast for the entire production. He did not feature in the movie or get credit. A great deal of footage from "Ernies" did not reach the screen.

The Construction Site:
This is officially known in Sydney as the "World Square" and until recently was a failed late '80s venture until it was found by Coatsworth and his team. The only access to the site was via seven flights of narrow stairs, up and down which everyone, and everything- was required to travel for "Morphins". Construction on the site has now resumed meaning the chances of it's use again are nil.

The Rollerblading scenes:
The shots on this scene change from Darling Harbour to The Rocks, the Construction Site, and East Sydney - all these locations very distant from each other and definitely a very loooong rollerblading ride!

The Third Act:
The scenes beginning where Ivan creates Hornitor and Scorpitron, through to the explosion of Ivan/Scorpitron are known as the "Third Act" of Mighty Morphs and were the most challenging technically. The Chemical Plant (where Ivan creates the monsters) is actually the interior of the "Government Pavilion" in Sydney Showgrounds inside which the set was built, however the monsters and their construction frame was done using digital mattes.
ALL of the "Chroma Key" (i.e. where a color on a screen is replaced by another scene) shots in Mighty Morphs have been done using "Greenscreen" technology. The reason being obvious,.. the usual Blue Screen method was unusable because Billy wears a Blue uniform! This is believed to be the largest scale use of Greenscreen yet for feature film.
There is a shot where scorpitron blows up a blue car at traffic lights. This shot is from the first of the "City Streets" shoots and is on the corner of York and Market Sts Sydney. The car was blown up three times.

There were more than 28 different types of "Ooze" developed by SFX for Mighty Morphs. Most used combinations of gelatine and food dyes or non-toxic kindergarten paints. The sewers of Sydney were unusually purple during those months.
A 7/8 scale replica of the top of "Centerpoint Tower" was built for the scenes where Ivan and Goldar are atop the tower. The scene behind them is photographically reproduced painting measuring 90' by 60' and lit from behind by over 600kW of lighting.
Virtually all the other city shots are of a miniature city built in L.A. studios except for at the start where the feet of Hornitor are dodging the crashing car, and where both monsters are coming down towards the Rangers standing in the street, which was George street. To do this, extensive measurements of the location were required to give the CGI artists a guide as to the three dimensional space occupied by Sydney and the monsters. This involved shooting reference film with orange street cones at a known measured distance from the lens.

Zord Cockpits:
There were five cockpits built. None now still exist - an oversight by management of PLanet Hollywood who bought them and subsequently trashed them 2 years later without telling anyone. They were;
- Crane / Falcon Cockpit
- Bear / Wolf Cockpit
- Frog Cockpit
- Monkey Cockpit
- Megazord Cockpit.
The displays in Megazord utilised over 3000 lamps wired over 71 different state circuits. (truly useless information..)
Phaedos:
The Rocky Terrain location was Bombo Quarry, Kiama- about 2 hours south of Sydney. It took 5 days to shoot. Several "Bloopers" from this appeared on a local TV programme 3 months later.

The Embarrassing White Ranger:
Hien Nguyen (the stunt White Ranger) is a particularly irresponsible fellow. No matter how much the costume dept. told him to take things easy with his suit, he insisted in practising his katas and jumping around whenever he had it on. As a result it would constantly rip and tear at his crutch, sometimes so badly as to reveal his underpants. Quite often this "little problem" wasn't discovered until it was too late.
One such time was on 22nd December when the stunt rangers were called to assemble for a stills shoot session alongside the normal shooting that was going on that night. You guessed it - he did it again - and the costume dept just gave up on him this time. No amount of white gaffers' tape, spray paint and hot melt glue could even hope to solve the problem without building a totally new set of pants. With time short, the stills shots were taken with the suit as it was - with a giant rip extending from his balls and down his right leg. These very same still photographs were later extensively used in promotional posters and Saban's own licenced products for the movie. Whoops.