Missionaries 2: The Sequel

Principal photography for this movie began in March 2013, a few weeks after we finished the first Missionaries movie, and was completed in September 2013. The post-credits scene was photographed in November 2013.

The movie is a true sequel i.e. it's just the same movie all over again. Well, sort of.

The desk lamp, with a GE Daylight CFL bulb in it, has a piece of paper in front of it to diffuse light so you don't get such large glare spots on the shiny LEGO parts.

Our camera/computer set-up has live preview just in case you want to watch your arm. We'll use any scrap material for our rigs including the box from store brand ice cream sandwiches.

Yes, it's true. We do animate in penguin pajamas.

There were no true LEGO sheep available in April 2013 when these scenes were photographed so we had to make our own.

The guys with horns on their heads are Islanders from LEGO Islanders sets. These sets were released in 1994 with one set re-released in 2001. We didn't own any of these and bought used Islander minifigures from several Bricklink sellers in the United States. If you watch the movie closely you might see fine cracks in these characters and other signs of age and play.

The king in our movie is Achu from a 1999 LEGO set. We bought him in an unopened box from a Bricklink seller in Germany. (The Germans are huge LEGO fans.) While his headgear is thematically perfect, we wanted him for the cape which we think is the best prop in the movie. That's why it is shown twice. And slowly so you can admire it.

We borrowed the design of the tall idols from an Islanders set.

We loved this scene so much we left the set intact for months until we finally needed the parts for something else.

The shields are from Islander sets and were also bought from Bricklink sellers in the US. They add to the goofy fun.

It's not quite the Judgement of Paris but it fits in this movie.

This was a test shot and this scene appears differently in the final movie. We do a test for most shots in our movies so we can size things up in the frame. And all those arms? They were bought from a Bricklink seller in Florida just for those shots. They come from 2003 LEGO NBA minifigures and are different from regular minifigure arms. (The legs of those baskeball player minifigures were spring-loaded!)

We draw many of our sets in LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) because it is generally easier to design that way than to simply start building. We also draw pictures to record things we might want to re-build again.

Generally, we don't start taking pictures and turn it into a movie--we plan things out. We write scripts in industry standard format using Celtx. When we started using the software, it was free. Now it costs money. It does the job and is cheap.

We record and edit our sounds using Audacity. It's free and works very well.

The movie clips and audio were put together using Apple Final Cut Pro X. We edited this movie more than once as we learned how to use the software and as new features were added to it. The titles were made in Apple Motion 5.

Sometimes you just don't get any respect as a missionary. But it is always an adventure.