Gopher tunnel set

Since everyone (me included) loved the rodent that attacked GrizzlyG in the last trailerpark geocachers bigfoot film, I wrote in a rodent as a major character this time. A gopher! I picked up a puppet from somewhere in Vancouver and I'm constructing a set to film him on. Gophers dig tunnels here, there, and everywhere, so I can re-use the thing in a ton of scenes. He's gotta be able to run through his tunnel, pop his head out of a tunnel, look up at people walking on the ground above him, dive into his tunnel. Hide stuff he's stolen in his tunnel, etc. So this set is for all the subterranean shots.

I made a cardboard model then a tube outta chicken-wire. Then I covered it in newspaper and then filled the inside with Great Stuff expanding foam. I still have to color it, shave and shape it, then throw glue in there and chuck dirt around the insides.

It has cut out areas for the puppet hand track at the bottom , and a side viewing port to stuff the camera in. If I need to have him do something from another angle for which there is no view-port, I can just flip the film over backwards. I'm happy with the test shots so far. Once it's dressed it will look pretty cool! I took some test still shots of the gopher and the cured foam in it's natural color, like I said, I still have to paint it. The foam stuff lets light filter through it. Once a light dusting of paint goes on I hope it still has a little bit of that affect

Woohoo! My very own gopher tunnel!