Flying with Mary Poppins

© 2014 Universal Uclick Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick Flying With Mary Poppins Fifty years ago, a strict, magical This is a composite photo governess with a sense of adventure of Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) and Bert (Dick flew into movie history in the Walt Van Dyke) dining with Disney film “Mary Poppins.” The cartoon penguins. In 1964, movie was one of the most artistic when “Mary Poppins” came blends of live action and animation of out, it was the first time anyone had so successfully its time. made this many long To learn more about the movie scenes mixing live action magic leading to “Mary Poppins,” The with animation. Mini Page talked with a professor of photo courtesy The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved animation history at the Savannah Composites in movies Filmmaking bit by bit College of Art and Design in Georgia. A composite photograph or movie To make a composite, Melies would Movie magician frame is made by putting different paint part of a piece of glass black. In the 1890s, a French filmmaker, elements together. For example, if The black paint stopped any light from Georges Melies (mel-YEZ), invented you combined a picture of a giraffe hitting the film behind it. A mask over many of the special effects that make with a photo of your bedroom, you’d part of an image is called a matte. movies so amazing. You may have have a picture of a giraffe standing The matte stopped that one area of learned about him in the book “The by your bed. You’d have one image film from being exposed. Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian made of parts of two different Melies would film a bit of the movie. Selznick, or in “Hugo,” the movie photos. In other words, you’d have a Then he’d rewind the film. He’d based on the book. composite. replace the matte with a new one and One of Melies’ most important In the early days of movies, film again. special effects was the composite. compositing, or mixing elements Some parts of silent films were A composite (kuhm-PAH-zut) is to form rewound and reshot as many as 30 something that is made up of different one image, times. If filmmakers made it all the things, or elements. was a long way to the 29th reshooting and made process that a mistake, they’d have to start the This shot is from required whole process over again. Georges Melies’ film “A Trip to the Moon.” a lot of Sometimes in California, an Movies with a lot of time and earthquake would move puppets or special effects are often patience. other objects. The filming would have called “trick films.” photo courtesy Wikipedia to begin again. ® from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick Against a Blank Screen Colored screens Lighting a white background Filmmakers invented a way to film In the 1950s, inventor Petro actors in front of a black or colored Vlahos developed a way to film screen. After filming the actors, they actors in front of a white screen could replace the colored background that was lighted with special lights. with something else, such as scenery These sodium-vapor lights gave off a or animation. This was much easier yellow-orange color. (You may have and more realistic-looking than sodium-vapor streetlamps in your making films by rewinding and town.) reshooting over and over. Sodium-vapor filming allowed When movies came out in color, moviemakers much more freedom. around 1940, filmmakers started There was no colored outline around photographing actors in front of a the actors. Details such as hairs or blue screen. Blue was the furthest photo courtesy The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved fine material would show up on film. tone away from most skin tones, so The sodium-vapor process allowed actors Composites were better quality than to wear any color of clothing, including actors would stand out better. One blue. before. It was much easier to make of the troubles with the blue-screen composites of animation with live technique was that it looked as if Disney magic actors. there were a blue outline around the Walt Disney used a new process, Walt Disney owned the only actor. Also, actors could not have any sodium vapor, in several films. It equipment in America that could use blue in their clothes, or it wouldn’t allowed Hayley Mills to play two this process. show up on film. different girls in “The Parent Trap.” In the 1960s, Disney was the only Today, actors usually perform in In 1964, Disney used the process major studio that still had its team of front of a green screen. Green works so artistically in “Mary Poppins” that visual effects experts. Some of these better with digital, computerized the film won an Academy Award for experts later helped with special cameras. special effects. effects for the first “Star Wars” movie. from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick TM Mary Poppins Ready Resources M E T T A M K O O B Y R O T S The Mini Page provides ideas for websites, F O E F I L E T I S O P M O C Basset M I V T C E F F E S S L X L K books or other resources that will help you learn Brown’s more about this week’s topics. A A L I S E N E C S C O I I M Try G R L M E S T H G I L R N V M On the web: I T L A I C E P S F A L E G E • vimeo.com/70304814 ’n’ C R E K A M M L I F L C M E S At the library: Find A D N U O R G K C A B Y T V N • “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick L S K O O B N O I T A M I N A • “Hugo” DVD Words that remind us of “Mary Poppins” are hidden in the block above. • “Mary Poppins” by P.L. Travers Some words are hidden backward or diagonally. See if you can find: ACT, ANIMATION, ART, BACKGROUND, BOOKS, COMPOSITE, EFFECT, • “Mary Poppins” DVD FILM, FILMMAKER, FLY, LIGHTS, LIFE, LIVE, MAGICAL, MATTE, MIX, MOVIE, SCENES, SCREEN, SONGS, SPECIAL, STORYBOOK. ® TM Mini Spy TM Rookie Cookie’s Recipe Mini Spy and her friends are meeting the Spring Chicken Salad “Mary Poppins” characters! See if you can find: You’ll need: q number 3 q pig q word MINI q cane • 2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size chunks q letter B q horse q letter Z q bird • 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped q caterpillar q heart q ladder q number 2 • 1/4 cup almonds, slivered q ruler q frog • 2 tablespoons light mayonnaise • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard What to do: 1. Combine first three ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well. 2. Stir in mayonnaise and mustard. Mix well. 3. Serve on sandwich bread or on top of lettuce. Serves 4. You will need an adult’s help with this recipe. from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick Meet the Shermans Robert and Richard Sherman were a team of songwriting brothers, most famous for writing the songs in “Mary Poppins.” They are well-known for their movie, TV, stage musicals and theme park compositions. The brothers wrote songs together for 50 photo courtesy Wikipedia years until Robert died in 2012. They wrote Robert (1925-2012) (left) the song “It’s a Small World (After All),” as and Richard (1928 – ) well as songs for many movies, including “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “The Jungle Book,” “Winnie the Pooh” and “Charlotte’s Web.” Robert played the violin and piano as a child. When he was in high school, he wrote radio shows and a play. He won a Purple Heart in World War II. Richard played the flute, piccolo and piano in high school and college, where he majored in music. The brothers began composing music for Walt Disney when they wrote songs for Mouseketeer Annette Funicello in the 1950s. from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick TM TM Mighty David Taylor Funny’s Mini Jokes Gus After Penn State wrestling matches, David Taylor All the following jokes have something in common. Can you Goodsport’s is a friendly Nittany Lion, smiling, signing autographs Supersport and chatting with admiring young fans. guess the common theme or category? On the mat, it’s a different scene. He’s the Lions’ Mary: If someone told you he knew a man with a king, who dominates opponents, often pinning them. Going into his senior season, Taylor’s record included wooden leg called Smith, what would you say? one NCAA championship, three Big Ten titles, a 2012 Bert: “What’s the name of his other leg?” National Wrestler of the Year award and a 100-3 overall record in collegiate matches. Jane: If you had a nightmare and chewed Weight: 165 Ranked No. 1 in his weight class, Taylor is a favorite your pillow to bits, how would you feel Hometown: to win another NCAA title this year. In high school he the next morning? St. Paris, was a four-time Ohio state champ.

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