I just bought the costume for young Fanny

So I think it's going to look awesome; it's a pre civil war era play dress, which is perfect for the scene. Alexia just has to wear black stockings to make this thing work. I also purchased an era specific primer, some clay marbles and something called a Battledore- sort of a hand held reference for children with letters, numbers and even has the "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer on it.

The scene has worked out even cooler than I was hoping and I only need two dialogue cards... Maybe only one if I can get my two young actors to sell the storyline. The story boards do a great job getting this action across, and the finale is quite funny.

This is a flashback to when Fanny and Mulvey were children together. Toys and school books are scattered across the bed they are playing on under the watchful eye of a nanny.

 Mulvey is trying to tell Fanny of his singular interest and dream- to get to the moon when he grows up. Fanny picks up a toy blimp while he is explaining all this and notices what she's holding.

He asks for it, she gives it to him and he pulls off the gondola... Indicating that it is now a rocket ship, which he enthusiastically blasts off and flies around.

Fanny is now totally captivated, clapping her hands and laughing. She finally tells him that she wants to go too, when Mulvey shatters the mood by laughing at her, and saying "Don't be silly. Science is for boys!"

At which point she promptly decks him.

Mulvey's Lunar Oxygen Rebreather (or... The Tube)

One of the things that was suggested in early versions of the script was for Mulvey to be doing something (anything) while Grimmauld was arguing with him. I heard the same kind of comment from several people so I decided to introduce Mulvey's intent to go to the Moon here.

He's trying to build a device that will allow him to breathe on the lunar surface. Most of the Victorians had mixed ideas about what mysteries the Moon was hiding and a big one was whether there was an atmosphere or not. In Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, the French Adventurer Michel Ardan plans to travel aboard the projectile and, upon arrival, wants to hunt for whatever game might be found there. In  Around the Moon, one of the men aboard the capsule fancies seeing buildings of some kind on the dark side of the Moon. For my story, Mulvey and Grimmauld actually do land on the Moon, and they do need these tanks. I wanted something similar to the tanks in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I drew an early storyboard that illustrated some kind of tube like device with a light on it, but of course I would have to build it. And what I discovered was that my initial drawing wasn't really detailed enough to look physically interesting.

So I did a better, bigger sketch of it but that still didn't really work out, as it still looked like a tube. In fact, Teresa frequently asked while I was building the damned thing "So how is your tube doing, honey?" which had implications I wasn't sure I wanted to answer.

What it came down to is improvisation while I was building. So under the tutelage of Dr. Grymm, I finished it up and while it still looks like a tube, it also looks like it does something.

Staging for the assassination...

So here it is. The shifty eyed fellow is the one in the top hat, center screen. All the principals are the ones on the right. Matthew Brady is getting ready to shoot the group in front of the mighty steamship. I know it looks like Mulvey and Farnsworth are saying vows, but it's supposed to be a manly handshake. Oh well. As long as my actors make it look good, that's the important thing.

Oh, and that's Wu in the foreground on the left.

You'll notice I'm staging as much as possible with their feet hidden. This is so I don't have to worry about accuracy in compositing. Yes, this entire shot is greenscreen.

The assassination attempt...

Here's the board where Wu steps in and saves the day. Originally, this whole prologue was kind of boring. I attempted to liven it up by having everything work against the clock, trying to get launched at noon. However, that felt really contrived and when I hit upon this idea that Glowerston had been receiving death threats which would then culminate on an attempt on his life (we are led to believe, anyway) that sort of made the tension happen without forcing it.

Yay!

The loading dock establishing shot...

I'm going to need to rent a greenscreen studio for this shot, but it will be worth it. This will establish the entire prologue with the addition of a Western Union Messenger Boy who has an important message for Mulvey. This bit of business was the key to figuring out how to have Mulvey agree to build the bathysphere for the next story without coming off as a wimp.

People will be moving around as the boy enters and walks about halfway to where Mulvey and Grimmauld are arguing.