Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533577
gave us their precious insights on what worked and what didn't with their invention. Combining the inventive brains of our director (Amber), Art Directors (Thalia Stefaniuk and Emily Tam), graphics team (Heather, Genevieve Long, Jordan Sonenberg), and Motion Graphics Designer (Dylan Rev), we produced a Medi-Talker as a beautiful and fully functional tablet. Hidden inside the tablet, of course, was an iPad with custom- made interactive programming. The fact that the tablet was fully functional allowed Melody to express her thoughts for all to hear. This helped the wonderful actors at the school and at home, including Judith Light, Rosemarie Dewitt, Phoebe-Rae Taylor and our young actress playing the sister Penny, to ground their performances in real time by interacting with the device. The Chair Regarding the production's choice of motorized wheelchairs for our lead, we initially thought we should obtain one that was 'period appropriate' to the early 2000s. We quickly realized that the limitations of these older chairs made them unsafe for the actress. Furthermore, it was not going to adapt to Phoebe-Rae's very specific needs in terms of comfort and mobility, which would affect her performance. When I first met lead actress Phoebe prior to filming, I immediately picked up on how the ease with which she controls her chair was incredibly empowering for her. I brainstormed ways we could keep her modern chair by dressing it with anachronistic elements and using set dressing like backpacks and jackets to disguise its modern features. On a personal note, when I was growing up, my father had a plastics company that made prototypes of all kinds of objects and shapes. I always joked that I was part Pac-Man, wearing huge plastic components from the shop for my Halloween costumes. This helped inspire Melody's space costume and chair accessories for the Halloween sequence. Designing her costume and integrating it into her chair provided real magic and delight for the actress and the scene itself. A. MELODY WITH HER WHEELCHAIR DECORATED FOR HALLOWEEN. PRODUCTION STILL. B. WHIZ KIDS' SET. PLAN AND ELEVATIONS BY CHRIS PENNA. C. WHIZ KIDS' SET. PAINT ELEVATION BY CHRIS PENNA. D. WHIZ KIDS' SET. SET PHOTO. E. & F. WHIZ KIDS' SET. PRODUCTION STILLS BY DISNEY/MICHAEL GIBSON. A B