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archival photos and knobs and motors from what we sourced. It came out as an exact replica, and Jason Reitman, our director, was extremely pleased with it. Acquiring the Muppets was a challenge as we had to go through Henson Productions to remake exact replicas from that time period. After reaching out to the Jim Henson Museum in New York City, our producer, JoAnn Perritano, made an agreement with the foundation to use the original Muppets. What an awesome idea! And yet, I had flashes of everything that could possibly go wrong on a film set, and I could never be responsible for something happening to one of those original Muppets—they are relics of filmmaking history. It became clear it was too much of a liability to obtain the originals, so we agreed to have them remade to the exact specs of 1975. That was a challenge. Muppets are unique in their construction and materials, requiring a whole different layer of research in the best way to approach their manufacturing. I reached out to Brad Elliott, a Property Master who used to work in the Muppet Workshop, and was able to provide an essential insight into those particulars to allow us to create Muppets that would live up to the authenticity required for our Jim Henson. The control booth was a very technical challenge. Our video playback technician, Matt Morrissey, had the challenge of syncing all the television monitors with our live cameras, as well as having period-correct commercial ads playing. We shot the movie in 16mm film, so the challenge of using stock footage and live feed simultaneously needed to work seamlessly. The set was a bit confining, so we had to have long, continuous takes prepared in advance so the actors could move from the control booth to the set and continue with the scene without cutting. In a show of unique challenges, the band's instruments were no exception. John wanted to score the film's music on set with the actual hero instruments, so they had to function perfectly. Kenny Cresswell of Avatar Music ATL sourced mostly all the vintage Top: The control room. Inset and bottom: Muppets. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.