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Haiyi and I initially decided that we wanted to use food in our project. We tossed around the idea of starting with a still life of fruit, and having them all gradually come to life as different animals. However, Haiyi suggested that we use the fruit and vegetables to recreate a game of PAC-MAN, and as a fan of the little yellow ball, we decided to proceed with that concept.

For PAC-MAN himself, we used two grapefruits and got the peel from the stem-side of each. For the ghost, we used a bell pepper and its seeds for the eyes. For the PAC-DOTs, we used a number of black beans. For the maze, we used spaghetti. For PAC-MAN’s big brother, we used the remainder of one of the grapefruits, and the cannon projectile was a candy corn in the spirit of Halloween.

For the techincal setup, we rigged the camera to a table using a magic arm. We setup two lights on the left and right of the background. Unfortunately one of our lights failed during the shoot, but we decided that the look was very much like a setting sun and was ominous, so we capitalized on that mistake. We then found a power supply for the last light and plugged it into the wall so that we weren’t relying on batteries. The background was a scrap piece of whiteboard material that I found in the junk bin. It had an adhesive on the back, so we stuck it to the table. The whiteboard material was perfect since the juices from the fruits didn’t stain it and was easily cleaned between shots.

And here’s the video!

PAC-MAN’S REVENGE