Children's Program To Air in Sept.
National PBS Show 'Postcards From Buster' Films Island Students
By Karen Gould

Above: Getting ready to film a scene at the downtown Island store Caddywampus are (from left) Colton Fisher, "Postcards from Buster" Producer Jyllian Gunther, Lou Clark, Dana Roguska, Scott Roguska, and Kyra Kolatski. (Photographs courtesy of Chris Roguska.)

Now comfortable working behind the camera, Mackinac Island film producer Scott Roguska became an on-air personality this winter to demonstrate to young, aspiring filmmakers how to make movies and how to create special effects with limited resources. His movie-making story will be the focus of an upcoming episode on the Boston-based children's television show, "Postcards from Buster," produced for the Public Broadcasting Service.

The program is expected to air sometime in September on the Mt. Pleasant PBS television station WCMU.

The 16-year-old Mackinac Island Public School junior has been making films since he was 10 and gets along fine without a lot of high-tech gear.

"You don't need all the fancy equipment," he contends.

The nationally televised show revolves around the animated rabbit Buster, who travels throughout North America leaning about diverse cultures. The show combines real people with animation.

At left: Ben Nye (left), owner of Caddywampus, discusses filming with Scott Roguska. Mr. Nye was instrumental in bringing the PBS crew to Mackinac Island.

On Mackinac Island, the Boston crew filmed Mr. Roguska teaching Buster how to prepare for and film exciting scenes without using the latest technology. He made a mitten appear to be chasing children.

"It was a really interesting experience and a lot of fun," said Mr. Roguska, who lives with his family at Stone Brook and plans to study film in college.

Mr. Roguska was directed to talk directly to the camera to give viewers the idea he was talking to Buster. He would explain the techniques he was using to film each specific scene. There was no script, he said, and the PBS crew gave him a great deal of leeway, which made his conversations with Buster more believable. The challenge for him, he explained, was talking to the camera as if it were a person . . . uh, rabbit.

The film used as a teaching tool was not given a name, so Mr. Roguska has dubbed it "The Mitten Chronicles."

At the Roguska Island home, Jyllian Gunther (left), Scott Roguska, and the cameraman, who was known throughout the three days of filming simply as Dan the Cameraman, discuss a scene they are about to film for the PBS show, "Postcards from Buster."

"It is kind of like a cheesy horror movie," he explained.

The tale begins with soliders from Fort Mackinac taking prisoners to the shoreline to cut out blocks of ice from the frozen waters of Lake Huron.

One of the soldiers accidentally looses a hand during the ice cutting. His hand-covered mitten lands on top of the ice as he sinks below the surface. He is not rescued by the prisoners, who did not like the man, explained Mr. Roguska. Years later, the mitten-covered hand comes back to terrorize descendant children of the prisoners who originally failed to help the drowning soldier.

The scene that shows the mitten chasing the children was easy to set up and, on film, looked believable, said Mr. Roguska. To make it work, one end of a string was tied to a mitten and the other end was attached to a person's leg. The person ran and the mitten was filmed. Island students portrayed the descendants of the soldiers.

"In the end, it looked really cool, like the glove was running after them," said Mr. Roguska.

He said the ghost town atmosphere of the downtown Island streets in the winter added to the feel of the movie.

Island students included in filming the episode were Lou Clark, 10, Jacob Chambers, 8, Dana Roguska, 9, Kyra Kolatski, 9, Colton Fisher, 9, Tymon Horn, 13, and Jeff Roguska, 13. They were able to enjoy scenes that included a sleigh ride and flying kites in the winter.

Mr. Roguska said the film crew often came up with ideas during filming and there was a lot of improvising. During the three-day shoot, the longest day was from 10 a.m. until after 8 p.m. He believes the PBS crew also intends to include historical information about Mackinac Island in the show.

He learned about lighting techniques from the television crew, he said.

"I usually just go out and shoot a movie."

The crew taught him about lighting a set and even let him set up a scene which involved placing a light outside a window so the outside area was more visible while shooting the scene inside a building.

He also said he learned about sound detection and how important it is not to capture outside noises that may not relate to the scene being filmed, and he got some advice on good film schools.

PBS came to Mackinac Island at the suggestion of Ben Nye, who owns Great Turtle Toys and Caddywampus and flies kites off Windermere Point throughout the summer. While here, the crew learned about Mr. Roguska's film-making from Kris and Ray Clerk.

Island locations included in the filming were Windermere Point, Arnold Transit Dock, Main Street, British Landing, and Fort Holmes.