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Stay Puft Man is the twenty-seventh chapter on the DVD of Ghostbusters. In this chapter, the Ghostbusters encounter Gozer's destructor form "Mr. Stay Puft".

Cast[]

Equipment[]

Environmental[]

Locations[]

Plot[]

The Ghostbusters ran over to get a better vantage point. Ray was in denial. Peter pressed him about what he chose. Winston swore. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man marched past some buildings. Only his head could be seen. Ray announced he chose the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Over 100 feet tall, he stepped out from the buildings at 2 Columbus Circle. Cars came to a grinding halt. Cabs rammed into each other. Civilians ran away in terror. Drivers abandoned their cars in the middle of the street. Peter remarked that was not something you see every day. Ray insisted he tried to think of the most harmless thing. He picked something he loved from his childhood, something that could never, ever possibly destroy the world. Peter sarcastically complimented Ray's line of thinking. Ray remembered he used to roast Stay Puft Marshmallows by the fire at Camp Waconda. Peter told Egon that Ray had gone "bye-bye" and asked him what he had left. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was near the Shandor Building. Egon apologized and admitted he was terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. Civilians continued to run in terror. Stay Puft Marshmallow Man growled at the Ghostbusters. Winston and Peter realized what was about to happen. Walter Peck watched as Stay Puft approached 550 Central Park West. He stepped on the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church next door. Peter exclaimed nobody stepped on a church in his town. Ray hesitantly cued everyone to fire on three. They blasted down at Stay Puft. They only succeeded in lighting him on fire. Stay Puft clung to the side of the Shandor Building and looked up. The fire soared up to them.

They ran and crouched down. Ray tried to make light of their impending death by a hundred-foot marshmallow man. Peter riffed and pointed out Stay Puft was a sailor in New York, they just had to get him laid and there would not be any trouble. Stay Puft climbed up the side of the building. Egon had a radical idea. He noted the door swings both ways and as a result they could reverse the particle flow through the gate. Ray asked how. Egon proposed they Cross the Streams. Peter recalled Egon's warning about doing that. Peter pointed out they would be in grave danger along with their client Dana Barrett, the nice lady who paid them in advance before she became a dog. Egon revealed there was definitely a very slim chance they would survive. They exchanged looks. Peter stared at Egon. Egon raised an eyebrow. Peter gave Ray a friendly slap to the face. Peter declared he loved the plan and was excited to be a part of it. Winston grumbled the job was definitely not worth another eleven-five a year. They ran to the Temple of Gozer just as Stay Puft lifted his head up and reached for the roof top. Ray narrowly dodged his flaming hand and yelped.

Quotes[]

Peter: Well, there's something you don't see everyday.
Ray: Funny us going out like this -- killed by a hundred foot marshmellow man.

Peter: We've been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay-Puft is OK, he's a sailor, he's in New York. We get this guy laid we won't have any trouble.

See Also[]

Trivia[]

Ghostbusters (1984) Trivia[]

  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was inspired by three fictional characters: the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Michelin Man, and the Angelus Puft Marshmallow Man.[1]
  • In Dan Aykroyd's original treatment, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man appeared on page 20 and was one of 50 large scale monsters.[2]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally an intermediate form of Gozer.[3]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally a throw away character in the midway point and didn't become the final encounter until the July draft.[4] In the June 6, 1983 draft, Gozer was to have taken the form of a "a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions" over New Jersey. Stay Puft would have melted away to reveal this form.[5][6]
    • Three advanced Gozer concepts were done by Berni Wrightson and one by Robert Kline.[7]
    • In the concept phase, an alternative to the Stay Puft Marshmallow created by Thom Enriquez was a monster that was based on Ray's pet lizard from his childhood.[8]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man originally rose up by the Statue of Liberty.[9]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man stepping out onto Columbus Circle first appears in the September 30, 1983 draft.
  • Footage of pedestrians running away once the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man steps out into Columbus Circle was reused in the original pilot of the 1992 live action television series "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures".[10]
  • Harold Ramis spent a lot of time trying to rationalize the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. He concluded mankind's biggest fear of the unknown would be proven to be insubstantial as marshmallow.[11]
  • One faction in the production unit argued for a 100 foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, another argued for 125 feet but Ivan Reitman ultimately declared 112.5 feet.[12]
  • The Temple of Gozer was on Stage 16 at the Burbank Studios in Los Angeles.
  • The exterior scenes were filmed at 55 Central Park West in New York.
  • Stay Puft's scenes were filmed in two days at Entertainment Effects Group/Boss Films.[13][14]
  • Entertainment Effects Group made a miniature set of a part of Central Park West and the adjacent park. Stay Puft's facial expressions were cable controlled and manipulated by four puppeteers under the elevated set. The footage was shot a three times normal speed to enhance Stay Puft's sense of mass.[15] The puppeteer team was pushed under the stage on a dolly truck as Bill Bryan walked the miniature set in the costume. They observed him on a monitor as they manned the controls.[16]
  • Stay Puft's walking and climbing scenes and the destruction of the Temple of Gozer with some of the apartment was filmed at Boss with just three and a half weeks before the theatrical release.[17]
  • Mark Stetson had some miniature buildings leftover from work on "Blade Runner" so he retrofitted them for the scene when glimpses of Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's head is seen marching towards Columbus Circle. Model makers made things for the roof tops like chicken coops, water towers, and heaters. As an inside joke and a way to vent during production, the Boss Film crew drew occupants of the buildings in the windows of the miniature set but it was so minute that they wouldn't show up on film. Some were couples having sex. Others were agents that earned their ire and were placed near the roof were the temple would be blown up.[18][19][20][21][22]
  • In-between takes, Bill Bryan would reach into the Stay Puft suit's stomach where he kept a small library and read a book in the costume.[23]
  • For the shot of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's entrance passing behind buildings, Bill Bryan wore just the head so the cameraman could get both the building and Stay Puft in focus.[24]
  • There was a planned scene that was storyboarded of Stay Puft stepping on a police car. The Boss Film crew joked about adding a bit where the crushed car was embedded in the bottom of his foot. The scene was ultimately discarded.[25]
  • The Boss Film crew sneaked themselves into the deleted car crushing scene. They took Polaroid photographs of themselves and placed Linda Frobos on the crosswalk and everyone else inside the car that is crushed by Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.[26]
  • To get a perfectly smashed car, the toy car was heated with a heat gun first.[27]
  • After Stay Puft's march down the street was filmed, it was screened to the Boss crew. Richard Edlund called it a great shot but announced they could afford to shoot it one more time and asked if anyone could come up with a reason why they should. Peter Gerard suggested added a burst fire hydrant using silica sand. A second take was filmed.[28]
  • During filming on the miniature Central Park West set, it became apparent very quickly that the crew could not film water spray for the part when a car crashes into a fire hydrant. Pete Gerard was talking to Ken Swenson who had worked on "Raise the Titanic!" before "Ghostbusters". In that movie, the water spilling off the gunnels was table salt. In slow motion, the salt photographed like water. However, Gerard knew the salt would rust everything so he used white sand instead. He created a spraying device to simulate a fire hydrant shooting up water by rigging a little bottle under the set in an upside down position with a tube going up to where the hydrant was. By pressing a button on a solenoid valve, he sent compressed air to push the sand up through the tube. The sand filmed as water and was a success.[29][30][31]
  • It took several tries to get the remote controlled car to hit the hydrant when Stay Puft looks up at the Ghostbusters.[32]
    • In one take, the car ended up right over the hole and sand was coming out all around it and pumping it up. Between takes, the crew had to sweep up the sand on the set.[33]
  • Some of the crew got to pull strings attached to cars back and forth. Others got to control cars with a remote control. People under the set tugged on monofilament to make the trees move a little.[34]
  • All of the cars were 1/18th scale and made from about 100 police cars Mark Stetson bought from Toys R Us stores all over Southern California.[35]
  • One of the model makers made a police car with a mirror, line of cocaine, and razor blades on the dash as a nod to the era of drug use in the movie business.[36]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's entrance was done in front of a bluescreen traveling matte shot at Entertainment Effects Group. Columbus Circle, the New York location, was lit up for blocks with giant arc lights and populated with 500 screaming extras running in terror.[37]
    • Each person running in the foreground had to be rotoscoped so that a matte could be created to keep them in front. In addition, a matte was drawn for a building in the background to enable the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to enter the scene by coming from behind the building. A street lamp in the foreground was removed with a matte painting.[38]
  • The Stay Puft suit was made from pliable foam and it had a fiberglass skull with cable-actuated mechanisms for facial movement.[39]
  • 3 hero suits were made and 18 suits were made for when Stay Puft burned, costing $20,000 to $35,000 each. 17 were burned during filming.[40][41][42]
  • The shot of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man leaning back and looking up was difficult for multiple reasons. Leaning back cut off the flow of fresh air into the suit, exposed the suit at the neck, and Bill Bryan would lose balance and fall over. Bryan waved the arms to get fresh air in and the crew used hair dyers without the heat element to blow fresh air in. Extra material was placed at the neck from the inside. Linda Frobos went on her hands and knees and Bryan sat on her then looked up for the shot.[43]
  • For the shot of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man roaring and reaching up before the Ghostbusters blast him, two or three half-body puppets with three foot long arms was made and used for filming with a forced perspective.[44]
  • After seeing initial footage of Stay Puft in motion, Ivan Reitman was nervous if it could be pulled off. The effects crew assured him it would work and it wasn't the finished suit.[45]
  • Three different heads were made for different expressions needed during filming.[46]
  • The crew's concern Stay Puft might come across as too silly were dashed in the movie's first screening. The audience loved him.[47]
  • Ray mentions Stay Puft Marshmallows and Camp Waconda.
    • In the August 5, 1983 draft, on page 129, Winston tells everyone he roasted marshmallows with his grandfather at his smokehouse in North Carolina when he was a child.[48]
    • Ray's Camp Waconda line did not appear until the October 7, 1983 draft on page 89.
  • When the Ghostbusters first see the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a line that stayed in the cut for a long time was after "Look!", Egon said, "Fuck me." It got a huge laugh in tests. Harold Ramis was bothered by the line and asked Ivan Reitman to remove it because he didn't want his daughter to hear it.[49]
  • In the August 5, 1983 draft, on page 130, Peck grabs a cop and tells him to go to the roof and arrest the Ghostbusters. The cop thinks he's insane then sees Stay Puft and bolts. This ends up as the Deleted Scene: E.P.A. and a small bit when Peck briefly appears and sees Stay Puft advancing on the Shandor building.
  • At around the 1 hour, 43 minute mark of the Preview Cut, included first in the 2022 Ghostbusters Ultimate Edition, there is more footage of people running in terror and cars crashing as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man approaches. Ray remarks he was on the all the packages then talks about Camp Waconda. The deleted scene "E.P.A." follows then Peck sees Stay Puft step on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.
  • Stay Puft steps on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church at at 3 West 65th Street, next door to the Central Park West building.
  • The shot of Stay Puft stepping on the church was, however, badly rendered and looks like he is walking through it instead of on top of it.[50]
  • For the scenes of Stay Puft on fire, a stuntman wore a special fire-retardant suit that was rigged with pyrotechnics.[51]
  • The first pyro stuntman kept falling in the sequences when Stay Puft was on fire. Tony Cecere was hired to replace him. Cecere was against using supplied air and argued with Thaine Morris, mechanical effects supervisor, about it for 10 minutes. Morris insisted he use supplied air because the foam on the costume was toxic.[52][53]
  • During Tony Cecere's second take, the glue on the inside of the Stay Puft head started to burn and caught fire. The fire burned through the foam, the head split open, and all that was left was the pink fiberglass skull.[54][55][56]
  • When Stay Puft is fired on by the Ghostbusters, his red tie is missing.[57] During filming of the part when the Ghostbusters fire on Stay Puft, Diane Allen Williams handed the sailor bib and tie off to someone on the effects team who was outfitting them with the pyrotechnic gear. She wanted to make sure they would use a lint roller and cleaning supplies on the tie but they insisted they were in charge. After some back and forth, she left to complete other duties at the main office down the street. She later returned to puppeteer but didn't think to inquire about the tie.[58]
  • In the August 5, 1983 draft, Egon tells them to go full stream with strogon pulse then cross their streams onto Stay Puft but it fails.[59]
  • When the Ghostbusters are in the huddle coming up with the plan, they are wearing the stunt packs.
  • In the August 5, 1983 draft, on page 131, Peter bemoans they are going to be killed by a 300 foot marshmallow man. It changes to a hundred feet in the September 30, 1983 draft, on page 131.
  • At around the 1 hour, 45 minute mark, Ray's line of "Funny us going out" is instead "Funny, huh? Kind of a bad way to go out. Killed by a 100-foot tall marshmallow man." After Egon estimates a slim chance of survival, it is commented they'll be together. Winston griping it isn't worth $11,500 a year follows.
  • Egon's idea to cross the streams on the temple first appears in the September 30, 1983 draft, on page 132.
  • Peter brings up Egon's warning about crossing the streams from Chapter 13: "Nice Shootin', Tex."
  • Peter alludes to Dana Barrett and watching her turn into a Terror Dog in Chapter 25: Working the Crowd.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trivia[]

The Real Ghostbusters Trivia[]

IDW Comics Trivia[]

Ghostbusters: Answer The Call Trivia[]

  • In Ghostbusters (2016_Movie), the Ghostbusters get an idea to change the flow of the Portal a total protonic reversal. In the first movie, Ray realizes this would happen when they Cross the Streams.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Trivia[]

  • In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, in the alley outside the Firehouse, the graffiti under Stay Puft figure on the advertisement quotes Winston's line "What did you do, Ray?" in the first movie in Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man.

Miscellaneous Tertiary Canon Trivia[]

  • On page 13 of Egon's Journal, a supplement of the Hasbro Haslab Ghostbusters Plasma Series Spengler's Proton Pack, there is a reference to Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man:
    • The appearance of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
  • On page 18 of Egon's Journal, there is a reference to Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man:
    • Egon mentions when they shot the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
  • On page 27 of Egon's Journal, there is a reference to Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man:
    • There is a reference to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's manifestation.
  • On page 31 of Egon's Journal, there is a reference to Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man:
    • Egon admits he is terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.

References[]

  1. Jimmy Kimmel Live June 8, 2016 Episode "The Original Ghostbusters On The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man " clip 1:37-2:32 Dan Aykroyd says: "Ah, well, y'know, I...I was just looking for something from my childhood that was so innocent in the movie and that kind of innocent thing. We used to have the Angelus Puft Marshmallow Man. He was a cop and in the movie, when my friend John Daveikis and Michael Gross designed the Stay Puft y'know, in the film, when we brought the script and then the day Stay Puft showed up, Billy y'know did the great line, he looked at him, he said, 'And he's a sailor!' And that was so funny when John Daveikis did the first drawing. He married the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Michelin Man, and the Angelus Puft Marshmallow Man and put them all together and draws them. I open this FedEx and he's a sailor. And then 'What do you mean he's a sailor?' And then Billy in the movie -- Billy just improvised a line which is one of the classics. So my friend John Daveikis, Michael Gross."
  2. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:43-13:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "When I read the very first sort of treatment it took place in the future. There were many groups of Ghostbusters, the Marshmallow Man came out on page 20 and was one of 50 large scale monsters. Frankly, if I was going to make that particular script, it would have cost $300 million in 1984 and...but there was this one fantastically brilliant idea which there was a group of men who much like firefighters who could catch ghosts and I remember sitting down at a deli with uh Danny and said "Look this is a great idea but we should work on it some more and why don't you get Harold Ramis involved because he outta be a Ghostbuster as well. He's great , he's got just the right sort of brilliance to him and let's bring Billy into it" and he went with it and about a month later we were making this picture. "
  3. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 180 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Early brainstorming had the Stay-Puft marshmallow man as but an interdimensional form which the Gozer assumes on its way to becoming something truly monstrous, both in size and appearance. Berni Wrightson's exploration of this theme was both surreal and terrifying."
  4. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations. The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."
  5. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."
  6. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 155. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Although it was always the intent to have Gozer appear first in quasi-human form and then transmutate into a giant walking ad for Stay-Puft marshmallows, early plans were to have the melting marshmallow man reconfigure itself yet again into a third, even larger and more horrific manifestation. Three advanced Gozer concepts by Berni Wrightson and one by Robert Kline."
  7. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 180 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Early brainstorming had the Stay-Puft marshmallow man as but an interdimensional form which the Gozer assumes on its way to becoming something truly monstrous, both in size and appearance. Berni Wrightson's exploration of this theme was both surreal and terrifying."
  8. Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History, p. 16. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108. Line reads: "A Thom Enriquez concept for a Stay Puft marshmallow man alternative. Enriquez came up with the idea that this monster could be Ray Stantz's pet lizard from his childhood."
  9. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Originally, we were going to have the Stay-Puft marshmallow man rise up out of the river, right by the Statue of Liberty, to give him scale. Understandably, the effects people didn't like the idea - any effects shot involving water is really hard to pull off. We finally realized that it didn't make any difference where he came from - he could just appear. The audience assumes that he just materializes."
  10. LextheRobot YouTube "Ghostbusters clip in Bill & Ted live-action TV pilot" 5/7/2021
  11. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 194 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "I was concerned throughout this whole process that they physics of it make sense somehow - that intelligent people wouldn't look at what we were doing and think it was totally ridiculous. I did a lot of rationalizing when it came to the Stay-Puft marshmallow man. Morally, no one else cared that much. I was the only one who kept agonizing about what it all meant - what does the universe really look like, and is it possible this could actually happen? As bizarre as it was, I wanted the film to say something about life - even if it was subliminal. I knew if I could just harmonize it in my own mind, I'd feel a lot better about it. Finally, I found some symbolism in the fact that the whole world of the paranormal seems to represent people's abstract fears - people need a place to put all that nameless dread and so they put it into ghosts and things unseen. But the real source of that dread is in very real things like violence and death and economic uncertainty. So it seemed to me very appropriate that when our monster finally appeared, it turned out to be marshmallow - that literally and figuratively, our biggest fear of the unknown was as insubstantial as marshmallow."
  12. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 186. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A John Deveikis illustration for the original Dan Aykroyd script suggested a much larger marshmallow man than was ultimately decide upon. Since one faction within the production unit argued for a 100-foot tall version while another favored a somewhat larger 125-foot tall version, Ivan Reitman settled the dispute by declaring that the Stay-Puft marshmallow man would be 112.5 feet tall."
  13. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 32:20-32:23 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "We only shot on it two days."
  14. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 33:50-33:56 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "So we did that shot in two consecutive days. Or maybe two days during the week."
  15. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 191 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A portion of Central Park West and the adjacent park was constructed in miniature at Entertainment Effects Group. Cables operating the marshmallow man's facial expressions ran down through a slit in the elevated set to a trolley underneath - manned by four puppeteers. Cars were either radio-controlled or pulled on wires, and the footage was shot at three times normal speed to enhance the Stay-Puft man's apparent sense of mass."
  16. Diana Allen Williams (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:45:42-1:45:55). Bueno Productions. Diana Allen Williams says: "And we were pushed under the stage on a little wooden dolly that they'd made of us with a monitor that also had the cable rolling down. And we were puppeteering as they rolled us down."
  17. Diana Allen Williams (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:43:27-1:43:48). Bueno Productions. Diana Allen Williams says: "I'm driving down Crescent Heights towards Sunset, and I see a Ghostbusters billboard. And the date that it's gonna open is in like 3 and a half weeks or so. It's like three weeks. I don't know. It was really soon. And we still hadn't shot the street scene. We still haven't shot Stay Puft on fire. I'm pretty sure we hadn't shot the building blowing up."
  18. piercefilm productions "GHOSTBUSTERS and 2010 miniature effects" 11:43-12:49 9/2/2020 Pat McClung says: "Well, Mark Stetson still had the buildings from "Blade Runner" that they had built. And what they did was build miniature, you know, buildings from LA and retrofitted all this stuff on top that was the Ridley Scott look for the movie. And it was like as if people put air conditioning and electronic stuff on the outside of the buildings later so Mark had all those buildings. So a lot of that stuff was stripped off and the buildings were refurbished to be like you know New York buildings and so we got make a lot of stuff for the roof tops, you know, like chicken coops and w-water, those wood water towers. You know, I think I made an old water heater that w—you know, old junk on the roof tops. So you're moving past the windows, you don't really see what's in the windows but people had little scenes in the windows that I can't sort of go into. But they're funny little scenes that you couldn't really show. Somebody doing something to somebody."
  19. Virgil Mirano (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:46:59-1:47:06). Bueno Productions. Virgil Mirano says: "When you look in the window and you can see – actually, they had characters in there, and they were doing very interesting things."
  20. Michael Gross (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:47:07-1:47:10). Bueno Productions. Michael Gross says: "If you look in this window, you ca see two people getting it on."
  21. Michael Gross (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:47:11-1:47:15). Bueno Productions. Michael Gross says: "We got a picture of, I don't know, the agent they hate the most."
  22. Michael Gross (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:47:27-1:47:31). Bueno Productions. Michael Gross says: "No, you can't see it on film, but that's how they get a lot of the pressure off."
  23. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 15:23-15:36 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "And then in between, the belly was so big Billy had a library in the stomach. So he'd reach down in the stomach and pull out a book to read while he was waiting in-between takes."
  24. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 37:25-38:00 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "This is the first time you see Stay Puft, behind the buildings, the head is all you see except one alley which was deep enough that as I went by because it was—they wanted the buildings and the head in focus, I couldn't wear the suit because it put me too far away so I just wore a T-shirt because of course you're not for going to see it except it's my own little easter egg now because it's a commercial for Michelin Tires."
  25. Mark Stetson (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:46:20-1:46:36). Bueno Productions. Mark Stetson says: "There was a storyboard. It was originally drawn for--it showed a police car getting crushed, and we were ready to do that, and we had actually started on that, but we decided not to do it. We were also joking about maybe the Marshmallow Man could pick up his foot, and you'd see the squashed police car embedded in the bottom of his foot."
  26. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 16:11-16:50 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "And then this one you'll like because this, the Marshmallow Man takes a step when the guys see it and crushes a car. Well, you can't really tell here too well but in the crosswalk is a squashed Linda Frobos and then there's...we're all squashed inside the car so...we did Polaroids of us going you know all these faces and then we put ourselves in the set."
  27. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 40:41-40:44 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "They heated it with a heat gun then smooshed it flat actually."
  28. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 32:31-33:40 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "There's one major shot where I'm just walking down the street right? And the fire hydrant is blasting so we shot it once without the fire hydrant and then we loved the shot. We saw it in the screening room. Richard Edlund said we have a great shot here but we can afford to do this shot one more time if we can come up with a reason. Is there something that can make it even better. And I was thinking fire hydrant but Pete Gerard (Bryson Gerard now, on facebook), he was sitting up front and he said, " Well, we could do a fire hydrant. I could do it out of silica sand so that it would be properly miniature." The water droplets would be small because water has stated size droplets and so in order to miniaturize it, that's what he did. It was said because salt would melt so if it was humid and it would slump so probably just like he said, silica sand."
  29. Mark Stetson (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 09:34-09:38). Columbia Pictures. Mark Stetson says: "Peter Gerard made this spraying device that shot up fine sand up to simulate water."
  30. Harold Ramis (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 01:31:57-01:32:04). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Everyone should know, the water coming out of there is actually sand because water will not miniaturize. So, they use sand. It looks great."
  31. piercefilm productions "GHOSTBUSTERS and 2010 miniature effects" 5:48-7:35 9/2/2020 Pete Gerard says: "At one point, he stomps on a pimpmobile, a pink Lincoln Continental, and crushes it and another car veers out of the way and crashes into a fire hydrant. They wanted to see a spray of water vapor coming up on this miniature tabletop set. And we found out fairly quickly that if you make a really fine delicate little jet of mist with water, camera's not gonna to see it. The shot was basically lit with high blue key light from behind as if it was moonlight. And the key light coming through that little spritz, never mind the fact it was irrigating the whole set, they're weren't seeing it. So I had to develop something in a big hurry that would actually photograph. I got to talking with Ken Swenson and he had worked on "Raise the Titanic!" and he talked about when the Titanic model comes up, and we see water spilling down off the gunnels, they did the miniature kind of water fall effect with salt. Fine, you know, table salt. Just all of it spilled off. And it photographed in slow motion like water, in that sort of context. So I thought, 'Well, I don't want to mess around with salt because everything's going to start to rust right away. But I think there's some white sand around that looks just like salt.' So I rigged up a little bottle down below the set upside down with a little tube going up where the fire hydrant was. I put some compressed air on the bottle and I had a button on the solenoid valve. Tsch. Tsch. And I could cue the blast of air to push the sand up through this tube and sure enough, lofting up into the air and falling down upon itself. Looks just like miniature water and it read perfectly on camera."
  32. Mark Stetson (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 09:22-09:30). Columbia Pictures. Mark Stetson says: "Some we radio controlled. We drove one of them up hap hazardly into a fire hydrant. It took several takes just to get the darn car to hit the fire hydrant."
  33. piercefilm productions "GHOSTBUSTERS and 2010 miniature effects" 7:36-8:08 9/2/2020 Pete Gerard says: "But there's one scene that because we did several takes on it. But there's one shot where the car that is supposed to hit the fire hydrant didn't move on. It actually stopped right over the hole. So I'm down there frantically pumping away with the sand and the car is kinda going up like this and sand is coming out from all around it and the car is kind of pumping up like this. 'Cut! Cut! Cut. That ain't it. The car is in the wrong position. Back to the, you know, start mark. Let's do it again.' And each time, of course, we had to sweep up all the sand that accumulated on the set."
  34. piercefilm productions "GHOSTBUSTERS and 2010 miniature effects" 8:09-8:24 9/2/2020 Pete Gerard says: "But it was elaborate. There were people doing string pulls back and forth on the cars. Some of the cars were radio controlled. Some of them had practical lights. There was practical lights in the little miniature trees and there's people down below the set tugging on monofilament to make the trees move a little bit to give them some life."
  35. Mark Stetson (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 09:39-10:13). Columbia Pictures. Mark Stetson says: "The weird scale that we had made a real problem with populating the streets. Turned out to be 1/18th scale. You don't find any accurate model kits in that scale. So I scoured Toys R Us and found this police car that looked like a New York police car, right vintage, right size it turned out so I called all uh Toys R Us stores in Southern California and bought all they had. We had something like a hundred of these police cars. We chopped them up - turned them into fire trucks and taxi's and police cars and everything else."
  36. piercefilm productions "GHOSTBUSTERS and 2010 miniature effects" 13:20-13:35 9/2/2020 Pat McClung says: "And we had cars down there. Police cars. And I remember one of the guys was making a police car and he put on the dash, a little mirror and a lines of cocaine, you know, razor blade because it was the cocaine era in the film business."
  37. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 188. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Entertainment Effects Group stagehands prepare for a bluescreen traveling matte shot of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man's grand entrance. For its accompanying live-action element - shot in New York - Laszlo Kovacs and his crew had Columbus Circle and all visible side-streets lit up for blocks with giant power-draining arc lights. Five hundred screaming extras stampeded on cue, running headlong through the streets and climbing over cars."
  38. American Cinematographer June 1984 Line reads: "As people running in the foreground passed in front of Stay Puft Man, each person had to be rotoscoped so that a matte could be created to keep them in front. In addition, a matte was drawn for a building in the background to enable Stay Puft Man to enter the scene by coming from behind the building. The camera angle permitted foreground objects to obscure the bottom of his feet, but it also resulted in a street lamp in the foreground which was distracting because it was right in front of the man. The street lamp was removed with the help of a matte painting for the central area of the frame."
  39. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 187 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft marshmallow man suit was constructed from pliable foam and featured a fiberglass skull with cable-actuated mechanisms for facial movement."
  40. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 9:20-9:27 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "And then what we would do is we would take foam, and I hope this helps, because what we did is we did three hero suits."
  41. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 10:04-10:08 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "And then we did 18 burning suits."
  42. Bill Bryan (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:47:53-1:47:58). Bueno Productions. Bill Bryan says: "We only made 18 costumes and we only burned 17 of them."
  43. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 33:57-36:18 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "There was also one where it's a shot from above and I don't remember if we shot it on the same day or if we actually went back on the set for another day because and maybe it's the same one... anyway it's one where I lean way back and look up and that was the worst shot for me and it wasn't bad, it's just that because now the suit was hot, okay? It's all insulation material and I sweat. I am actually exothermic and so the most of the time, because most of the shots were from below, you couldn't see into the neck of the suit but this one particular shot, you could see in and so I had to put some material in-between some white I suppose just to you couldn't see inside the suit and so most of the times I wore the suit was flexible and spongy, if I waved my arms, and hollow by the way that's another important part of this, I would wave my arms and it would act like a bellows and the air would come in and out through the mouth which was right there and so I would get fresh air just by waving my arm as long as I didn't do it too much because that also generates heat so I had to do it judiciously so because ordinarily, I could get fresh air but one day I was closed off so it was just me inside the head just breathing and rebreathing so in-between shots, they would use a hair dryer without the heating element and give me some fresh air but in order to look up I couldn't lean over back far enough without falling over backwards so I had to sit on something adjustable. It turned out to be Linda Frobos. She got down on her hands and knees and I sat on her back and looked up and I was able to frighten the world that way ."
  44. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 15:48-16:11 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "And then this is, I don't know if anybody talked to you about the puppets that we built that are the super stretch. The arms on these are three feet long and it's a half body and it was for when he reaches and roars up at the Ghostbusters and they wanted to have this sort of forced perspective. So we made these extending arms and we had two or three of those."
  45. John Bruno (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 10:40-10:57). Columbia Pictures. John Bruno says: "And was doing this double bounce walk like a cartoon character and it looked really, really stupid and Ivan - we sent over this footage and he went 'Oh my God. Is this the end of the movie?' And he was really nervous and we kept saying 'It's gonna work. You haven't seen the finished suit.'."
  46. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 187 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In all, three different heads were needed to achieve the required range of expressions - from smiles to looks of surprise to grimaces."
  47. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 189 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "Our concern was that the Stay-Puft man would take the movie into an area of silliness that would just discount everything else. All through the writing process, and even into production, we tried to come up with an alternative - but we kept coming back to it. It just seemed right to go for the laugh at the end. And we had such a good rationale for it - it would be the first thing that would pop into Stantz' head. So I finally said: 'To hell with it. Let's go.' But that's what I was waiting for at the first screening - to see how the marshmallow man was going to play. Fortunately, the audience went nuts over him - applauding and everything. It was a great moment of relief for all of us."
  48. Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 129). Winston Zeddemore says: "The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! He was on all the packages we used to buy when I was a kid in North Carolina. We used to roast Stay-Puft marshmallows on my grandpa's smokehouse fire."
  49. The Containment Unit YouTube " Academy Award Winner John Bruno (Ghost Shop Supervisor, Ghostbusters) Interview! " 59:00-1:00:12 5/7/2023 John Bruno says: "One of the characters when the Marshmallow Man's revealed, there was a bunch of--there was some sort of throwaway lines and additional lines that the guys would make up on the... and try to throw different things out and, I'm blanking I'm sorry, one of the characters walked steps forward and he goes, somebody says, "Look!" and he cuts back to him and he says, "Fuck me" and it got the biggest laugh. The Marshmallow Man. That's a huge laugh and that was in the-it stayed in the film quite a while and then, Oh, God I can't think of his name what's wrong with me, that character walks on the way back to Ivan's office. He goes, "Ivan, please could you please drop that line. I don't want my kid to hear me say..." Harold Ramis. Harold Ramis. Thank you. Harold Ramis was really bothered by it."
  50. Ivan Reitman (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 01:32:17-01:32:24). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "That last shot is so badly rendered that, in fact, he is walking through the church that is right next door to the building."
  51. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 191 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "For scenes of the Stay-Puft man bursting into flame, a special fire-retardant suit was rigged with pyrotechnics and worn by a stuntman scaling the miniature apartment building."
  52. Thaine Morris (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 10:58-11:32). Columbia Pictures. Thaine Morris says: "We got a $25-$35,000 suit and we got three of them in the world. We set the guy on fire, he falls down. That's the universal signal of 'I'm in trouble' so we put him out. There goes 20,000 bucks. We'll try this again tomorrow night. He did it again. And he does it again. We hired Tony Cecere and 'Ok, step on this box - slap the top of the church. Got it?' 'Yeah, but I don't want supplied air' We argued for 10 minutes about the fact he was going to have to be supplied air because the foam on this thing was toxic."
  53. Thaine Morris (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:49:41-1:49:48). Bueno Productions. Thaine Morris says: "So there's a guy in town whose name is Tony Cecere. Tony has spent his entire life burning himself up."
  54. Tony Cecere (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:51:07-1:51:17). Bueno Productions. Tony Cecere says: "And I think it was on the second take. The head got hot from the fire on the outside of it, and the head split open. And inside of the suit, where I was at, was on fire, too."
  55. Thaine Morris (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:51:18-1:51:28). Bueno Productions. Thaine Morris says: "When we finally got him to stop, the pink skull under the Stay Puft was all that was left on his head. The suit had burned clear through to the polyurethane foam."
  56. Tony Cecere (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:15:29-1:15:35). Bueno Productions. Tony Cecere says: "What happened on the inside, the glue that they used to put it together, all the glue on the inside of the head started burning."
  57. The Containment Unit YouTube " Bill Bryan (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 42:23-43:17 4/3/2021 Bill Bryan says: "The first time that Stay Puft is lit up. The red tie story. Yeah and Joe Viskcoil leaning against it and said, "No, no, no, don't put it on, I'll just mess it up and then we'll get it just before we shoot." Well, we didn't. And I had to go to Michael Gross and say, "Uh-oh, you don't want to know this but I wasn't...I didn't put the tie on and he said, "Well, fortunately it's a very complicated shot so if probably nobody will notice but if they do, who do we charge the $30,000 reshoot to?" "Him!" "Them!" Then somebody."
  58. The Containment Unit YouTube "Diana Hamann (Boss Film, GB84) Interview!" 43:05-44:38 3/23/2023 Diana Hamann says: "And so I handed this vest and tie off to the effects guy and they put the pyro stuff, looks sort of like a grid...they were like these little studs of explosives and then wires between it on the back of the vest, and, I don't remember how it was on the tie, but it was--they had it--handed both of them and they were doing... and I remember seeing it later and I remember telling them I have to come back and get the roller out and clean this off and they're like "No, we're in charge" and I was like "You will never touch this stuff again because it has pyro on it. No, I have to clean it." They're like "No, we're in charge" and I was like "Well, here's the sticky thing" and they're up on this platform off to the side. "Here's the sticky roller and the stuff (the cleaning supplies)" and I wasn't quite sure if they were gonna do it but I knew it was going to catch on fire soon and then it was "Okay, well then I can go do this other thing that was down the street." So I ran down to do some stuff at the main office and then I came back to do my puppeteering and I'm probably part of the chain that fell apart there because what I should have done was go back and check with them and say, "Are you rolling it and are you putting it on?" and whatever but at that point I was like "Okay, I can't touch it. They're in charge" and everybody knew that so that's my link in the chain and I own up to that."
  59. Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 129). Egon Spengler says: "Full-stream with strogon pulse. We'll cross the beams."
  60. Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 151). Ray Stantz says: "How many more beloved icons from my youth does the paranormal have to ruin for me?"
  61. Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 151). Peter Venkman says: "Now Ray, the last icon that tried to destroy New York was technically your fault."
  62. Mayor Lenny (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Adventures in Slime and Space" (1987) (DVD ts. 11:51-11:55). Time Life Entertainment. Mayor says: "First, Terror Dogs. Then a walking marshmallow. Now this!"

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