by Jeff Kinney
time off from work to be an extra in the movie. He’s
pictured here with Rose Locke, who was in charge
of casting all the extras for the film.
One of the booths at Player Expo was for a
fictional game called FriendsVille, and it was
manned by the author of this book. The
wardrobe department’s job was to make him look
as dorky as possible, which clearly wasn’t that
easy to do.
124
But the biggest celebrity at Player Expo was
Greg’s idol, Mac Digby, who was played by Joshua
Hoover. Mac is a video-game enthusiast with a
gigantic YouTube following. It’s Greg’s dream to
meet Mac — and get into one of his videos.
Friendsville
In the movie, Mac’s such a big star that he’s got
not only his own stage in the convention center
but a catchphrase to rival “Zoo-Wee Mama.”
126
DAT'S
HOW
DIGBY
DO
IT
The other big set piece in “The Long Haul” was
the country fair. And unlike Player Expo, this
one was already part of the Wimpy Kid universe.
But building a giant country fair from scratch,
complete with rides, food booths, and livestock
tents, would cost a fortune. The filmmaking team
decided early on that the best bet would be to find
a REAL country fair in the region and tag along.
Luckily, there are a handful of annual fairs in the
Atlanta area, and the one held in Griffin, Georgia,
fit the bill.
HOORAY!!!
A FAIR SHARE
127
The filmmakers reached out to the fair organizers
and asked if they could make the location a part
of the movie. They agreed, under one condition:
Filming had to wrap at dusk every day so the
gates could open to the public in the evening.
That meant the fairgrounds were a movie set during
the day, and the real thing at night.
128
Most of the booths you see in the movie are part
of the actual fair, but others were created just
for the film.
When Greg and Rodrick are enjoying deep-fried
butter on a stick, it’s served at a stand that
was created for the film. But believe it or not, in
lots of places, deep-fried butter on a stick is a
real thing.
129
In fact, there’s a lot of weird food that’s served
up at your typical country fair.
When Greg and Rodrick eat fried butter in the
movie, it’s not a trick — it really IS fried butter.
But the actors were total pros.
SLORK
SLURP
CHEW
CHEW
PAT
PAT
DEEP-FRIED
PB&J
BUTTER
ON
A
STICK
The fried butter was served up by character actor
Ricky Muse, who plays the butter vendor.
A character actor is a performer who specializes
in interesting or unusual roles. In the world of
moviemaking, not everyone can be the star. But
there are lots of talented, quirky actors who
make a living by taking small roles that have a
big impact.
In fact, sometimes a character actor’s performance
is so memorable that it becomes everyone’s favorite
part of a movie.
131
The actors really enjoyed having the run of the
fair during the day. They got to play carnival
games and ride rides. Imagine having an
amusement park all to yourself without having
to wait in line!
Their fun wasn’t limited to the daytime, either.
The actors came back to enjoy the country fair at
night, when it was packed with people.
One of the great things about making a film like
“The Long Haul” is that the set is very family
friendly.
132
Some of the filmmakers brought their own kids
to the set during the country fair shoot. And
several of them made it into the film, either as
background extras or as actors with spoken lines.
They skipped a little school and got a taste of
the movie star treatment, too.
133
A HAIRY SITUATION
One of the families that makes an appearance at
the country fair came straight out of the pages
of the book: the Beardos.
In the series, the Beardos have three sons. But
for the movie, the filmmakers decided to swap out
the oldest boy for a girl to mix things up a little.
In the book, we don’t know the names of the
Beardo kids. But in the movie, they’re Brandon,
Brent, and Brandi.
In “The Long Haul,” Mr. Beardo spends a lot of
time chasing after Greg. Chris Coppola, the actor
who plays Mr. Beardo, modeled his performance
after Bluto from the Popeye comics.
By a strange coincidence, this wasn’t the first
time Chris had worked with Jason Drucker. In
fact, Chris has worked as Jason’s acting coach on
a few occasions.
By now, you’re probably getting a sense that what
you see on-screen isn’t always
the real thing. So it might
not come as a big surprise
that Mr. Beardo’s beard was
also a fake. During filming,
Chris Coppola was actually
clean-shaven.
LET ME GET
SOMETHING
STRAIGHT: THIS IS
A JOURNAL,
NOT A DIARY!
DIARY
136
The beard was mesh with individual hairs strung
through it, and even up close it was very
convincing.
Chris wasn’t the only one who got to see what
it was like to have a full beard without going
through the trouble of growing it.
Patrick Kinney (the original inspiration for the
character Manny) had always wanted a beard, but
wasn’t able to grow one. On the movie set, his
dream finally came true.
A ROUND TRIP
The “Long Haul” film is full of action shots, but
one of the most complex sequences takes place
inside the Alien Abduction ride.
If you’ve ever been to a carnival, you’ve probably
ridden something like Alien Abduction. It’s a
circular ride that spins faster and faster, and
pins its passengers to the wall.
It’s a lot of fun — as long as you didn’t just
finish eating a couple of sticks of fried butter.
Alien
ABDUCTION
138
In the film, Greg and Rodrick board the ride,
and are soon joined by an angry Mr. Beardo,
who’s after Greg. The script called for Greg to
flee Mr. Beardo by crawling over the heads of the
other passengers. Eventually, Mr. Beardo rolls
across Rodrick, who loses his lunch.
The director put together rough storyboards
to string all the action together. The drawings
are simple, but
they did their job communicating
exactly what was needed in each shot. On the
following pages are the storyboards and the
matching moments from the film.
139
ALION
ENCOUNTER
SEQUENCE
CARNIE
GREG + R
ENTER.
CAMERA
PANS
PAST
CARNIE
AS
THEY
SETTLE
AGAINST
WALL
GREG
LOOKS
NERVOUS
CARNIE :
"STAY
AGIN
THE
WALL"
AND
KEEP
YER
HANDS
TO
YERSELVES.
140
CARNIE’S
FOOT
ON
BUTTON.
HIGH
ANGLE
AA
STARTS
TO
SPIN.
ROD:
FEELS
SICK.
G:
NINTH!
OS:
YOU!
MR
B. FLOPS
IN
STOP
THE
RIDE...
CARNIE
HAS
HEADPHONES
ON
142
WATCHING
DIAPER
HAND
GREG
STARTS
TO
MOVE
HIGH
ANGLE
SPINNING
FASTER
144
GIRL’S
PIGTAILS
RICE
GREG
STRUGGLES
TO
MOVE
MR
B. ROLLS
OVER
A
KID
MR
BEARDO
GLARES.
146
GREG
TERRIFIED
TURNS
TO
SEE
PEOPLE
IN
HIS
WAY
GREG
STARTS
TO
CLIMB
ROD
WATCHES
GREG
CLIMBS
ABOVE
B:
YOU
NEED
TO
MOVE….
R:
PLEASE
DON’T…
148
RAMP
UP
TO
SLOW
MOTION
SLOW
MOTION
PUSH
IN
SLOW
MOTION
VOMIT
OUT
150
FULL
MOTION
VOMIT
HITS .
CROWD
HORROR
GREG
HORROR .
In the film, the Alien Abduction ride looks like
it’s in motion the whole time. But the scene took
two days to film, and that’s too long to keep
actors on a moving ride — no matter HOW much
fun it is.
So some tricks were used to make the ride LOOK
like it was spinning, even when it wasn’t. Rotating
lights positioned above the ride flashed across the
walls to give the illusion of movement.
Giant fans positioned inside the ride gently blew
the actors’ hair.
152
When a girl’s pigtails slowly rise up and stick to
the wall, the filmmakers used the most basic movie
trick of all — fishing wire — which doesn’t show up
on the screen.
But when Rodrick gets sick on the ride, the
effect for the half-digested fried butter was
created on computers long after filming ended.
And the actor playing Mr. Beardo was grateful
for that.
153
PRIZE PIG
After the scenes on the Alien Abduction ride, the
filmmakers braced themselves for a different type
of squirming — this time, of the pig variety.
The script called for Manny to win the baby pig
as the grand prize in a contest for guessing the
weight of a giant hog.
No one knew what to expect when the actor
playing Manny was handed the pig. Would it
squeal? Would it try to wriggle free? Would the
actor playing Manny be too scared to hold a live
animal?
GUESS
THE
WEIGHT
OF
THE
HOG
The animatronic pig was on standby in case something
went wrong. But when the actor playing the judge
handed Manny the real live pig, the handoff went
without a hitch.
The pig stayed perfectly still as Dylan cradled it
in his arms. The young actor seemed comfortable
holding the pig, and everyone on set was proud of
him. After all, he was only three.
I’M
OWNWY
THWEE!
IN STITCHES
A good movie will draw you into the story, and
you won’t give a thought to how it was made. But
there’s a lot of work that goes into bringing it all
together and creating a believable world on-screen.
Take, for instance, a sequence near the end of
the movie where the Heffley family makes their final
push to Meemaw’s house. The scene starts at the
top of a hill, where the family van has conked out.
At the bottom of the hill is Meemaw’s house,
where the party is winding down. The Heffleys
decide to roll their van down the hill to make it to
the party before it’s over.
156
It’s all part of one smooth scene, and everything
takes place in one location. Or does it?
157
In reality, the scene was shot in three completely
different locations. The hill was part of a giant
duck preserve outside of Atlanta, and there weren’t
any houses at the bottom of it — just a pond.
The digital effects team created the houses on
computers and inserted them into the shot after
filming wrapped.
Meemaw’s house was in a neighborhood in another
part of Georgia altogether.
The flying boat
wasn’t really
flying — it was
lifted in the air
by a giant crane,
and the cable was
digitally removed
later on. And when Greg is airborne at the
wheel of the boat,
he’s actually on
a soundstage in
Atlanta, working
against a green
screen. Not only
is the scene shot in different locations and at
different times,
but at certain
moments even
the actors are
different.
When the van rolls down the hill, there are
moments when stunt doubles filled in for both
Greg and Rodrick.
Even the camera operators had substitutes for this
scene. To capture footage of Meemaw’s pool from
above, a camera-carrying drone was used.
After filming was
completed, the
editor took all the
pieces and strung
them together into
one seamless scene.
Hopefully, you won’t
notice the stitching that made it possible.
160
LET'S TAKE THIS INSIDE
Once the outdoor filming wrapped, it was time to
move things indoors for the rest of the movie shoot.
There are two types of filming: on location and
on a soundstage. When you’re filming on location,
that means you’re filming in the “real world,”
which can be tricky because there’s a lot you can’t
control. Just about everything that can go wrong
often does.
But on a soundstage, the movie’s world is completely
in the director’s control.
KRACK
161
A typical soundstage is a giant building that’s
big enough to hold a jumbo jet. Since it’s indoors,
there’s no need to worry about the weather.
In fact, if you want, you can make your OWN
weather.
Most of today’s movies with lots of big special
effects are filmed on soundstages, because when
you’re spending all that money, you can’t worry
about things you can’t control. If you’ve ever seen
a movie that’s about superheroes or one that’s set
in a galaxy far, far away, chances are a lot of it
was actually filmed indoors on a soundstage.
FILMING
162
Since “The Long Haul” was about a road trip,
there weren’t that many scenes that were shot on
a soundstage. But there were a few exceptions.
The motels you see in the film are real-life
buildings, but their rooms were re-created on the
soundstage, down to the last detail.
Being on a soundstage can be a strange
experience. Most of the space looks like a dark,
empty warehouse. But the areas for filming look
like little slices of the real world.