Behind the Scenes Video: Dastoli Digital vs. the Flying Saucers: The Making of an Orange County Epic With production spanning nearly an entire year, Southwestern Orange County vs. the Flying Saucers is the most ambitious project by Dastoli Digital to date. As the film was being made, many scenes were added, and most sequences were re-shot. During production, Dastoli Digital took time away from the film, working on many other projects, and completing their own A Wind to Shake the Stars. Only a few small scenes were actually shot using attractions around Orange County. Many background plates for saucer composites did use footage and photographs from the area.                                             The majority of the film was shot on the University of Central Florida campus, or in the surrounding area. Retail spaces around the campus area were also used.

Much of the compositing work in the film dealt with convincingly creating a theme park from elements shot in these areas.             Many extras had to be shot against a bluescreen due to the lack of extras on set. The entire Pavillion of Tomorrow scene was shot in front of a greenscreen.                 Of the simpler scenes in the film were the sequences that took place in Young Man’s apartment, which was shot in star Alejandro Kontarovsky’s apartment.                     James and Robert Dastoli’s house was used as the Theme Park Head’s office, which was shot twice.         Dastoli Digital took two trips to the Ft. Lauderdale area during production, shooting material with park guests, using locations such as the Sawgrass Mills Mall.                                 A miniature was assembled for the City of Tomorrow and put in James and Robert Dastoli’s garage. This location was also used for the interior of a truck carrying the young man into the park. A miniature truck was shot for a temporary cut that had to be sent off to a film festival.                 For the Mayor’s office, spaces at the Downtown Media Arts Center in downtown Orlando were used.     The flying saucers were created entirely as CG elements, as well as the missile racks that launch as part of the Park Defense Systems.                         The film’s many explosions used numerous layers of stock footage provided by Detonation Films.