IN THE HALLS OF SKY HIGH: THE DESIGN OF A SUPER HERO TEEN WORLD
When Will Stronghold arrives at Sky High, he quickly discovers a world that is half typical suburban high school, half utterly incredible super hero training camp.  For the filmmakers of SKY HIGH, creating this world with a blend of smarts, humor and imagination was key to getting the movie to take flight.   Working with Mike Mitchell on the film's overall look was a team that includes director of photography Shelly Johnson, production designer Bruce Hill and costume designer Michael Wilkinson. 
Shelly Johnson was inspired by Sky High's soaring platform location (in reality, the school's exterior is played by the more earthbound Cal State University Northridge with its modern, curvilinear architecture), which let him play with light in fun ways.  "Basically, we based the lighting on what pilots say about how the light looks when they're in an airplane," explains Johnson.  "We used techniques to really sharpen our shadows and make the sunlight very, very white and always reflecting off the walls and bouncing off the floors to light the characters. Throughout the film, we also exaggerated a lot of the angles to give the whole visual journey a lot of bang." 
Johnson also worked with the filmmakers on developed a palette of eye-popping comic book-style colors.  "We used very saturated colors that are a joy to work with," he notes.  "Michael Wilkinson even created the costumes with a pearlescent shine to them so that they would reflect light in interesting ways and visually pop on camera."
Working closely with Johnson was also Bruce Hill who was faced with the unusual challenge of building a typical 21^st century high school -- with lots of sci-fi twists.  "We wanted it to be familiar but also dynamic with touches that take you into a fantasy world," he says.  "You get a certain amount of poetic license when the school you're creating is floating in the sky above the Earth." 
The filmmakers built the interiors of Sky High on four cavernous stages at Barwick Studios in Glendale.  Stage 5 at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank was also used for additional classrooms, offices and hallways. The piece de resistance for Hill was creating Sky High's gymnasium where three of the film's most entertaining and complicated sequences take place:  the Power Placement test, the Save the Citizen simulation and the Homecoming Dance.  "Each of these major events involves both visual effects and physical effects as well as stunts, so the gym set had to be very flexible and user friendly," explains Hill.  "The stunt team needed to have their truss grid in the ceiling of the gym and the camera needed to be able to shoot 360 degrees in the space and not see the truss.  So we incorporated the grid into our design by basket-weaving some fabric into the actual truss work.  That provided us with a scenic element in the ceiling and a place to rig the stunts."
Hill based his designs for Sky High on a typical high school.  "For example, the detention center that negates your powers is a very minimal white void, but it has a huge vent at the top," he explains. "The vent is the kind you've seen everywhere in schools, but here it's completely oversized, giving it a different feel.  Elsewhere you have other common elements, like the standard clocks on the wall, mixed with stuff that's very unlike what you would find at a normal school.  There's always that funny juxtaposition of the everyday and the incredible." 
Outside of Sky High's environs, Hill's favorite set was that of the Stronghold household - and its underground super hero realms -- which were also built at Barwick Studios. "I love The Stronghold House because it's so different," Hill comments.  "It's very warm and inviting, based on a real house in South Pasadena.  But then, underneath the house is this whole other world. That's where we created the parents' secret sanctum, which is done in a castle motif, a medieval theme since the family name is Stronghold.  Going into the secret sanctum for Will is the equivalent of being able to drive your dad's car for the first time."   
Meanwhile, as Hill created Sky High's sets, Michael Wilkinson was undertaking the epic job of costuming an entire school of super hero teenagers - each with their own wildly individual sense of style.  "Creating the costumes for SKY HIGH was a huge task costuming wise," Wilkinson observes.  "There are 17 principal characters with 10 to 12 costume changes each.  Each look is a very considered, specialized look, a look that goes beyond reality.  In addition, for the high school and the homecoming dance, we dressed over 300 extras - and then there are the specialty super hero suits as well!" 
Early on, it was decided that the super-teens wouldn't wear old-school cape-and-mask type outfits- so the costume designer had to come up with more subtle and modern ways to get at their hidden powers.  Thankfully, Wilkinson proved himself to be up to the mission.  "Michael Wilkinson was such an important person to the whole picture.  We had no idea the level of creativity he was going to bring, but Michael came in with a color palette for each kid that really set the tone," explains Ann Marie Sanderlin.   "For example, all the Strongholds are in red, white and blue all the time because they're so All-American; Zach is in day-glow color because he's all about glowing; and Layla wears flower colors - yellows and greens -- because of her association with nature.  He had a reasoning behind every color choice."
"With each of the kids, I tried to hint, in a witty way, at their super powers and their personalities," adds Wilkinson.  "So we did two things - first, we used color to delineate each character and then we used the idea of archetypes to really give the costumes some punch.  So for example, Will was thought of as classic All-American, Layla is bohemian hippy, Zach is a clown, Magenta is the Goth girl and Ethan is nerdy/preppy.  We really wanted to create a whole posse of friends that are like this unit with complimentary personalities forming a great pack of characters."
Perhaps the biggest wardrobe challenge of the project was creating the specialty costumes for the super heroes The Commander, Jetstream, and All American Boy, as well as the super-villain costumes for Royal Pain and Stitches.  "It's a costume designer's dream to join a legacy of 60 years of super hero costumes and try to push the envelope a little bit," admits Wilkinson.  "I wanted to come up with a whole different look."
He continues:  "Mike and I wanted the costumes to feel very different from the super hero films of recent years, which have tended to be bleak and menacing with lots of metal and leather," adds Wilkinson.  "We wanted to throw that all out, start again, and do something that has the visual appeal of 60's and 70's super heroes with dynamic, full-colored, graphic shapes and a tongue-in-cheek humor. We also thought it would be great if the adult super heroes really contrasted with the younger generation of super heroes, who have a much more rebellious fresh off the street, teenage fashion sense." 
Wilkinson updated the adult super heroes' classic spandex suits with what he calls "edgy modern appeal."  He explains:  "We used different high tech materials such as sculpted foam, latex muscle suits, sprayed latex capes, hard armor and fiberglass pieces to bring the suits up to date.  And we even have laser-cut silicone injected in the spandex of Royal Pain costume for the computer circuitry."
The Royal Pain costume soon lived up to its name. "There are so many elements to that costume; it breaks down to about 23 different pieces.  In order to achieve the head-to-toe look of a half woman/half machine, there are gloves, knee-pads and layers and layers of spandex upon close cell foam upon vacuum-foamed plastics.  It's an amazing conglomeration."
A high note among many high notes for Wilkinson on SKY HIGH was the chance to design outfits for Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter.  Carter was impressed by how much super hero costuming has changed since she last donned a cape.  "It's amazing what they can do with styrofoam now - they can make everyone's body look phenomenal," she comments.  "Back when I was doing Wonder Woman there was nothing like that!"
For The Commander and Jetstream outfits, Wilkinson was inspired by the chiseled musculature of Art Deco sculpture that celebrates strength and power.  The suits might have a sleek look but, for the actors within, they are heavy and can become dangerously hot inside. In order to be able to shoot for longer periods, a cooling system that allows cool water to flow directly against the skin was installed in Kurt Russell's costume.  "Even with the cooling system, I would lose between 8 and 10 pounds of water weight everyday," says Russell.  "Still I wouldn't mind wearing it all the time . . . I certainly look better!" 
Kelly Preston had to forgo the cooling system.  "Kelly's costume is so body hugging that there was not enough room for the cooling unit under the boned corset with a layer of neoprene and foam latex over the top," explains Wilkinson.  "So she had to sacrifice comfort for looking fabulous. I warned all the actors ahead of time:  being a super hero is not the easiest thing in the world, but there is a great payoff!"

SKY HIGH'S BEAT: ABOUT THE MUSIC AND SOUNDTRACK
Driving the non-stop drama and action of SKY HIGH is a score by the acclaimed composer of "The Incredibles," Mike Giacchino, and a soundtrack compiled by "Freaky Friday" music supervisor Lisa Brown. 
Giacchino, who also composes for the hit action-oriented television shows "Alias" and "Lost," took his musical cues from the story's themes, adding lots of heroic flourishes and bold brass lines for the score's 82-piece orchestra.  Further inspiring Giacchino were the original Max Fleischer animated "Superman" cartoons with their dynamic orchestral scores full of triumphant climaxes and folksy Americana.  Keeping up with the film's mix of the incredible and the ordinary, Giacchino merges such unusual, futuristic instrumentation as the theremin to a score that has moments of both lightness and drama. 
In further homage to the now-classic adolescent-themed movies of John Hughes, the filmmakers then asked music supervisor to also weave in a collection of hit New Wave songs from the 80s re-recorded and made new again by some of today's hottest contemporary young bands.  These include covers of "I Melt With You" by Bowling for Soup, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Christian Burns, "Save It for Later" by Flashlight Brown, "Can't Stop The World" by Ginger Reyes, "And She Was" by Keston Simons and "Lies" by The Click 5. 
Sums up Andrew Gunn:  "The music for SKY HIGH reflects the film's fast-pace, its distinctive style and most of all it contributes to the mix of high energy, hip humor and drama that make the story such a unique adventure." 

PAUL HERNANDEZ (Written by) originally from Houston, TX, moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to follow his dream of becoming a filmmaker in Hollywood.  He started his career in the mailroom on the Disney studio lot but soon was asked to join the newly formed DreamWorks studio as a production assistant where he worked on all of DreamWorks/Amblin productions.  Writer/producers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot ("Shrek," "Pirates of the Caribbean") championed Paul's dreams of being a writer, however, and eventually optioned his first script, the adventure-comedy "Instant Karma," which then sold to Robert Zemeckis' company Image Movers where it is currently in pre-production.  In 2001, Paul returned to Disney as a writer in the Disney fellowship where his original pitch for SKY HIGH caught the eye of the studio. 
Paul has also written the screenplay "Mortimer West," which is in development at New Line, and is currently writing the animated film "Mucha Lucha: The Movie" for Warner Bros. and "Stardate," which he will also direct for producer Steve Golin.

MARK MCCORKLE & BOB SCHOOLEY (Written by) dove into the life of a high school cheerleader to create their first original series "Disney's Kim Possible."  The hit show on Disney Channel has garnered Primetime and Daytime Emmy nominations.  The pair also worked as producers and story editors on the acclaimed "Disney's Hercules," which was hailed as one of TV Guide's "10 Best New Series" of 1998 and, in 2000, as one of the magazine's top-ranked shows for adults to watch with their children.
McCorkle and Schooley also earned story editor credit on the "Aladdin" television series and writer/story editor credits on Disney's first-ever video premiere, "The Return of Jafar," which stands as one of the top five best-selling direct-to-video animated films ever released.  McCorkle and Schooley also wrote the subsequent video release, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves," which received a 1997 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production.
The pair penned and story edited the two-time Emmy-nominated "Great Minds Think for Themselves," one of the original interstitial segments of "Disney's One Saturday Morning" in 1997. McCorkle and Schooley re-teamed with the "Great Minds" creative crew in 2000 to produce the "Find Out Why" interstitial series in conjunction with the National Science Foundation and Discover Magazine. The duo also wrote the heralded "Toy Story Treats," a series of interstitials for ABC's Saturday morning lineup and Disney Channel.  The Temple University graduates initially met while working as entertainment managers at Sesame Place, a "Sesame Street"-themed play park in Langhorne. They made their foray into Hollywood through the mailroom of DIC Entertainment, from where they quickly advanced to staff writing positions before shifting to Walt Disney Television Animation as a writing team.