Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SYDNEY, Australia — What would you do if you moved to a new country, had a new baby, a house full of cardboard boxes and limited social options?
Instead of staying inside and watching hours of Netflix, movie buffs Lilly and Leon Mackie decided to channel their creativity into recreating their favorite movie scenes using everyday household items and their new baby, Orson.
"We started after creating a one-off photo where we wanted to portray the general mess and sleep-deprivation that comes with being new parents," Lilly Mackie, a stay-at-home mom, told TODAY.com. "People seemed to really love it and asked for more. We had a lot of weekends at home and a stockpile of cardboard so we thought ‘Why not?' It went from there."
The Mackies started their photo project in September and have 15 posts on their new blog Cardboardboxoffice.com so far, including their rendition of Jurrasic Park called "Goo-Goo gaa-gaa-rassic Park," a version of Apollo 13 with "Houston, We have a Poopy," and even took on a scene from Star Wars, titled "Wah Wars."
Baby Orson always fully participates in each shoot, sometimes as the only character. In Castababy ("Cast Away"), Orson floats on a sea of blue sheets, complete with his own raft, Fed-Ex box and Wilson.
Parents of toddlers are probably a little in awe and a little disbelieving that Orson will sit still long enough to get a good picture, much less than 15 times over the course of four months. Lilly told KSL.com that it takes up to five hours to set-up and get the perfect shot, but Orson does great when they finally need him.
"Orson gets involved as a baby would — exploring the scene and ripping things up," Lilly told KSL.com in an email interview. "He seems to find it all quite fascinating. He is only ever in the actual shot for maybe one to two minutes at the most."
Lilly said it can get complicated when all three of them are in the shot because their camera only has a 6 second timer. But so far, they've managed to make it work.
"It's amazing how fast you can move into position in six seconds," Lilly told KSL.com. "The Apollo 13 photo is testament to that."
Leon, a a children's book designer at a big publishing company, and Lilly usually plan their photo shoots for Saturday nights and post to their website and Facebook page, which has jumped from 3,000 to over 16,000 likes in the past week. People all over the world have been delighted with the Mackie's creations.
"You guys are absolute, utter genius. My new favorite blog to follow," wrote one Facebook user. "Hope Back to the Future and The Goonies are in the future!"
"You guys are INSPIRING for being AWESOME parents and geeks. And I say that as a comic book store owner and a parent," wrote another user.
The Mackies have been thoroughly enjoying their weekend endeavors and have even kept up with the photos while on vacation in New Zealand with their families. Lilly said her favorite photo is the most recent one from the 80s comedy Weekend at Burpy's (from "Weekend at Bernie's").
"We were holidaying in New Zealand at the time and took the photo while staying at my mother's, so the scene was created from the stuff found around her house," Lilly said. "She got really involved and Orson loved having his grandmother on set. It was just a really fun shoot and I think that feeling really came through in the resulting photo."
The Mackies have big plans for their upcoming 2014 shoots and are already taking suggestions on their Facebook page. To see all of their pictures, view the photo gallery above.
