Training Troopers

Greetings, one and all! While last week was more of a rush of completed props, this week was a slower process of troubleshooting ideas and designs for the various trooper weapons. The idea was to take the basic design from Stormborn, but regress it to the in-universe equivalent of WW1, which is fundamentally the kind of era in which this story takes place. Great discoveries are being made, and no-one sees the shadow looming ahead…

Also, with some of the ship-making experiments not turning out as hoped, we’re going back to the drawing board with a few designs, while running some experiments with different materials to see what works and what doesn’t.

While the week was busier, in non-filmmaking life, we still managed to squeeze in a couple of music sessions, taking a deep bite out of the big fight scene.

Lastly, the team met Sunday, and once again turned their training toward the skills they’d need to perform in the upcoming project. In this case, squad movement, and single sword fighting…

The team practiced a couple old-school ways of advancing under cover, ones that would look good for a boarding party, before breaking off into choreography exercises for the single sword. This was all capped off by an impromptu sparring exercise.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Finished Props and Returning Stunties

Greetings, one and all! Following up on the work of last week, the next step in prop work was shaping and painting the foam tablet to look more like a clay tablet. This took a couple days as each coat needed time to dry, but in the end it came out looking pretty good, particularly on camera.

Following that, we turned to crafting and troubleshooting the crown, which is another plot relevant item, but thankfully one that doesn’t provide any spoilers. We technically made two different versions, but the first one was too bulky, so in the end we opted to craft a more complex, thorn-like design.

The week’s crafting was rounded out by testing a couple different versions of the datapad screens before settling on the option that seems like it should have been more obvious to begin with. Namely, just painting the back of the clear plastic after we glued it into the prop. Now I just have to figure out how to provide the whole thing with some structural integrity…

Lastly, the full team met on Sunday for the first time since the shoot, and flexed their combat muscles with a mix of choreography and team sparring.

The very last sparring exercise was particularly interesting, as it highlighted the difference things like age, experience, size, and speed all have on the outcome of a fight. Some of them might not be what you think…

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Design and Duelists

Greetings, one and all! So after we recovered from the big shoot, we spent to rest of the heat wave working on how the upgraded cockpit design integrates with the exterior design of the drop shuttle. This took quite a bit longer than expected, but in the end I think we have something that works. We also had three music sessions, which fleshed out some transitions, and brought us fully into the fight scene.

Once the heat wave passed, we did a quick supply run to acquire materials for the aforementioned drop shuttle set, then turned our attention to more prop work. While there are other props that have more screen time, this one is the object that gets the main plot moving, and unlike some of the more important props, I actually had a plan for how to make it. To that end, I spent the better part of a day carefully carving archaic text into a slab of foam, and added some ancient figures in the Babylonian style. Why? Guess you’ll just have to see the movie.

Sunday a much smaller team met, but it was still quite productive, as one of our newest members had the opportunity to really sink his teeth into a dueling scenario.

It also allowed our youngest veteran a chance to really direct the flow of choreography, which was a good experience all around.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Heatwaves and Short Shoot 4

Greetings, one and all! This week saw two more music composing sessions, which brought us all the way into the big fight in block 8. On top of that, we salvaged some more lumber for the drop shuttle cockpit set for the sci fi feature project. The rest of the week was comprised of more precise design work for the cockpit, whilst dodging a somewhat protracted heat wave.

Then came the weekend, smack in the middle of said heat wave, and the one day where all of our stunties were available at the same time. So we planned, prepared, and managed to shoot the fight scene for our short without anyone crashing from the heat.

They actually did quite well, with extra water and snack breaks, and only one snoring corpse between them.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Before the Fight

Greetings, one and all! The opening of the week was slow, due to high heat, but we plugged away at organizational paperwork, and got in a couple music sessions. The moment the temperature dipped below ninety, we dashed out to the shop to play with heat guns and sheet styrene, in hopes of making some curved parts for spaceships without having to build a vacuum former. The results were a lot of effort, and not as encouraging as hoped, but we’ll go back to the drawing board and see about taking an alternate tack.

Sunday the team met again, and this time, with most of the original location options closed off, tried out the fight scene in a location slightly closer to home…

The recent rains made the ground a bit softer than normal, and we had a couple stand-ins for stunties due to other real life events, but in the end they got everything figured out, and the rest of the scene blocked out as well. All in all, a good job on their part.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Between the Shoots

Greetings, one and all! This week took a different tack from the previous one, as we had no shoots, but a lot of random things to do. Starting the week, we opened with a supply run for materials to be used in props, models, and sets for the upcoming sci-fi project. Sadly only about a third of what we were looking for was available at the time, but we still made a good start.
Next up, music composition for Block 8, which is proceeding slowly, but steadily.

On top of that, there was some more prop work as we finalized the paint jobs on several props, including fixing one that went awry, and drybrushing a couple of the weapons with metallic paints to give them some extra pop. Screen material was finally found for two out of the three datapads, so that’s now trimmed down to size, and we’re on the hunt for the rest.

Sunday the team met again, this time on the hottest weekend of the year, to practice the big fight with their real stunt weapons…

Things progressed slowly at first, with the stunties acclimating to different weapon weights, and the thought of swinging a somewhat harder object, but despite the heat and the unfamiliar equipment, they progressed well, and should be ready by the time the shoot day arrives.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!

Short Shoots 2 and 3

Greetings, one and all! Well, this week went pretty much as planned, but with a few twists. Our second shoot for the short project was Monday, and we invaded the home of one of our stunties to shoot a scene by a beautiful little stream.

We also attempted a walk and talk sequence, but the neighbors suddenly decided to be noisy, and the light wasn’t great at that point. Wednesday saw shoot three, where the bulk of our lead cast got together for the first time to record the opening and closing scenes of the short, as well as do a pickup shoot for the walk and talk scene.

This went fairly well, despite having to change plans on the location for the walk and talk for a second time due to lighting issues. While shooting the opening scene, we were forced to hurry before we were driven out by a dust cloud as our neighbors started plowing their field…

Sunday the full stunt team met for the first time in a while, practicing the big fight scene, and then spinning off into training for the sci-fi project, in the form of… slightly more modern weapons training.

A long, tiring, and productive week, even before you add in all that stuff that happened in our non-filmmaking lives. But it was a good one, and the team did well.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Until next time!