Steps and Establishment

 Greetings, one and all! So… this week was somewhat less picture-worthy, as it was almost exclusively syncing up Foley, and building soundscapes. That said, it has had its fun moments, like using the sound of dirt and something squelching in a bowl to get a good stab sound. Or speeding up the sound of dirt and gravel falling to make an icy noise.

However, the thing I’ve spent the most time on was replacing footsteps. This is because the material the sets are made of rarely matches what they’re supposed to be made of. So, creaky wooden stairs must become solid stone, and so on.

On Sunday we did a quick pickup shoot to flesh out an establishing shot. Sadly we got no pictures, as everyone involved was occupied, so we’ll have to settle for a screenshot.

As of this writing, the new footage has been integrated into the shot, and is awaiting final color correction. We add that to a couple other bits of effects work, like an ice blast or some simple rotoscoping, and we’ve just about rounded things out.

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

Audio and Anarchic Action

 Greetings, one and all! So, let’s see… This week started with yet more Foley work, chiefly weapons strikes and some movement pickups, followed by several days of building the soundscape of various shots. This ranged from footsteps and sea roar, to arrow hits and wind blasts. We’re still at the very beginning of the process, but it’s encouraging to see this blank in the production start to get filled in.

On top of that, the Forgotten City buildings got their weathering and detailing paint passes. Now we need to sort out good environmental lighting, and shoot it.

There was an unexpectedly small stunt team on Sunday, so we turned them to some madcap short weapon choreography…

There was a lot of running, and at least half of them were out of breath at the end of a couple passes. Quite entertaining for the audience, to boot.

Lastly, as a little bit of a teaser, here’s a non-spoiler image of an early pass on one of the few CGI elements in the movie…

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

Sound and Fury

Greetings, one and all! So… what did this week cover? Mostly, lots of Foley. Foley is the recording of the assorted sounds that would be generated by actions in the scene, footsteps being one of the most common, but including things like clothes rustling, weapons clashing, and even ambient animals. Of course, in our case, I’m putting goblin screams into this category, as I don’t think they exactly count as Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR).

Thus, the week started with making lists of all the sounds needed to complete the project, followed by many hours on steps, stones grinding, rubble falling, and a host of hostile vocalizations.

Along with that, we have finally finished the remaining buildings for the Forgotten City close shots, and got the team to help base coat them…

Given team member availabilities, most things had to be crammed into only a few days, but we’ve made really good progress. However there is still much more Foley to go…

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

Finishing Strikes and Forgotten Cityscapes

 Greetings, one and all! This week focused on crafting the buildings for the Forgotten City sequence. The first step was figuring out how to not waste the unused parts of earlier cityscape builds. Then, aesthetic finally locked in, we set about roughing in more buildings and towers. I think it seems to have a bit of Babylonian influence in the design…

There are more to go, plus detail and painting, but this is a solid start.

Sunday the team met to finish off dagger plays…

With the groundwork laid for this important skill set, we can now branch out into application.

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