Reviewing and Rescouting

Greetings one and all! While we didn’t do as much work on the new short as hoped, this week did see several days of roughing in a trailer for the Nine Isles project, using test renders for the rough blocking. Once that’s been locked off, we’ll use those to find the original audio tracks and effects footage needed for the higher resolution version. Thus far we’ve come to the point where refinement is needed, but the basic layout is there.

Next up, with one major real life obstacle finally out of the way, the first task with our newly repaired car was to go scout an old filming location before the weather changed.

Hard to believe it’s been nine years since our last quarry shoot, but the growth of the trees sure sell it. We spent most of the hike walking in the shade, over trails that were far more muddy and mossy than last time, and the once almost high desert like quarry is becoming more hemmed in by the young fir trees. Also the berm that our Sith lady stood on for her dialog has since been converted to gravel. The kind of location it would for for has definitely shifted over time. 

Lastly, the contemplation of an obligation toward beauty as a creator has led my thoughts toward the ol’ Stormborn universe. As some of you may know, it’s a world I’d written stories in when I was a teen. They weren’t very good, but the unfettered creative freedom led to some interesting worldbuilding nuggets that I’ve been extracting and reshaping for the shorts and webseries that we’ve released thus far. In that vein I’ve been working on two things.
First, dividing what’s actually canon from what was referenced once in an unpublished short story, and then trying to look at that world through the eyes of an audience member without decades of backstory. Second, the old ideas were very space opera in their design, with most planets being represented by a single unique biome. However, if one realistically wants to shoot these things, one needs to have other ways to differentiate locations without having to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. To that end, I’ve been thinking on the architecture and fashion for the different worlds and factions, attempting to give them each a unique look, which also dovetails nicely with the obligation toward beauty bit.

So… yeah, this week has been far more random than most, but at least there’s progress, even if, in some cases, it’s just what you’re not going to do in future.

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