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!

Preparations and Short Shoot 1

Greetings, one and all! This week saw our first shoot day for the short. While we had one scene planned for that first shoot day, things came up, and we had to change our plans on the fly. So we shot with just one actor, and did a bit of a tense traveling sequence…

A scripted scene, but with no dialogue, it was a softer start to the project, while still making good progress.

That done, we touched up a few props for the upcoming project, worked on some minor location crises, and had a couple more composing sessions, before preparing for the next week’s shoot. This then led into the return of the newer stunties…

They reviewed the fight scene, before shaking things up with some dagger training. So… yeah, a crazy and random, but productive, week. By the time you read this, we will hopefully be costuming our actors for the second shoot of this week, but right now I’m writing early and preparing myself for the first one.

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

Paint and Prep

Greetings, one and all! Well… this week took a bit of a turn. After success with assembling a number of props, attempts to paint them have been… inconsistent, at best. A previously smooth muted metallic color suddenly develops the look of melting wax, questionable adhesion on other items, etc. So we’re letting things cure for an extra period before attempting to fix all of this. In the meantime I’ve been researching which adhesives work with which plastics, as an attempt at building one of the background ships for the movie came to an abrupt halt when the adhesive bonded with one plastic, but not the other.

On the plus side, we did get a fair amount of music work done this week, covering a lot of ground in Block 7. Sunday we had a fairly small stunt meet, but that allowed us to focus on one corner of the fight scene, before splitting off to do costuming and makeup tests for a minion and a lead, respectively.

So while this week mostly became an exercise in finding new problems to solve, we still made good forward progress in a few areas. Now our minds turn toward the upcoming shoot days…

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

Places, Pallets, and Parts

Greetings, one and all! Well, this week went from uncertainty about exactly what would be accomplished this week to frantically running over hill and dale, taking advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

The week opened casually enough. We finally had the matching availability with one of our stunties to go on a location scout. However, his availability was either right now, or at the end of the week, so we hurried out to kick things off.

Good thing, too. It was a beautiful little location that the pictures don’t really do justice. Now we just have to figure out how to sync up schedules for filming… Which brings us to another one of the big jobs for the week: Trying to schedule the shoots. This generation of stunties seem to have all decided to have a busy summer at the same time, but not on the same weeks, so finding that one day that everyone can be together for the big fight scene has been… interesting.

Anyway, after that we found a local source for some black plastic pallets, which have something of a history standing in as the decking for gritty, industrial starships. They were also a good price, so we arranged a meeting with the seller and, within two hours, were cramming the suburban as full of the bulky pallets as we could.

Then came the end of the week, and yet another excursion. This one to explore a discount hardware spot and a local hobby shop that I was somehow ignorant of. The former for props and set dressing, and the latter to find greebles (a term invented by George Lucas) to detail starships for our big upcoming project.

Both endeavors were fairly successful, with us finding pieces to detail walls and control panels, as well as the “seal” for the side of the datapads at the first location, and a reasonably priced WW2 armor kit with a ton of pieces at the second. And that's not even covering the false starts we had this week, or the two music sessions we had. All in all, a busy, tiring, and productive week.

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

Crafting the Look and Feel

Greetings, one and all! This week was focused almost exclusively on acting practice and costuming for the short, though we did manage two composing sessions as well. All this around the 4^th of July weekend, no less.

With the outdoor temperature rising, we started the week by digging into the ol’ storage unit for costume elements. It got quite warm in that metal tube, to say the least, but we found what we needed. We met with three of our major actors over the course of the week to block out and refine their scenes, following that up with some costuming and makeup tests.

Sunday the team met again, and brought our recently absent member up to speed on her part of the fight. After that we did a whirlwind costuming session with the stunties, roughing in their looks before a couple of them disappear into the wilds…

All in all, a busy but productive week. Now all I need to do is scrape together a few brain cells so we can get this new week started…

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