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!