Musical Milestones and Textual Transformation

Greetings, one and all! This week was host to an important musical milestone, namely the completion of Block 8, and the beginning of Block 9! While we still have to go back and do all the tavern music in three different sections, this is still a huge accomplishment after the many weeks spent working on the big fight scene. To quote Alyssa, doing a simple office scene after the time spent on a very complex fight scene feels like going back in time.

Next up, the script has gone through its first heavy rewrite, with many things removed or altered, and now I need to decide if there’s anything that needs to be added, be they character beats, or something that emphasizes the overarching plot. On top of that, the credits sequence for the Nine Isles project has been compiled, and is now in the midst of formatting and speed tests.
Lastly, the team met again Sunday, and this time focused on the finer points of unarmed combat, from striking technique, to a good block or parry.

After many absences due to illness or other things, it’s good to have everyone together again.

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

Rewrites and Refinements

Greetings, one and all! Despite some non-film life interruptions, we still managed to get a music session in this week, hopefully rounding off the fight scene.
The bulk of the rest of the week was some heavy script editing, and I do mean heavy. Most of the first ten or so pages of the script was totally rewritten, and it looks like something similar is about to happen after page 20. This was a major inflection point in the plot that already had about seventeen different iterations, but the decisions made back then still didn’t lead to a punchy enough dramatic change of fortunes (and in one case a character introduction). So it’s back to the drawing board, where I must carefully reshape all the plot connections to make sure someone’s scheme actually makes sense, and the response is at least equally as effective.

Sunday the team met again, and this time opened with some precision drills, before hiding from the rain and finishing up with some short choreography.

All in all, good progress was made, and I think that their technique is definitely improving.

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

Reflection, Revision, and Rain

Greetings, one and all! The admittedly dubious perk of getting sick and having it hang on longer than usual is it forces you to slow down and reflect. The chief thing it made me realize was that, while the script we have is solid, it still lacks a certain kick, the pulp serial cover moment that makes someone go “I need to find out what’s happening there.” We have the concept that makes this story unique, but it’s a bit buried under the mystery, so we need to bring it more to the fore, and give it some more screen time. To that end I’ve begun another edit pass on the script, focusing on how to give the thing a better visual hook for the promotional materials.

Next up, we begun work on one of the ships for a battle sequence in the film, though I’m still deciding if I like what’s been done, so far. It’s supposed to be the primary combat vessel for a mining conglomerate, so I’m trying to decide if it looks the part.

Last but not least, the stunt team met again under the pouring rain to train in a few of the arts that require less linear space. Namely falling, rolling, and some more short sword work.

Progress on the first two elements was quick, but the short sword requires more technical finesse, so that proceeded at a much more normal rate. All in all, a good and productive day.

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

Stunties in Motion

Greetings, one and all! So, by the time I finished writing the last blog, half the team had woken up sick. While it’s still better than last year, where we were sick literally every month, this one has clung on more than most. So we managed to squeeze in one music session before everyone crashed, but then we dedicated the rest of the week to recovery, doing it just in time for stunt meet.

We brought the rest of the newest team members up to speed on the short sword work we did last week, before teaching them moving in character, and with intent.

We ran the gamut of attitudes and characters, from goblin to overlord, elf to thug, we put them through the paces, ending with an exercise where we had them simply move from point A to point B with different characters and motivation. All in all, a pretty entertaining day.

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

Seven Hundred

Greetings, one and all! In a bit of a meta-note, today marks the seven hundredth blog post written on this page. We’ve been providing weekly updates of everything film-related that we’ve been doing since April 25^th, 2012, where we covered the Gatewalkers teaser shoot of the previous week. It was initially enacted as a personal discipline, as well as a bit of motivation by accountability, because I would need to have at least something to report every week. Given the fact that we’re still here thirteen years later, it seems to have worked.

Back to the present, we had a fair amount of real world obligations to clutter the week, but we did manage to cram in a couple composing sessions. On top of that, we realized that there are two separate windows of time that would be best for the release of the Nine Isles, and one of them is fast approaching, so we took a fair amount of time to review marketing plans, and run some render tests to make sure the tech runs smoothly.

Lastly the stunt team met again, and ran through a small variety of combat styles, ranging from bow to the short sword…

An unusual, crowded, yet somehow still productive week.

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