Week of the Unexpected

Greetings, one and all! Without getting into too much personal detail, things happening in the lives of cast and crew alike led to us having to change plans multiple times this week. For starters, there was supposed to be a shoot this last week, but events conspired to keep one of our actors away, and when we changed what we would be shooting, the weather changed in such a way as to make any continuity between shots difficult, at best. So in the end we settled on getting one of the monologues, as well as picking up some ADR for an earlier project.

The positive side effect of the changed plans is that we did manage to get an assortment of things done for future shoots, such as an armor repaint, as well as building the frames for the back wall of the drop shuttle set.

Come Sunday, the stunt team met again, and in an effort to not muddle their memory of the fights we'll be filming next week, we had them develop an unarmed combat scene, which quickly became a classic barroom brawl...

The scene was very fun to develop. In fact, it was very hard for them to not be grinning or laughing, while they were supposed to be acting hurt. In the end, the team turned out a very dynamic and dramatic fight scene, with a fair dose of the comedy this group is known for. After that wrapped, we launched into an extended costuming session for most of the rest of the stunt team, getting them to the place where we're about half ready for the big fight scene next week. (Not to be  confused with the big duel to be filmed a few days earlier.) 

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

Costumes and Short Swords

 Greetings, one and all! This week saw a significant acceleration in pre-production. We opened up the week with a costuming session for several of our lead actors in the short, with a fitting, a mix and match session, and a makeup test all happening at the same time. Needless to say, the director was running in circles quite a bit.

Next up, we ran an expedition to collect the uniforms and armor needed for the soldiers that would appear in the short. A few will need modifications, but they'll need to get in line behind the sets, particularly the drop shuttle. Crammed in the middle there we finished the scene breakdowns that would determine when we shoot the scenes, and in what order. Hence why there's slightly more rush for the drop shuttle than the armor.

Lastly, the team met on a very warm Sunday and engaged in a very focused practice, before the heat got to them.  The one on one duel was practiced and polished, while the rest of the team got some practice in with a one on one of their own...

Short sword duels are something we don't see a lot of, but with the single sword focus of the current movie project, it seemed appropriate to give the team some real-time experience.

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

Costuming, Axe Play, and Script Lock

 Greetings, one and all! This week really focused down onto two things: The script, and costuming. After much wrangling, we finally locked the script and sent it off to our actors. This was quickly followed by a series of breakdowns, to determine who and what is needed, and when. 

Next up, we gathered and organized potential costume elements by which character they might best fit, and finished up the rough elements of the bespoke costume pieces. All ready for the first costume fitting, which should take place shortly after I finish typing this. 

Sunday saw us get a jump on that process, in that, while one group worked on the 3 vs 1 fight, the other started costuming one of our stuntie actors. After that, the team reassembled, and we went through things like striking from the draw, and the basics of the axe. Then, as one of our stunties had an injured shoulder that kept them from being able to hold the shield, we wrapped it all up with a very different sort of team exercise...

While it was a tiring session, particularly for the director who has to flit between the different projects, it was also a fun day, and we're that much closer to being ready for the shoot.

Also, for the five of you that didn't see the special blog post, Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of our first ever movie shoot. It's been quite the journey since then, we've all grown a lot, and I look forward to seeing where we go from here.

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

20 Years Ago Today...

 Today is a very special anniversary. One I nearly forgot because life is crazy, but worthy of a special post. Twenty years ago today, on June 6, 2006, we had our first ever movie shoot, a twenty minute sci-fi story that I often joked would never be seen by anyone who wasn't part of it. (That lasted until the cast party for "Gatewalkers".) Little did I know that looking at a bunch of friends and saying, "Hey, wanna make a movie?" would set the trajectory of my life for decades to come.

We've all grown since then, things have changed, we've gotten a lot better at what we do. Tomorrow I'll walk outside and work with the sixth generation of our stunt team to perfect a fight scene. The day after that, we'll meet with our actors for a costuming session. But, in all that, I'll remember that this started twenty years ago with a bunch of friends on an overgrown logging road outside of Brownsville. The times have changed, and we're all different people than we were back then, but I can say with confidence that good came into the lives of a lot of people because a dozen teens decided to run with a crazy idea. 

So I tip my hat to all the original crew, it was fun, it was a bit mad, and more came of it than we could've ever imagined. Maybe not money, none of our projects have had a budget above the mid four digits, but it's been amazing to see the growth of the people we've worked with through the years. To all who have been with us over the years, thanks for coming along on the ride, it's been a good one. Here's to twenty more.

I'll see you all in our regularly scheduled blog. Until then!

Honing Scripts, Clashing Shields

 Greetings, one and all! This week saw a redoubling of the work from last week. We did more passes on the script, and it's now much closer to completion. On the costuming end, we started going through patterns and cloth, to see what would be best for each character. In between all of this, we did some technical and render tests on the Nine isles project, because getting different eras of tech to talk to each other is loads of fun...

Finally, stunt team met again, and we ran two separate projects. First, refining and revising the duel choreography from last week; and second, teaching some more sword and shield, though the drills were a bit more free-form than normal. This was then followed up by a classic exercise, and culminated when both parts of the team got together for a final bit of fun.

All in all, good progress was made, and plenty of laughs were had by all.

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

Choreography, Costuming, and Mock Trailers

Greetings, one and all! This week saw further refinement of the mock trailer script, focusing on getting the right flow between different beats of the narrative. Yes, even a trailer tells a story, and this one is coming at it from three different points of view. The trick is smoothly handing off the story from one person to another, all while properly building the tension.

Next up, the team met again on Sunday, and this time we had enough people to practice the fight from last week, as well as teach it to a different team member, while also developing the duel we’ll need for the project.

This was soon followed up by the other major endeavor of the week, which was costuming. With the very tight schedule for team availability, we spent the better part of the week scrambling to find the right elements for the different characters. Sunday we began to test them out on our actors. Now to work on the revisions and bespoke elements…

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

Headings and Hand to Hand

Greetings, one and all! Between writing last week's blog and it going live, the prologue script got its first major review, and gave us both good news for the feature length script, and bad news for my workload. In short, writing a prologue showed that the feature script actually started in the best possible place for character introductions, and a prologue would actually somewhat diminish that. So now we're focusing in on the second half of that plan, which is a mock trailer for the movie and universe. A working version of that script was completed just in time for the team to start working on one of the fight scene excerpts... 

Being a trailer moment, the focus was on making it a really impressive six seconds of action, so we centered it around what fun and dramatic moves we wanted to see, and then built out the fight from there. (Also known as the "Three Cool Things" method.) 

Now that we have a rough guide for the shoot this summer, our energies can shift to things like working out what sets and costumes will be needed, and how best to stack the shoot days for team availability. 

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