Premiere Day!

Greetings, one and all! All of our work these last few weeks, nay, years, came to fruition this last Friday, with the premiere showing of The Nine Isles: Chaos Crown. 

There was a good turnout, filling the country church that had so graciously hosted us. It was really good to see everyone again, and incredibly gratifying to hear and see the audience reactions to the movie. When you've worked on a project for so long, you forget what it was that made you decide it was worth pouring in all that time and effort in the first place. Hearing the laughter at the humorous banter and character reactions, the muttered "Ooo.." at plot twists, along with the collective sympathetic wince every time a character got clubbed, told us that we'd done well. The best review we received was an audience member calling it "thoroughly entertaining," which means we did our job, because the greatest sin a piece of media can commit is to be boring. 

Now... the digital release. Those who weren't there for the premiere will have a chance to see the movie once we get all of the necessary materials together and upload the film to the online store. What takes our rural internet 45 minutes to download could take us the better part of a day to upload, so we're aiming for a time when the internet usage will be lower. 
On top of all that, we're also working on finishing the designs for our Nine Isles merch. However, audience reactions to certain characters and lines have compelled us to design some new items centered around them. More details will be coming in the near future... Provided the internet cooperates. 

Lastly, the heartwarming reunion of multiple generations of the stunt team at the premiere was capped off with one of our veterans visiting for this week's stunt meet. The theme of the practice was a heroic last stand, so we threw him back into the deep end, and let the muscle memory take it from there.

Everyone worked really well together, bouncing ideas off each other, trying different thing out, until they had a suitably dramatic fight to the end, along with a creative final takedown. 

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

Preparation and Bladed Brawls

 Greetings, one and all! This week was quite different from most, as the bulk of our efforts turned to both the premiere, which is two days from the time of posting this, and beefing up aspects of our online presence. This includes work on our producer's pet project: Nine Isles merch. Making designs, finding a vendor, and ordering test pieces have all taken a significant amount of the week.
On top of that, the final aspects of preparing for the premiere are being checked off the list. From final communications and fielding questions, to working through the logistics of the event. A fun combination of erratic and unpredictable mixed with tedious but necessary. We have no idea how many people are actually coming, which probably contributes to the nerves I'm feeling. Don't know if it's going to be a small event, or if we'll have to scramble to find seating. Either way, by this time next week, the first step of release will have passed, and we'll be deep into Phase 2, the digital release. 

Last but not least, our team met again on Sunday, and ran a couple choreography exercises. The second was a brief duel, but the first was the most interesting; what amounted to a brawl with swords, where the goal wasn't to end a threat, but to get out some personal resentment on the part of each side.

This led to some comedy, and a dogged insistence from each fighter to at least get one shot in before calling it good. All in all, a good day to cap off an unorthodoxly productive week.

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

Premiere Logistics and Acting Wounded

Greetings, one and all! There was a fair amount on normal life intrusion this week, which only had the effect of making us busier than ever. For starters, Alyssa finished the Nine Isles: Chaos Crown poster. I turned to finishing the edit of one of our short shoots, before both of us diverting over to work on the logistics of the premiere showing. Basically a lot of work that leads to long lists and numerous messages being sent and received. 

Lastly, the stunt team met on Sunday, and weathered the, erm... weather, to practice performing a fight scene while acting out specific injuries.

Despite the wet and cold, everyone locked in and did a really good job. Even those who usually don't have very elastic faces figured out tricks to make their performances work. All in all, very well done by them all.

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

Premiere Prep, Model Shoots, and Stuntie Skirmishing

Greetings, one and all! This week opened with locking off the location for our premiere showing of "The Nine Isles: Chaos Crown", followed by several days of disseminating the information to the actors and everyone who had people to invite. Interspersed with all of that were a couple model shoot sessions for the mock trailer we shot this summer.

I'm definitely out of practice, (as evidenced by the fact that this took twice as long as I was expecting,) but the color correction aspects of the new software really helps clean everything up, which is important when you have green screen spill in several very obvious places on the model. Plus, it also helps get those good hard shadows that are consistent with shots taken outside of the atmosphere.

Lastly, the surprise visit from one of our stunties launched us into this week's training, which opened with precision movement practice, before closing with the exercise from last week. 

All in all, this proved to be a surprisingly exhausting week, but we made good progress.

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

Sites, Trailers, and Flow

Greetings, one and all! Well, this has certainly been a week of big steps. First off, as the film is finally locked off, we've been arranging a small premiere showing, which entails setting a date, and some tech tests at the location. With a few settings tweaks, we've brought things to a very pleasing look and sound. Now we begin to get the word out... Well, after figuring out what a fair ticket price is for a small indie feature, anyway. 

Next up, the trailer is out! Follow the link below to watch it now!

The Nine Isles: Chaos Crown Trailer

In conjunction with that, we've also updated the website, and finished up the Chaos Crown movie page. If you're interested, you can take a look here: Chaos Crown Movie Page

In the midst of all that, we've been checking schedules with actors, writing up copy for flyers and posters, working on the graphics for said posters, and probably a few other things that I've forgotten.

Last but not least, the stunt team met again on Sunday, and this time worked through some highly energetic flow exercises, where they choreographed a fight, but focused on momentum and the flow between strikes. This was followed by a new twist on an old exercise...

In this variant of the game we've dubbed "Twisted Ninja", (after its similarities with the games "Twister" and "Ninja",) anyone who falls in combat swaps weapons with the person who took them down, and respawns on the opposite side of the arena. This led to some very interesting tactical considerations, and one weapons set in particular being swapped between all the players over the course of the exercise. All in all, a very good day to cap off a busy week.

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

Web Work and Parrying Practice

 Greetings, one and all! Okay, so it turns out that there were still a couple glitches in the Nine Isles renders, so we got those sorted out. Hopefully this will be the last revision, because we're already deep into release plans. With the first feelers being put out for a premiere, my job turned to the release of the movie itself, which starts with updating the website. There's nothing to see, yet, but I've already spent a few days working on pictures and copy for the Nine Isles: Chaos Crown page. Things slowed somewhat after I messed up my shoulder, but thankfully it seems to be healing.

Sunday the team met again, and the somewhat smaller group (still thanks to sickness,) ran through a number of drills for sword and shield, as well as single sword. Specifically, the focus was on the strike and counterstrike process. 

Capping it all off, the models for the mock trailer have received their first weathering pass, and the paint is now curing. We shall see how these new techniques turn out.

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

Trailer Technicals and Drop Shuttle Details

Greetings, one and all! Well, now that the Nine Isles movie has been finalized, our focus has pivoted back to releasing it. A lot of research has gone into the different avenues, and people are talking about a premiere, but first comes the trailer! Specifically, me rebuilding the trailer with the newly improved footage.

There were way more technical hurdles to cross than I'd expected, but in the end, we finally locked it off. Well, everything except the end card with the movie release info.

Sadly, this was a week where a lot of team members got sick, so there was no stunt meet, but on the plus side we took the drop shuttle model all the way through detailing, basecoat, and primary paint scheme before the torrential rain of the early weekend.

Next up, all the weathering: grit, grime, and burn marks. Let the games begin...

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