A New View

 It’s strange the kind of perspective clearing a major hurdle brings. This week we finished the rough edit for Season 1. Now there’s still a lot to do, sound, effects, and so on, but it’s still  comforting place to be, seeing it all together, without the vagueness of raw, unedited footage. Due to heavy environmental noise pollution, at least three scenes (including the big finale) will have a complete ADR workover, one session of which has been scheduled for this Friday.

 The stunt team has progressed rapidly through their work, and this last week we detoured a bit into choreographing duels between diversely armed opponents. Hilarity ensued.

 In other news, the new camera has arrived, and I begin the long process of becoming comfortable with a new piece of technology. 1920p is a far cry from 720p, and I’m looking forward to putting this technological Frankenstein’s monster through its paces. (If you’ve ever seen a DSLR camera jerry-rigged for cinematic shoots, you’ll understand why I say that.)

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

Gatewalkers Episode 6! The Shadow of Things to Come.

 Episode 6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFDQj3ITZo

Major Episode 6 Update!

Well, after the uncharacteristically bleak post yesterday, I didn't expect to be posting quite so soon, let alone with good news.

After a night to sleep on it, we've come up with some ideas about how to keep the episodes coming. If all goes even moderately well, we should have Episode 6 out on schedule! David and I have also talked over plans to get the process of composing fired up again, even in these very unorthodox situations. If that goes even remotely according to plan, we can look forward to seeing (er... hearing,) his new compositions in the near future.
We've also come up with a plan to transition the Morrigan character to a new actress, so all we have to do now is find her!
Alright, here it goes...

Until next time! See y'all on the other side!

Bombs Away!

 So… this has been an interesting week. After the surreal relief of being done with Episode 5, we launched into more work. The edit is now complete through Episode 11, though there is some significant ADR that must be done in Episode 8 (the wind looked quite epic, but did our audio no favors.) Sunday, as always, we proceeded with the choreography. Though sometimes that term was used rather loosely…

I must say that’s probably the most relaxing aspect of my job.

 Now, on to the heavier news. Two bombshells were dropped on us this week. First David (our composer) has hit a rough patch in his life. Through a gradual buildup of events he has found himself in a place where he will be unable to compose for a while. Episode 5 will probably be our last episode for a while, at least until we can find someone to do the job.  

*UPDATE: http://brightswordproductions.blogspot.com/2014/04/major-episode-6-update.html 

On top of that, one of our lead villains backed out. This is problematic, because we already shot her scenes for Season 1, but she becomes a major antagonist in the next season. That leaves us with only a few options. We can re-cast and re-shoot her scenes (you’ve only seen her masked thus far,) re-cast and find a clever way to merge the two, or phase the character out and re-write the script.

Next week we’ll be putting out a video version of this notice, as well as a preview of what the next few episodes hold, so stay tuned for that. We will keep you all updated right here, every week, just like always. Your prayers and suggestions would be appreciated.

Until next time. 

Gatewalkers Episode 5!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-pRlCSE2H8  

Through Many Dangers...

 This has been an… interesting week. Hopefully the events that caused the late release of Episode 4 will not be repeated, but sadly it may have directly led to the abysmally low viewing numbers on that episode. (A pity, as many audience questions were answered there. Episode 4 here) Only time will tell what that may mean.

Stunt training has shifted into full choreography mode, with Nathan heading up the bulk of the work. Every so often it’s nice to just be “the consultant.”

In more positive news, we have had a few very generous donations, which will allow us to replace our failing cameras and sound equipment, as well as purchase additional external drives for the footage, and possibly fund a little advertisement. (Yes, they were VERY generous.) I must remember to thank these people on the site…

Which brings us to another point, or rather two. One, Episode 5 is with David for his musical masterwork, but we’re still refining the dragon animation. Hopefully that will be over soon, as it’s been a constant project quite literally since post-production began. Two, the ol’ laptop finally gave up the ghost, which means internet access and site updates are catch ‘em as you can. My apologies in advance for any strangeness this might cause. That said, blogs and episodes should still be out on alternating Wednesdays, so next week you’ll be watching the conclusion to the dragon situation, and be introduced to a new character… but that can wait until then.

Enjoy! Until next time…