"So... What Are You Doing?"

A very excellent question. Having an incredibly short pre-production that overlapped the release of the final “Gatewalkers” episodes left little time for project build-up, leading many people to ask the above question. Here, then, is the answer.

When a survey vessel goes missing an overtaxed planetary government sends an incredibly odd team to find it. Rogers, the ranger with an abysmally poor record; Dunn, the agent of an ancient military order; and Maya, a trigger-happy pilot and heavy weapons enthusiast; embark on a quest to find their missing people. However, someone else knows the whereabouts of the missing ship, and has dispatched an assassin to make sure that word of what it discovered dies with its crew.

That’s the plot in a nutshell; 45 pages of people who are very bad at their job narrowly dodging death on a regular basis as they try to ferret out clues and complete their mission. Written and acted by a team of brilliant nutballs, and directed by the biggest nut of them all, we hope that this will be a hilariously madcap ride for you all to join us on.

Now, with that put out there, we’ll give you the weekly peek into the goings-on on set.
 

  We’re about done with the filming this week, final shots will be revealed in our next update. Until then!  

Mission Commencing

Seeing as we're in the middle of an intense shooting schedule, this will be a text-brief, picture-long update.

After only a few days, we've already taken a good bite out of the script, with scenes ranging from a warehouse, to a Federation lander. On top of the full scenes, many parts were captured, to be composited together at a later date.
 

 

 Highlights: Keith as an arms dealer in a pink shirt and trench coat, Zoe and the Really Big Gun, and Nathan as multiple members of the "Echie" clan. Thus far the mood has remained light, and we've gotten a remarkable amount done, even with only one camera.

We'll keep y'all updated as the events unfold. Until next time!

T-Minus 2 Days

  So... here we are. The shoot officially begins Friday morning at 9. We'll start out kinda slow, with only three scenes planned for the day. This week, or rather this last month, has been packed with props fabrication, choreography, rewrites, and ad-hoc scheduling. Yes, this time we actually get a schedule. (Though it took only about 12 hours for the first hole to be blasted in it, but eh, that's life.) It's kinda ironic that the first official (read: public) outing for a serious sci-fi universe should be in a short comedy, but given who's making it, that's pretty much par for the course.

This will also be the first time since our first micro-project that we make extensive use of green screen. Granted, if I wanted to make the project look expensive... well, it would be expensive, but this allows us to provide scope on a budget that has more time than money. We will also be premiering the new designs for various weapons and ships. Everything has an in-universe reason for working the way it does, (compliments of my tech savvy brother,) and doesn't just exist "because it looks cool."

...except that one. The assassin's knife

Ranger's pistol

Knight's hammer

...and the rest of the arsenal.

Costuming has gone into full swing, and our brave team who delved the Goodwill bins turned up many characterful pieces. Set pics will come next week, though we will be shooting on Wednesdays, so the up date may come super early, or very late. Thanks for dropping by.

Until next time!

Far and Away

 Hello, everyone! Welcome to an incredibly news-heavy post.
Well, the first season of Gatewalkers has been completed, and I must say that it’s a very surreal experience. A chapter of my life that began in late 2011 has come to a close. To commemorate that, I thought I’d give you some of the raw numbers regarding what went into making the season.

Gatewalkers folder:

Created Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 4:10PM

Contains:

14,274 files

336 folders

Comprising 817 GB of information.

That last bit made me glad (for the first time) that we hadn’t been shooting in HD.

 As many of you know by now, we do not have the funds to continue with Season 2, so that has been put on indefinite hiatus. However, that’s not to say we’re quitting entirely.

As some people may remember, for years I wrote stories in an as of yet unnamed sci-fi universe. However, once I started work in the world of normal business, that pretty much fell by the wayside. Following the filming of Othersight we took a few days off. In that time away from technology I radically reworked and updated the universe, then dashed off a script in about a week and a half. It didn’t really speak to me, so it was laid aside for Gatewalkers. Fast forward to the Gatewalkers cast party.

As a sort of improve party game, I had the cast and crew play the parts of people in that universe as they try to solve a mystery, while one tries to erase all the clues. What followed was four and a half hours of hilarity, which we duly recorded because, why not? Fast forward to early this year. I’m now burned out, the strain of juggling a rolling post-production schedule, all without money or resources, has taken its toll. After much thought, prayer, and council, I decided to finish the season and just let it be. I also resolved three things. One, the next time I pick up a camera, it will be to make beautiful images. Often in the rush of production just getting the shot is an achievement. Next time, we’ll take our time. (There were days where we could do that in the Gatewalkers shoot, and the shots always got compliments.) Two, that (until I start getting paid for this,) I would only work with people who didn’t stress me out. Often in the name of “the mission” I would align myself with people who would take more than they give, and that’s just not worth it in the long run. Three, I’d stop trying to help God.

Sometimes I think that we get the impression God needs great things from us, that if we’re not trying to change the world, preach a sermon with our every act, then we’re somehow failing Him. We’re not using our gifts for His glory. But if that was true, David would never have drawn the attention of God, he was just a shepherd. It’s about relationship and using what you have well. So to that end, I will simply try to tell good stories, borne of the things I hold dear, and treat the people I work with as God would have me to.

In the spirit of all of the above points, our next project will be a crazy little sci-fi action comedy (yes, you read that right.) With a plot by me, but pretty much written by the cast, we will be bringing a much abridged version of the game we played at the cast party to the screen. Featuring such characters as Rogers, the worst ranger in the galaxy; Hex, the annoying ship’s AI; and Venill, the semi-legitimate arms dealer, this story will take you on a madcap chase from the offices of Fed Com to the sewers of Iode, from the Temple of the Assassins to the depths of The Vault.

 Filming begins late next week. I hope you’ll join us for this wild ride.