Reviewed

 Greetings, one and all! Well, this has been an interesting week. Some of you may have already seen the highlight by now, but for those of you who missed it, we got our first review on our STORMBORN webseries! It came totally out of the blue, but they linked it to us on Twitter, and so here we are to share it with you.

http://starrymag.com/web-series-wednesday-stormborn/

It's nice to see when people get into the work you've done.

In further news, the current state of things meant we had a smaller meeting this week, but it allowed us to focus on things that may not come up in the larger events. This includes an old school exercise for those who may shy away from the blade...

On top of it all, we continue to prepare for our next project, including designing props and ordering materials. Casting may be set off by a bit, but we shall see...

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

Lists, Lumber, and Lockdowns

 Greetings, one and all! So this blog week started out with a handful of meetings, some more successful than others. The good news is that the successful ones have led into a full week of materials breakdowns, where I look at everything from sets to costumes, and determine what's needed for each one. This can be a bit overwhelming, but it means that this will be the first time where production design and acquisition isn't just on my shoulders, which means I have to get everything out of my head and onto paper, so other people on the team can reference it.

In other news, the team met again, and jumped on a bit of pallet teardown before the rains returned. It took longer than we'd planned, but we got a bit done, and then spent the rest of the time having some archery fun.

So, things are getting interesting again. The governors of all three West coast states have declared new lockdowns, which are considered to be some of the harshest in the nation. The claim is for only two weeks, but we all know how well that went last time. So, of course, we're working to figure out how to still move forward with pre-production, especially when we will have to start casting, and training new stunt team members very soon. We've already lost a year, and there are only so many of those one has to spare.

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

Maces and Materials

 Greetings, one and all! Well, this week has been a bit strange. Various real life events have slowed our productivity this week, however we did have a fun bit of progress. This week we crafted the vanes for our safety mace, and attached them to the haft.

I'm surprised by how satisfying this simple bit of productivity was, but then I guess I was pretty happy to get the vanes evenly spaced around the weapon. After that we started researching more durable sealants for the mace, so the foam vanes don't wrinkle in storage or use.

On top of that, we're also looking into how we can more efficiently craft stunt weapons for the extras. One of our top ideas is using black polypropylene for the blades, and scrubbing metallic coats of paint onto it for a simple weathered look. However, while we can find the white variety we used on Stormborn, we have yet to find any black 3/8" material that's not a massively expensive plywood-sized sheet. So we'll keep looking, and maybe do some other material experiments.

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

Steps, Scrap, and Sparring

Greetings, one and all! So this week had a rough patch, but we're moving into the next phases of pitching our work. More details to come, but part of it involves a bit of early casting. Yes, you heard that right. We didn't cast Stormborn until we knew what we had to work with. That led to us having less time to do the most important thing, working with our actors. However we cast Gatewalkers long before we knew our budget. This allowed us to work with the actors, and get the best performances possible. It also has the additional effect of expanding our reach through the social circles of our cast and crew. Granted, this whole process will be made more difficult with the pandemic restrictions, but we'll do what we can.

In other news, we're in the long process of acquiring scrap lumber for set construction. The old Solensgate set is slowly filling up with everything from old plywood to discarded fencing slats, but with sets including a tavern built inside a derelict holk, a crypt, a medieval street, and a vault, we've got a long way to go. So heads up to all my local readers. We're on the hunt.

Last but not least, the team met on Sunday, and man it's amazing to watch how good they're getting at sparring. They all sparred against each other one on one, with a mix of weapons, and it's really good to see them thinking fast and using clever tactics.

Apparently the unorthodox pairing of trident and dagger was particularly good against the spears...

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