Small Docks and Larger Raids

Greetings, one and all! So… After last blog, I promptly got sick, which I found highly bizarre, given how little contact I had with people at the time, but it is what it is. Anyway, thankfully an arrow animation had been farmed out to my brother, so something got done in the early stages of the week. After my head cleared enough, I managed to cut the pieces for and assemble a miniature dock, which I’m now in the process of weathering.

On top of that, I also managed to get in some small adjustments to color correction for a few scenes, as well as some timing edits.
Last but not least, the team met again, and further developed their understanding of close-quarters room clearing. Though it was not without its challenges…

By the end they managed to pull off most of their missions without forty percent plus casualties.

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

Tracking and Storming

Greetings, one and all! Well, the work this week has continued apace. Highlights include a team work day where we spent most of it trying to figure out Blender’s new system for tracking objects into the shot. Even the tutorials fell a bit short…

That said, we eventually figured it out, though it required quite a bit of trial and error. We also plotted out how we were going to time each of the shots, which is what we were doing in the above picture.

On Sunday the team continued its training course with storming practice…

Clearing a building can be brutal for a small team, but when you finally start to get it, things do come together.

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

Back in Action

Greetings, one and all! Ah… it’s good to be back. Okay, so it’s clear I really needed the break, because a lot of this past week was fixing poor decisions I made earlier in the editing and effects process, but at least they’re fixed now. On top of that, we’ve finished a few new effects shots, and continued to flesh out the soundscape. It’s interesting what sounds can be repurposed to what. For instance, a large rock being dropped onto soft earth made a decent giant club swoosh.

Also, at long last the team is back in action! After almost a month out of practice, we limbered them back up with a series of skirmishing exercises.  

We were all definitely noticing the rust that was starting to form, but in the end we seemed to have it mostly worked out. Even some of the younger stunties were upping their survival times in the drills.

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

From Year to Year

Greetings, one and all! So, here we are, the New Year. 2022 saw a lot of changes, what with marriage and a pending infant, who is due this year.

As the change of year can lead one to reflection, I’ve thought back to 2020, and everything that happened then. Between the lockdowns and the fires, it was the shadow of impending doom for a filmmaker. But then we cast a bunch of people for our largest project to date, and managed to shoot it in 2021, despite actors having spotty schedules, or people catching a certain popular virus at work or on vacation, but thankfully never on set.

Yes, I’m now wading through the mountain of effects work, and grappling with audio issues from a recording device that was slowly failing without us noticing, but through all that, I remember what I said in the blog post “On the Mountain” from September 2020. Referencing the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, I said “If any of this takes off, it means that there was fire from heaven.” Well, ladies and gents, I’m pleased to report that there was indeed fire from heaven. Things are still a struggle, and I can become depressed far too often as I battle through mountains of issues, but it helps to remember that we’ve already moved beyond the possible, so whatever comes, God will see us through.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I shall close this blog update with our traditional farewell, and return to staring at a screen, while tediously clicking.

If all goes well, we should be seeing the stunties again very soon…

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