Range and Readings

Greetings, one and all! As predicted, we did get the Foley session done at the start of the blog week. While the integration of the audio from that day was fairly straightforward, the video we captured was less so, as there was some challenge getting the colors to match what we shot a couple years ago, despite matching camera settings as accurately as possible.

But beyond that, we worked on more edit and pacing revisions, including using one of the perks of digital recording: The fact that Gigabytes are relatively cheap, so you have lots of reaction footage from when the character isn’t talking to better sell a moment. My personal favorite was using a reaction from earlier in the conversation to make a guard look even more like a sleazy used car salesman than he already did.

Sunday the team met and ran a drill session with spears, followed by a free form session where they tried a series of increasingly interesting weapons...

After that, things stepped down a bit, and our more dramatically inclined team members read for parts in our summer short.

It’s a fair bit more humorously inclined than usual, but it seemed like the right tone, especially for the actors in question. Some revisions are in order, but I look forward to seeing how it pans out.

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

Shots and Shields

Greetings, one and all! This production week opened with yet more sound work, then phased into adjustments on some effects. The lightning in particular is getting a significant overhaul.

Following that, enough of the less experienced team members were available on Sunday that we could move on to sword and shield training. We opened with the basic moves, then they broke into pairings and drilled, before finishing it off with a short choreography practice that implemented the techniques they’d learned.

If all goes as planned, by the time you’re reading this we will have just finished a Foley session, coupled with a re-shoot of a puppet shot that wasn’t quite working. Thankfully the weather and lighting is now in an area that roughly approximates the first time we did it.

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

Sticks and Blows

Greetings, one and all! The tail on this cold was long, but thankfully some stuff has still gotten done. First, a pattern for a stunt hand and a half sword. Next, sound. Lots and lots of sound… Trying to give wind blasts more punch has been very difficult, and we’re currently in the middle of an iterative process to get the sound effects closer to that goal. As audio is not my thing, there’s quite a gulf between knowing what it needs to sound like, and knowing how to get there. On top of that, we've been working on a heavy re-edit of the first eight minutes of the movie.

Sunday the team met again and experimented with a slightly different fight scene, where Nathan departed from his usual brute class for something with a staff…

A fun bit of choreo that got tangled up and had to be rebuilt several times, but all in all finished well.

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

Rolling With It

Greetings, one and all! The process of fixing an assortment of issues in the sound, effects, and edit have all continued apace. Or did, until I got hit with a lovely cold. Now they’re proceeding slowly, as my limited brain allows. For all that, I managed to participate in a small livestream for writers and filmmakers of my particular stripe, so that was good.

Sunday, as I was trying to keep my distance, the team worked on things that didn’t need my direct input. In this case, elevating their diving roll game by having obstacles to cross, rolling with weapons, grabbing weapons mid-roll, and so on.

Naturally, these exercises do tend to make people a bit woozy after a while, so in the end the session ran a little short, but all in all not bad. Now, on the docket for this week, figuring out how to do the audio for a shipwreck…

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