Research and Mass Duels

Greetings, one and all! So this week has less flashy news, mostly lots of research, but I suppose that is progress in and of itself. Learning new tech after so long with the old stuff pretty much feels like starting from square one, as the core assumptions about how an effects shot functions are different. Plus, the rest of life intruded on at least half of the work days. Still, we press on.

The stunt team met again Sunday, and this time rolled the lessons of the last two weeks into one giant group fight, while still maintaining the dueling format.

It’s quite remarkable the progress everyone’s making after such a short time. In the rare moments where they were all practicing simultaneously, pair after pair stacked up in a row, the result was very Three Musketeers in its look.

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

New Shots and Moving Even Faster

Greetings, one and all! This week saw a fair bit of progress when it comes to preparing the Nine Isles edit for the final phase. Footage gets changed or added, and in some cases manufactured. The highlight was a scene that needed to be lengthened for pacing and clarity. This required that I remove an actor from some different footage, and fix the part of a cloak that they had interacted with. Fairly simple stuff with more modern toys, but I’m still working with tech that’s about 16 years old, so… it was a challenge, but one that we pulled off remarkably well.

Thankfully, as we come closer to the end of the edit, the changes required have been getting fewer and further between, so the pace has picked up considerably.

Sunday the team met, and continued with the exercise from last week, getting more speed into their fights…

This time we also decided to standardize the weapons, so there’d be a more even comparison. While the sudden onset of a few warm days drained the stuntie stamina faster than expected, they still pulled off the required move count with style.

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

Smoother Scenes and Higher Speeds

 Greetings, one and all! This week opened with inspiration for how to resolve a glaring continuity issue that came about due to changing location access. With the right sound effects and a fake stone column, everything came together quite well.
This was followed by an attempt to salvage a rather awkward scene that ended with us just shooting an insert to replace it instead. Pro tip to all of the stage actors dipping their toes into screen acting: Just because you don’t have to deliver your entire script in one go does not mean you can learn your lines the day of shooting. While that may work for tests in school, it’s not gonna fool a camera that’s watching you from four feet away. Plus side, this was the scene that taught one such actor exactly that, so at least it was a short scene…
Radiating from this fix were several other color and timing changes, which have kept me pleasantly busy these last few days.

Next up, the team met again, this time with a full complement, and they set about using a trick I learned from stunt master Nick Gillard to get more speed and energy into their fights.

Despite at least one very strange weapons combo, they did quite well, and hopefully this will be a stepping stone to what’s next.

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

Fiddly Edits and Atmospheric Ancient Choreography

Greetings, one and all! So we now have a working trailer for The Nine Isles: Chaos Crown. Now all that remains is a few fixes to effects and the edit, and then finding someone to do the music for the movie…Yeah, okay, “all” that’s left, but still, progress, eh?

Speaking of fixes, that’s what the rest of the week was comprised of. Working on the trailer revealed that there were a few shots where the forest was still a little too yellow, so we resolved those, before working on improving the film's edit. A few notable items involve selling a visual sleight of hand a bit better, (using accidental footage, of all things,) and working out how to blend two scenes together now that the scene that used to bridge the gap has been removed due to said scene just not working.

Lastly, the team met Sunday, but the rapidly changing weather required a bit of a high speed choreography exercise… set in Ancient Greece, because why not.

All in all a remarkably productive week despite an unusual amount of snow and the cold that’s been circulating.

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