Works in Progress

Greetings, one and all! First off, the composing sessions for this week brought us through the midpoint of the big fight scene, now we just have the final clash to do. Last minute changes to schedules meant that there was no stunt team this week, but it had the happy side effect of being able to use this blog post as a bit of a work in progress showcase.

Last week I was able to get the only possible non-spoiler picture of the plot-inducing tablet, as one of our stunties attempts to decipher it…

Next up, a quick look at the crown, mid-gluing.

Lastly, the progress of this week. After removing identifying text from the case element, we stripped some of the outer detailing to give the blaster a more streamlined look, then added rebar for some more realistic weight, and inserted some vintage hose fixtures to make the barrel.  

Carefully sanding down text and logos to a nice smooth finish was probably the most time consuming task of the week, but the results were quite good.

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

Training Troopers

Greetings, one and all! While last week was more of a rush of completed props, this week was a slower process of troubleshooting ideas and designs for the various trooper weapons. The idea was to take the basic design from Stormborn, but regress it to the in-universe equivalent of WW1, which is fundamentally the kind of era in which this story takes place. Great discoveries are being made, and no-one sees the shadow looming ahead…

Also, with some of the ship-making experiments not turning out as hoped, we’re going back to the drawing board with a few designs, while running some experiments with different materials to see what works and what doesn’t.

While the week was busier, in non-filmmaking life, we still managed to squeeze in a couple of music sessions, taking a deep bite out of the big fight scene.

Lastly, the team met Sunday, and once again turned their training toward the skills they’d need to perform in the upcoming project. In this case, squad movement, and single sword fighting…

The team practiced a couple old-school ways of advancing under cover, ones that would look good for a boarding party, before breaking off into choreography exercises for the single sword. This was all capped off by an impromptu sparring exercise.

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

Finished Props and Returning Stunties

Greetings, one and all! Following up on the work of last week, the next step in prop work was shaping and painting the foam tablet to look more like a clay tablet. This took a couple days as each coat needed time to dry, but in the end it came out looking pretty good, particularly on camera.

Following that, we turned to crafting and troubleshooting the crown, which is another plot relevant item, but thankfully one that doesn’t provide any spoilers. We technically made two different versions, but the first one was too bulky, so in the end we opted to craft a more complex, thorn-like design.

The week’s crafting was rounded out by testing a couple different versions of the datapad screens before settling on the option that seems like it should have been more obvious to begin with. Namely, just painting the back of the clear plastic after we glued it into the prop. Now I just have to figure out how to provide the whole thing with some structural integrity…

Lastly, the full team met on Sunday for the first time since the shoot, and flexed their combat muscles with a mix of choreography and team sparring.

The very last sparring exercise was particularly interesting, as it highlighted the difference things like age, experience, size, and speed all have on the outcome of a fight. Some of them might not be what you think…

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

Design and Duelists

Greetings, one and all! So after we recovered from the big shoot, we spent to rest of the heat wave working on how the upgraded cockpit design integrates with the exterior design of the drop shuttle. This took quite a bit longer than expected, but in the end I think we have something that works. We also had three music sessions, which fleshed out some transitions, and brought us fully into the fight scene.

Once the heat wave passed, we did a quick supply run to acquire materials for the aforementioned drop shuttle set, then turned our attention to more prop work. While there are other props that have more screen time, this one is the object that gets the main plot moving, and unlike some of the more important props, I actually had a plan for how to make it. To that end, I spent the better part of a day carefully carving archaic text into a slab of foam, and added some ancient figures in the Babylonian style. Why? Guess you’ll just have to see the movie.

Sunday a much smaller team met, but it was still quite productive, as one of our newest members had the opportunity to really sink his teeth into a dueling scenario.

It also allowed our youngest veteran a chance to really direct the flow of choreography, which was a good experience all around.

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