No Shiny

That's right, sadly we have no pictures from the current phase of the work, mostly because I'm currently neck deep in it and a couple other things. Currently we're 40% of the way into blade 3 of 4 in the group fight sequence, with number four taking up much less screen time. With that in mind we're probably in the last quarter of the first section.

 

To get "Chaos" off the ground again after the lull, we're looking at a slightly unorthodox method for creating the backgrounds and environments, but one which will keep within the spirit and tone of the piece. Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as we have a sampling.

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

On the Color Red

 Okay, maybe not so much ON the color, but the color has certainly been occupying much of my working time. With the Jedi Sabers completed in a timely manner, the Sith get all my attention. Ah, the joys of finding the great disappearing blade, especially when both the stuntie and camera are moving fast enough to make the entire arm disappear. Still, we are progressing, with 3/5ths of the first minion blade animation being completed these last two days.

Before I dove into the more complicated parts of the work, however, I animated the last shot of the entry, to figure out what, exactly, I was doing.

 

 

Turns out red blades against a blue sky make for some interesting color challenges.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Until next time!

Hammering It Out

 Greetings, one and all! We have now begun the period of relative quiet. By which I mean running around frantically, but with less people in tow. A good friend is getting married in a week and a half, and I'll be in the ceremony, so that'll be taking up a wee bit 'o my attention. Even though the LCC edit was "locked" last week, there were still several things I wasn't quite happy with, so five iterations later we're a tad bit closer. A few seconds of saber animation have been completed, but since I didn't want to start work on any of the parts that are in flux, as that would be a waste of hours of work, that's as far as we could go this week.

 

The last few weeks I was working on a new script idea, but fifty pages in I realized it wasn't in keeping with the spirit of what I was trying to accomplish and scrapped it. Now I'm a mere seven pages into the newest idea, and it looks to be more in keeping with the flavor of what we do. (*editor's note: Yay!)

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

Jedi Assemble

 Thursday saw the final shoot for our LCC entry, and it was pleasantly surprising for us. Ten people showed to fill the roles, half of which we'd never worked with before. Our combined resources allowed for a wide range of looks for them, including a certain popular alien...

 

 Tuesday we recorded the grunts of combat and the death cries for most of the Sith stunties, then discussed the layout of future projects. Two effects shots have been completed for the entry, plus another thirty pages in the newest script, so all in all a productive week.

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

Phase 1: Completion Impending

So here we are, a mere day until the final shoot for our first LCC entry. Last week we ran the shoot for 6 hours, our test run allowing us to pull it off, even with wardrobe resets, minor injuries, and the considerable heat.

 Sunday we costumed our Jedi, arranging for their part of the event. Tomorrow we go up to the quarry once again for the final shots of the scene. If all goes well we'll return with a few less sunburns.

That's about all for this week. Until next time!

The Eve of Battle

Tomorrow we set out to film the LCC duel, for real this time. The test shoot allowed us to see what we were doing right, and what needed to be fixed. This time we'll be in full costume and makeup, a teaser of which can be seen below.

This week has been all prep. A final refresher session, followed by nailing down the last costuming elements.

 

 

We'll keep it brief this time, since we'll likely be inundated with photos next week. Until then!

Conceptualizing

 Greetings one and all! This week has been unique and full of both chaos and promise, but sadly we don't have any pics to prove it.

Suffice it to say that we spent the Sunday meeting working on costuming and makeup for our fighters, retrofitting old and new armor pieces for our purposes. One of the things being a filmmaker does is it causes a certain ordinarily oblivious guy to be much more attuned to things like makeup and hair, at least on the creative side.

 

Also of note this week is that I'm writing again. Yes, after a couple years of wading through purely production. I'm finally going out and flexing the creative muscles again. Whether or not this becomes a new project remains to be see.

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