Reflection, Revision, and Rain

Greetings, one and all! The admittedly dubious perk of getting sick and having it hang on longer than usual is it forces you to slow down and reflect. The chief thing it made me realize was that, while the script we have is solid, it still lacks a certain kick, the pulp serial cover moment that makes someone go “I need to find out what’s happening there.” We have the concept that makes this story unique, but it’s a bit buried under the mystery, so we need to bring it more to the fore, and give it some more screen time. To that end I’ve begun another edit pass on the script, focusing on how to give the thing a better visual hook for the promotional materials.

Next up, we begun work on one of the ships for a battle sequence in the film, though I’m still deciding if I like what’s been done, so far. It’s supposed to be the primary combat vessel for a mining conglomerate, so I’m trying to decide if it looks the part.

Last but not least, the stunt team met again under the pouring rain to train in a few of the arts that require less linear space. Namely falling, rolling, and some more short sword work.

Progress on the first two elements was quick, but the short sword requires more technical finesse, so that proceeded at a much more normal rate. All in all, a good and productive day.

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

Stunties in Motion

Greetings, one and all! So, by the time I finished writing the last blog, half the team had woken up sick. While it’s still better than last year, where we were sick literally every month, this one has clung on more than most. So we managed to squeeze in one music session before everyone crashed, but then we dedicated the rest of the week to recovery, doing it just in time for stunt meet.

We brought the rest of the newest team members up to speed on the short sword work we did last week, before teaching them moving in character, and with intent.

We ran the gamut of attitudes and characters, from goblin to overlord, elf to thug, we put them through the paces, ending with an exercise where we had them simply move from point A to point B with different characters and motivation. All in all, a pretty entertaining day.

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

Seven Hundred

Greetings, one and all! In a bit of a meta-note, today marks the seven hundredth blog post written on this page. We’ve been providing weekly updates of everything film-related that we’ve been doing since April 25^th, 2012, where we covered the Gatewalkers teaser shoot of the previous week. It was initially enacted as a personal discipline, as well as a bit of motivation by accountability, because I would need to have at least something to report every week. Given the fact that we’re still here thirteen years later, it seems to have worked.

Back to the present, we had a fair amount of real world obligations to clutter the week, but we did manage to cram in a couple composing sessions. On top of that, we realized that there are two separate windows of time that would be best for the release of the Nine Isles, and one of them is fast approaching, so we took a fair amount of time to review marketing plans, and run some render tests to make sure the tech runs smoothly.

Lastly the stunt team met again, and ran through a small variety of combat styles, ranging from bow to the short sword…

An unusual, crowded, yet somehow still productive week.

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

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!