Interesting...

2007 COMIC-CON NEWS: TREK, INDY 4, and more

A variety of major announcements have been coming out of the 2007 Comic-Con in San Diego, including:

* Steven Spielberg has confirmed that Karen Allen will reprise the role of Marion Ravenwood in the fourth INDIANA JONES picture.

* J.J. Abrams that original STAR TREK star Leonard Nimoy will return as Spock in the upcoming TREK movie prequel, and HEROES star Zachary Quinto will also appear as the younger Spock.

Next Sunday

If all goes as planned, we will be shooting the scenes with John Gruse as the caretaker next Sunday. We'll also shoot the scene with Switch.

Vacation...

Well...we went on a family vacation - Sunday through Monday. We went to KING'S ISLAND Amusement Park (OHIO)...Let me start out by saying that if you are 6 foot 7 inches, there is very little to be amused about. No roller coasters, no spinning rides, no racing rides, no...well, lets just say I spent a lot of time on the water log rides. My nine year old and I bonded on the "Wild Thornberry's" water log ride TEN TIMES. It was fun...really. But I have blisters on my feet from walking around in wet socks and sneakers. Then there was the two rides I really wanted to try out. The "Tomb Raider" and "The Italian Job". Could not fit into the Italian Job as it was built for dwarfs! The other ride, Tomb Raider, was closed - with no reason or excuse as to why. NICE!

And let's now get into the hotel situation for just a little bit...I was on a bed that even normal people would have trouble fitting on...well, maybe not...perhaps it is my SHREK - LIKE body that did not fit the norm-bed. But when my head was at the front, my legs were off the end of the bed by at least a foot. I got about three hours of sleep last night.

Then there was the water park. Fifteen GAZILLION people were there and there was no way I was going to get into the 'wave pool' where people were mashed against each other. I was not about to try the 'lazy river' where you are lied to about the relaxing river you float down on an inner tube...it was chaos...freakin' chaos. I, instead, went to the bar and had a $6.00 cup of beer. WHAT A RIP!

So...was there a silver lining? Yes. My two boys had a blast on the rides and my youngest had his first roller coaster experience. My wife had the opportunity to ride on a roller coaster with her father (something she had not done in many years) and that warmed my heart - truly, TRULY the highlight of the vacation...sort of a long story there, but they (daughter/father) bonded, and that ROCKED for me. So my enjoyment was...seeing my family have fun. That was pretty much it...cause I didn't have fun my self...

My legs hurt from being cramped in a van for three hours and my feet look like "white zombie, mummy feet" according to my eldest...tho I prefer to call them white prunes. My back is in a lot of pain from riding the "Thornberry's" thing over and over again and my head still hurts where I went through the "Sponge Bob" water park...no one mentioned that anyone over 6ft 5in would smash their skull against a metal pipe that spurted water...and collided with a solid metal pipe!

I so need a vacation...but it won't happen...

My idea of a perfect vacation...

We go to a ski lodge...IN WINTER WITH SNOW ...we ski for ten hours!!!!!!!!!!we drink hot chocolate or coffee with Baileys...then we sit near a warm fireplace (me and my wife...the kids are already asleep by now and are in the cabin) and we listen to Miles Davis, Vangelis, Christopher Franke or Bach.

Any way. In a few days I'll post the next bit of footage from the film. We have the opportunity to get a lot done and bot Ted and I are psyched about it.

We got food...

I've been on shoots before...several, actually...but we have never had food brought in. Sally and Stephanie had sandwich food and drinks and chips this week. BIG OL' THANKS to them for the food!

I also want to state at this time that this has been the most relaxed shoot I have ever been involved with. I have been on location with directors who have shouted, cursed and stomped away as if they were a little (diva) child, but never have I been involved with such a great team.

Thanks guys (and gals). You are the BEST!

Today's shoot went well....but...

Today's shoot was fantastic. We got a lot done, until the second battery died. We also had a lot of great photos...however, tomorrow we leave for vacation so after loading the images to the computer, I cleared them all off...only to realize that the computer only had half of the images!!! Arg. We had a great shot of Luke reclining against a tree...IT WAS GOING TO BE FOR THE BANNER AND A DESKTOP IMAGE! I am hoping that one of the other people there taking photos got the shot. I used Brittany for the banner instead. The next time we shoot Matt will be in his gear and have all of his weapons. I am going to get images of him, Luke, and Elder Stall (Susie) for banners and desktop images.

Any way, we welcomed Brittany to the team today. She had one simple task. To get killed by the Garum. However, Loren did not show up today and he was supposed to fight Danielle. Well, I asked Brittany if she didn't mind fighting Danielle. She was excited and did a fantastic job.

Brittany experiencing the icy cold pain of Shawn's rain Rack.



Then she 'tracked' Danielle...



The face off...



Brittany grabs Danielle's sword.



Danielle gets pounded...



Our messiest shoot yet...



I started working on Brittany's injuries as she gets ready to DIE!

A few more shots from last week...

Here I am saying something important...or just something.



Explaining how I want the shot cropped.



Ted and Danielle consult the script.



I don't direct...I just point a lot.



Here I will magically make the truck disappear.



Matt, up on the ladder, checks the shot.



Sally gets ready to FREEZE!



Drying out the costumes after the shoot.

Difter

The Drifter Demon is coming along. Jon sent these today.

Ka BOOM

I spent about three hours on Lilly's Rocket Launcher...I had a definite idea of how it would look until Ted sent me some footage of 'energy' surrounding Lilly...I totally redesigned the launcher...I should have it done and photographed by tomorrow night.

Lilly's hands start to glow...

On the bright side...

Jon showed me the status of the DRIFTER. It rocks. A far superior creation than my original idea. Just waiting for him to send an image and I'll post it.

Well, Crap!

Just found out from Ted that there was another segment of video we shot that looks messed up because of the camera being what it is. The camera was graciously loaned to us by an IPFW student - LOANED not RENTED - which totally rocks. However, the last person to have used it left it in horrible disarray. The viewfinder lens was pushed deep into the viewfinder apparatus, the eject does not work, the camera sometimes decides it it depressed and will not recognize a tape we've inserted and the whole camera was covered with some sort of odd dust and grime that we had to spray off with canned air. Sally thought she was done filming...she's not. We need to re shoot.

More photos

The following photos are by Susie and Stephanie...

Ted proves himself worthy by protecting the camera from Shawn's rain...



This is me trying to get Danielle pumped up enough to actually kick my hand...eventually she did.





Our crew on Flower Hill



Tarina as Lilly

What I'm listening to...

To keep myself calm, I had Kristi load some Miles Davis into my MP3 player. I love his version of "Time After Time" He went too soon.

Great day of shooting.

ALL PHOTOS BY LANA MABBIT

Despite the bright sun and the fact that a communication error caused Luke (our male lead) and Lorren (the crazy guy with the spikes at his elbows) to miss the shoot, we had a good day. As it turned out we would not have been able to shoot them any way as we were on a limited shooting schedule. We got a lot done in just three hours.

Matt climbs the ladder to shoot the confrontation between Core (Adam) and Gwen (Danielle) However, all of Adam's scenes were shot two weeks ago and he had a limited amount of shoot time. These shots were of scenes where he was not actually in the frame.


One of the scenes was Sallel (Sally) confronting Gwen before the fight with Core. The water was FREEZING and I was worried Sally was going to go into hypothermia. We kept towels close by.




We used my arm as a stand-in for Adam's and Danielle got to kick my hand about ten times or so...maybe less. The last one was perfect and hurt! The tree house in the background won't be in the film...but we were thinking about including vikings...vikings and monkeys...relax Ted...I'm joking.



"Everybody was Kung-foo fighting..."




Then it was off to Flower Hill to shoot Lilly (Tarina) looking into the sky for Drifter Demons.



Lilly falls to her knees as she is overwhelmed by the Demons and she has to explode to kill them. Yes...I said explode.



The only odd thing that happened on the shoot was when we had Tarina's shot lined up and the clouds directly overhead dissolved into a weird mist and a circular rainbow appeared directly over head. We lost our light (or shade actually) but the odd rainbow was cool to see.



The rainbow is sorta hard to see...but it's there.



Battle of the finger pointers with poor Said caught in the middle. His hat wins best head cover award if there was such an award given out.



The scene looks like...well, it's supposed to look like...forget it...I'll shoot it myself. Actually it was more of a situation where I just couldn't figure out what I wanted unless I was looking through the viewfinder.

Sean the Rain Wrangler.

The first picture of many of today's shoot.



Danielle hams it up!

The much talked about, often refered to but rarely seen...

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Sunday July 21 Hunter's Forest - Matt, Ted, Tarina, Loren, Said, Susie, Sally, Allen, Zack, Max, Danielle, Luke, Shawn, Sean

Saturday July 27 Hunter's Forest - Matt, Ted, Tarina, Loren, Brittany, Susie, Sally, Allen, Zack, Max, Danielle, Luke, Shawn, Sean, Roosevelt, Tiffany Dixie (if schedule permits)

Saturday August 3(?) Set - Matt, Ted, Susie, Allen ('s last day of shooting), Zack, Max, Danielle, Luke, Shawn, Megan, Roosevelt, Brittany

Saturday August 10 (?) Hunter's Forest (Pick ups) Matt, Ted, (any of the cast who need reshoots or pick ups) I will not be there. A list of who needs to be there will be posted. Good luck and may the Force be with you.

Monkey Fight!

In a stunning turn of events, and after suffering heat stroke, Allen decided that all of the fight scenes in the film would done with baby monkeys.

Ron's been workin'

I started working on the Garum's head in clay a while back but it got destroyed...sad day...but now that Ron is building it in Mud Box, I am glad...I like his design a whole lot better...

Blindfolded?

My original plan was to have the actors use blindfolds that they could see through. Once we started shooting, however, I realized that it was more believable if they could not actually see and I directed them from off camera...some, who have seen the footage, have questioned whether the actors can see or not. After the last shoot, the question has been answered. Adam came out and was a tad more theatrical then I had expected him to be. He flung his arms out wildly and missed Sally and Stephanie's faces by a few inches with sharp wooden knives...the crew gasped...I almost needed to check my shorts. Sally and Stephanie did not flinch...at all.

no rain...now rain...

We've had a bit of a dry spell for a few weeks...but finally, a serious storm is passing through. Not the short rain soaker we had last Saturday, but serious take-no-prisoners-rear-end-kickin' thunderstorms. I spent the last half hour recording the sounds of the storm. We'll have a lot of great sounds to work from when we start doing post production! Plus, the storms calm me...that is good. Lot's of tension lately...

We are shooting this Sunday at the Hunter's forest at 1:00-5:00.

Answers to the top 10 most asked questions about the film.

1) Yes.
2) Because, but it wouldn't make sense otherwise.
3) No. Ted never did.
4) Plaid.
5) Why not!
6) She's blind. Duh!
7) I uh...don't really know.
8) Thanks. Yes, it does. (not really a question)
9) Color mixing. That would be the one.
10) Yes. They are, aren't they.

I'll post the questions sometime later.

Lilly's gun

Just sent this to Shawn, the master of PVC.

Tarina/Lilly

Though Tarina was not the first choice for Lilly and the character had to go trhough many changes, Tarina has really made Lilly come alive.

I can not WAIT until next week!

Last night it rained. My 9 year old, Zack, said, "Why don't you put a plastic tarp over the chalk walk image and duct tape it down." So he and my wife did that and it survived the rain. Many pieces did not survive.

When I arrived today to work on it I found that the IDIOT security dorks had driven over several chalk pieces (mine as well) and ruined them. My image survived the rain, but their golf cart tore back some of the tarp and allowed water to damage Lincoln's face and several other areas.

I spent 12 hours total on the image...I'm hosed.

Can't wait to shoot next week...bummed that I only have 3 weeks left. As the french say, "Such is life." Only they say it in french.

Below is the damage that the security caused when they drove over the tarp. What a bunch of wankers!



A few action photos of me drying out in the heat...




Finally done!

New banner and poster...

been working on a new banner and poster...should be up by Sunday.

A good day!

We got to Main Street at 8:00 am and I painted my 8 ft x 8 ft square with white tempera. Last year some one used Acrylic and the white square was there for about six months.



Then I unloaded the proper gear. Pastels, charcol, gloves, rags, liquid refreshments.



This year I am doing an image of Lincoln with two young soldiers.



I still have about 4 more hours to go and I'll do that tomorrow morning when its cooler. I stopped around 3:45 today.



Everything was going fine until the Stormtroopers arrived with a loan Tuscan Raider. These guys were in the parade for some reason...