PRODUCTION STATUS:
Status for June 2001 through September 19, 2001
9/19 - I forgot to mention how pleased I
was with last weekend's shootings. Robert (plays Bennet) had me in
stitches with his facial expressions and I had to leave the garage in order for
him to do the scene without any background laughter. Clio and Lou did an
equally great job on the last Katie's Quarter's scene. After rewriting
the script many, many times, I thought I would never laugh at it again (like
telling the same joke over and over) but I was wrong. Seeing the actor's
expressions and mannerisms has made me see the scene for the first time
again. Anna (plays Morgan) surprised me with how many different ways a
line could be delivered. She made me realize it is better to have all
actors engaged in a conversation to be present whenever possible. Eve and
Michelle were absolutely fantastic as Aunt Edith and Sally - the scene will
elicit an "aw" from every female in the audience, and some males
too! Phil did a great job as Glover, but we were a little disappointed
with his lack of bloopers (did I mention I love bloopers?). Maybe we can
coax some out of him when he does his other scenes. Jennifer (Doc) did a
great job with her voice overs and her scene with Andy in the elevator was
really good. It will bring a smile to the faces in the audience.
The suprise was Richard, of course, since he has never acted before. He
played Doc Wilson and had us believing he works the night shift at
9/16 - I feel it is important that we
return to our normal lives, otherwize the terrorists have achieved their
goal. With that in mind, we continued with our shooting scheduled for
this last weekend, and again, it was smooth as silk. The following are
pictures from this weekend and last weekend. I'm using the one chip
camcorder still which has stuff that won't be seen in the production
image. In the top left picture below, the crew is playing around during a
shot. We see an alien creature pop out of Captain Ryan's (Tom)
chest. Fortunately Sara (Krista) was there to save him (top right).
(This is not in the movie). This alien creature defecated on the
Captain's chair, either that or someone left raisins there, we're not quite
sure. Below that we see Andy (Lou) getting challenged by Tuk
(Bette). To the right is Admiral Morgan (Anna) in front of the green
screen. 3rd row left is a picture of the crew, on the right are Eve and
Michelle doing their scene, Ricky was reading Max's lines. On the bottom
left is Doc (Jennifer) doing her green screen shots, and on the right are Doc
Wilson (Richard) and Katie (Clio) in the sick bay scene (I'm the guy behind the
camcorder).
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9/14 - I am, of course, devastated by the horrendous events which occurred Tuesday, 9/11/01. How can Militant Islamics claim any belief in God? Don't ALL religions preach "Thou shall not kill"? They steal jets (hijacking). "Thou shall not steal". Bin Laden lies about his involvement. "Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor". How many other Commandments do they break in the name of the Lord? To me, they appear to be a band of Lying Murderous Cutthroats and Thieves. A group right out of the Middle Ages. My heart goes out to all of the innocent lives who were murdered by this ruthless scum of the Earth. I pray that the innocent people are all in Heaven. To Hell with the others!
9/9 - The first weekend of shooting was
fantastic and the actors gave terrific performances! Everything went
almost flawlessly and we are even ahead of schedule! We managed to
complete approximately 22 pages (which is about the same number of minutes) of
the movie. The only minor problem was we couldn't get the horns to stick
on Tuk so we decided to forget them. I think Bette did a great job with
her alien make-up (see below). Also below is a picture of us discussing a
crucial scene. These pictures are from the one-chip camcorder so I'll try
to get some better pictures from the 3-chip production camcorder a little
later.
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9/6 - All Principal and Major actors have
accepted their roles (see Cast), we just have
to work out the schedule. Still negotiating on Minor actor roles. I
put the Rafi and Speck uniforms on order so I can shoot those scenes as soon as
the costumes arrive. (I won't use the hood for the Rafi costume). I
hope the costumes look as good as their pictures in real life because they sure
were cheap. I'm also planning on having a student make-up artist apply
the make-up for the aliens.
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9/2 - The bridge set is finished! Hooray! (see below) The script was finished and sent to the actors who have been offered roles (Auditions were held 8/25, 8/26 and 18 very talented individuals showed up). 15 people are still interested in the project and casting will be finalized by about 9/5. Shooting is currently scheduled to commence on Sat 9/8.
8/21/01 - The lamination worked
beautifully - the consoles are done except for touch up. The UPSFC seal
with the holographic material is shown next to the computer generated seal in
the 8/12/01 report below. The picture to the left below shows the
elevator doors (with the UPSFC seal), a viewer screen, the comm panel, and the
helm bridge console. The ceiling will be one of the last things to do (I
will install a white drop cloth). The picture to the right is a close up
of the comm panel. Also finished building the base for the Captain's chair
but it still needs sanded and painted. My plan is to assemble the set
during the long Labor Day weekend so it's ready for the beginning of shooting
on Sep 8. The inflatable furniture arrived but it's dark blue instead of
silver. The manufacturer has discontinued it so the blue will have to do.
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8/12/01 - The rain hindered progress this
weekend but got a few things done anyway. Again, the spray fixative has
tainted the color of the bridge control panels giving the greys a red tint but
I think I have found a solution - lamination! I will try it out
tomorrow. Also finished designing the Space Force Command seal, see
below. I will use gold holographic material to place over the gold
area. The emblems on the costumes (which is just the gold area, not the
entire seal) are made of this same holographic material, it looks real good.
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8/8/01 - The console panels bubbled again so they have to be remade a fourth time. UGH! This time I'll use glue. The viewers are finished except for touch up, as is the transporter pad. Received the Captain's chair. Will make a new stand for it and put the UPSFC emblem on it. Ordered some silver inflatable furniture for the room scenes. While on vacation I found some really cool futuristic paintings to hang on the walls and conference room (see below). Auditions have been set and the actors have been contacted. Also ordered a 9 foot boom assembly for the shotgun mike since the crew always gets tired of holding the fish pole. Also installed pull handles on the wall panels to make them easier to move around.
7/26/01 - The wall panels are complete except for the viewers; the white strip around the screen needs to be painted black. Finished building the transporter pad last weekend, just need to finish painting it. Found a great Captain's chair and placed it on order, it looks great (see below) and will only need minor modifications. There will be a delay since I am going on vacation but when I return I will be announcing the casting call. Need to redesign the web site to make it look more professional.
7/17/01 - Made a painting mistake and had to redo the console faces again. Used a different sealant on the artwork which seams to work much better. Got a quote on renting the conference table and chairs for the conference room scenes. Bought carpet for the bridge floor.
7/12/01 - Finished putting the second
coat on the panels. Below are pictures of the new consoles and a bridge
viewer screen (the green area will be replaced with another image in post
production). The third picture shows that the spots on the console faces
are gone.
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7/11/01 - Finished designing the comm and galley panels and taped them for painting.
7/9/01 - Got the first coat of paint on the panels and the tops of the consoles were re-done. Currently working on the design of the comm panel and the galley panel. Bridge view screens are done.
7/3/01 - The 12 wall panels have been
built and I hope to have them painted by the end of the weekend (7/8). I
still have to design and paint the bridge view screens. The tops of the
three bridge consoles have to be re-done because little pieces of steel wool
became embedded in the plastic coating and rusted making little brown
spots. Still to build are the Captain's chair, the teleporter pad, the
communications station panel, and the galley panel. The layout of the
bridge is here.
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The first picture above is of the 3 bridge consoles. The new faces have more color in them and look better. To the right of the consoles are some of the unpainted wall panels. The second picture shows the rust spots in the old console faces.
June 2001 - Got the costumes back from the costumer. Started work on the consoles.