Status for September 20 through October 31, 2001:

10/29 - Unfortunately, due to a heavy workload at work, I was unable to work on the production this last week.  Hopefully that won't last much longer.  Still haven't been able to get through to the costume companies because they're so busy.  Tried looking in the local area but nobody had what I wanted.  I'll probably have to wait until after Halloween.

10/21 - Didn't have access to a bar so I changed the scene to a pool room and shot it at my sister's.  Krista and Greg did a great job and the scene puts the finishing touches on the Max/Sara relationship.  Only two more scenes to shoot - both of which are green screen scenes.  Still trying to get the Rafi costumes but the vendors have taken their phones off the hook because they're so busy filling orders for Halloween.  Maybe I'll try to buy something locally.  I'm also gearing up to do the animations by running through the tutorials again.  Although I no longer plan on making the Specks animated, there is more animation work than I had originally planned (in particular, in backgrounds for the green screen work).  Consequently, I think the scheduled completion date of July 2002 is still accurate.

10/17 - Wow!  The last 2 weeks were intense!  In a flurry of activity and late nights, we managed to complete 99% of the filming!  There are only 3 scenes left to shoot: the bar scene with Max and Sara, the Rafi scene, and the Specks scene.  Below, Danny Brannon is sitting at Andy's seat, Bette is sitting at the helm, Sabrina Dunbar is at the weapons console, and Tammy Roberts is at the comm console.  Behind Danny is Lindsay Schindele, and behind Tom is Jennifer (Doc).
 

Below, Phil (Glover) and Jennifer (Doc) are in the transporter room with the beautiful medipod built by Chris Mindel (who also was my soundman for most of the shooting).  To the right, it shows that yes indeed, we had a good time.  I believe Greg just introduced Lieutenant Tuk as Lieutenant Duck.
 

Below, it shows that there were also some late nights and everyone put in a lot of long hours.
 

Below are the reversals, i.e., what the bridge looks like from the reverse direction.  Gee, I sure hope the space heater didn't make it into the shot.  There were only two evenings which were cold and after the first I brought the heater so it wasn't bad after that.  Didn't notice the heater until now though.  To the right, Dorsey holds the boom mike in the conference room scenes.  We were there for almost 3 hours so we took turns holding the mike.  In the bottom left, Chris is holding the fishpole.  The bottom right shows my blue-haired son holding the mike (the blue hair was his birthday present).
 

Below shows my blonde-haired son (this was just before we dyed it blue) ripping up one of the viewer panels.  I have some real good footage of us really tearing into the set and styrofoam, I'll see if I can find it.  And finally, the garage is back to almost normal.
 

In other news, the Space Speck costumes arrived and they look terrific!  Just like the pictures on their web site.  Got one of the Rafi costumes but it's the wrong one.  Unfortunately, the costume company is very busy since this is the height of their season (Halloween).  As such, I don't think I'll have the Rafi costumes straightened out until Novemeber sometime.  Fortunately, those scenes will be shot in front of a green sceen which I can set up in the rec room (the garage will be freezing at that time).

10/1 - Below are the pictures I promised.  Top left is Robert Sphuler (Bennet) describing the asteroid that passed by.  Top right is Phil Bolin (Glover) doing his green screen work.  These pictures are from a few weeks ago and from the DSR-200 camcorder (but I've compressed them like crazy so they don't take so much time to load).  Next is John Bailey (Rafi Captain) giving his audition at the Metro station.  To the right is me taping Lou and Tom doing their Captain quarter's scene.  (I spend most of my time looking at the TV monitor rather than the camcorder view finder).  Third row left is Clio and Andy in their bedroom scene.  (But that's about as close as they get).  To the right is Jenifer and Lou in the elevator scene.  Bottom left is the Exercise Room scene.  Boy, my nephew has a lot of equipment, doesn't he!  And that's only half of it.  Bottom right is a copy of Android Illustrated, a magazine just for Androids.  The pictures on the cover are all courtesy of NASA.
 

And finally, my Mom helps set up the crew quarters for the next scene.  (Besides being script supervisor, hostess, stage hand, sound person, costume fixer, and whatever else I need at the time.  Thanks Mom.)

Only two weeks to go and things are looking really, really good.  The next two weeks will be extremely hectic as we are currently planning on shooting 10/2, 10/4, 10/6, 10/7, 10/9, 10/11, 10/13, and 10/14 (although the 11th and 13th are questionable).  That averages to every other day.  Consequently, I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to update the web site next.

9/29 - In a very unusual audition, I met John Bailey at the Vienna Metro and we proceeded to conduct the audition on opposite sides of the gate.  We got quite a few unusual stares!  Anyway, John did an incredible job and he has accepted the role of the Rafi Captain.  The first Rafi costume arrived and it looks nothing like the picture on the web site.  This is going to take a while to straighten out which could delay the shooting of the alien scenes.  Got the crew quarters built for tomorrow's shooting so we are set to go although it promises to be a long day.  I promise to post more pictures next week.

9/24 - Things went well over the weekend, only shot one scene on Saturday as scheduled.  I have to tear down the bridge and set up the crew's quarters for the forthcoming weekend, that'll keep me busy for a few days.  I still have to review the footage from the previous weekend but I think it was all good footage.  Contacted a make-up artist and it looks as if she's interested.  Still have one more actor to audition for the Rafi Captain on Thurs.  Things also went well on 9/20, although I did not get as much done as I'd planned because we all wanted to see the President's speech.

For the Status from June 2001 through September 19, 2001 and lots of pictures, click here.