Irish Sci Fi

The National Irish Science Fiction Awards have short-listed Last Flight for their Film Awards - the Golden Blaster. Love the name!

Anyway, this marks the first international screening of Last Flight. It will be playing at National Irish Science Fiction Convention in October.

A star is born

Lance and I went cruising for birds yesterday ...literally! ...driving around Auckland looking for seagulls, slowing down everyone once and a while and yelling "there's one!"

It turns out that working with animals is a dumb idea. For all the fish and bread we threw at our "blue screen" tarpaulin for 2 hours, the bloody birds refused to go near it. Eventually a star was born (below) when one of the birds finally plucked up enough courage to give us the performance we needed.

We also collected a difficult special effects shot: a POV with freezing aerosol blasting out of our body double's space suit leg down at Sentinel beach in Herne Bay. It looked fantastic however, and our new body double, Frances Wilkie, was a legend. Thanks also to Treve, for giving up a golf day to stand around and throw bread at the gulls.

We came, we saw, we got it in the bag!

WHEW! We did it! Saturday was a huge success! We ended up shooting at our B site, Port Waikato, instead of Bethells, but even this turned to our advantage, the dunes staying much drier, with fewer spectators and even better weather.

And the footage we got looks fantastic!

On the downside, the spray we used to simulate a leak in the suit managed to burn Kassie, and even temporarily blind our cameraman - but both of them soldiered on above and beyond the call of duty! Throughout the day everyone kept their sense of humour and resolve. It was a wonderful shoot and a fun day! A huge thanks to everyone involved! YAY!

Progress!

Well, it wasn't our penultimate and long-awaited Bethells shoot, but a few of us popped out in the weekend to mop up some over-shoulder shots and CUs of the transmitter. Not very exciting, you might imagine, but actually it was great to get some more footage finally, and the thrill level was heightened by sneaking onto a construction site in hi-vis gear to get the shots!

In the end, no one was arrested, and we got some good material.

Big thanks to Astrid, who stood in at the last moment to body double the suit - and Zane, David and Adam, who decided a last-moment filming expedition would be a gas! Go team!

Filming...

Folks, we've set our first (tentative) date for our last location shoot on Saturday 26.

Our backup day is Saturday Oct 3rd, and if we're really unlucky with the weather, (and we can get everyone!) Saturday 10.

After that we just need a short day at the Studio and we're done! Yay! Let's wrap this puppy up!

Still working...

In Wellies with LF producer, Sarah B, checking the budget and thrashing out our plan moving forward... What is left to do, how much $$ we have, and how we're going to distribute this puppy!

Dusting off the flightplan...

Zane, Richy and I popped back to the Studio the other night and filmed dust. That is, we set up a black curtain, a red head and a camera and blew dust into the light while we filmed it (when I say “we” I mostly mean Zane – I just stood and watched!).

We got some wild footage and also managed to use up a whole half hour of tape, but the upshot is some cool dust effects that we will be able to blow through the landscapes of the movie – making it look a lot dustier and windswept than it actually was.

Meanwhile, scene 1, 3 and 5 are now mostly edited (in rough form). And parts of the other scenes are also complete.

Now if we could just get some sunny weather we could get out to Bethells and knock the bugger off!

Some shots from our shoot!

What's next?

Back to the Studio, folks - SUNSET STUDIOS! Keep your diaries free for Sunday the 5th of July, and let's get this puppy shot! Details on the way...

Bank on bad weather

So much for Bethells! Despite predictions of fine weather today, or perhaps because of the micro-climate out west, we were again pipped at the post by the weather.

Gloomy skies and wet sand made shooting today out of the question, despite flying Sarah up from Wellies, and Adam, Kassie, myself and David taking time off from work. We even dragged Lance away from his duties! But to no avail.

So after thinking through our options we all ended up driving back to Auckland and watching The Bank Job. Not quite the day we had planned - but surprisingly pleasant all the same! At least we don't have to worry about the weather on Sunday!

Production continues....

We've got two shooting dates coming up:

Weds 27 May: Bethells - weather allowing!

Sun 31 May: Sunset Studios. Green screen shoot.

At Bethells our main focus will be on scene 4 and at Sunset, scene 1.

I anticipate an early start for Bethells - leaving town at 7am - and a more leisurely 8am start at Sunset, but we'll confirm shortly.

Stay tuned for details and get in touch if you have any questions!

And now for the news....

In case you're wondering, we are still making this movie!

We're just on hold while our talented, and rather popular cameraman completes his PAID work - something that is rather hard for us to compete with!

This could take a while - but in the meantime we are continuing the project on other fronts. And first up we're on the hunt for a news reader!

If you know an actor with an authoritative voice, possibly with a bit of an accent - and who might like to make a cameo in Last Flight - let us know! We'll be auditioning shortly.

Meanwhile keep your peepers open for some dates around the end of May. We hope to have something to you later this week.

Tongariro scout

This weekend, Sarah, Lance and I will be visiting Tongariro to choose the spots we will be filming the majority of Last Flight.

Immediately following that we will be able to finalize the shot list and get a proper schedule out to everyone. Sorry it's taken so long, but until we were certain about what shots we were doing where, it has been impossible to be sure about dates and times.

The other main dates that are fast approaching are: 

A full crew dress-rehearsal of equipment and procedures out at Bethells on the 24th (or 25th, weather dependent)

The start of shooting at Tongariro on Feb 6th, 7th and 8th.

The upshot is that preproduction is finally, nearly over - - and production is about to begin! Wahoo!

And by the way, a belated happy new year to everyone!

DOP Storyboard...

Here's the link to Lance's storyboard. He completed this a while ago, and I'm just now completing the integration between his storyboard and mine. The new definitive version should be up soon!

LF Update

NEWSFLASH: We will be shooting over February. Possibly the end of Jan and early March as well, but we’ll harden those dates out shortly.

The script has undergone a few more changes, to simplify and improve the story. This obviously impacts the storyboard, which I’m revising currently.

The spacesuit is now with Chris and he’s predicting to have it largely completed in another week or so - exciting!

Adam has continued working on the wrist unit graphics (below). Dig that International Auxiliary language! And our DOP, Lance is off to Malaysia this weekend for work and a bit of a break. 

We're in the money!

Great news! Our grant application to the Screen Innovation Production Fund has been approved! We're full steam ahead! Very cool! I'll post more later...

Bound by law

I've been trying to get my head around copyright laws and so on the last couple of months, especially since we've approached Sesame Street for the rights to use the Sesame Street theme tune in Last Flight. They've since told us that Last Flight "isn't a good fit with their Corporate objectives." 

Anyway, I just stumbled across this comic book, Bound by Law, which explains copyright law, Public Domain and Fair Use brilliantly - and in comic format! This is my kinda law book - even if the rules they're discussing are pretty outrageous in places. Makes me wanna go download something corporate, frankly.... 

Draft storyboard

Whew! It took a while, but I've finally completed my first draft of the storyboard! Wahoo!

Lance completed his a couple of weeks back, and I'll now have a crack at integrating the two of them. I suspect we may at times shoot from both to get maximum coverage, but we'll see. Both storyboards feature some really exciting shots - I'll get Lance's up shortly. Take a look.

Welcome Sarah

NEWS: Amie's handed over the role of producer to Sarah Butler.

Most of you will have met Sarah the other night at our ARC get-together. She did a double degree with Media Studies as one of her majors and has a solid grounding in editing, production and post-production, and isn't too bad with a camera either.

She's passionate about her work and will bring practical, solid analytical skills to the production in an organised and vibrant way. Welcome on board, Sarah!

Amie is going to be focusing more on the creative side with me now, and is still up to her elbows in Last Flight.

ALSO: Amie and I are moving house over the next couple of weeks, so I apologise in advance if I'm a bit slow getting back to you. And Lance is moving over the same weekend. Jinx!

Prop design

Props being built by Dave Hallett: