Some last minute stuff

I just realized it's been over a year - by a couple days - since I started this blog. I really didn't think it would go on this long. I've mentioned this a couple times I believe, in some ways it's good, in some ways it's bad. Bad really only in the sense of continuity - people and things tend to change over such a long period of time, whether they want to or not. And good in many way, I've had so much time to rethink things over and over and finally to death.

The scene we're filming this Sunday is a pretty damned good example of that. Originally it was alright...well, actually it was pretty pathetic. Not because of the actors, just in that it was hard to find what I wanted so I settled, now here we are over a year later and we're finally reshooting and it, and it's going to look night and day different.

It should be a relatively smooth shoot, there's no action, there's really only a few little things I'm concerning myself with as far as a shotlist goes - I'm making it up as I go pretty much. I know the space well enough, but not how it'll look once it's lit and all that, so I'm just assuming how it will look. And how I can fix it, if it does look just right.

In the meantime I'm tying up all sorts of little loose ends with various props and costumes. I spent the evening painting horns. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, there's all sorts of prosthetics that have sections that don't need to blend with makeup, so I'm pre-painting them. Mainly all the horns, 8 of them in total tonight. As well as another rather ugly looking prosthetic that hopefully you'll see soon enough.

Pre-painting them not only saves a little time, but I can put more detail and time into them, and it's a lot easier then trying to paint with the grease makeup once it's on someone - I'm painting them with acrylic paint right now. It doesn't harm the prosthetic at all and it really does make them look a little nicer in places.

I also painted some symbols on some bracers for the flashback scene. Since the four guys in the flashback are supposed to be the original Brotherhood, I took the symbol from the tattoo on the back of Grayson's hand and painted it on all 8 of the bracers. Looks pretty good, you probably won't ever see them up close, but it's a nice detail.

I also had to design my own belt frogs - yes, that's not a typo. They're the things you attach to your belt to carry a scabbard, or dagger. They're pretty simple, not too cheap to buy though. I has some extra leather lying around from another project so I hacked it up and it should work pretty well.

And finally we come to the end. Where I post a couple pictures of a prop I just finished this afternoon and am infinitely proud of. Not because it's beautiful looking or an artistic masterpiece, but because it's freaking huge and insane looking.




It's not meant to look realistic, it's a little cartoony element I wanted to add in the flashback scene. Rick's character will be carrying this thing. It's pretty lightweight, but it's fragile. It's a prop and nothing else, it was never meant to whack people with.

The hammer itself is about 2 and half feet long, the whole thing is about 3 1/2 feet tall. It took quite awhile, but it was one of those little touches that cost me nothing other then the $4.99 I spent on the plaster.

There's also a medallion I'm sculpting for this scene as well, I'm not really thrilled with it right now, but it's is my first attempt. It may look alright in the end, who knows.

That's it for now, tomorrow I'm off to hunt down a couple locations. Drop off a script to one of my actors. Hope that the couple things I ordered today are processed soon. Do a little more on the medallion. Secure a van for the shoot on Sunday. And who knows what else.