The aftermath of the battle

I spent a better part of the day editing the footage from Saturday, and it looks pretty swanky. I spent the rest of the day, and I'm still spending it, organizing all the footage from the last 4 years - and miraculously I think it's all there. Either way I reckon I can make it work somehow.

It's an absolute massive task trying to sort all this out, I've had to move almost everything around, sort through the script and make sure I've got everything labeled right and in the proper order. Next will be a rough assembly of the entire movie just to get an idea of the approximate running time...I've really no idea what to expect there.

It's a little overwhelming hunting through about 8 hard drives to see where you scattered everything, luckily, I kept things fairly tidy. So it's looking like we're all good so far, but it's taking forever to transfer everything over to the one drive I'm storing it all on. And then I have to take all that, and make a backup on another drive. Fun.

So while I'm doing that, I'll leave you with some stills from the footage from the other day.

The demon's about to find out the hard way why
it's not a good idea to jump outand
surprise Demon Hunters.

A good solid knee to the chest should do the trick.

Poor little Demon Hunters have lost their way.
Makes me think of Scooby Doo for some reason.

Tim having an Indiana Jones moment.

Draper takes out Jonny with a
rubber sword to the neck.

Draper and Joseph prepare for battle.

Tim sees he's missing out on the
senseless violence and decides to join in.

Rick crushes Jonny with
the warhammer of DOOM!

Draper in an Aragorn moment.

A job well done kids.
You can never kill too many demons
in the run of a day.

I should take this time to point out all the actors in that last scene, we have Draper, Rick (they've been in the movie several times up to this point), Tim Gormley (he was in the original scene) and Joesph Ambrose (who came onboard a few weeks ago) - all playing the Brotherhood. And Jonny Hanes, Andrew Mooney (their first time in the movie), Graham Putnam (his third role in the movie) and Myk Hambly (his second time around) as the Demon Army.

I also had Kim Johnston helping me out behind the camera, taking pictures and keeping an eye on me to make sure I was actually recording something. And Pete Murphy came along to videotape the scene, but we couldn't get a video camera, so he just hung out and guarded our stuff.

Thanks again guys for doing this, it was definitely well worth it. After shooting this, I can almost see why there are folks who enjoy that LARPing thing, this was pretty much the same deal with just a little more disorganization and chaos.

Battle with the Demon Army

I've finally had time to go through all the pictures. So here you go.












































































It was a pretty good shoot overall. Everything seemed to work out nearly perfect. So thanks to everyone who showed up.

And that's it. Finally done filming this thing after 4+ years. I've a few small shots still left to take to fill in some blanks, but they're mostly close up of hands or items, most don't even require the original actors or anything, I'll be working away at getting those done over the next couple months and then onto editing and trying to make a movie out of all this crap I've been shooting.

The last scene down.

We finished a couple hours ago now, I've been pretty wiped and had some other things still to do afterwards - it's all done now.

I went over the footage, everything looks awesome. It's almost impossible to get a bad shot out there. For those of you who know PEI, we filmed in Victoria Park in the woods around Dead Man's Pond. And despite my being overly cautious about using that location, we had no problems whatsoever. Only at one point did I even notice someone watching us (out of the few people actually in the area).

There were a few pictures taken and there's some really good stills to post, but that's for later, for now it's time to sleep. and I will leave you with this.

Final hours before the last scene

I've already been up for about 2 hours or so getting everything ready for the last scene. So far everything's working out pretty good, I had a last minute call from an actor who might not make it, but it's an easily replaceable part so no worries yet.

It's not the biggest shoot I've ever done, I don't think at least, but there sure if a hell of a lot of equipment, props, costumes. My living room is full right now.

I'm just finishing up the shot list for the day, pretty simple - way more then I expected, plus there's a lot of room for improvisation here. You got 8 guys with swords and free reign of a park on a Saturday morning, pretty much anything can happen.

So that's it for now, chances are there'll be something interesting to look at here in the next day or so.

The Plot Twist

I'm going to take time out from going on about my movie to go on about other movies.

I just saw the movie Hancock last night, and if you've read any articles on it - which if you do because, it's a movie that has a "twist" to it and some might give it away. And this here is the main point of this rant.

Movies with a twist ending, or just a twist somewhere in there that's supposed to catch you off guard and make you say "I never saw that coming!" Very rarely have I ever said that, because most movies are incredibly predictable - not in a specific way, but perhaps generically.

The articles I mentioned about Hancock are about how this movie's twist has critics divided. First off, not much of a twist, saw it coming very early on. Did I predict it exactly? No, but I was actually pretty close - if I actually wanted to stop the movie and ponder it, I might've. Now, this doesn't make it a bad movie, just because you can see a plot twist coming doesn't change whether a movie is good or bad - however in the case of a movie like this, where the plot twist is out of almost nowhere, is a good thing. I think.

See there's too many movies claiming "You'll never guess the ending" that are complete and utterly obvious or the twist is just uninteresting or just not enough of one. This is directed specifically at M. Night Shyamalan, who has made a supposed career out of this type of movie, which sort of defeats the purpose. It's kind of like telling you're going to punch them in the face, do it, then you call it a sucker punch. Doesn't work like that.

If you go into a movie and it's basically bragging about how awesomely twisted it's ending it, then you'd better deliver big time or end up looking like an ass. Which is the case with Capt. Can't-Write-A-Good-Ending Shyamalan. He's telling you the movie has a twist ending before you've even seen it, he doesn't bother now because it's implied almost. So therefore there's no real twist, it's more of a case of can you out think him. Which ain't all that hard, kind of like trying to outwit a rock.

Don't take offense if you've actually fallen prey to his endings, I don't care who doesn't and who does - the point I'm trying to make is simply people, myself included, complain about these obvious twist endings that are about as impossible to suss out as finding your way out of your own house and now we have critics divided because a movie actually pulled off a genuine twist - without bragging or making it the big reveal at the end - that's it's too out of nowhere.

So is that to say we like our plot twists to be obvious, but not too obvious? I'm not sure what the moral of this story is really.

If you want to see what a genuine out of nowhere plot twist looks like, I highly recommend you check out The Caller, it stars Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith Osborne (and no one else). Not a brilliant movie, but if you're like me and find most plot twist movies a little predictable, just try to figure this one out. If you do, you were just making random guesses and hoping for the best because there's nothing to indicate the ending of this movie.

Is The Caller a good movie because it kind of pulls off the twist ending? Not really, it's an amusing movie that you probably won't like to be honest with you. But it goes to prove my pointless point a little further. Why did we like Usual Suspects so much? People loved that twist ending, but Hancock? Some folks hated it's twist. The Caller? Maybe it went too far realistically speaking, I don't recall how it was received by critics. Even worse is the movie you guess the ending of having only seen the commercials - case in point, The Village.

I don't really know what my position is in all this myself. I like Usual Suspects, that's one I didn't see coming. Why? Because the movie kept my attention at the time and didn't make me want to jump ahead and figure out the ending. Hancock? I saw it coming but what else could you do with the movie? The Caller? Malcolm McDowell is cool and the ending was so abstract I had to admire it for that at least.

I guess it all boils down to whether the movie is good with or without a plot twist. I could even point out why some just don't work, but I won't, I'll just point at Shyamalan-a-ding-dong and say nothing else. How's that for a twist ending?

Fun with Styrofoam...

I probably should've been working on this sooner, but I'm about halfway through getting the Titan Device ready for painting. I've got 2 2'x2'x2' cubes nearly done. Sealing the gaps up in one, the 2nd is ready to sand down and then I have to do 4 1'x1'x2' blocks - which I should get to working on tonight.

So far so good, there's styrofoam crap everywhere in my stairwell. The respirator I'm using while doing this tends to give me a bit of a headache because I already have some issues with my ears, something about air pressure and all that I guess.

I'm hoping to have the blocks nearly all done by Tuesday night.

This is about half the pile, it's getting whittled down slowly.

A failed attempt at creating a decent surface to carve into using
expanding foam. It ended up being way too soft and would've been
way too expensive in the end.

And here's the first nearly completed block. I'm in the process
of sealing it up so it won't be all crumbly like this crap tends to be.

Not exactly exciting, but it's something. As I mentioned before, it's the largest prop I've ever built, I've no idea what I'm doing really, I'm just making it up as I go - so far it's working pretty well, although it's terribly messy. I'm buying a small shop vac tomorrow to clean this all up.

Everything's going well so far. I've got written permission to film in Victoria Park, so no worries there. The Titan Device, as I've taken to calling it, is coming along well too. Might be a little early to say that, but so far it's working as planned.

Seems like everything's lining up to go well. I've got some great shots sussed out, I'll be working on them some more this coming weekend and if all goes well the Device should be nearly done as well - at least well underway enough to know how well it'll look.

I've had to create a makeshift styrofoam knife that seems to be working rather well, a little slow but that's better then not at all. I should have the basic forms done in a few days, I'm making them from huge styrofoam sheets cut and glued together to form 2'x2'x2' cubes, which will then be cut done further to get the basic shape right. Then I'm using expandable foam for the outer skin which I can carve into with more detail.

From there it's a simple paint job, some moss and crap and I should have an assortment of massive stones that form a 6 foot obelisk. It'll be incredibly sturdy and lightweight too.

Should be an amusing shoot.

The Prop of Doom

I've been slowly working away at this reworked scene, and it's going to be so much easier this time around. Taking into account all the problems with shooting outdoors; a power source - can't film if your very expensive batteries die on you, location - hard to find a good one, even harder to find one you don't have to plan a roadtrip to get to, which also includes transportation and the time spent travelling...blah, blah and blah.

Anyway, all that is solved with one location. Oddly enough, I can find everything I need to shoot in the woods in Victoria Park (for those non-Islanders it's about 4 blocks from where I live). It'll require some creative shooting to avoid some minor background stuff that doesn't work, but not much, maybe for a small handful of shots at the worst.

And the best part is there's freaking electrical outlets about every 50 feet out there.

Now taking all that into consideration, it's a great place to do this. I scouted it out this afternoon, it should all work perfectly. However, I have to think about any potential problems such as, will any casual wandering through the woods person stumble upon our filming and cause some massive stink - I don't know why, but let's face it, some people feel it's their duty to bugger things up that quite honestly have nothing to do with them in the first place.

So I'm thinking, do I contact the city - or whoever, I've no idea really - and tell them that I'm doing this, see what their more then likely apathetic reaction is? Because it's a public place and it's not like I'm murdering babies or something, I'm just filming a stupid movie only a smattering of folks will probably even see. Regardless, it's the only "bad feeling" I'm getting right now about the scene.

For instance, even today as I wandered through there - I ran into a woman and her two kids...Imagaine their reaction to a bunch of dudes with swords and another bunch of leather armor clad demons with executioner hoods on. That won't be pretty. So I think you can see my concern.

My other option, would be to make sure I have a few extra hands on board to prevent folks from accidently wandering into this without warning. Not to prevent them from passing and making the woods off limits, just to forewarn so I don't have to pay therapy bills for anyone. I'm thinking regardless this is a good idea.

And after all that I'm still working out the smaller details of the scene, and one not so small prop. It now centers around a thing I'm just calling an "ancient device," it helps tie together a couple loose ends to certain plot points and whatnot, but also serves as a nice set piece.

It's going to be a 2' x 2' obelisk, about 6 feet tall, it will serve as a device that the Brotherhood uses to save the day - all very nicely explained, as well even serves to tie into the ending in a way I never originally intended - just visually though. That might not make sense until you see the movie though, so I won't bother to explain it.

I'm sussing out building materials today. I've a few ideas already, one if it pans out isn't cheap but requires almost no construction. The design is pretty basic, I'm not worried about that at all.

Overall, it's looking pretty good. The scene itself is 100 times better then before, asI believe I might've mentioned at least once.

And, Happy 50th Birthday to Bruce Campbell.

Rethinking the Near End of the World

As I mentioned in the previous post - I've been reworking the Demon Army Battle scene. I was a little annoyed after cancelling the shoot, only to discover the next day that I still could've pulled it off had it gone on as scheduled. It was a bit of a crappy day, but there was a good 5-6 hour window where I could've got everything done.

Ah well. Not the end of the world...Or is it?

That was a lame set up, in any case, I just got through reworking the scene and it's so much better in almost every possible way - so any annoyance at having lost a day of shooting is long since gone.

The new version should be a little quicker to shoot, most of it's handheld and moving very quickly. It's bascially a fight on the run. It'll have to be choreographed a bit to work properly, that's not a problem though.

It also serves to fill in any plot gaps I might've suffered over countless rewrites and redoing certain scenes - thankfully, I was slightly smart in making sure I had at least 2 scenes where major information is revealed that the spoken dialog could be rewritten if needed and not effect the visuals whatsoever.

I won't go into too much detail at the moment, other then to say I'll be working this weekend on creating what could be the biggest prop I've ever built. Not the most elaborate, but the biggest - the hardest part will be settling on a design.

Then I have to go over the entire script and make sure the line changes - the scene is without dialog, but there's a voiceover during the whole thing - don't contradict anything I can't change.

So that's it. I'll be aiming at shooting this mid-July, or earlier if everything falls into place.

Called on account of rain

I really hate dealing with weather dependant shoots. I stressed pretty much most of the day about whether or not tomorrow was going to happen and I finally decided to call it off. I had a few folks already taking the day off work and I didn't want to leave it to the last minute, I had three separate forecasts calling for rain and even thunder showers, plus I'd just gotten a call from one of the actors informing me he was unable to make it. So, it seems like karma or fate working against me. Tomorrow isn't happening.

On the plus side of things, in the same instant I cancelled the shoot, I came up with a much better idea for the scene anyway. Much less setup in any case, which is way better - and more actiony even.

I hate dragging people along and telling them, yeah we're shooting next week and then cancelling it. I know there's nothing really I can do about it, like I said, "weather dependant shoots" - they're a bugger at best.

So that's it. No shoot tomorrow, a much more stress free evening for me...and a plate of sandwiches for 15 people I have to pick up tomorrow regardless. At least I know what I'm doing for lunch and dinner tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more action-packed details. Not about my lunch and dinner, but what's happening with the scene next.

It’s been an incredibly busy week, it’s looking almost over however. The last of the costume stuff has been sorted out and finished, the hoods look pretty good – if not rather demonically gimpish.

The prosthetics are already pre-painted – and since very little of the full face and neck will be visible because of the costume, they should be easy to slap on and blend it.

I’ve been doing my homework on the best possible methods of getting my demon army shots. There’s only 3 shots that require a massive horde, so I’m hoping this will go as well as it can. . Worse come to worse, I do have a good-backup plan – one that I hope not to have to use, but I’m more then prepared should I have to.

The shot list is relatively short and simple, only a page and a half, about 10 of those shots are incredibly simple and handheld (which always makes for a nice quick shoot).

Now, about the swords. This is one of those situations that just infuriates the hell out of me, it's not a huge deal - but it becomes a huge deal with mistakes are made. There were two version of the sword I wanted - here's a pitcure right from the website itself:


They're not bad looking, but of course the one with the "blood" on it looks a little silly. I specifically asked for the ones WITHOUT the crappy looking blood - you can see where this is going. They didn't have 4 without, 4 with - but not 4 without, in any size, small, medium or large. They had 2 of each - with and without - but I was being picky and this caused a hold up. Tthen I was told they could get 4 without no problem from their manufacturer in Denmark - so I waited..and got 4 with the crappy looking blood anyway.

Now I'm going to give whoever the benefit of the doubt and assume that somewhere alone the line someone didn't mention which version or miscommunicated with version. In any case, I wasted 2 months waiting on the assurance I'd get what I wanted, only to get exactly what I didn't want.

I'd be pissed it the swords weren't so dark the blood's barely noticable - thank god. Anyway, all the wonderful costumer service in the world doesn't make up for the fact I go the wrong item and it's too late to do anything about it.

I probably won’t update anything until the evening, or morning, after the shoot on the 18th. So be prepared to see some pretty damned cool looking shit. Or at least a bunch of guys standing around in a field trying to look cool.

I'd like to say everything's ready for next week...

...but that'd be a lie. Not that what's not ready is going to ruin everything, it just means as usual with everything else I have going on it's going to be a little hectic.

On the plus side though. The demon swords are on their way right now, here's hoping customs doesn't see 4 rubber swords as a threat to our way of life and seize them. I had some last minute makeup that I may or may not need on it's way here today as well and that's the last of the packages.

This weekend we (and by we I mean myself, Kim, Draper and my friend Dave who was over from NS) took the demon costumes for a walk in Victoria Park and abused the hell out of them - they look pretty good now. I just need to do a little of the same for the gloves and the hoods - whenever the hoods are actually made that is, that's another thing I still have to go.

I still also have yet to get confirmation from one of my demon actors/stuntmen - not much I can do there but wait.

And I was hoping to snag a little portable battery type thing to power the equipment with - that was a dismal failure. After charging it for 2 days it last all of 15 seconds. We're going with plan B, which is "make it up as we go along."

And that's it. I'm going to try to suss out a quick and simple way of marking off areas for when we're shooting the mulitple passes of the demons and that should be the last of the crap I need to do for next week's shoot.

Until then, I'm sure you're going to have a much more relaxing week then me.

Quick update - no pictures

I've almost got everything taken care of the for big shoot in June at Fort Amherst. I've got a couple demon backups in case some folks can't make it, I've got a few extra hands to help out, I've got all the heroes lined up and the new costumes 98% completed, the demon costumes are about 90% complete as well.

And if all goes well this will be shot with a brand spanking new camera that'll allow me to do slow motion shots and all manner of "damned that just looks awesome" kind of stuff. To avoid dead battery syndrome, I'll be getting a small portable generator.

All that's really left is to finalize everyone's involvement, do some test shots with the demon costumes - the swords are on they're way from a flooded warehouse in Denmark as I write this, some test shots of how we'll do the logistics of moving the actors from mark to mark onscreen for the final post effect of an entire army.

So far so good. After having had a taste of the worst case scenario kind of shoot, I have a pretty good feeling this is going to go much more smoothly. Knock on wood, or plastic, or whatever you have on hand.