With production racing toward us we managed to secure a location, get some fantastic set dec from Jovo and I had almost finished the scripts. The other giant task was finding a crew we could call on for two full, consecutive weekends. It’s a lot to ask. Good thing Geoff knows a lot of good people.
To find our crew we basically went back to Geoff’s incredible network of industry friends (mine too, but it was mostly Geoff). Glenn Pineau is a fantastic, established DOP who is also a writer/director. Geoff had previously helped on his short film and it was great to have someone on set with such a great eye, he really backed me up as a director. Glenn also brought us an amazing camera and lighting crew. I believe he called in a pretty big favor and I can’t thank him enough.
We were obviously trying to keep the crew as small as possible since we were in such a tight spot. We had friends coming to help out and fill in roles they’d never done before but it all worked out. A running joke was our rotating boom op. We had a couple dedicated guys but they weren’t able to make it every day, and sometimes just for part of the day. So someone would fill in but they had to leave at 5pm so another person had to fill in for the last couple hours. Looking at the pictures it’s amusing how many different people you see holding a boom at some point. In the end I think we had a really great crew. Everyone was professional but most of all everyone was really upbeat and dedicated and it was the most fun I’ve ever had on set.
If you watched our teaser “Ballz” you’ll see some unique artwork on our Ballz posters. This was created by a friend of Geoff’s who just came up with it on the spot one day at work. Picking up those posters from Staples was pretty funny. We also had our amazingly talented graphic designer, Shamus Horak, create some “Ring Planet” posters for us. Shamus is the guy who has done our business cards, desktops, basically everything we’ve ever needed and he just does an amazing job every time. I’ll put out a request for something like iPhone wallpapers and a few days later I get an email with something even better than what I was hoping for.
And since I mentioned “Ring Planet”, let’s get into that. We wanted to have our own game in the show. I think it was so we wouldn’t have to worry about copyright issues if we used an existed game but watching the show I think it’s pretty clear we stopped worrying about copyright issues. I seriously hope that doesn’t come to bite us in the ass. Anyway, a unique game would add to our world and let us create unique gameplay and machinima. Geoff found a character designer and a level designer online and asked to borrow their artwork. He then had a friend animate it all into what you see in the show. Obviously “Ring Planet” is a Halo ripoff and although it doesn’t really come out in the show our characters are “Principal Commanders”. Someone criticized me for naming them that saying “It’s too long and awkward.” Well, yeah, that’s the point. I mean, look at Halo – you play as the Mastercheif? It’s a cool game, but that’s a ridiculous name when you think about it.
One of my final jobs was finding our Lara Croft figures. I’m not sure why this was left until the end but I seem to remember doing this the week before shooting. So I finished work one day and sat at my desk calling every comic book store: “Do you guys have any Lara Croft figures.” I think I called 7 places and (not including the $300 statue) I found a place in Yaletown that had a few. So there I went and when I arrived I told the guy “Hi, I’d like to buy all your Lara Croft figures.” The guy didn’t even flinch, “Okay”, like it happens everyday. Maybe it does. Anyway, it amused me.
So after a few weeks we were once again ready for production – location secured, props, set dec, crew and our cast. Oh yeah, the cast. Let’s get into that next time.
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