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[jegner]

I'd like to thank all the folks that made it to the Saturday production meeting. Overall I think it went pretty well. Here a recap:

We had a short show and tell session. Everyone that had been working on different projects had a chance to show their stuff off. We got to see Heath's pauldrons, and E-11 holsters. Good job Heath, I think the guys loved them. [note, I did some research, and the white pauldron is the ONLY one that has those ribs, so that should make it easy on you]! The holsters are ready to wear, and Heath has been busy with his helmet, and the shirt part of his armor. He also brought in his paint-ball gun and some custom black paint-balls. More on this later.

Herb brought in the stunt suit. He had a chance to get it trimmed out, so now all that is left to do is glue and velcro it together and we will have a spare suit. Yea! I think I can come up with an extra pair of gloves, and a black unde rsuit and we can use the prototype helmet with that suit. The boots I'm still working on. But for the most part this suit is going to be our weathering and test suit. Thanks Herb!

Randy brought in his Panasonic DV camera. This puppy shoots 24 frames and should yield some great footage. We need to test filming a miniature with it.

Herb and I have been working to pull together some Rebel Fleet Trooper costumes for the meeting, but that did not get quite finished. I have all the cloth portions of the costume ready, and about 1/2 the helmet done. I have all the vac-form molds made, but ran out of time to pull these parts. Oh well, maybe next time. Also, the RFT blaster is about 75% done. I just need to finish up some details, and put a top coat on it.

Larry brought in 2 matte paintings he had made. One of the 'cliff' and a new one of a temple door. These are not yet finished but WOW they look great. We sat them up on a stand, and did some test shots with them. I think the results are going to surprise everyone. I'll get these shot edited and online in a few days. I think the test were conclusive enough to encourage Larry to finish the paintings. Larry, after reviewing the temple footage, is there a way to square up the opening in the doorway? I think by not having the black inside the doorway, we can mate that to a live action shot easier. I have to admit, I was not sure if the 'in camera' matte paintings were going to work as a technology. I know Larry can make a great looking painting, thats not my concern, but rather, could a piece of glass be placed in front of the camera and live action take place behind it. The answer is YES!

Larry has also been working on animating the planet approach with a static star field. Thats harder than it looks.

Coy suggested that we take a still image of the Star Destroyer, and edit it in Photoshop to simulate battle damage. Then use this image as the rolling matte for the damaged Star Destroyer fly over. The search is on for a high quality Star Destroyer image.

Heath mixed up a batch of black paint-balls and we did some test filming of that as well. WOW, I think these will simulate a blaster hit just fine. A suggestion was to fill these 1/2 way in an effort to reduce the size of the splat, and to minimize the paint drips. I'd also suggest adding a bit of brown. This will give the splats a more burned look, and less like paint. On camera, it looks great. Herb got hit in the leg, and was the first reportable accident in the production. I hope thats the last. Herb, sorry about that. He was a good sport, and 'walked it off'. Herb has edited this into an online clip:

http://www.herbertmidgley.com/whenpaintballgoeswrong.mov

That bruise looks like it smarted!

I made the guys watch two old cheesy World War II movies, made during the mid 1940s. The basic premise I had for the fan film was derived from the last 20 minutes of these two movies, Bataan, and Sahara. Coy took some notes, and a production decision was made to write a back story, and full premise script for a film perhaps 30 minutes long with some character development that everyone can relate to. We need to feel some pity or sorrow for these guys when they die. Maybe we don't film all of it, but with the talent pool we have I think a film, a really good film could be made. One thing I really did not like about Return of the Jedi was the moronic way the teddy bear Ewoks could kill an armored stormtrooper by throwing a rock at him. My goal, if nothing else, is to restore the stormtrooper back to a formidable fighting force.

I have asked everyone to write down a list of ideas you would like to see on film. We will try to work these ideas into the script. I know I have about 20 scenes I want to see. Most of you know about the water scene, and the last stand scene, the shooting down of the X-wing, and the fist fight. I have a bunch more. Here are some broad concepts I'd like to explore:
* view of the Star Wars conflicts as seen from the common Imperial soldiers perspective.
* Honor, duty and loyalty. The elements that make up a good soldier regardless of which side he is on.
* Crafty combat techniques, not see in a Star Wars movie.
* More realistic combat injuries. I'm not talking 'Saving Private Ryan" gore, but more blood than was seen in Star Wars. [Think PG rating]
• The Fleet Trooper that were so utterly defeated in the opening scenes of Star Wars, are now the bad guy, kicking the stormtrooers butt. The Fleet Trooper has become the faceless enemy seen in hoards overwhelming our troopers.
* Overall, the "Alamo syndrome" where a small group of soldiers holds an abandoned fortress against a enormous enemy, and defies the odds of survival until the last man.

Coy, I'll send you, in another email, the rough draft script for the opening act. And add my list of scenes I'd like to see, as well as a very basic outline. None of the script elements are set in stone. I want everyone to feel like they had input into the story.

The next meeting will be in August, and I hope to have the track and dolly rig ready to use by then. As soon as I can get some dates I'll let everyone know. Also, It would be nice if we could get our list of ideas together so that some sort of a script outline could be generated.

Larry has started on the storyboards for the opening scenes, and as the script get developed, these storyboard needs to be generated.

Maybe you don't have any ideas, or you think they would be too hard to film. Nonsense. Add them to the list and if we can get them figured into the script, we'll find a way to film them. Even if your idea is, "I'd like to see the troopers attacked by a big monster" or something similar, lets hear them. Send your ideas to me. Coy has expressed a desire to work on a script, and I have already a basic one done. Now it's time to add some meat to it.

We ran out of time, and still had a day's worth of work to do. We needed to test weathering the armor, finish making the stunt armor, and work on repairs to everyone's suit. [most of the regular stick velcro did not hold up well in the East Texas humidity, and some of the armor needs the kidney areas to be shimmed, and the elastic changed to white. Also, I wanted to to some test filming for Pablo to clone us with, but that will have to wait for another time. Oh, and the diagona tentacle needs some research, with a prototype built.

Thanks again to everyone that has been working so hard on the project. Making a good movie is the goal, and I think everyone wants to make the best film possible. Keep up the great work! We've done some great stuff so far! I'm excited to see what we can do.

Jim