Been busily working on getting Flight Control back on track and towards completion. Last week I re-edited the rough cut to the revised rough cut, slicing the film from 14.5 minutes to 11.8. I'm much happier with this version, as it's getting tighter and more interesting. My approach has been to cut from the ends IN towards the middle, figuring out how it should open and end and then tweaking and trimming the middle to make sure it gets from point A to B.
What's obvious is that some limited reshoots are going to be necessary, partly to address some lighting that didn't work out, and also because as I cut I have sliced out a bunch of single lines, and this leaves some bits rather choppy as I don't have a single shot without cuts around some of this material.
Towards this end I've been planning how much of a partial set I'll need to build to get the shots I want. I'm figuring what I most need is to rebuild a chunk of wall that was to the left of my actor's seated position.
The original set is long since dumpstered, but I retained a few significant fragments, one of which features in a number of shots in the original photography, so I can build around it and make it match. On today's lunchtime sketch (below), that piece is labeled (in my patented illegible quick scrawl) "TRN PANEL (EXISTING)".
As to "MISSILE COMMAND PANEL (REBUILD)" that was a flat panel with decals that were copies of artwork form the prototype Missile Command arcade machine that I put in as an in- joke. Fortunately, I saved the files for this artwork, and I can easily reprint those and remake that panel.
I'm completely changing the panel that was to the right of the TRN PANEL because it's never really shown in any of the footage I plan to use, ergo, there's no reason to match it. VID means I'll have a flatscreen monitor screen in that location, allowing me to silhouette the actor against a video display, something I did in one sequence elsewhere in the film, and which I really liked the look of.
To the right of the monitor are personal photos...I had some of these in the original set, also, but they never showed up. I wanted this to feel like a place where someone actually worked, so I thought he'd have manuals, futuristic Post-It notes, and personal photos tacked to the walls. Fortunately, I still have the original photos, so they'll get dusted off one more time!
I'll also need to build something I never got around to shooting during the original shoot, which is the back wall of the set. Actually, it was never built. The original plan was to pull the walls I built that appear through the frosted glass at the front of the set and set those at the back as the wall there. However, we ran out of time before we could dismantle those and move them.
So, I'll have to build a wall for this...but it's going to be a very simple one...mostly flats without all the greeblie detail the main set walls had. I quickly whipped up a sticker to go in the corner of each wall panel, to imply they are access panels (albeit the camera will, as usual, never be close enough to read them).
To figure out how much of this I need to build, I've been doing rough storyboard drawings, as below. I'm estimating I'll need a wall piece about 6 feet high and 7 feet wide, but I have to check the lens I used and see what the field of view is.
Sketches...
Yes, there's a figure walking through the background in one sketch. One thing I never got during the original shoot were some shots were you'd see other people in the background...a necessary thing to sell that this isn't one lone guy, but just another cog in a wheel.
The one small problem is that I only have ONE costume, and making another isn't an option because the suit is loaded with expensive, glowing EL wire. On the other hand, I only need one costume, because, as can be seen here, in these angles you can't see Mr. actor below the neck, so he can just wear his turtleneck and sit in his boxer shorts while I get one or two other bodies to walk by in the background wearing the illuminated suit.
Fun fun!
So, I was telling my friend Robert about my new 1/18th scale Batmobile, and that got us talking about Hot Wheels, which got us talking about other toys we had as kids (we're the same age).
On the same page he pointed me to were toys I'd utterly forgotten having... the short lived HotBirds! Die-cast metal planes with retractable langing gear. You'd race them down a fishing-line—which would invariably tangle like a Wizzzer in your sister's hair—and they'd come to a thunking halt after 3 glorious seconds.
celebratory
silly