It's coming together.

We're a little more than a week away from Day One of Production. And there's still much work to be done. But we got a lot knocked out this week. For example...

Received our first "branded" props: two Interplanetary Corporation coffee mugs from Cafe Press.



If you ever need a short run of props featuring a custom logo, Cafe Press is a pretty good way to go. Plus, you can sell replicas of your props to your many fans. That being said, if any of you would like your own Interplanetary coffee mug, they're available now for only $10.99 (plus shipping and handling).

Director of photography Jim Roberson stopped by, and we planned out the first day of shooting. Helping out Carl and John with the production design/building has been a blast (and an education), but I was glad to finally get some actual shooting preparation done. Jim and I got the first day of shooting whittled down to only 10 or 15 shots -- on paper, at least. We'll hopefully get together at Atrox this weekend, walk through the shots, and see how they hold up on the actual set.

Speaking of sets, John and I got more walls assembled Tuesday night.



These walls are going to serve as the basis for several rooms inside Mars Base Two, including the engineering lab and Steve's bedroom, the two locations we're using for Day One of Production. John and I left several of the walls "wild," meaning they're relatively easy to move in and out, to facilitate more flexible camera placement.

John and I also started laying out switches and lights for our sci-fi control consoles.



And my mom, who is the best mom in the world (no, I'm not biased), started helping out costume designer Peyton by taking over some space suit sewing duties.

And I ordered a couple of thousand dollars worth of Fuji film stock from FilmEmporium.com. Ever hear those stories about the scrappy indie film producer who talked somebody into donating a bunch of film stock for their scrappy production? I've had trouble getting anybody to sell me the stuff lately.

Some sales people have been slow with returning calls and emails, and some haven't returned them at all. So I was happy when Darren at Film Emporium was quick to respond to my email, immediately picked up the phone when I called, and had answers to all my questions. On top of that, he discounted the film he sold me a penny per foot (that adds up when you're talking about thousands of feet of film). The next time you need some Fuji (or Kodak if you want to spend more per foot) for a flick, don't even bother with the other guys. Call Film Emporium and ask for Darren.

Believe it or not, that's not all. Crewless co-owner Chuck Hartsell is shooting some 2nd unit stuff for INTERPLANETARY tomorrow, I talked to the lab (CineFilm in Atlanta) about processing and transferring the footage from the upcoming First Day of Production, John got the steel that Tom will use to build the Mars buggy... but I'll write more about that stuff after the fact (and after I get photos).