All wet.

We shot Saturday and Sunday, and environmental conditions were miserable both days. The heat was one thing, but the humidity... It was so humid our paper and gaffer tape wouldn't stick and our makeup effect glue wouldn't stick (it's hard to make a movie without adhesives). Our film was sticky, which wasn't good because it jammed up the camera magazine. I mean, it was so humid I thought it might start raining inside the warehouse. Still, I still had a great time.

We fired off real big blanks in a real big working gun. We pretended to rip off a guy's arm. Somebody flailed around with a simulated missile in their simulated mouth. We had fog machines and crazy lighting, a dune buggy, airlock doors, and fake blood all over the place. It felt like we were a bunch of 12-year-olds making movies in somebody's parents' basement.

The only bad thing was we didn't get everything done. I figure we still have about two pages of stuff to shoot at Atrox. So we'll try again weekend after next.

Talking Interplanetary.

The lovely and talented Lisa Mason, who plays "Lori" in Interplanetary, is also a morning DJ for 106.9 FM ("The Eagle") here in Birmingham. She recently invited me over to the radio station for an interview about Interplanetary, Hide and Creep, and all other things Crewless.

You can hear the interview at the Eagle web site, via the link at the bottom of Lisa's page.

You can also try this direct link.

As I'm known to ramble, especially when talking about movies, the interview went on for 30 or 40 minutes. But don't worry -- Lisa was kind enough to edit the interview down to a much more reasonable running time.

Thanks to Lisa for all the work she did setting up, conducting, and editing the interview. Hopefully, we'll do another one when Interplanetary is actually finished and ready to premiere.

Garages, etc.

Working toward being an indie genre movie mogul ain't all it's cracked up to be. At the moment, I could use an editor (to dig through all the footage and audio, sync it up, and see if it cuts together) and a secretary (to get my email under control... and maybe keep this blog updated).

But I do have Trap and Sanford. They're both acting in Interplanetary, and they've both been helping us out behind-the-scenes lately, putting together our garage set.


The photo doesn't quite do our garage justice. Of all our sets, I think it's my favorite.

Tom has also been hard at work finishing up the Mars buggy. Check out the detail, including the buggy's oxygen and coolant tanks...


We almost had to shoot last weekend in the not-quite-finished garage. I was afraid it was the only time I'd be able to get Mia before August, and we're trying to wrap up our Atrox work before then. Mainly because Stacey and I are going out of town for a few days, and I really think I'll be able to relax more if I don't have shooting on the brain. But Mia cleared up next weekend for us, so it's all good.

I've been noticing that the flats we use to create our various set walls are starting to look a little ragged from all the construction and deconstruction they've been involved in. Even my shooting hat is starting to come apart. Thank goodness for gaffer tape...


Also, John returned to the set last Sunday after having to take some time off. It was great to have him back, but I didn't get a photo of him. So here's another shot of the garage.


Arik Sokol recently gave me another batch of photos. I'll get some of those posted ASAP. And I got another batch of footage back from the lab. I should dig through that and post a few screen grabs at some point.

There's now a bigger version of the Interplanetary non-trailer available:

http://209.12.142.75/notrailer640.mov

Click the link and dig on the near-standard-definition quality!

I sent that link out to everyone on the Crewless mailing list. If you're not on that list and would like to join, just drop me a line at chance@crewless.com and let me know.

EDIT: Link changed to reflect new server address (2008-Oct-01).

EDIT: Link changed due to QuickTime file being moved to a different server (2007-Dec-31).

I was mistaken.

Looks like the good folks over at Arrow In the Head beat the DreadCentral.com guys to the Interplanetary scoop by a few days...

http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=8566

And The Spinning Image gave us a li'l English-language press back in February.

It is an embarrassment of riches, I tell ya.

Press coverage! In English!

The awesome Johnny Butane over at DreadCentral.com has posted the first (to my knowledge, at least) English-language Interplanetary story:

"Crewless Go Interplanetary"

Johnny liked Hide and Creep and has faith we can pull off the larger-in-scale Interplanetary. I hope we don't let him down.

Enough of my yammering -- head over to Johnny's site and check out the story.

Sunday photos.

Courtesy of Stacey...

Small victories.

We had a productive shooting day on Sunday and wrapped* two of our lead actors. Melissa had a relatively easy day, just two scenes and three or four lines -- loose ends really. Kevin got put through the wringer, just about literally. First, he had to act like he was getting killed in a very cramped space. Then he had to act like he'd been cut in half, which involved putting him in an even tighter space.

A few of us went back out Monday for some pick-up shots, wrapping our next-to-last "Mars Base Two" set. And Stacey and I are heading back tonight to break down that set (a restroom) and start on the garage set.

I can't say for sure 'til I go through all the footage, but I think we're about halfway done with principal photography. I feel like we've definitely earned every frame that we've shot so far. Heck, I might even throw a "halfway wrapped" party after we get done at Atrox.

Stacey and Sokol were taking pictures on Sunday -- I'll post some as soon as possible.

*I should say the actors are "picture wrapped," meaning they're through acting in front of the camera, but there will be some additional dialog recorded with them during post-production.

Even more photos (part 2).

Also courtesy of Arik Sokol...

Even more photos.

Courtesy of Arik Sokol...

More (relatively) recent photos.

Knocking it out.

Though you wouldn't know it from this here blog, work continues on Interplanetary. We were trying to get done with the Atrox portion of the shoot by the end of June, but we didn't quite make it. Currently, we're going to try to wrap up Atrox shooting weekend after next. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

So, what's been going on? We built and wrapped the medical lab set and the rec room set. We re-built and wrapped the engineering lab set. We got through with the stuff set in the various living quarters sets. And, today, Trap, Stacey, and I put together the restroom set. We're going to shoot in there this weekend, and, if all goes according to plan, we'll be shooting in the garage set next weekend.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, check out some photos from the last few weeks.