I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New year.
Things have been pretty slow here. I’m finally recovering from 4 weeks of flu and bronchitis , which knocked me for six. So i haven’t been able to do much. But that is going to change in the next week…
I’ll soon be making the B-wing pilot costumes. For the most part I’ll be sticking to the versions they made for ROTJ (but were only ever seen in the background). The only thing i will be drastically changing will be the helmets. The original ones designed and built for ROTJ looked awful. More like earmuffs than actual helmets. I never liked that design so the new ones will have more of a helmet like appearance. The design is almost locked down so i will start sculpting them in the next couple of weeks.
The cockpit designs are also near completion. Lot’s to work out with this though as the cockpit needs to be on some sort of low cost gimbal to give the rocking motion seen in other cockpit shots in ROTJ and for any dramatic shaking needed during the battle. I have a few ideas & one which i’m most likely going to go with that would be quite easy and effective to implement.
Now, staying with the pilots, i will be shortly opening auditions for the pilots. These will be short video auditions that can be easily sent to be via the net. It would, unfortunately, only be open to people that would be available in the first 2 weeks of July, that can get to Wolverhampton for the shooting dates. This would preferably people within the Midlands. More detail about this will be posted soon…
Thanks to being out of action due to illness, i haven’t been able to complete the new PC, but i can get back on that now. So i haven’t been able to get back to work on the colour grading work on ANH & ROTJ after the Xmas break. But that side of things should be completed within the next month, hopefully. So i can then get stuck into the editing and begin the effects work and pre-viz for all the new battle scenes in ROTJ.
Now quite a few people messaged me and posted about a video that has been circulating of a revamped Vader/ Obi-Wan duel from ANH and suggesting that i use footage from that in ANH:R HD. Well, unfortunately (from the preview clips that the creator posted) , that isn’t going to be possible. Not only is the video processed in a stylised way, but also the low camera angles do not match the cinematography seen in the film. It just would not blend in very well. When creating new footage to be inserted in any of the films you have to do it in a way that matches the look of the film. I personally think the re-imagining of the scene done by this person is amazing, but it’s just something that i feel would not fit well when inserted in the film itself.
Also i have been asked many times why i will be altering the design of the Tydirium shuttle. Well it’s something that never seemed right with me ever since my first viewings of ROTJ. Why would they use the same type of shuttle that dignitaries like the Emperor and Vader use for parts and work crew? They wouldn’t. It really needed to be a different type of shuttle.
So that’s it. Over the coming weeks i will post some of the new designs of the cockpits, helmets, shuttle etc. There won’t be any video clips for a few months yet (maybe some to show the colour grading) because i won;t be at the stage where i can share anything new.
Looks like i have a lot of catching up to do in here. I’ll try to answer some of the questions/ suggestions as soon as possible. I’m still not 100% at the moment and reading gives me a headache thanks to this bug, so it won’t be for a few days at least.