A Long Day in the Sun

Never underestimate how long it takes to turn a man into a Half-Orc.

Our entire schedule for the day was based on having all our actors camera-ready by 10am. When just unloading gear took until 9, we knew it was going to be a rush.

But we had to start shooting, which meant avoiding any shots that included our Half-Orc, who wasn't done until after lunch. But damn, did he look good.

Rob Prior and Lino Stavole worked from 7am onward, with some toilet paper and rocks (no joke - his chin is made from wadded toilet paper and his teeth from rocks) to craft this gorgeous beast out of John Pfiefer's face.

It's really tough to shoot scenes out of order - we had to shoot our entire day exactly backwards. So as far as our coverage goes, it was pretty haphazard. Our poor editor.

We were saved by steadicam. Our steadicam operator, Wael Shukha, originally jumped on board for only one shot. But when we started getting behind in our day, he threw the camera on and we started making it up as we went. Wael was brilliant at framing and following the action. I've worked with steadicam shots that have to be done over and over again to get right, but I don't think we had one bad take. And good thing, too, because our pace was locked at a no-more-than-three-takes rule.

But the art elements we had going into this thing made us look good no matter where we put the camera.

Jem Elsner and his crew (Conor Byron, Robbie Heart, Alexander Delgado) built a goblin hut from scratch on Sunday. Not only did they build this lovely home for Nigel, they did it sans permit, sweet talking the park ranger and bluffing their way through the day. It was unbelievable.

And as mentioned in a previous post, the wardrobe skills of Jana Bonderman and Johanna Jenkins brought our characters to life.

In the end, it was one of the longest, most stressful, and awesomest days of my life. I don't think I sat down. And I forgot to put on sunblock. I'm still red.

(Thanks to Jem Elsner and Joel Hamilton for letting me post their photos)