Eventually, we all did have to say “farewell” to Nags Head…but we returned home eager to begin the next phase in post-production!

(Alternate title for this post: Spenser Special III!)

Three weeks into production in the Outer Banks, and we had yet to film an ocean!  So we said ”good-bye” to Debo and  traded the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge for…the dunes at Hatteras National Seashore!  What we lost in tons of sand…we gained in wind.  (It’s just one thing after another with these islands!)  And it just so happened that Daylight Savings Time began that week, so our call time became 6 a.m. in order to be ready before the sun came up so that we didn’t waste any daylight.    Ahh…we did see some beautiful sunrises, though.

(Sunrise at Hatteras.)

(Micah had the right idea!)

(Lee)

(Chris tosses a sandbag.)

(Our main source of light and a huge budget-saver: mirror boards.)

(The camera team: Eric C., Nate, and Andrew)

(We may have had enough fun in the surf and sand after this trip…!)

(Mirror boards + bird)

(Eric B. and his new pet)

(A few member of our small mirror board army.)

(Another lovely sunrise…)

Photos by Tyler Capps

The third week of production meant big sets and a group of amazing extras.  Bob and Jinx drove up from ACME in Asheville at the end of week 2 to set up the Slip Gate and the space ship, and we went on a treasure hunt all around the island to find the newest competitors in Sol Invictus.  The sun even graced us with her presence!  Many thanks to ACME, the guys of First Flight High School, and Jake #2, who flew in from L.A. to help us out!  And now, without further ado, I give you…(drumroll)…more incredible photos from Tyler Capps.

(Jake, playing ”Lee,” and Co. arrive at the Slip Gate.)

(The Slip Gate)

(“Ira,” “Kit,” and “Adrian” at the Slip Gate.)

(The last set-up in week 3, one of the last scenes in the movie, and we’re the last ones in the park…)

(Jinx and Eric A. prepare for the wing-raising.)

(Yes, indeed that was a boat…)

(Ta-dah!  The wing is raised!  The entire crew helped pull this one off.)

(Then we had to tie and double-tie everything down so that the crashed space ship would stay crashed and not decide to take off.)

(Jinx secures a line.)

(Julie works her magic with the sand.)

(Julie was the last one on set so that the sand didn’t get messed up.)

(The crew double-checks the supports for the wing.)

(Julie used a leaf-blower to get smooth sand, ASAP.)

(Bob, the ship’s architect.)

(Action!)

(“Tyl,” “Eli,” “Kit,” “Hal” and “Lex” find the space ship.)

(New scene at the ship.)

We filmed several scenes with the extras on the summits of the big dunes at Jockey’s Ridge for some very grand wide shots, which also made for some epic pictures!

(The cast and crew have the dune to themselves.)

(Chris)

(Mel)

Photos by Tyler Capps

Spense  kidnapped my camera again during week 3 of production to show you our cool spaceship that the guys at ACME brought up from Asheville.  (You probably recognize pieces of it from photos during pre-production.)  The reason you don’t see many people hanging around that giant wing sticking up in the air is because, as you’ve probably heard us say before, the wind is vicious in the OBX, and that ship could have taken off in flight at any moment!  Wouldn’t that have been fun?!  I guess we could have saved some money on special FX if that had happened…

(Spenser really does make anything on set seem cool, doesn’t he?  Just ignore the goofy girl waving at the camera, please.)

Our actors got pretty creative in their free time, however limited it might have been…Take a look at the cool thing to do at Jockey’s Ridge!

Even the art team got in on the action!

(This may or may not make it into the final cut of Sol…)

Photos by Tyler Capps

Hello, everyone!  Here is the first of a few videos from production that never made  it up on the blog.  Our good man Sky, who plays Lex, spent a lovely afternoon with my camera to give you a little taste of life on set for our actors.  Thanks, Sky!