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!

Hello, everyone!  It’s Sara.  Just wanted to let you all know that production wrapped this past weekend, and we have lived to tell the tale!  We have officially finished shooting on the OC’s first feature film!  Those from California and New York have had safe returns, and the rest of us are glad to be back at home in WNC.  We are settling back into our regular routine and preparing to begin the  editing process in a few days.  We will continue to add posts throughout the post-production process, but I still have a few videos left over from production, so watch out for those, too!  I’d like to send out a huge “thank you” to everyone who survived through production with us…We appreciate your help and cooperation, more than we can say.  Talk to you all again soon!

Well, we’ve managed to make it to the fourth and final week of production, which means that we must say “good-bye” to Jockey’s Ridge, and “hello” to Cape Hatteras!  We packed up all of our gear and set pieces tonight that we had hidden in various places around the park, and in true Jockey’s Ridge fashion, it was windy and rainy all day.  However, we are so appreciative of the park for letting us invade their big piles of sand for three weeks, and we can’t say “thank you” enough to the staff for being so patient for our crazy requests.  Even so, here are a few of the things we are most thankful for:

Thank you for letting us plug our batteries into your wall under the little table in the office.

Thank you for the light in the pavilion.

Thank you for the Polaris.

Thank you for your public restrooms.

Thank you for your sound-side parking lot.

Thank you for that truck-sized parking spot next to the pavilion. 

And for one last “hurrah,” I leave you with a little taste of what life was like in the dunes.  Basically, for one of our locations, we had to lug our gear over more than 1/2 mile of sand. It took about 10 minutes to walk the distance, and carrying our equipment is never easy, even in normal circumstances.  (For example…a large generator.)  And of course, no crew member ever walked the trail there and back only once a day.  The good news is…we all lived to tell the tale!  Happy trails, to you.

We had a fun day shooting in the water of the sound this past Friday, and our photographer, Tyler Capps, was kind enough to send me photographic evidence of the adventure! 

(Nate and 1st AC, Eric Clark, adjust camera settings for the next take.)

(Chris Fortner)

(The Art team: Chris and Julie Hotz)

(Randy Dzielak, Sound)

The day began with a trek from the parking lot to the location, where we walked along the beach…until we ran out of beach and had to walk in the water until we found some beach again.  However, we came prepared with wet suits and under-water gear for our RED camera. 

(Apparently, wet suits are difficult to put on…)

(Nate with a water-proofed RED camera.  Is that a sea monster I see behind him?!)

The scene we were shooting is a pretty big one from the movie, where the character, Adrian (played by Aaron Kuban) gets pulled into the water by “something.”  We used wet suits because our camera team, Aaron, and the ”something” were in the water for several hours, and even though it was one of the nicest days we have had with the weather, the water could still chill the guys and limit their work ability if they hadn’t suited up.   The benefit of being in the water, though, is that we ended up with some really cool shots from a sea creature’s point of view (POV) using some camera tricks, like shaking the camera or letting it float on top of the water.

(Nate and Eric C. with the camera, and Aaron fighting with the sea monster.)

We were fortunate to have Ben’s brother, Tristan, on set that day to help us with the “something” in the water.  He’s a marine biologist, so he knows about these thigns.  (Clue: It was very handy to have a strong, strapping man to help with anything that needed pulling…Thank you, Tristan!) 

Today, we have been attempting to put up the crashed space ship, but we have been at the mercy of Mother Nature.  The problem is that the ship can’t get wet, and it’s quite tall, so wind could damage it, too, but the weather can’t decide what it wants to do today or this week, for that matter.  It’s pretty funny, actually.  Almost every person who has ever lived at or been to this area in October has said that it’s the best time of the year to be here.  For years, the Farmer’s Almanac has said that the weather in October should be dry and in the mid 70s.  Well, it has rained almost EVERY SINGLE DAY we’ve been here!  And if it’s not raining, then it is usually cloudy and windy.  Ah, well…C’est la vie.  It puts a damper on the mood sometimes, but we’re pushing through til week 4 and the end of production!

Photos by Tyler Capps

Thanks to our resident pyro and art assistant, Chris Fortner, we were able to have a blazing campfire on set for most of last week.  This was very helpful being that fire plays a very important role in the film. 

(1st Assistant Art, Chris Fortner)

(Jake, attempting to make fire.)

I can’t say much more than that for fear that I’d give away something big, and  I want you all to fully appreciate the fire in the completed project!  But anyway, here’s how the Obsidian Collective makes fire.  (For those of you who are worried about the fact that we were playing with fire…I’m still posting on the blog, aren’t I?!)

Photos by Tyler Capps

Week three has begun, which means it is time for extras!  We rounded up a group of guys from one of the local high schools, and they have been wonderful!  They are all a part of their high school drama program, so they know the drill when it comes to acting and taking direction.  Week three also means that it’s time for our big set pieces; Bob and Jinx drove from Asheville on Saturday in a UD truck and pulling a trailer to move our spaceship wing and slip gate.  We were able to get the slip gate out into the dunes yesterday, no problem (other than a torrential downpour), but today and tomorrow, our crew faces the daunting task of putting up the wing against the coastal winds.  Yikes.  More to come on all of this later.

In the meantime, Spenser (“Kit”) put together a little something for you all.  I like to call it the “Spenser Special.”  Basically, he stole my camera and did whatever he wanted, but he did a great job!  I forsee a few more of these in the days to come…So without further ado, here’s Spense with an insight into what goes on during downtime for the actors on set.