STEAMER'S BLOG

Steamer

REDEMPTION!!!!!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Well, here we are, eighty-odd Browncoats positively buzzed only it's not ng ka py we're buzzed on. Rather, it's the movie weekend we'll never forget even if some Fed laboratory turns out an amnesia ray a few years from now.

I will not have Andrew or Shelley speaking of the fiasco at the airport, so I'll skip straight to the job. We filmed outside of Ocean City, MD - one of those tourist traps that the state residents never go to - and we were the first ones to arrive at a resort that had graciously agreed to house the aforementioned eighty-odd Browncoats for the weekend. Well, being New England Browncoats and being the first to arrive....what's our sworn duty? What, indeed, but make some signs, hang them on the outside of our building, and "attract" our fellow film folks to a pre-film Shindig?

When we broke out some beer and wine and were joined by an extra who arrived shortly after we did, I knew it was going to be a fun evening indeed when another extra showed up, looked up to see us imbibing on the second-floor porch, and amusingly announced, I smell beer!

And so grew the Shindig, joined by extras and Browncoats and actors who weren't yet Browncoats but undoubtedly would be by the close of the weekend, until we heard the dark news from the shooting site: our poor dear set decorator was on scene. By herself. Dressing the set single handed. Suddenly our never-leave-a-man-stranded sense kicked in and it seemed a much worthier cause to go lend her a hand than hang around drinking and partying. Shindigs take on a whole new specialty when you're helping one of your own, ya know? So we hightailed it to the shooting site and were there till close to midnight preparing the set. Some of us had the fortune to get to bed round midnight, but others weren't so lucky - didn't get to turn in until three in the morning. With a 6:30 call time for filming.

I must note here that not only did everybody, and I mean everybody, turn in a brilliant job - a lot of the extras and secondary cast members did double duty helping with the set - but it's a damn good thing we got the hard parts out of the way on the first weekend.

To be specific, we filmed the very actiony and paced climax of the movie first, and we filmed it on a sunny day with 50-mile-an-hour winds. I'm not kidding. The air was just roaring in from oceanside, ripping outdoor decorations apart to the point where we had to take a lot of them down. So many of us were sandblasted, windblasted and sunburned by day's end that we looked more like a flock of lobsters (do lobsters form flocks, or some other grouping moniker?) than a contingent of Browncoats. However the complaints were minimal. After all this is a Firefly movie....

Day two was hairy. And by hairy I mean shaggy. And by shaggy I mean Wookiee-shaggy. I mean we almost missed the gorram plane! It was well worth it, though, I thought to myself when we filmed the pre-climax scene. Actually we filmed that in addition to another significant scene earlier in the film. But the acting was, I daresay, superb! Props to the stops for Mike and the production staff - and, again, profuse apologies for being a pain in the ass with the early-quit request. If only it wasn't such a hike to the airport or we could have gotten a later flight....ANYWAY, moving on. This experience taught me in the space of bare minutes that he who can't perform even when he has no dialogue is no actor at all. There were several shots during the pre-climax scene that I thought looked magnificent even from our side of the camera - I'm turning purple here wondering how they look from the other side.

Upon the other hand, I'm told by my fellow Browncoat leaders and by many of the extras that such scenes were magnificent! I got online this morning and Facebook had pretty well exploded with Redemption buzz. There's a friend-zy underway in all directions amongst us and everybody's chattering about what a fantastic time we had. Badly as I wish I could go down next weekend and be part of it all over again....stupid jobs. Stupid distance. Stupid economy. But I did the part I played and I'm overjoyed just for that. I'm only half joking with the cast and staff about outlining 'REDEMPTION 3: RISE OF THE BROWNCOATS.'

Which reminds me! If you want to stay up-to-date, here's where to do it:

http://browncoatsmovie.com
http://community.livejournal.com/bc_redemption
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26555743396

Love to see you there. And meanwhile, spread that signal! And now I'll be off to assemble some picspam for the photo threadses.

COMMENTS

Saturday, April 11, 2009 8:53 PM

WORLDOFHIGLET


The photos I've seen look superb. I can't wait to see some actual footage!

Huge props to you all for getting this bird in the air :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 10:35 AM

MSA


Whooo.... can't wait to see the photos:) HUGS


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