Space Command: Redemption, that's a wrap!

Yesterday we wrapped the second leg of shooting on Space Command: Redemption and that is a wrap on principle photography.  We shot 13 first unit days, 7 second unit days, and now we wait for editing and post to see if there are any pickups that are needed.  We had quite a few sweltering hot days, but made it through.

It was a pleasure to work with the many talented actors who came on board: Ethan McDowell, Sara Maraffino, Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Falling Skies), Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate: Atlantis), Bill Mumy (Babylon 5, Lost in Space), Mira Furlan (Lost, Babylon 5), Bryan McClure, Bruce Boxleitner (TRON, Babylon 5, TRON: Legacy), and Michael Harney (Orange is the New Black, True Detective, Deadwood).

Space Command: Redemption in production

I've been busy the last couple weeks with prepping and shooting leg two of Space Command: Redemption.  We just wrapped day 4 and things are going well.  We're getting some really good footage.  The first leg we shot was fairly static, as it had a ton of visual effects and needed a more or less locked camera for the sake of not driving our VFX team insane.  So on this part, I've been taking advantage of us being on sets to add some movement and energy to the shots.  On our bridge set, I have the camera moving at all times, putting our Dana Dolly to good use.  Today we shot out a corridor of the ship and we brought in my Steadicam guy (and 2nd Unit DP), Scott Baker, who did a fantastic job.

It's been four long, hot days and we have six more days coming up,  five on set and one on location.  I'm tired and glad we have a 14 hour turnaround today, but I'm excited to see what else we shoot.  The shoot has been a challenge, but we are making our way through it and getting some great stuff.  Props to my fantastic G&E team.

Ed Tullett - Malignant music video

Flew out to Chicago this past week to shoot a music video for independent artist Ed Tullett.  The weather forecast wasn't too promising, but we ended up having good weather for our shoot.  It was a sunset and night shoot in the woods, with us packing in all our lighting and power from a distant parking lot, so keeping the gear to a minimum while still lighting up a forest was a challenge.

We ended up picking up a couple generators (giving us 4 20-amp circuits) and I lit primarily with 3 2K Junior Moles (backlight and forest background) and a 1K Baby Fresnel through some half white diffusion for our key light.  One of the two generators ended up giving us issues, running for 10-15 minutes at a time before shutting off (with a 5 minute turnaround before it would start up again).  We managed to work around the problem, though it added an hour or two to our day.

We shot on fast Canon EF glass (F1.3) to maximize the small amount of light we had.  Camera was a RED Epic Dragon and we shot 48 FPS 6K 2.37 Scope format at 800 ISO for the majority of the shoot.

Written, produced and directed by Daniel Sather. http://danielsather.com/