White Room: 02B3

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed a lot of tweeting about my recent project, White Room: 02B3. But being confined to only 140 characters at a time, I was very limited in the amount of information I could divulge. WR:02B3 is a very complicated project, mostly in that it is actually three projects in one! The most intriguing of which is an experimental 360 degree version.

If you follow my blog, you have probably figured out that I am usually pretty tight lipped about current works-in-progress, and usually don't post images or stories until the entire project has been made public. I grew up in the glorious age of Amblin Entertainment and Lucasfilm, where every next project was a secret, a covert operation with code names and fake news leaks to keep fans guessing. There was so much more mystery and magic to that time, as opposed to present day, when you can practically download a rough cut of a film before the director has even seen it! But not all projects need to be kept under wraps, and we decided internally at Roddenberry Entertainment that our experiences creating WR:02B3 should include our audience from as early as possible. So I am blogging about it now, just hours after wrapping the first tier of our shoot.

White Room:02B3 is the story of six strangers that wake up in a, well, white room! The only other thing there is a gun. And there are no windows and no doors. Hahahaha. Which offers this chilling challenge: To find a way out!!!! Oh, sorry, got distracted there for a second...

Tory Mell, one of Roddenberry's producers, wrote the script, and I signed on to design and direct. As always for me, the easiest way to envision the story is to start by creating the environment. I was thrilled to have the advantage of shooting on an actual soundstage for this project, one of Universal's old pick-up stages in North Hollywood. It offered plenty of space, controlled lighting, and silent air conditioning! We started the process by laying out a full scale floor plan using laser levers. So Star Trek! Gene would be proud :)

Mazin created a virtual model in 3D Max based on my quick and crappy pencil sketches, then proceeded to construct the six pillars that would be the cornerstones of the room.

Kirsten resumed her usual roll as Construction Coordinator, and used her master builder skills to put the rest of the set together.

As I am always acquiring pieces from other projects, and constantly trying to build bigger sets on smaller budgets, it is not unusual to find me re-using flats and materials. WR:02B3 was no exception, and many of the elements I pulled in have a little bit of sci-fi history to them.

There are old flats from BladeRunner, new walls from Real Steel, vaccumformed panels from Roger Corman, and plastic grating from James Cameron.

Once there was enough set standing to really understand the space, Social Animal brought in the SA9 360 camera for a test shoot. This custom built camera rig uses nine hi-rez cameras that shoot into angled mirrors to create one continues three hundred and sixty degree frame. That's about as technical as I can get. Usually, I just say it looks like an Imperial probe droid!

When the camera test was successful, and we knew all of the walls were in the right place and all of our math was correct, it was time to paint. Time was running short, and we called in all the help we can get. It was a total honor to have Brooke Lee, a bona fide Miss Universe, jump in and paint a huge portion of the set!

My friend Milynn Sarley, of Team Unicorn fame, also jumped in to help. Milynn is one of the stars of WR:02B3, so it was exciting to have her join the art department, too. You know, just another day in Hollywood, having the most beautiful women in the world...scratch that...in the universe, painting your set! Tough job, but some body's gotta do it!

The next step was lighting the set, so Director of Photography Chris Darnell brought in his team to highlight all of the textures and facets the WR art department created.

It was very exciting to see it all become reality. It always cool to see any set I design come to life, but it feels different when it's a set I'll be directing on.

Another aspect of the project is showing the 360 version of the film in dome theaters around the country. This is a whole new medium for us, so the team went to visit dome projection experts prior to filming. Here, Chris takes reference photos of a dome grid, used to align the multiple projectors that create a seamless 360 images.

Apparently, it is a commonly known fact about me that I LOVE popcorn. Even more specific, stale popcorn. I simply cannot watch a movie without popcorn, and I make a habit of getting the largest bucket, and bringing everything left over home with me to enjoy for the rest of the week. Roddenberry executive producer Trevor Roth thought that if I needed popcorn to watch a movie, I was going to need a ton of it to make a movie! And so was inspired the coolest first-day-of-shooting gift I have ever gotten. This will probably last me till the premier!!!

Everything was ready, and it was time to bring in the cast.

In the White Room, you're name is replaced with a number. Breckin Meyer plays ONE. Working with Breckin was an amazing experience. He is a solid professional, and he brought a depth to the character that will keep audiences riveted. We were lucky that Breckin was able to make time for us in his busy schedule, as he is currently staring in TNT's "Franklin & Bash". You may also recognize him from staples such as "Clueless" and "Road Trip". If you haven't seen those movies, you need to go to Netflix right now...

My buddy David Blue joined us as SIX. He was perfect for the role, and his strong sci-fi background made him an important part of the "melting pot" I was trying to create under the Roddenberry label. I had drafted David in the past for a cameo in my "Guild Sells Out" faux commercials, but it was such a quick shoot, it was great to actually work with him again in a part he could sink his teeth into.

And of course, Milynn. She was FOUR, and got to play the most action-oriented role. I know Milynn from Team Unicorn adventures, and I was thrilled when she accepted my invitation to be a part of my sci-fi experiment. And this won't be the last you see of this unicorn in the White Room! Her awesome teammates joined us on set for a Star Trek photo shoot, which will be heading your way soon!

That is indeed Rachel True from "The Craft", and the dude pointing at her fake baby belly is none other than Tony Janning, known for a little web project I like to call "Legend of Neil", or "Pure Awesome" for short. This was really my favorite part of the WR project, the dichotomy of huge movie stars from block buster films working side by side with rising internet sensations.

White Room: 02B3 is a sci-fi/drama, with a tinge of thriller, which was no new territory for Rachel. She spun her character's web effortlessly, delivering an intoxicating performance as THREE. But Tony has a strong comedy background, and it took some pressing on my part to get his headshot to the top of the TWO stack. I have to admit it was my proudest moment on set when Tony did his key scene, and I turned to see every one's jaw on the floor. He is a super talent, and I promise you will be seeing a lot more of him on screens everywhere around you.

I have been mesmerized by Tamlyn Tomita's beauty since she first performed the tea ceremony in "The Karate Kid II". I believe meeting her on the set of Babylon 5 was also the first time I was actually star struck. We became good friends during that shoot, probably because we were the two youngest members of the cast/crew. We have so many stories about that production. It only took about 15 years, but it was so satisfying to finally have Tamlyn work on a project of my own. Fittingly, she plays FIVE. Get it? Like Babylon 5? Alrighty then...

The actual shooting schedule was pretty crazy. As I mentioned, we were attempting to shoot three separate versions of the script: a traditional film, an online 360 experience, and a dome theater version. I had to figure out a blocking and timing that would work for them all, but the camera work had to be handled differently for each. Here, I'm talking to my 1st AD, Kate, who is in charge of keeping the set on schedule.

Since the genesis of the project was the 360 concept, the original schedule focused around that section of the shoot, and we were going to start with the SA9 camera. That meant that the actors had to perform entire multi-page scenes in a single take, almost like live theater, right on the first day. We did several days of rehearsals to prepare, but producer Kim Evey made the decision to reverse the schedule and shoot the 360 versions last. This was probably the best decision of the production, as it allowed me to work individually with each cast member during close-ups for the traditional shoot, and make subtle changes to character and dialog that we wouldn't be able to adjust in the 360 single takes.

After the traditional shoot, Social Animal came in to rig the SA9 360 camera. It's funny to me how often I have used the term "traditional shoot" in the past few months. I don't think such a term even existed a few years back. It would have been just "a shoot". I guess now with 3D, Imax, 360, and who knows what else, just shooting a single camera 2D narrative film can be considered "Traditional".

Since the 3rd day of shooting WR was NOT traditional, there were many extra steps. Measurements, calibrating, all kinds of technical stuff that I really didn't have time to absorb. Luckily, the Social Animal gang had everything under control, and they worked with Darnell to make sure everything looked great. Here, Eric uses a 10th camera to find settings that will balance the nine cameras in the rig. Or something like that...

Matt from Social Animal takes a break from setting up massive amounts of equipment to stand in for focus and skin tone tests. The hardest part of setting up the 360 view for me was figuring out where to put the gun. In the traditional shoot, I had it in the center of the table. But for the 360 version, the center of the table was removed, and the camera was installed there.

You may notice a theme forming: six walls, six chairs, six people, six bullets...

Well, not everything was in groups of six... In order to monitor the 360 takes, I had to watch nine screens all at once. As actors moved around the room, they jumped from one screen to the next. It was very confusing at first. To make sure I didn't miss anyting, since there was no way possible to focus on every monitor at the same time, I had three script supervisors taking constant notes. They divided the monitors into groups of three each, and I followed the main action across all nine. Unlike a....wait for it...traditional shoot, there were also many new rules that had to be followed to determine what was a good take. The actors had "no fly zones" where the camera couldn't see them if the stopped, and boundries they couldn't cross, like the top of frame. If so much as a finger tip grazed the boarder, I had to yell cut and start over.

Which reminds me of another crazy thing. Since I couldn't have an eye on every monitor, the scripties needed to be able to talk to me as they saw questional issues. Talking on set usually ruins sound recording, so we had to set up our video village in a soundproof closet of to one side of the stage. It may have been alright if was just me, or maybe a few people, but ultimately we needed to cram a dozen people in there to operate, monitor, and advise. It definitely got a little toasty in there!

The toughest job for the art department was keeping the White Room white! Keeping with the theme, Red 5 jumped in to do touch ups between scenes. Red wasn't originally scheduled to work on WR, but she was able to free up some time and join in. I'm glad she did, the set would have never been finished without her!

I am always mixing and matching my Star Wars and Star Trek. Shooting WR was no exception. I grabbed my Marc Echo Stormtrooper hoodie on the way out the door, and the joke on set was that if I zipped it up, it was like White Room camoflage. I didn't keep it zipped for too long, though. I think it freaked the cast out when I was giving direction!

One member of the cast that I wish was wearing camo was this damn fly! He made his way onto the set early in the day, and taunted me relentlessly till the wee hours. He will probably cost the production thousands in post fly removal. We shot the traditional version on RED, so I'm sure I will be able to see his wings flapping in the 4K resolution!

I imagine it to look something like this! No, that's not a macro photo of the sci-fly buzzing around the crew cake, that's writer/producer and good friend Tory Mell. Obviously, you can tell, he probably has some insect DNA in him, though.

So that's my intro spiel on White Room: 02B3. There is so much more to tell, but I want to save something for later! I'm sure you will be hearing about this project from me a lot over the next few month, and I have to say that it is refreshing to talk about it at this point instead of another retro-blog with a cryptic intro.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I will keep you up to date as things progress. I want to thank my amazing cast and crew, who made this experience both pleasant and possible! And a special thank you to Rod Roddenberry for allowing me to helm the first original Roddenberry production since Gene left us. It is a huge honor to be a small part of such a massive science fiction legacy. When I was eight years old, hiding my black and white television under the covers so I could sneak in an episode of Star Trek past my bedtime, I never imagined I would someday be part of that universe. It's still hard to believe it now!

White Room: 02B3...coming soon!

Rock Jocks premieres at Wizard World Chicago

It was a very short trip, about 30 hours total, but I dropped in on Wizard World Chicago to sit in on a Rock Jocks panel with Felicia. What is Rock Jocks? Oh, yeah, I guess I haven't talked about it very much, but every other tweet or mention about a secret project over the past 6 months was most likely referring to it.

Since everyone in Chicago knows what Rock Jocks is now, I should probably bring you up to speed, too! This is a film I executive produced with my partner Sheri Bryant. It was written and directed by Paul Seetachitt, and I stepped in for Production design and make-up fx.

The basic premise is that there is a secret government agency that monitors and shoots down rouge asteroids, saving the Earth every day. But due to constant budget cuts, this program is now run by those deemed otherwise useless to society. It's CLERKS meets WARGAMES.

And it looks a little something like this...

The panel was a lot of fun, and I got to spend a few moments talking about how I went about designing the film. But mostly, I joked around with Felicia...

The panel actually started like this...

Oh, and here's a better look at the "behind the scenes" video...

Alright, I've got to go. I'm directing a movie right now, so my time to blog is pretty short. I'll post more info on Rock Jocks as it is made available, and I'll try to blog about something else before the end of the month!

Happy 4th Guildversary!

The web sensation "The Guild" has been thrilling fans for four years today, with the fifth season premiering this week. It's star and creator, Felicia Day, talked to Hollywood Reporter about the show's journey from a "kitchen production" to a world wide phenomenon.

The article was, as Felicia always is, very inspirational. The story of one person with an idea going against the odds and beating the system is always fascinating, and in the new media industry, THE GUILD is the David that took down Goliath.

Along the path, Felicia assembled an amazing cast and crew, including producer Kim Evey, Director Sean Becker, and of course, Amy, Jeff, Sandeep, Robin, and Vince.

I was fortunate enough to come aboard right at what could be argued as the tipping point for the show, with the "bonus feature" music video "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" The video broke records, and went No.1 on several charts, including iTunes. People who had never played a video game or watched a web series were suddenly aware of The Guild, and the cross-over audience catapulted the show to numbers that previously were reserved for network television.

I had a great time working on the music video, but I had no idea at the time of the opportunities and adventures my association with The Guild would lead to. After reading Felicia's article, I thought it might be fun to chronicle my involvement with the show on this special day. I went to my iPhoto, opened The Guild folder, and realized that I have over 4,000 photos! So I cancelled my lunch meeting, and put this quick run down memory lane together for you...

Photo 1: This is the first thing I made for the Guild. I started several of the Avatar weapons at the same time, but since Zaboo's Ram Staff had so many processes to go through, I focused on it from the get go.

Photo 2: The finished staff. Despite all the crazy dancing and gymnastics Sandeep did, the ram skull survived the entire video shoot unscathed. It wasn't until the green screen day on season 4 that he smashed it to bits...

Oh, but I fixed it! :)

Photo 3: Clara's wand was the next item to be finished. Kenny from Knights of the Guild Podcast actually came by the BarnYard each day that I worked on these, and filmed the whole process. You can watch me build the Vork sword on The Guild Season 3 DVD. Maybe I will be able to release the other prop "How To's" in the future.

Photo 4: I had seen the Guild on line prior to becoming involved, but it was still amazing to see the Avatars come to life!
Photo 5: By far, Tink's bow was the most difficult to build within the short schedule.

Photo 6: The Avatar video happened to be shot on Felicia's birthday, which just made being involved that much more exciting. She got this awesome treasure chest cake, but the schedule was so busy, there was hardly time to celebrate.

Photo 7: A short time later, when production was wrapped, Kim threw Felicia an 80's themed "Birthday Prom". I volunteered to decorate, and we transformed a school auditorium into a flashback bonanza. One of the pieces I did was this Nagel style portrait of Felicia.

Photo 8: I also brought a ton of my 80's props, and set up little photo ops around the room, including an Indiana Jones temple, The Muppet Show stage, a Miami Vice backdrop, and this Jedi scene. Kenny and Jenni from the Knights of the Guild podcast pose with Jabba and 3PO.

Photo 9: This is one of my favorite pictures. Felicia and I with my Delorean. Yes, that is the dress from Pretty in Pink Felicia is wearing. Costume Designer Sarah Trost made it for her. And yes, sadly, I used to dress exactly like this in the 80s.

Photo 10: The next big Guild event for me was Comicon. The Avatar video was premiering, and I brought the weapons down so the cast could appear at the panel in full gear. I helped them get ready back stage.

Photo 11: This was the same Comicon panel where Kim announced that Wil Wheaton was joining the cast. It was also when Kim coined the phrase "Sneak Preak!"

Photo 12: I am not the most tech savvy guy, and one of the things I have gotten from my Guild experience was new insight to a computer driven world. Felicia convinced me to join twitter. Kenny talked me into starting this blog. Brian Kameoka taught me the value of social media marketing, and the fact that there are ways to do it everywhere, all the time! Here, he is live in the Guild's chat room during the panel via a wireless tether.

Photo 13: After the madness of Comicon died down, I was having lunch with Felicia and mentioned a story line idea I had for The Guild involving faulty merchandise. She felt that the concept could be a stand alone video, and possibly focus on the Internet rumors that the show had "sold out" due to it's popularity. We decided to turn the whole thing into a Christmas special, and I wrote and directed a series of mock commercials for Guild products.

Photo 14: To go along with the concept of "selling out", I wanted to fill each segment with celebrity cameos. I called in my friends, many who were already Guild fans. Here I am directing David Blue and Brea Grant for the Tink doll commercial. If you have never seen any of these, check them out!

Photo 15: Here is the prototype for the Zaboo pheromone spray. The commercial stars Kevin Thompson, Alley Baggett, and America Young.

Photo 16: So not safe for children! The Bladezz Switch blade work in progress. Alex Albrecht plays the dad.

Photo 17: Clara got the Mommy and Me cookie jar. Monica May from Power Rangers SPD shows us how to use it! Oh, and that framed photo in the background is STILL hanging in my kitchen, two years later!

Photo 18: The Vork Unbreakable Bank sculpture. I am lucky as an artist to be able to have direct access to the actors, allowing me to have the best reference you could ask for to get the best product possible.

Photo 19: Of course, not everyone is always cooperative!

Photo 20: Felicia got the Codex Answer Orb. I started with a scaled printout.

Photo 21: Layered on some clay..

Photo 22: And made this fake toy!

Photo 23: One of the things I love about directing is being able to create the illusion that we are somewhere else. With the exception of the toy store for Tink, all of the Guild Sells Out spots were shot at my house. Here, we are transforming part of my yard into a White Trash Winterland.

Photo 24: My living room was decked with Guildie goodness.

Photo 25: The last shot of the day was the intro video with Felicia and Sandeep. Here, Felicia wraps gifts with money! I am being freaked out by the creepy half Santa...

Photo 26: My favorite aspect of the Guild is the sense of family, and how everyone is involved hands on. Sometimes quite literally! Here, producer Kim Evey steps in as the hand model for the DVD plug at the end of each commercial.

Photo 27: My next Guild adventure was centered around another holiday, April Fool's Day. By this point, the show had established a reputation for hijinx on the 1st, and the Knights of Good had to come up with new and clever ways to prank people who were most like expecting something.

Kim cooked up "Lil' Guildies", a fake animated Guild spin-off. I designed and directed the show's opening, paced to the Paul and Storm intro song. The joke was that the opening was all there ever was!

I have to imagine people liked it, especially with fans such as @jesreaves sending us these amazing Lil' Guildies hand made plushies!

Photo 28: The "How to make Vork's sword" video resulted in a lot of people asking me for pointers on the other weapons, particularly Codex's staff. Felicia dropped by the BarnYard and helped me build one, the video of which can be found on this blog and on YouTube. The end product was signed by both of us, and was auctioned off to raise over $5,000.00 for charity!

Photo 29: I was just finishing up on "Legend of Neil" when The Guild season 4 started up. At first, I thought I was only going to be able to squeeze in a few specialty props, such as this Wig Warmer that Zaboo buys for his mom. But schedules alined, and I was able to assume Production Designer duties for the show.

Photo 30: Most of the sets were already established from previous seasons, but I was able to sneak in a few new additions here and there. I wanted to create a character that Tink would be into, a sort of angry Hello Kitty, so I could have a common thread of design weave through her presence in the season. I came up with B!TCH KAT late one night, and after surprisingly quick email responses from Felicia and Sean Becker, I was able to make a few posters to hang in Tink's room by morning.

Photo 31: One of the new sets for season 4 was Ollie's Cheesy Beard office, which was actually built in my living room! I tried to dress it like a maintenance closet that Ollie attempted to spruce up, adding little touches like this cheesy ocean mural.

Photo 32: The biggest set design for season 4 also happened to be the smallest set for the Guild! I built the Knights of Good Hall in miniature so we could offer scope and scale on a web series budget.

Photo 33: The cast was shot against green screen and composited into the miniature. Since they were playing their avatars again, the weapons were employed once more. Simon Helberg made a guest appearance as The Kevinator, and I built his suit of armor.

Photo 34: After a late night storyboard session the day before we shot, Sean decided Kevinator needed a helmet so Simon could be a big reveal. I started sculpting this in WED clay about 8pm, and had the final painted fiberglass copy on set 6am the next morning. Simon said wearing it was like huffing glue...

Photo 35: My favorite part of season 4 was painting Team Cawkes. Wil and Felicia came over to pose for a photo session. My Boston Terrier Print tried so hard to get in on the action that Felicia and Sean cast him as the result of Kevinator's spell on Zaboo's mom.

Photo 36: I painted what Felicia would call "lady porn" in acrylics on canvas. The image was used on buttons for the 2010 Comicon panel give away, and is available as a poster at ThinkGeek.com. You can also watch a featurette on how I painted Team Cawkes on iTunes.

Photo 37: I also production designed the Guild's next music video, "Game On". There were quite a few sets I put together, but my favorite thing has to be the fake elephant that Felicia and Zaboo ride on.

Photo 38: Well, painting Amy Okuda gold ranks pretty high up there, too...

Photo 39: I was invited to sit on the panel to present the Team Cawkes episode, and Game On at Comicon that year. It was very overwhelming to sit in front of 3,000 people! Luckily I had Jeff Lewis next to me, making everyone laugh and calming the nerves! It was an unforgettable experience. Plus, I got a purple squid hat!

Photo 40: The span of time since season 4 till now has been filled with Dragon Age, Rock Jocks, and Guild season 5, all of which I cannot show anything from yet. But trust me, there is plenty to show when the time comes! In the mean while, check out the comic cover I painted for the Kim Evey penned Clara one-shot from Darkhorse.

Photo 41: If you are still reading this after over 40+ photos, I imagine you are a fan of The Guild. If you aren't, it's probably only because you haven't seen it yet! Jump over to watchtheguild.com and see what all the excitement is about.

I have definietely made a concious effort to not have my blog be Guild-centric, and talk about as many of the other projects I work on as possible, but as you can see, The Knights of Good get a lot of my attention. I have been blessed with a successful enough career that I can work on almost any Hollywood project I choose, but when Felicia calls, it's hard not to sign on for what she has planned. Her attention to detail, ability to craft a story, and understanding of the medium make everything she sets out to do a worthy endeavor.

Photo 43: And if there is one thing I learned from Miss Day that rises to the top as the most important rule of good entertainment: It's all about the fans!

Thanks for your support in making this show what it is, and Felicia, thank you for letting me be involved! So looking forward to watching season 5!