This post first appeared on Ren’s Patreon page.
With a metallic clatter the shutter jerks into life and rolls upwards. When it shudders to a stop the loud quacks of Burleigh Hill Farm’s resident ducks can be heard approaching, come as usual in the hope that today the grain store will contain grain, and not the nascent set of a ruined town. Sorry Daffy, it’s the ruined town again. What are the chances?
They waddle noisily to the centre of the space, where Michael Hudson is constructing a well. It’s a ruined well, so some joker has modified the chalk marking on the floor from WELL to UNWELL. Health wise, it’s at least an improvement on last year’s DYING? which marked the corner of the Heretics’ Market where a bloody Hunter would collapse in Ren’s arms.
Still loudly discussing their disappointment, the ducks depart for their pond and the work of the Ren team continues.
As well as Michael I must give a huge shout out and thank you to Ross D’Souza, Dale Suttle and Ash Finn, who between them have done the lion’s share of the work so far. And not just the physical construction work but also the project management and materials acquisition (a fancy term for skip diving and heavy lifting in and out of vans).
At first we were worried about getting hold of enough wood, but after Dale found a sci-fi short getting rid of over 20 flats, plus a few freebies from Facebook Marketplace, the problem became one of the person-power needed to assemble it all. In the last few days we’ve made enough progress to alleviate that worry, only for it to be replaced by the not-so-trivial concern of how to surface all of this wood to look like stone. Methods including angle grinding, plastering, spraying expanding foam, polystyrene carving and moulding have all been tested and they are all likely to feature on the finished set to some degree.
Remember that you can drop by and help us out any Saturday or Sunday, 10:30am-6pm, at Burleigh Hill Farm, Somersham Road, St Ives, Cambridgeshire PE27 3LY. Please wear old clothes and bring your own tools if you can.
Away from the studio, preparation of other kinds ticks along. Hannah Young has finalised her designs and yesterday visited the garage where the Ren costumes are stored to select the existing pieces that will be reused or modified for the upcoming episodes. Crina Ciobanu, who steps up to head make-up artist following her brief stint on the pick-ups last September, has begun tests of the hair and make-up looks required. Locations are more or less locked, the last few crew positions have been advertised, and recently some of the returning cast were reunited with each other and with action designer Ronin Traynor to start choreographing a fight scene. Tavern Dwellers can look forward to an exclusive video blog about that last one very soon.
Finally, last Sunday saw the release of the latest episode of The Fantasy and Sci-fi Fanatic’s Podcast – an episode all about Ren. Chris Dane, Oriana Charles and Yours Truly discuss the challenges, triumphs and origins of the series with host Daniel Coolbaugh. My personal favourite bit of the interview is when Oriana reads out her list of what goes into making an episode. You can watch it on YouTube or find it wherever you get your podcasts.