Every time I visit the Model Unit, some film crew has hidden the workshop door behind another elaborate arrangement of make-up trailers and catering trucks. Once inside, Ian and I found the Swordsman looking very close to finished – and a lot more dangerous, now that he has a dirty great sword.
It takes three people to move him these days: one behind, one on the sword arm and one on the shield arm. A fourth puppeteer will ultimately control the head movement from above. Filming him in motion highlighted some of the challenges the puppeteers are going to face.
There’s a little more work to do on the face, more damage and ageing to be inflicted on the torso, and a comedy eyebrow to be installed before the timber-hewn combatant is complete.
Today I’ve finished typing up an FX breakdown of the most recent script, to aid Hank in his budgeting. It reveals that the film requires a total of 320 FX shots, of which 184 are model shots (or contain such elements), 89 involve miniature puppets (either stop motion or rod controlled), 15 include matte painting elements, 22 are rig removals and 21 require motion control. To put this in perspective, Soul Searcher had around 250 FX shots. Most genre movies today number their FX shots in four figures.
The next thing I need to do is find a suitable studio to shoot the pilot in. Ealing’s stage one looked promising originally, but Ian produced a sketch model which proved that it was too small, besides which it’s on a long term lease.