Check out Warden Treihan’s sweet office courtesy of concept illustrator Sanford Kong and production designer Ian Brock. Talk about a room with a view!
Hey, here’s another director that will be making a return appearance in the show’s second year…
Andy Mikita: The last time I worked with Andy, he directed two of Dark Matter’s most talked-about episodes: 112 (featuring TWO’s backstory) and 113 (our shocking season finale). How’s he going to outdo that duo? Well, I’m looking forward to finding out!
Dark Matter season one memories…
Executive Producer Jay Firestone, 1st Assistant A.D. Brandon Tataryn (who had a disease named after him in Episode #107), and Executive Producer Paul Mullie walk the set one final time before the Christmas break.
The “big metal doors” go up!
Director of Photography Craig Wright and VFX Supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson check out the in-progress bridge of The Raza.
The “big metal doors” looking significantly more metal.
Production Designer Ian Brock surveys the work on one our stasis pods.
The “big metal doors”, camera-ready.
The bridge of The Raza – coming along.
The etching on Ryo Ishida’s/FOUR’s sword and scabbard.
Visual Effects Supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson prepares to drive his point home.
Yea Andy Mikita!
I want a disease named after me!
Love that etching on Four’s scabbard!
Is your second season preparation easier than your first season?
There’s something about watching a set get built up and come to life that’s always felt a bit like Christmas to me. That feeling one gets when then they’re elaborately decorating a house in brilliant lights and such. As they labor over and complete each section and get to see it all lit up, the excitement builds in playfully flirtatious wee increments , inspiring the much needed motivation and energy to continue the long exhausting effort. Then night fall comes, the whole house and exhausting project is done , the switch gets thrown and There it is!,
….. That nearly indescribable sense of magic, wonder and joy that just kind of takes over ones whole being from the tip of scalp down thru the toes!
O’ yes, ~Merry Christmas Dark Matter!~ and to all her cast n crew ….. just know you are truly loved n adored!
And on extra special note to your amazing art department and absolutely, knock out, sexy gorgeous, director, Andy Mikita who must keep all the ladies on the DM staff feeling terribly distracted via his natural charisma when he’s there……
~I bid you adieu and sweetest dreams~.
That sword etching looks very one-sided on that GENOME strand… Let me guess, the “Family” originates from an old Pharmaceutical firm..?
As odd as it may sound, when working on “Mr. Hockey”, I fangirled far more (inside) when I realized Andy was directing, lol. I didn’t even realize that the person I was chirping “Good morning, Chief!” to every evening (we’d start shooting at about 9-10 pm in Portage LaPrairie) when working on it was him, lol! I was the accordion girl, haha….
ok so much for sweet dreams. Here it is 3:30 am. edt . Just finished replying to a magnificent yacht sized load of emails, research papers and sci project event press releases that needed reviewing & approval, and an even larger batch of team schedules that needed to be coordinated and had my heated snifter of cognac night cap and you’d think I’d be fast and hard zonked out as soon as my head hit the pillow. ….. but alas no.
So lucky you …. you get to hear my overly verbose drifting tangents of thought in these wee hours. Oh Boy! Please, Try to contain your excitement, eh!
Ya know Joe, I don’t know why you seemed so nervous doing that pod cast? Paul asked brilliant questions that caught all 3 of you off guard and I thought you were beautifully entertaining & brilliantly quick thinking in answering when taking all factors into consideration. -Except maybe when ,in your nervousness, you miscalculated and said you’d only been blogging 8 yrs. (I remember reading your first wp blog posting back in mid 2000’s. either 2005 or 2006. But even before wp I remember catching wind of one posting site or another you’d contributed to).
For what it’s worth , I don’t think you should give up on the idea of writing prose and being an actual novelist and fully agree wit Lou Anders original assessment from 5 or so yrs ago. True, youre not likely ever to turn up the victor on an episode of Survivor or become a pro football player, but you do have a natural gift for prose. A certain articulation and eloquence at times when obviously feeling inspired. While there are no doubt some aspects of novel writing you shall likely always struggle with, Your natural strengths and talents lie in your ability to dive deeply into the details. Your desire to explore and examine each little nook n cranny n leave no stone unturned and Your wondrous ability to describe people places and things so incredibly well an artist can bring it to life with 110 percent perfection based solely on your verbal or written description.
The best novels I’ve ever read in all my 52 yrs took me on a visual journey with their words. I could see in my mind with crystal clarity the characters and scenes they were describing.
You have that ability already .. You just have to realize and believe it for yourself.
Mailbag question: Why did the bridge have to be broken down during the hiatus, once you got the word that you’d been renewed for season 2? This is a primary set that you know will be used throughout the series. Did they have to rebuild all the sets?
Pretty cool office! And the new character Treihan is the Warden. What was his casting breakdown? 😊
Love hearing Andy will be back directing next season. Thanks for the additional pictures, too.
@GForce Glad it went so well. I’m looking forward to seeing something online about it — a picture, a video, something.
@Drea You always sound like you are drinking lots of caffeine. Your posts make me laugh. I was asleep before midnight, but I’m recovering from surgery so I tend to sleep like a normal person when that is going on. Actually even took a nap today.