Yesterday, I featured an old Stargate prep schedule on this blog, breaking it down for you and offering insights into the pre-production process. Today, I’d like to follow up with something a little more recent by giving you all a peek at a call sheet from last year’s final day of main unit shooting on Dark Matter –
Production day 89 of 89! Our final day on set! (Not counting the next day’s second unit shoot of Jodelle (FIVE) crawling through vents.) Note the nice late call time (0900 as opposed to the usual 0730), meaning we get to sleep in! But also means we don’t get to eat lunch until 3:00 p.m. To tide us over, however, the production arranged for a special wafflerific crew breakfast! Also a reminder that we would be snapping the crew photo in the underbelly that day. Even though we were shooting indoors, we received the weather report nevertheless.
First shots up = scenes 80 and 81 from Episode 113. “Trading Accusations when GA docks. Locked in. Gas! Two stunned. Mole.” This was a big one and took most of the day. Originally, the mole was intended to be revealed here. TWO goes down. We REVERSE and TILT UP to the perpetrator looming over her. He removes his mask to reveal…the mole! While down on the ground, Melissa O’Neil (TWO) snapped this awesome photo –
I’d taken pains to keep the mole’s identity a secret until the very end and then finally let the cast know just before seconds before they were to shoot the reveal…
Of all the scenes we shot over those first 13, it was the last one – of the crew members being dragged out in order, one after the other, until the mole is finally revealed to the audience – that really really hit me the hardest. I still get goosebumps every time I watch it.
And then, we go to the various shots of the G.A. troops trespassing on OUR home – the corridors, the bridge, the underbelly and infirmary – as they secure The Raza.
Pictured above: The G.A. troops prepare to take the ship!
The Production Notes for this particular episode covering every department. Reminders! Art Department, we need the docking collar in place for that shot of the G.A. troops boarding the ship. Playback, don’t forget the “Access Denied” message that flashes up when FIVE tries to unseal the doors. Props, we’ll beed comms, guns, handcuffs and gas canisters. Stunts, we’re going to be dropping our crew and dragging them off. Hair and Make-up, the G.A. officers wear eye black, making their appearance all the more fearsome behind those masks. Costumes, we’re going to be doing a shot tracking SIX’s booted feet. Electrics, we’re going to need different lighting to distinguish between the corridors. SPFX, we’re going to smoke out the corridor so be prepared for some heavy atmosphere. VFX, we’ll need to accentuate the flash bang and do some electrical arcing on the contact point when TWO is hit with the stun wand. To mention just a few.
A look-ahead to our final second unit day. Lots of vent crawling and two scenes that we didn’t end up shooting because the episode was already running long: 1) Five twitching in her sleep and, 2) A flashback to a pre-amnesia scene that I already posted for you here:
https://josephmallozzi.com/2015/09/02/september-2-2015-dark-matter-deleted-scene/
Boy, this takes me back.
Today’s entry is dedicated to blog regular Tam Dixon.
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