Adventures in Science

The telegram scene a little furthur along...

2012-02-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

So yeah, here's the same scene a little further along. I've added all the people and the robot and a scene at the end showing the clock to give the shot some perspective. Those robots are going to figure in to the plot a little heavier than originally planned, so stay tuned!

Here's the latest test!

2012-02-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

Establishing the look of the loading dock (and the final distress for the old film look) is what this sequence is about. It's still in the air, but now I have a place to go to.

Terry is an amazing song writer!

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Terry is this renaissance guy who makes miniatures, builds floats, crafts interesting outfits for musical stars and writes music for movies. It's in that last regard that he's working on my film! I love it.

The loading dock- it's really long and looks pretty cool!

2012-01-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I started in on the backgrounds for the long haul. This is one of the ones from the "telegram" scene and once it's populated with people, I think it will look pretty good.

Another zeppelin for the background...

2012-01-06T21:01:00.000-08:00

This represents the last of the throwaway models for the first (and most likely all of the) scene(s) that establish a Victorian Futurism for my film. I still have a few cars that are mostly built and I will show `em when I am done! I also have the Vasa to build. Eeeesh.

Two new pictures!

2011-12-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of a throwaway model I made to add some movement far in the distance of the first shot of Boston. It goes about 15 miles an hour and is powered mostly by steam.

And done...

2011-11-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

I added another shot, an extreme closeup to tell the story a little better. I also totally changed the end, so we no longer see Dad in the water. I think it works a lot better now!

An almost finaled sequence!

2011-11-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

The only thing missing is the ship in the last shot. But I like the timing, Scott's expression before we cut to the wrecked hull is pretty awesome and I love how the burning ship turned out.

Transition to imagination!

2011-10-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is an attempt to show how Mulvey's mind worked, even as a little kid. Here his imagination convinces a reluctant Fanny that maybe there's something to this whole moon thing.

The dying Swift. This is how the flashback starts.

2011-10-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

I built the wreckage of the Swift based on a real ship, the Flying Cloud. At the time, she was the fastest thing afloat, and set a record for the trip between San Francisco and New York. Anyhoo, I spread the love between the fore and aft section of the boat, with a gaping hole in it exposing decks and ribs. I added some barrels and boxes and then set the whole thing ablaze.

The wreckage of the Swift.

2011-09-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

We never see this much detail in the actual shot; it's blurred and there are a ton of fire elements as well as smoke a a foreground actor. But I really like the mood this sets. Pirates of the Caribbean in Paris was, when it was built, the crown jewel of all of them. There's several wrecks the bateaux pass by and they all have this crazy hot/cool lighting that makes them look surreal. Well, I don't know if I captured it, but I got something I really, really like.

The Adventures in Science trailer!

2011-09-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Joey wanted me to get this ready for the Great New England Steampunk Expo. I had four days to cobble something together, and the results, I think, speak for themselves. All the backgrounds are digital, and for this trailer I ended up using images from other shots. But looking at them, I believe they are all pretty convincing!

The aerobus!

2011-09-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

I designed this blimp as sort of a public transportation air bus, for those ladies and gentlemen who don't wish to walk to the street to get a conveyance. I based the seats on the ones in a red car, which we got to ride out at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum. The props spin down (they have an elaborate gear system to be able to reverse quickly, while the main motor sits atop the cabin roof) and the passengers enter from the rear.

Anachronism is interesting, but in the end a disappointment.

2011-08-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

So this film came highly recommended by several blogs, and from the stills I was pretty excited. Then I spent 15 minutes with it and came away pretty nonplussed, and wondering what the excitement was about. It began strong and ended... Abruptly. And the mystery that was touted was pretty silly, as if mother knew what was going on all along and had to protect that knowledge from her children.

Still, the squid submarine looked pretty cool and the mechanical design was nice, although parts of it looked pretty rubbery in execution. It might have been stronger as a silent film since dialogue was at a minimum.

I sure hope my film turns out better.

First animation test! It's the robot!

2011-08-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Thelomeris, City of Time. Looks pretty amazing, and Mark Hamill is in it!

2011-08-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Big Steam + Loading Dock = awesomesauce

2011-08-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a render I did after I threw in some rudimentary animation on Big Steam No. 6. I can't wait to see him moving!

A couple of shots of the Hypatia for you!

2011-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

I went in and retextured this beast, adding some spajadigits and what not. I also redid some of the maps and I am quite pleased with how the envelope turned out.

Here's the Hypatia coming towards camera. Like I said, overall I am pleased. I also like the new rigging, which makes it feel bigger.

The elevator!

2011-08-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

I realized I'd never actually made this part of the loading dock. I need a shot of the doors opening up and Glowerston exiting, so I put this together. It is also going to be kind of important to all the shots where we are looking this direction.

I really like this one. Oh, that sign way in the back says "no spitting."

Aurora, the movie

2011-08-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

Wow. Great production value, powerful acting... It's like A Steampunk Pirates of the Caribbean. You can actually watch the whole movie online, here. It's got it all... Pirates, airships, love and adventure.

Where's Fanny?

2011-08-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Another shot from the film, this one involved a lot of roto'ing and even a flop of Chris. Originally, he came in from the other side and I had to make everything work.

Success!

It works!

2011-08-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is the first mostly complete shot I've done. It's for the trailer and has a ton of awesome innuendo- it was a lot of fun to shoot, and even more fun to finish off.

Big Steam number 6

2011-08-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

I know it's been awhile since the last update- I got done with the shoot, and started editing and then I got assigned to a new show with tons of OT. Ah well. Here's some pictures of a labor automaton that Mulvey invented. There will be several of these guys loading the Hypatia in the prologue.

Enjoy!

Blimp!

2011-07-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

This was a matchmove from the day of the shoot. I'm putting our lovely actress into the third shot of my film. She'll appear at the end of the shot as we're looking at the Glowerston aeroport.

It went awesome.

2011-06-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

The first day was a total success.

Here we go...

2011-06-18T00:34:00.001-07:00

Shoot starts tomorrow at 9. I will be there around 7:30 or 8.

Yikes. It's really happening.

The weekend schedule!

2011-06-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

8am - Setup and prep. Breakfast.
9am - Nolan, Workman, Scott & Mark
12pm -Lunch
12:30pm - Scott & Mark
2pm - Scott, Mark, Steve, Kat, Chris
3pm - Scott, Steve & Chris
4pm - Scott, Chris & James
5pm - James & Kat
6:30pm - Dinner
7pm - Kat & Chris
8pm - Assess the stamina of cast and see where we are!

Sunday:

8am - Setup and prep. Breakfast.
9am - Extras
10am - Steve, Chris and Extras
11pm - Ensemble and Extras
1pm - Lunch and release Extras
1:30pm - Pickups
4pm - Kat & Chris live action reference

The newspaper props.

2011-06-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

The stack on the right is for the opening of the film, when it gets dropped to the ground. The single one on the right is for one of the extras to hold before the Golightly shoots past.

Here's a closeup of the newspaper. I'm pretty happy with how this came out, although modern newspapers are four inches narrower than the papers from 1870. Weird, huh?

"Oh, I forgot to grope her!" - James Muscarello

2011-06-05T21:01:00.001-07:00

We had a blast rehearsing for the upcoming film shoot in two weeks. Here's a highlight from the afternoon!

Ready for the shoot?

2011-06-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

So today I went to Target and bought some organization. At least, that's what I was telling myself as I picked up large plastic boxes with which to organize my props/weapons/etc. It worked, mostly, but it also showed me that I have a lot of stuff. If I need to do another period show? Hahahahahaha. No problem.

Here are all the costumes on a "Professional Target clothes rack. With wheels." Well, professional or not, this thing is gonna make Saturday morning easy peasy.

I have a lot of guns. Granted, one of them is my friend Marks, but still. Pretty awesome!

The fateful telegram...

2011-06-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

So yeah. I found some awesome Western Union vintage telegrams from the late 1800's and recreated them using the new moniker United Union Telegraph Co. I made up a fictitious president and changed some of the fine print to create this prop. I also used a manilla envelope cut down to the right size and reglued with rubber cement. Looks convincing enough to me!

An amazing animated period piece.

2011-05-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Serenade to Miette from Toniko Pantoja on Vimeo.

Shooting Schedule

2011-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hey! It's official. I just paid the deposit on the stage today, and here's the plan.

I would love it if you can watch College, Steamboat Bill Jr. and The General before the shoot. They are all Buster Keaton films and even though we're not going slapstick, I love the performances and the overacting.

My house
Saturday June 4th
4pm to 6pm - blocking rehearsal.

Atomic Studios
2556 East Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90023

Saturday June 18th
9am to noon - Shooting the opening loading dock
Noon to ? - TBD

Sunday June 19th
9am to noon - Shooting the extras shots
Noon to ? - TBD

Over the next three weeks, I will be figuring out our schedules as some scenes require everyone and other scenes require two or three people tops. Once I get that done, I will publish the call times here.

Atomic Studios is awesome.

2011-05-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

I just went there tonight on my way home from work. It's a 24 hour studio that is much bigger than I thought it would be. I tentatively booked it for the 4th and 5th, so hopefully my entire cast will be able to make that date. Ooooh. Now I'm getting excited.

Teresa said "Can you try and shoot everything in one day? That place is really expensive!"

Silly rabbit.

Attention, cast!

2011-05-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

We will be using ~~Stage 101~~to shoot this thing in.

Actually, no, we won't. No wonder I haven't heard back from them. Or rather, in a timely manner. They're out of business. Yep. Got a form email tonight. Went down there to look. Now the building is some kind of dance facility for the neighborhood. Oh well.

We will probably be shooting at Atomic Studios instead. They charge more, but they're still in business, which just goes to show.

I've emailed them and haven't heard back yet, but the facility looks like it should be perfect.

Originally, we were going to have the first shoot the weekend of the 14th & 15th of May but I need to book the studio a week in advance. (That's what all the books say, anyway. I've never done this before- I really don't know for sure.)

I didn't hear from most of the cast until this evening and so I decided to hold off on the shoot until I heard from everyone and then use June 4th & 5th as the first shoot, and follow that up with the 11th & 12th as the second shoot.

I only need the entire cast (and six to eight extras) together on one half day. The rest of the time we will focus on the individual interactions- Fanny and Farnsworth, Fanny and Wu, Fanny, Glowerston and Mulvey, etc. Once I nail the script down completely I will be determining how best to use the time for all of these breakdowns.

Thanks for your patience! Here's to a year and a half in prepro!

Golightly ver. 2.0

2011-05-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

So I was perusing the web the other night, looking for inspiration for alternative vehicles to populate my opening shots with and came across this:

This was a logo the wonderful Voyages Extraordinaires had used for a while. It turns out there was this fellow named Charles Golightly who patented an aerial steam rocket in 1841. Though it was never built, (probably because to have done so would have instantly killed any rider brave enough to give this thing a go!) the device became quite popular among newspaper editors and political cartoonists. There is an excellent history here.

From a personal standpoint, I thought this was the very thing my film needed. And so I present the Golightly ver. 2.0!

Truthfully, this thing couldn't really fly either, but it looks awesome and after all, that's what really counts. Right?

Another test for you!

2011-05-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

I had to fix Jakes eyes as he was looking at the camera the entire take, and this was the only coverage I had as a close up. It ended up working out anyway and just as a test I added the text of what he was saying.

One of the things I've noticed is that the dialogue cards tend to interrupt the flow of the scene a little. Most times, it's ok. But having subtitles of a sort helps out with that, if they're creative!

Here's a test of the opening scene.

2011-05-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty happy with it although there are some issues. The blimp is moving too fast, some of the people look like they are leaning backwards, and several elements are missing. (Live actors up close, more digital people, a car, several blimp like ships and the like. But it's working!

Finally- The finished personal blimp!

2011-04-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. I've been working on this thing off and on (mostly off) for a week and a half and We never get this close to it. But, the details are all in there, and once I get the pilot and his lady modelled, I'll be ready to drop it into my scenes.

This is closer to how big it will be in frame, although it still is pretty large.

This shot is most likely how we'll see it- Flying away from us and towards the main event at the Glowerston Aeroport.

Here's a nice view of the details that I put in- There's even a connection from the boiler to the engine and from there to the motor.

The finished trolley!

2011-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

A while back, I showed a couple of friends a test I'd done for the first shot in my film. They thought that despite some of the things that were in it, it looked a little too conventional. so I went back to the drawing board and came up with this. Let me know what you think!

Here's something new!

2011-04-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is a test of the first shot, as Dad comes out of the water. It's not finished, the miniature Fleet will be back behind all those flames. But it still looks pretty good, so I thought I'd share.

This is the finished version of the second shot, with all the mattes cleaned up and some additional smoke elements thrown in for good measure.

All in all, I think this is going to look pretty awesome! Scott is looking pretty sad about the whole thing, which I suppose is how it should be.

Hopelessness... Despair...

2011-04-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Actually, that's a little bit how I feel looking at the twelve minutes of green screen I'm going to have to pull for this movie. Heh heh heh. Seriously, though, this is a very early version of the middle shot in Mulvey's flashback as he imagines his father's last moments. I still need to pull a matte for his hair, but all the elements are blending together quite nicely.

I've also dropped in the overhead shot for the extreme pull out, but I'm approaching it a little differently in the real shot as I didn't really know what I was doing the first go around. I'll post it once the Fleet is finished and in.

It's getting pretty exciting!

One of the funny things that Scott asked me as he was bobbing about in the hot tub was "Can you imagine doing this... and getting paid?" Hell yes. Yes I can. It's so much fun.

Here's a photo from the shoot!

2011-04-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a very moist Scott. It's going to be interesting to see what the green reflection in the water is going to do in terms of pulling a matte, but I love the look of the firelight on his face.

No pictures yet, but...

2011-03-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Holy crow, the shoot went really well tonight.

I had estimated about two hours to get all three of the shots, and it took... two hours.

The shots look beautiful. Man, the Canon 7D is awesome. The results look really professional and even with a green screen behind Scott, it totally looks like he's lost at sea.

Now I gotta get the ship built.

Another film shoot!

2011-03-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yup. Thursday night at 8:15, Scott gets in the water and pretends to drown while the merchant ship Fleet meets its fiery doom.

My wife's friend Delphin has graciously allowed us the use of his heated pool for the night- It's a black bottom affair that should allow me to pull a really nice matte on that last pull out shot. I've also packed the green screen for the closeups.

Essentially, we're looking at three shots. The first is looking at father from the front, as he watches his ship burn. The second is over his shoulder so we can see the burning ship. The third (and most difficult) is from directly overhead as he loses hope and the vessel explodes. This is the grand reveal. The camera pulls out from the closeup and becomes a map.

I built a pretty neat firelight rig for the shoot. A few years ago IKEA was selling these butt ugly torches for children's rooms, cheap. The thing is, though ugly, they had a really neat random flicker built in, with an umber filter on top. And they're pretty bright. So I bought about seven of them, not really knowing if I would ever find a use for them. Well, I now have an ugly torch array to cast a fiery rim light on Scott. Perfect! I also bought some cheap 500 watt work lights to light up the green screen.

This is the first of the two flashbacks during the prologue.

And, while things have been slow on the filming front due to family illness, I'm hoping to shoot the whole damn thing at the end of May.

A grand reveal...

2011-03-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

In preparation for a shoot I'll be doing in the coming weeks with Scott, who will, in a twist of fate play his own father dying, I started to put together this rough comp in After Effects.

This is a flashback Mulvey has when he reads a telegram sent to him that finally, after ten years of searching, reveals the location where his father died at sea.

In the sequence, we watch Mulvey read the telegram. When Grimmauld asks him what it is, there is a flash of his eyes, and a reveal of a lone man barely holding on to a broken board. Illuminated by a fire, the next shot is over his shoulder, looking at the ship as it burns out of control. The last shot (the one you just looked at) is directly overhead as he stops struggling. Right at that moment, there's a blast and the camera travels straight up, to reveal a map and the location where Mulvey's father died. Back in the present, the camera pulls out of Mulveys eye and he says, "They know where my father died."

Obviously, the father and the ship aren't in the shot yet.

This sets up an interesting quandry for our hero; Does he go to the Moon, or does he search for his Dad's ship and the fortune he was travelling with? His decision is made for him when Glowerston tells him to build the bathysphere.

This is absolutely stunning.

2011-02-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

EYE OF THE STORM | Lovett from Lovett on Vimeo.

My friend Joey sent me this and thought I'd like it. Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Nothing to report...

2011-02-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry, gang. I've been plagued with some health issues of late and between my Mother in Laws bout with blood cancer (I didn't even know such a thing existed!) which she thankfully won, and my own trip into all the horrid side effects of sleep apnea, my energy level has been below zero.

However, it looks like I will be doing pick ups for the flashback sequence this Sunday, and shooting the shipwreck flashback next Sunday. I will keep you posted about that. It's going to be very exciting.

The latest movie poster

2010-12-31T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a holiday season. Between all the weekend traveling we've done (Yosemite, Vegas and a family cruise) and a family crisis that popped up the weekend we were going to be visiting China, I haven't had a lot of time to work on the film.

I have got a rough edit of the Flashback, which looks pretty good, although I need a couple of cutaways that I just didn't plan for. I'll be using our neighbors kid to shoot the pickups- fortunately, just some hands holding the rocket ship and pointing at stuff in the book. I'll also be fabricating a fireplace shot to indicate a younger Farnsworth and possibly his wife.

One thing that came up that was pretty cool- I had this good closeup of Jake, although during his line he kept looking at me instead of Alexia. So I brought the shot into AE, tracked and matted his eyes out, and then replaced his real eyes with a painting I made and jiggered them over just a touch and voila, he was looking in the right place.

Another thing that came up- Too much dialogue. As usual. I tend to have diarrhea of the mouth when it comes to dialogue, and in the editing process, cut a lot of it out. I'm also going to have some visual stuff going on so I might be able to lose the cards in a few places.

Regardless, here's the latest movie poster that shows my costume off. It's pretty cool- I've even lost a little weight.

I hope you enjoy!

And here are the actors!

2010-12-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

This is Alexia Van Den Bosch, playing Fanny. She's adorable.

Here's Jake Dowling as Jack. I actually got the suspenders in the wrong size and we were trying to make `em work. Alas, young Mulvey had to do without. He ended up looking perfect for the part!

And here's the two of them on the set. (Our bed.) In reality, there'd be a lot of shadows everywhere but I wanted to make sure everyone was visible. The lighting situation was perfect as we just used the overhead can lights which evened everything out. When this gets edited and finaled, it will probably be darker.

Here's another view. My bedroom just wasn't that large. If I had a bigger budget, we'd be doing this in a huge room with a huge fireplace, but on a shoestring we had to make due with some flickering Ikea torches and a lot of imagination.

Jake wanted a funny picture towards the end of the day.

Everyone was getting tired by 4:30. I like this picture because everyone looks exhausted. Or bored. That's Karen in the back, there. I don't actually have any good pictures of her- Her eyes were closed in every picture but this one.

Props for the shoot!

2010-12-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here's my spread Friday night. Blimp/spaceship- mostly done. Book? Not even started.

Here's some of the props in their "native" environment. Mad scientist blocks, a toy fishing boat I picked up last May in Greece, a Primer and a Battledore from the eighteen thirties... Once the kids were added, it started looking crowded!

This is the book that has young Mulvey entranced at age eight- the thing that is going to inspire him for the rest of his life. I made it out of cardboard. What's really cool is that Jules Verne mentions a bunch of scholars, priests and writers that wrote about travels to the Moon and back before anyone really applied science to the problem. I used illustrations from Cyrano de Bergeracs story about the Moon, Edgar Allen Poe's tale of moon travel and a score of others. The results were pretty amazing.

I'm not sure if they even had a book like this in 1851.

This is the rocket ship that Fanny found so inspiring. 5$ bird house from Michaels, with a bunch of rivets to add a little foreshadowing.

This lantern was made from CB2's gear candle holder. We found these cheap wall sconces at Lowe's, pulled out the wiring and hot glued the gear onto it. Then we added the glass cups. Wow. Too bad you can't really see them in the shoot.

And here's the final blimp toy. Since the birdhouses were pretty cheap, I bought a damaged one as well. I ripped off the nose, sanded a part of the rim down so it could lock on to the back and then I made the gondola out of some thin wood sidings, balsa accents, wagon wheels I found at Kit Craft and rivets. Lots and lots of the little buggers.

The shoot worked out great!

2010-11-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

Having never worked with kids before, it was pretty challenging... Especially near the end as both eight year olds were rapidly approaching their tolerance levels as the last shots were being recorded.

Nevertheless, they were awesome. It was a fun day and for all that, I'm glad it's over.

I'm snookered.

I'll post pictures and whatnot as I get them!

Rehearsals went well...

2010-11-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Everyone arrived about 10:15. It took a little while for the kids shyness to wear off, but after a while the performances we were getting were great. Cut some stuff out of the dialogue (haha silent film) to make it easier on them, and got some great ideas for some camera angles.

The props turned out really well, although I over-engineered the book so it wouldn't fall apart and now it doesn't open all the way. *sigh*

Have plenty of duct tape to mount the tripod to the ladder, though!

This is fun!

We'll start shooting after lunch. Everyone is on break now.

One more day until the shoot!

2010-11-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Been driving about like a madman getting stuff we need.

Props are done, except for Mulveys Moon Book. I found tons of great pre Civil War era illustrations of the moon and its creatures which Mulvey leafs through before he disassembles his blimp. Which looks awesome, BTW.

Tomorrow we prep the room for shooting, I need to get the picture of the president printed and finish off the book. Then we'll be ready!

Huzzah!

Costuming...

2010-11-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

As you can probably guess with this show, costumes are pretty important.
I wanted to give a shout out to the people I am purchasing costumes from.

First, there's my favorite, the Gentlemens Emporium. They are reasonably priced and their selection is topnotch. All of my main characters are wearing the costumes I purchased here. Their selection of Victorian, Edwardian and western clothing are amazing.

Next on the list is Fall Creek Sutlery. These guys went above and beyond to make sure young Mulvey's clothes got here before Thanksgiving. They specialize in Civil War era outfits and props. Awesome.

Originals by Kay covered younger kids clothing and Kay was really helpful in getting my costume pieces to me in a timely fashion. Her womens Civil War era dresses are absolutely beautiful. And compared to other places, her prices are reasonable.

I just received the first part of Jake's costume...

2010-11-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

...And the second part should be arriving tomorrow.

Everything is on schedule!

If the second half of Jake's costume arrives tomorrow, we're a go for shooting on Sunday.
The plan is to be at my house at 10am. My friend Mark and I will be setting up the room Saturday for set dressing.

Jakes costume consists of pants, socks, shirt and bracers (suspenders) and possibly a hat.
Alexi's costume consists of a dress. If she doesn't have white leggings please let me know so that I can get some for her. (Period is not mandatory, as long as her legs are white.) Also, if you have a light colored hair ribbon, please bring that as well.

Karen's costume consists of a dress and a bonnet. If you have dark, narrow shoes, please bring those. Period isn't a must as we never really focus on your feet.

I do not have a makeup person. I do have makeup. Alexi and Jake should darken their lips a little bit and we can powder their faces to reduce glare. The lighting will be bright during the shoot, but once it goes post I will relight to make it look like candlelight during the day.

We'll rehearse for as long as we need (I'm budgeting about two hours) and then we'll start shooting. I estimate it will take about four hours, so unless I need extra coverage or something unplanned turns up, we should be wrapping no later than five.

I will provide lunch at the very least- I think a six foot sub and drinks should cover it. If we run past five I will order pizza.

Looks like the first day of filming might happen on Sunday, November 28th!

2010-11-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

I was at a loss when all summer, I couldn't get a hold of the Dad for one of my child actors. I had told him before he went on vacation that I needed his kids clothing sizes and that I wanted to shoot over the summer. Little did I know he was embroiled in a bitter divorce and this little project of mine was not really that important in the grand scheme of the universe.

Alexi's Mom turned out to be a savior. Her daughter plays with a boy down the street named Jake and they share the acting bug. Voila! Young Mulvey. To make things even better, we'll be shooting the scene (if all schedules line up!) in two weeks.

I have two weeks to recreate 1851 in my bedroom.

Millard Filmore was president, the war between the states was ten years away and a young inventor dreamed of going to the moon while his playmate had distinct opinions on the politics between girls and boys.

This is going to be amazing.

And now for something completely different.

2010-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

With these early presidents, it's all about the hair. I wonder when the burrito was actually invented. This picture was done to contrast my animation supe's photoshoppery of himself as Napoleon. I have a number of new things that will be published here in a couple of days- A new flying machine, a weird electro car... But it's coming slowly.

Another piece of advertising art!

2010-10-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is the advertising poster you can see from the street in the opening shot of my film. It's on a billboard and I think Dr. Grymm looks quite handsome in his brass goggles. The main logo was actually designed by Joey, and the photo was taken by the guys at Ajar Studios. I had to clean up the border and add the taglines and posterized treatment of the good Doctor.

So I cracked the script today...

2010-10-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

I read through it and it sounds awesome. Too bad the film is silent.
I'm about halfway through writing the damned thing after a number of false starts, and I've figured out a way of getting the conversations relevant.

See, there's certain cards that need to be in place to understand what is really going on. I've written those things in red.

The rest is merely argument or discussion that my actors will convey using body language and over-emphasized facial acting. I even want the mustache twirling going on. What's pretty neat is that once the shooting script is done, I'll actually have all the dialogue cards ready to go, and the storyboarding will fall into place.

Heck, most of the boards are already drawn. Although I will have to change them as I add or remove ideas.

I just wish I wasn't so tired.

So my primary casting is (mostly) complete!

2010-10-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Jack Mulvey ~ Scott Gould
Fanny Glowerston ~ Kat Steel
John Grimauld ~ Mark Adams
Lamar Farnsworth ~ James Muscarello
Baron Glowerston ~ Steve Ziolkowski
Wu ~ Chris Bowers
Doctor Grymm ~ Joey Marsocci
Nanny - Karen Bruner
Young Fanny ~ AlexiaVan den Bosch

Movie Posters!

2010-09-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here they all are. I sure hope you like them! I would love to print these out into postcards. Now remember, the guys don't have all their facial hair and Kat didn't spend a lot of time on her hair, so this is just the costumes. But I think the digital set looks pretty decent and the integration works despite my limited four light setup (and the occasional power failure!)

Let me know what you think!

Look at what we made!

2010-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Most of the actors for my film came over on Wednesday evening- It was a last minute thing and I almost forgot to tell Scott that it was on! Nevertheless, everyone put on their costumes and I have to say, wow. What great casting. The group got along well, and looked amazing. Kat fell right into the role of suffragette and her facial expressions were grand. Scott looked every bit the narcissistic playboy inventor and Mark was fantastically funny as the guy who carries things for Mulvey. And James hair made a surprise appearance. But he looked suitably nasty.

More pictures to come!

A Victorian Prosthetic

2010-09-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Pam (who happens to be a dialect coach!) sent this my way, knowing how much I would like it! Ironically, this is very similar to what I had planned for Mulvey's arm in the third act, although mine was more brass and hardwood. But I like this a LOT.

I know you guys are probably sick of this view..

2010-09-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

But things have been winding down at work, and while I still have to be there, I now have a little time on the side to make my digital set pieces look really nice. So, you'll notice the new crates. Doctor Grymm Laboratories has provided the gravity retardants, the aether manipulators and the blasting caps. The barrels contain gunpowder, cavorite, saltpeter and methyl nitrate. There's a travel poster on the wall, and I've done my best to simulate bright daylight streaming from above. What do you think?

More to come!

Some beautiful period accessories for my film!

2010-09-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

While I have been drifting in the white noise of overtime, my friend Karen has been knitting up a storm of Victorian era awesomeness. This is called a misers purse- a design of brilliant innovation to keep pickpockets from stealing your coin. It opens in a very unique way, with sort of a crisscross pattern that you have to pull apart and then separate the yarn in order to get at your money.

Not only is it beautiful, it's practical too. You can see some of the other stuff she's made for Adventures in Science over at her blog!

Thanks, Karen! It looks AMAZING!

Bad news, film fans.

2010-08-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

I'm now on OT seven days a week. 10 hour weekdays, 8 hour weekends.
We're not gonna be able to shoot anything until mid November at the earliest. Which sucks, because I had two insert shots I wanted to get on film; The kids playing and Mulvey's dad drowning in the ocean during a ship wreck.

Oh well. It will happen.

One more reason I know this film of mine will work.

2010-08-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's pretty wordy. But nevertheless, it's frickin' awesome. Modern camera work, contemporary scene layout and composition in a silent format. It works!

It works.

May I present... Jack Mulvey!

2010-08-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the tinkerer that ended the Civil War abruptly in 1863 with the invention of an aerial mortar launcher that rained destruction on the southern calvary.

He's pictured here portrayed by my friend (and actor) Scott Gould. The only thing missing in this picture is the coat- We're looking for one. Doesn't he looks awesome, though? Imagine the pockets on his vest filled with little knick knacks and doodads...

This is going to be awesome.

I want to thank Scott for coming over and trying on the clothes tonight; he's a busy man.

Awesome.

I just bought the costume for young Fanny

2010-07-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

So I think it's going to look awesome; it's a pre civil war era play dress, which is perfect for the scene. Alexia just has to wear black stockings to make this thing work. I also purchased an era specific primer, some clay marbles and something called a Battledore- sort of a hand held reference for children with letters, numbers and even has the "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer on it.

The scene has worked out even cooler than I was hoping and I only need two dialogue cards... Maybe only one if I can get my two young actors to sell the storyline. The story boards do a great job getting this action across, and the finale is quite funny.

This is a flashback to when Fanny and Mulvey were children together. Toys and school books are scattered across the bed they are playing on under the watchful eye of a nanny.

Mulvey is trying to tell Fanny of his singular interest and dream- to get to the moon when he grows up. Fanny picks up a toy blimp while he is explaining all this and notices what she's holding.

He asks for it, she gives it to him and he pulls off the gondola... Indicating that it is now a rocket ship, which he enthusiastically blasts off and flies around.

Fanny is now totally captivated, clapping her hands and laughing. She finally tells him that she wants to go too, when Mulvey shatters the mood by laughing at her, and saying "Don't be silly. Science is for boys!"

At which point she promptly decks him.

Here's a brief glimpse into the Steampunk Bizarre

2010-07-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

I shot this video while I was at the show. I apologize that it's the same music as the other one, but for some reason the new music I put on, while not copywritten per se, was rejected and the soundtrack muted.

Oh well. This is really cool.

Herman I. Copperthaite introduces Adventures in Science!

2010-07-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here it is. Remember, we made this entire thing in less than eight days (five of which I was working so I couldn't spend that much time on it!) All in all, I think it is pretty impressive, and I hope that you also get a laugh or two while watching!

Final poster... All aboard!

2010-07-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post the final version of my advertising poster. I switched out the M's for G's (Mark convinced me that Glowerston would never allow Mulvey to admit authorship publicly...) and everyone liked the leafy things on the sides. At the show, I printed out 20 4x6 on really nice card stock and I actually sold five! (Six, if you count the guy who just walked away with one, but that's not really a sale...) One visitor actually bought the framed version I made to advertise them. (I made a matte out of leather and it looked pretty neat!)

If you want one, drop me a line and I'll try and get it to you!

All the hats arrived.

2010-07-06T21:01:00.001-07:00

Most of the costumes are here and Kat Steele has already started getting hers to fit properly. She looks awesome, as does Mark. But yeah. The hats make the man (or woman) as they say and in our case, they look smashing.

All done for now...

2010-07-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

The props done. The poster's done. And finally, in a little over eight days I pulled thirty greenscreen keys and rendered out two hires renders of the Hypatia and the loading dock that looked fantastic.

The dvd went out this morning, winging its way to Connecticut. Final length? Six minutes.

Six minutes of cheese, that had my wife laughing out loud at my hammy acting. It was great.

So now I feel empty inside.

But not really.
*whew*
I'm done.

Well, it's late, but...

2010-06-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like everything is on track for the Steampunk Bizarre. I printed out those posters (an 11x17 version for framing, and 19 6x8 postcards for purchase) and they look fantastic. The only thing left is for me to edit a sort of "making of" video that will be eternally looping behind some of the props.

Originally, it was just going to be the story reel and some art sort of stuck together.

But as a test, I decided to make a three minute intro to everything with the fictitious producer, Herman Ivey Copperthwaite. He's something of an idiot.

I donned part of some costumes I had lying about, trimmed my facial hair into something ridonkulous and put on some makeup, then hopped in front of my camera for the better part of four hours. We shot everything I needed.

I imported all that footage, and by eleven Friday night had a pretty funny six minute piece, complete with dialogue cards (it is silent, after all)! I was down in San Diego seeing King Lear at the Old Globe on Saturday, but on my return I printed out the posters, framed `em and then got started on making keys and putting Herman into some old movie studio pictures I found.

I've done five in about four hours. And, they look pretty good. This was sort of the proving ground for Adventures in Science, and it's going to work. Hopefully my story is compelling enough.

I'll post the finished result once the Bizarre is over.

All aboard the Hypatia!

2010-06-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finished, more or less. I am still debating about the leafy things going up the sides there, and I'm also thinking about moving the Glowerston coat of arms down where the GAS logo is at the bottom so the whole thing is balanced better.

Nevertheless, these will be for sale at the Steampunk Bizarre in larger scale. I'm actually quite happy with most of this; I haven't really done any printworthy art since I was in my early twenties (ironically, Joey helped me out there, too!).

The Hypatia looks great (IMHO!) and I think I've succeeded with the Victorian ad quality; the red white and blue coloring of the type is just patriotic enough. (Glowerston wears patriotism on his sleeve- think Halliburton and you know what I'm going for.)

Any opinions you have are, as always, most welcome!

Costumes are here!

2010-06-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

I have just received four of the five main costumes. Still need hats. Now I have the costumes ready for Fanny, Mulvey, Grimmauld and Glowerston. The remaining costumes are for Farnsworth, Wu and everybody else. Must call the actor for Wu.

I would love to get my five major characters together for a costume fitting. I will be emailing everyone to see when a good day might be.

Mulvey's Lunar Oxygen Rebreather (or... The Tube)

2010-06-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

One of the things that was suggested in early versions of the script was for Mulvey to be doing something (anything) while Grimmauld was arguing with him. I heard the same kind of comment from several people so I decided to introduce Mulvey's intent to go to the Moon here.

He's trying to build a device that will allow him to breathe on the lunar surface. Most of the Victorians had mixed ideas about what mysteries the Moon was hiding and a big one was whether there was an atmosphere or not. In Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, the French Adventurer Michel Ardan plans to travel aboard the projectile and, upon arrival, wants to hunt for whatever game might be found there. In Around the Moon, one of the men aboard the capsule fancies seeing buildings of some kind on the dark side of the Moon. For my story, Mulvey and Grimmauld actually do land on the Moon, and they do need these tanks. I wanted something similar to the tanks in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I drew an early storyboard that illustrated some kind of tube like device with a light on it, but of course I would have to build it. And what I discovered was that my initial drawing wasn't really detailed enough to look physically interesting.

So I did a better, bigger sketch of it but that still didn't really work out, as it still looked like a tube. In fact, Teresa frequently asked while I was building the damned thing "So how is your tube doing, honey?" which had implications I wasn't sure I wanted to answer.

What it came down to is improvisation while I was building. So under the tutelage of Dr. Grymm, I finished it up and while it still looks like a tube, it also looks like it does something.

Exciting News!

2010-06-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. Sorry it's been like a month or two since the last update.

I've been sick as a dog for the last week and a half (since returning from Europe!) and despite that, have some interesting stuff that will be going up on the blog by the end of the week.

One of the most exciting things that's happening right now is that a good friend of mine who's pretty much embedded in the Steampunk movement is putting on an art show out in Connecticut. In addition to his day job, Joe builds props for movies, designs puppets for plays, illustrates graphically and somewhere in there has the time to curate the Steampunk Bizarre.

This year he asked me to be a part of it.

So despite being sick, I've been madly scrambling to get `er done. My biggest fear is disappointing my friend with substandard stuff (you should see some of the real artists who are contributing to the show! Amazing!) so I've been working my butt off to make some good art.

I'll be contributing some props and miniatures from AIS as well as putting together a DVD with the completed story reel, some tests I've been doing and I'll be selling a poster advertising the Glowerston Steamaeroship Hypatia.

It will be inspiring and fun and I'll be able to hang with some really cool people.

Come back on Friday. I should have some interesting things to post then!

The HPLHS has a new film coming out.

2010-04-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

It looks great- Very high production value... I can't wait to see this in October.

Moving forwards...

2010-03-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the vacuum over the last month and a half- I've been working lots of OT.

Consequently, I'm behind on the script polishing and the board drawing and I still haven't had time to order costumes and build the two props necessary for the shoot. I would like to get all of this organized and put together and get everyone together for costuming and some test shoots- I now have the ability to track camera moves which solves some of the main issues I was worried about since for the Prologue, it's all greenscreen shoots with a couple of exceptions (the kids will be shot on a practical set) and I would like to get some of the closeups against a flat.

For those of you unfamiliar with this project, it's an alternative 1870 after the civil war. I'm doing the Prologue first, followed by the three chapters (acts) that tell the story of an inventor trying to overcome obstacles the villains keep throwing in his way. The reason I'm doing this is for three reasons; cost (this is a shoestring project and spreading it out over four separate but related stories makes it easier on my checkbook), feasibility (is doing an epic, feature length silent film something people are interested in seeing? A ten minute prologue that sets it in motion will answer that) and finally intrinsic value (it's just as easy to make something bad as it is to make something great. Doing this first film that's half as long as the other chapters and being able to finish it in a reasonable time should answer *that*)

The shoot will take two weekends, but not everyone will need to be there for the whole shebang. I will put together a schedule as we get closer to it. I will also be updating the blog with all this information.

Right now, after May 7th I will be on vacation for two weeks. I would like to be done with the script, story reel and props by May 31, with a potential first shoot weekend on June 5.

I already have some of your costume sizes, but I only have Scott's hat size. Everyone in my late 1800's had either a flying machine or a ether powered car and a hat. Please send me your hat size and clothes sizes if you haven't done so already. I would also like to put your websites on my blog if you have them.

I've also mentioned barter- I can't pay you guys very much, but if you need a logo design or a 3d model or prop I will be happy to do that for you. Also, for the costumes I have to buy, those will belong to you after the shoots are done. I will also do craft service on the days of the shoot.

First of the street vehicles...

2010-03-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is the steam powered streetcar, provided by the Boston Horseless Transportation Company. I found some great street car reference and built the main vehicle, and then added a steam pump and furnace. This thing would be great in the Boston winters, although I imagine the front of the car would be very cold. During the summer, though? Even though it's outside, it would still be running in the high nineties.

And don't even think about how heavy that back end is... Just imagine they counterbalance it with weight in the front.

Remember that matte painting I was working on back in the when?

2010-03-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

You know the one I made back in October?
Here it is all bright and shiny and... moving. It needs a lot of work, but I think I am pretty happy just because it worked.

The Hypatia Animation Test

2010-03-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

Weird. I guess Google Video is no longer accepting video so now all these tests I do have to be copied over to youtube first.

This was a fast, throwaway test to see what this thing looks like in motion. There will be another one shortly, with motion blur and a more appropriate film look. I'm pretty satisfied with this, though- I think it looks heavy. It's flying a little fast and the props could certainly go faster, and it needs much more rigging, but yeah.

It's cool.

I'm hovering around seven minutes a frame for this, once I render in HD that will quadruple, I think.

Well, guys? What do you think?

For those of you who wanted to see it in color...

2010-03-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

I present... The Hypatia!

A little more rigging is needed... BUT!

2010-03-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's looking pretty awesome!

The Hypatia is almost done!

2010-03-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

So there it is. There are three things that still need to be done. The Rubens paintings need to fit in there better, so I will be upgrading the textures on it. Also, the front armour needs some rivets, so that's another texture map issue. And the last thing is rigging. You can see I started to put in the cables, but there needs to be a lot more.

You can see the paintings better here. Overall, I'm very happy with it. It feels quintessentially steampunk and that's all I really care about. Let me know what you think!

Kit bashing and all that goes with it...

2010-02-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

For the second story in my film, a lot of action takes place in Rock Hill, the site where the Baltimore Gun Club built their mighty Columbiad. My job is to make it look like after ten years, it's quite the tourist attraction. There will be tents and popcorn vendors, palmists and tea leave readers, and a number of permanent buildings; an ice house, the main train station and a few more. My plan is to make/buy a number of Victorian era HO scale models and use them as backgrounds.

Now, I'm not sure if you've ever seen one of those building kits, but they look really fake. Plastic. As an experiment, I bought a train station in N scale for my home layout. I removed the plastic brisk base and created a more appropriate wooden one using this unique balsa wood that had been scored or etched by a laser to look like 2x4s.

Then I went to town and weathered the whole enchilada and added some mud on the ground and at the base of the building. I think it looks rather... used.

Terry gave me some awesome pointers, so the next ones I do are going to look even better. Plus, they're twice as big, which will make it a little easier.

Someone else made a neat black and white short film.

2010-02-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

I love the look, the visuals are stunning and it's poignantly sweet. Very inspiring

Staging for the assassination...

2010-01-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

So here it is. The shifty eyed fellow is the one in the top hat, center screen. All the principals are the ones on the right. Matthew Brady is getting ready to shoot the group in front of the mighty steamship. I know it looks like Mulvey and Farnsworth are saying vows, but it's supposed to be a manly handshake. Oh well. As long as my actors make it look good, that's the important thing.

Oh, and that's Wu in the foreground on the left.

You'll notice I'm staging as much as possible with their feet hidden. This is so I don't have to worry about accuracy in compositing. Yes, this entire shot is greenscreen.

The assassination attempt...

2010-01-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here's the board where Wu steps in and saves the day. Originally, this whole prologue was kind of boring. I attempted to liven it up by having everything work against the clock, trying to get launched at noon. However, that felt really contrived and when I hit upon this idea that Glowerston had been receiving death threats which would then culminate on an attempt on his life (we are led to believe, anyway) that sort of made the tension happen without forcing it.

Yay!

The loading dock establishing shot...

2010-01-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

I'm going to need to rent a greenscreen studio for this shot, but it will be worth it. This will establish the entire prologue with the addition of a Western Union Messenger Boy who has an important message for Mulvey. This bit of business was the key to figuring out how to have Mulvey agree to build the bathysphere for the next story without coming off as a wimp.

People will be moving around as the boy enters and walks about halfway to where Mulvey and Grimmauld are arguing.

My good Friend Dr. Grymm passed this along to me.

2010-01-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's important because of the octopus.
It's also important because it's so damned awesome.

Thanks, Dr. Grymm!

Reflections on early cinematography...

2010-01-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

As you know, Adventures in Science is going to be a silent film. Originally, the Steampunk flavor would be that someone, earlier than the Lumiaire brothers would have invented the moving picture camera, and that I would be using that camera to make a film from that time period.

Well, having watched a bunch of movies from the early 1900s (1903, 1904, 1906) I've decided to go another way. Those early movies, while innovative for their time, really suck. It feels like the movies don't really know what story to tell, and the actors don't have a clue what they're doing. Some randomly dance, others look baffled, it's chaos. Even later pictures, like Metropolis, have the sensibility of static photographs that just happen to move. The timing of Buster Keaton films came much later, and while my film isn't a comedy, I like the beats.

What I really want to do is tell my story from a modern film making perspective, that just happens to be silent, and just happens to have cameras that are mostly locked.

With few exceptions, what those early pictures are missing is a sense of depth and... purpose? Mood, maybe? Clear storytelling- the stuff I went to school for twenty years ago is something I really hope to bring to the table. Will I succeed?

I sure hope so.

Here's a miniature rail car from Huzzah the Moon!

2010-01-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

I found this great place online that sells little tiny models in HO scale from the late 1800's. This will be part of the Columbiad set where the train with Mulvey's moon ship pulls in. It's been ten years since the Baltimore Gun Club made history by going around the Moon, and Mulvey intends to make history by landing on it and returning. In the intervening years, Rock Hill (Tampa) has become something of a theme park- part carnival, part beach resort. The set will be built about eight feet by eight feet in HO scale and I will be building a full scale set of some of the tents in my backyard and augmenting them with greenscreen combined with minatures and matte paintings.

A period span bridge...

2010-01-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

I found this model in the bargain bin of my local train store. I put it together tonight and even unpainted, for six bucks, it looks pretty cool. I will be using this to show Mulvey's train heading south in Huzzah the Moon and am planning on putting the whole thing on a mirror, and shooting the reflection. That way, I can get the angle I need without having to worry to much about focus issues. This stuff is looking SO awesome!

Another ship for the graveyard...

2010-01-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

What with the holidays and all, I haven't had a lot of time to build these things. I just started up again, and the fore deck of this ship is huge- easily the size of that smaller schooner, and this is just the front. Two more pieces of the hull to build.

The prologue!

2010-01-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

So it's on it's sixth rewrite and I think I am finally pretty happy with it. Once it's done, I will be sending it out again for everyone to read, I'll get the feedback, incorporate it and have a shooting script.

The major change is that now, when the Glowerston ensemble enters, one of the reporters will ask about the recent death threat the Baron has received. Glowerston waves it away as another member of the party starts looking shifty.

At the end of the prologue, right before the final photo is taken, the shifty fellow pulls a weapon and apparently attempts to kill Glowerston. Wu is too fast, however, and before the camera's shutter is clicked or Glowerston is shot, the would-be assassin is dead. The final photograph shows the various players reaction to the killing.

The reason I added this bit of business is to throw in some additional tension based on a comment one of my readers made about how my earlier script was "more telling than showing." I tend to rely on dialogue too much, and in this case, a silent film, it's even more crucial that I captivate my viewer with action rather than people talking to one another.

Who are my main protagonists?

2009-12-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to be able to come away from some videos I recently watched describing what a character is having learned something. So... another rewrite of the prologue is in order.

In the mean time, here's some insight into the man Mulvey is.

Curious about the world.
Self assured. He knows he's smart, which can a liability.
Wealthy. Despite trying to remain class blind, his upbringing makes those efforts difficult.
Affable. He's very friendly and very, very loyal. Also a liability.
Confident. He believes he is a good judge of character. He's not.
A little misogynist. Also part of his upbringing- he's completely unaware of it.
Adventurous. This trait defines him more than any of the others, and his wealth and genius allow him to have many adventures.
A genius at inventions.

All of these main traits make him a likable snob. His character arc will break down his worst bits.

Fanny, on the other hand is very different.

Curious about the world.
Ahead of her time. A suffragette with ties to Susan Anthony.
Educated. She went to Wheaton Female Seminary. She speaks Chinese and Russian.
Passionate. She falls in love with her father's Chinese manservant against his wishes.
She wants what men of the Victorian era have- comradeship, freedom and acceptance.
Confident. She knows she is good judge of character.
Independent. Much to her fathers dismay.
Strong. Wu has taught her some fighting skill.

All of these traits make her intractable and distant to people she doesn't know. Once her shell is cracked, however, she is very much in the moment.