Reflections on early cinematography...

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!

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...

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...

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!

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.