FROM THE SET

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Sunday, October 29, 2006

 

Production Log!

Hello all!  The epic Viking/Sci-fi movie "Outlander" has already been shooting for about two weeks. For the first week they shot on the rugged Canadian island province of Newfoundland. While there, they travelled to a tiny outport town on the coast and shot a huge Viking funeral - complete with hundreds of extras and burning Viking ships! Inceredible!

In their second week, the cast and crew returned to their home base in the province of Nova Scotia. Here they shot Kainan's Space Ship crash at Kidston Lake in Spryfield, Nova Scotia. The Kidston Lake area is fantastic place: a beautiful lake surrounded by a dense pine forest and huge granite glacial boulders. Fiery wreckage was strewn on the shore and star Jim Caviezel rose from the flames!

 

Monday, October 30, 2006

Gentle Ben - NOT!

Today the production shot on the scenic Musquodoboit Rail Trail - after a long hike into the woods of course! Thankfully the producers hired some 4x4's so the crew did not have to hump the gear too far.

The day was spent shooting a bear attack in what had to be the most realistic looking styrofoam cave I have ever seen! The art department on this show is incredible! I cannot believe the detail they put into this! It blended perfectly with the existing granite boulders and cliff face. Great job guys!

The Viking cast did battle with a huge grizzly bear that was created by the prosthetics department. A Viking warrior did not fare well in the battle and suffered mortal wounds! In fact, I am surprised that the stunt guy didn't break his neck in real life! He had to take a "one dismembered arm" fall down a 30 foot gully filled with huge boulders. No styrofoam rocks here - it was all real. He had to perform the stunt several times and I cringed every time I saw him bounce off a boulder on the way down! Ouch!!

Oh yes! I have managed to shoot a few "clandestine" photos and will post them as soon as I can figure out how to get them on this myspace site! While sneaking in a few pics I discovered that it really hard to take a picture without people really seeing you. The results - not exactly the best photos - but they are fun none the less!

 

Saturday, November 11, 2006

 

Herot Town!

The shoot has moved to it's main location - Herot Town 709 AD - and it is absolutely incredible! You will not believe what the set designers have come up with. They have built a complete replica Viking village! They did not hold back anything. There is even a working smithy, armoury, banquet hall and everything else that a good viking needs to feel at home.

The design and attention to detail is what makes this so incredible. The intricate wood carvings, the giant rune stones dotting the landscape, the 30 foot high parapets surrounding the village. It is all so real!

If you want to try and sneak a peek at the town in person, you can go cross country and try to slip past security. The "address" of the villiage is 9 Mile Farm, 249 MacIntosh Road, 9 Mile River, Nova Scotia, Canada. Good luck getting past security though! It is tight!

 

Herot Town Night Shoots

The crew has flipped to night shoots in Herot and boy, is everyone tired. The grips and electrics crew have been working overtime to get the set lit and ready for shooting. In fact the whole crew have gone beyond the call of duty with this shoot. Why do I lavish such praise on them? One word - mud. Yes, they built the town on a 200 acre farmers hay field ... by a river ... in a low lying area ... and it has rained all night.

The resulting mud has made everyone's life pretty miserable but everyone is pitching in and working hard to get the job done. These local Nova Scotia film crews are a dream to work with. They always give 100%, never complain and always go the extra mile to "git 'er done"! Hats off the the hard working crew!

 

Smithy Fight Scene

Filmed a pretty darn good fight scene in the Smithy the other night. Kainan (Jim) is captured by the Vikings and drug to the Smithy to be interrogated. Needless to say, he escapes his captors and kicks Viking ass! Steve Lucescu, the movies fight and stunt coordinator did a great job with the fight choreography and the Smitthy setting with the hot iron, flame pits and available weaponery added that extra bit of excitement to the battle. Steve boasts an incredible resume having been stunt/fight coordinator/stunt man on a ton of very big budget movies. Including Silent Hill, Lucky Number Slevin, Land of the Dead, Cinderella Man, Assault on Precinct 13 and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. On top of that, he is a really nice guy!

 

Crew Teaser Preview!

Director Howard McCain gave the crew a treat the other day. He cut together a 6 minute compilation of footage from the shoot. I have to admit it looked fantastic! The footage was very raw - no color correction or effects - but still was breathtaking. The performances looked great and the cinematography by Montreal native Pierre Gill was stunning. That man knows how to use a Panavision Tehnocrane like nobody else! I hope they screen more footage soon! BTW Pierre was the DOP on quite a few movies including the Covenent, Joan of Arc and the Art of War.

 

 

MAIN - IN THE PRESS - CAST - CREW - SHOOTING LOCATIONS - PHOTO GALLERIES - REPORTS FROM THE SET - MEDIA - CONCEPT ART - LINKS - DISCUSS