Project: Potemkin, a Star Trek Fan Film

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's really tough to find a warehouse that's not very near a railroad or major highway, for obvious reasons - people want to take delivery of and move their wares.

I will ask my DP for the specs on our electrical set-up - I knew them but these things don't stay in my mind - but I do know that the day we moved in he was more than happy with what was available but by day two of the shoot we were required to unplug the microwave so as not to trip all the circuit breakers.

[Tom]

A 200 hundred amp service should be fine, unless your doing multiple simultaneous shooting in different parts of the structure. Dennis mentioned external sources that could cause noise while shooting, also be wary of how wind and rain may sound in the warehouse (especially if the roof is metal) if you plan to shoot while it raining. Good ADR will fix those issues, but just things to be wary of.

There are alot of ways to do stuff on the cheap end so you don't break your budget. You will find that being near a discount store like Walmart will be an absolute god send!! If you plan to use live computer displays (vs. cgi'ing it in later) on your bridge or whereever, you can pretty much get some old 10 year old P3 computers for free (or very cheap as people are dumping them all the time.) to run them. If you and your friends don't have alot of tools to build sets, think about renting vs. buying unless you need them all the time. You probably can get free pallets to use that wood as unseen framework to hold plywood set pieces up. If you do have stores like Home Depot and Walmart, think about getting credit cards for those stores as you will have greater flexibilty in your budget vs. paying cash for everything outright. There are alot of things you can do to save.

[Potemkin_Prod]

I'm meeting with the other two producers tomorrow to discuss it. I've got a great electrician, and dropping in a 200 amp service won't be a problem. I just need to see what Van recommends about the power, and then we're off on construction.

We're opting not to use any sort of monitor at this time. We can CGI anything like that in as necessary. We're mainly using backlit panels. I'm still concerned about glare and flare from them, but that's something we can't do anything about until we actually get the first segment of the bridge built.

The train track problem doesn't look like it's going to jeopardize the situation except at 10:30am, 3:00pm and 11:30pm weekdays. We'll see how the weekends are Saturday.

We're also now considering what to do about the viewscreen. Has anyone tried rear-projection with one of the digital projectors available these days?

[Tom]

Potemkin_Prod wrote:

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We're also now considering what to do about the viewscreen. Has anyone tried rear-projection with one of the digital projectors available these days?

Not sure how well that will hold up, it also depends on what your using to film wth. If it were me I would green screen it since you plan to use CGI for other parts anyways. Downside being the more CGI you use the longer the over all production will be, depending on the shots of course. Lighting will be one of the hardest things as each shooting environment is differerent, it's really a hard skill that alot of people over look.

Glad you got you electrician on it. As an industrial structure the individual circuit amperage should be 20 amps or higher and all wire needs to be 12 guage or higher (no cheap household 14/2 or 14/3 LOL) but thats all standard electrical code anyways.

[Barbreader]

I would just like to throw in my two cents... I find a set adds greatly to a production.

[Potemkin_Prod]

...a set adds greatly to a production.

We agree completely. The bridge set is, in fact, the setting for almost 90% of our first episode (much as the case was in "The Corbomite Maneuver").

All in all, it's been another productive weekend. We sketched out the set on the warehouse floor, and we're sure that the third revised layout works.

We should be signing the lease by Friday, and construction may begin as early as Saturday.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

A first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher are immediate needs for the soundstage.

Uh, not that we had any problems...

[Potemkin_Prod]

We also have to get a business license, the electricity turned on, some property and liability insurance (fortunately one of our producers is with an agency). We've got our waivers and other such forms for volunteers. We've got to check into the plumbing. It's got a toilet, but no sink (but there is plumbing coming out of the wall where the previous tenant had installed a shower for some reason.

Geez, this is a lot like opening a business...

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Basic insurance - liability, property, etc - as well as water was covered in our lease. Electric and heat were our responsibility. We needed quite a bit of production insurance to cover lighting and other equipment rental.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Dennis wrote:

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Basic insurance - liability, property, etc - as well as water was covered in our lease. Electric and heat were our responsibility. We needed quite a bit of production insurance to cover lighting and other equipment rental.

Looks like we're signing the lease today or tomorrow. Water is almost alway included in leases down here since everythings on well water outside the city limits.

Opted for the no-heat or air-co warehouse, but will be installing fans to keep things cool if needed. The thing is well insulated.

Was traffic noise a problem at your location, Dennis?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Oddly enough, no. We found a place that had quite a bit of wooded area between it and the highway, and Fort Washington is not one of the most bustling suburban areas around DC. Although most of the units around us were occupied most also seemed to be used mainly for long-term storage which meant not a lot of staff comings-and-goings or loading going on.

There were two storefront churches - most busy on weekends, obviously - and the three or four businesses that were active during the week weren't retail and kept hours in the 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM range.

We used directional mikes and got pretty clean sound on just about everything. If there had been real weather - a thunderstorm, say - during the shoot that would have been a problem, but we lucked out there.

[Melonpool]

I just discovered your project and am totally excited to see your progress! As a fan of the general look of the movie era, I'm happy to see a fan series that is trying to accomplish the same look and feel.

When I was in high school. I built a wedge of the movie bridge (or at least as close as I could do with my limited budget and resources) and understand the scope of this sort of undertaking. Back in the day (around 1987 or so), I didn't have access to large format printers or film, so I hand painted everything on the back of plexiglass and lit it with Christmas Tree lights. The effect on video was amazing and no one ever noticed how wavy some of my elliptical buttons were!

Anyway, here's a glimpse of what my old set looked like. I still have some parts of the panels in my garage, but I doubt that they're anything you can use. I can't wait to see updates!

[Potemkin_Prod]

That's awesome work. Looks a lot like what we're doing, in fact. We're using CorelDraw and printing directly from a HP5500 PS onto High Gloss Photo Imaging Paper with it overprinting the black 15%. Basically, we're placing screen caps, line art, whatever the source we can find for each station and using them as a template while I invidually draw each button (ovals and rectangles) whenever possible. I also bounce the science behind some of the panels off my Chem Eng wife who'll tell me this or that isn't correct (one of the stations in ST:TMP had that 3% or so (my memory's a little blurry) of the atmospheric composition was Ammonia. That would be unpleasantly poisonous to the crew, so that sort of went bye-bye.

At present, we've completed the graphics for five bridge stations, and two-thirds of another. That leaves half-sized Damage Control (not a manned station), the Helm/Navigation panel, the Servitor panel (we're still debating that one--does one have a coffee and danish machine on the bridge?) and the captain's office panel.

Construction on the set will begin the first week of March at present.

We're still negotiating the warehouse situation. Everyone with a warehouse is demanding to know what we're doing, and when we tell them, we've had some of our prospective landlords rescind their offer to rent us the space. "We don't need no space trekkies cluttering up my parkin' lot" and that sort of nonsense. Still, one of the local chambers of commerce is interesting in bringing us into their county to film. What's five extra minutes of drive time worth? Apparently a huge savings on the rent.

I've basically given the chamber/realtor guy two weeks to find me what I want, or we're going with what we've got which isn't in the best neighborhood, but certainly is easily accessible and cheap.

[Melonpool]

That's great! If I lived closer, I'd totally lend a hand!

As it is, I'm currently building a puppet-sized bridge in my garage. While not specifically a Star Trek bridge, it does take some of its design from the movie-era bridge... mainly because I'm finally able to incorporate a lot of the stuff I wanted to put into it when I was 15 into it now that I'm 38 and know a bit more about construction. I tell everyone that my final set will be like if the Enterprise was set decorated by the builder of the Millennium Falcon.

When I have a little more done, I'll post some pictures here of what I'm doing. We definitely can learn from one another in these projects!

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Potemkin_Prod wrote:

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I've basically given the chamber/realtor guy two weeks to find me what I want, or we're going with what we've got which isn't in the best neighborhood, but certainly is easily accessible and cheap.

You tried Craigslist? It's hit or miss, but folks who advertise there generally eschew or can't attract realtors and other agencies. This is good when it works out, since agents are always looking for commissions on something big and long-term.