Project: Potemkin, a Star Trek Fan Film

[Melonpool]

Wow! I love the way you did those vents at the top of the consoles! What did you use for those? I may steal that for mine!

[Potemkin_Prod]

16" vinyl soffit (the stuff that goes underneath a house's overhanging roof). It took a grinder to cut it to size, and tonight I'm looking at a way of better obscurring the corners where they meet the turbolifts, mainviewer and "back door." Then I've got to paint the trim another coat, touch up the painted partitions of the back door, and then I'll be ready to install the railing.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Been very productive weekend again. Installed carpeting on the lower deck (my wife says, "I didn't know you knew how to install carpeting" and I said, "I don't" but it didn't keep me from doing it). Bridge is ready except for railing (going to do that tonight), and I think I want a turbolift mockup still even though the current script doesn't call for it.

Got our first decals from Thomas and they look good. Going to print them on vinyl and place them this evening....

[Barbreader]

Potemkin_Prod wrote:

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Been very productive weekend again. Installed carpeting on the lower deck (my wife says, "I didn't know you knew how to install carpeting" and I said, "I don't" but it didn't keep me from doing it). Bridge is ready except for railing (going to do that tonight), and I think I want a turbolift mockup still even though the current script doesn't call for it.

Got our first decals from Thomas and they look good. Going to print them on vinyl and place them this evening....

Ah, the advantage of working on a set... if you did it wrong, no one to complain but you. But watch out next time you need new carpeting at home!

[Potemkin_Prod]

Ricky and I both worked all evening on the carpeting. We're about 75% done with it.

Rained this evening so we opted not to work with the decals or the railing. Should be able to handle both tomorrow.

I'm actually learning a lot more about fixing up around the house than I would've ever dreamed....

[Melonpool]

Potemkin_Prod wrote:

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I'm actually learning a lot more about fixing up around the house than I would've ever dreamed....

You think it was an accident there was never a toilet on the Enterprise? It was just so none of the set builders had to do any work around their houses!

[Potemkin_Prod]

LOL -- Actually, I've had to fix the sink next to the bridge twice since construction began. Fortunately, no problems with the head yet.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Whew! 99% finished with the carpeting. Painted some trim for the backdoor. Almost there...

[Melonpool]

I'm totally going to play catch-up this weekend -- and actually take some pictures this time! I've been building the false floor system and it's taking longer than I thought (as everything does).

[Potemkin_Prod]

We're under crunch time. We're filming our vignette next Friday. Still no decals, but just a few minute's work on the carpeting and an hour of work on the railing and we're just about done.

R

[lennier1]

Sounds like a busy weekend. Hope you'll find the time to take a break in-between.

Thanks again for the email. The pics should in your inbox by now.
I didn't bother with realism but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Perfect, thanks! Those diagrams are absolutely essential in figuring out layout. Once we got your bridge illos those several weeks ago, you'll notice that production kicked up into overdrive. They were very important in helping us conceptualize what we're doing. And while the end product doesn't exactly match, the inspiration is there.

Yes, I took a break Friday night and watched three off-beat movies (She Creature, Suspiria and Zerophilia) before calling it a night. All three were rather odd; She Creature had the edge on all three.

Saturday, though, has been productive. Finished the carpeting completely. Looked at air conditioners at Lowes (bought a fan for tonight's work), bought some metal brackets that will help me hold the railing together, and chatted with Thomas Sasser. We're beginning to get the detail decals going up. Going to get some doodads from Thomas that will help make the vignette pretty solid.

I really should update the site with some new pics now that the bridge is almost done, but I want to keep putting coats of paint on those railings. Maybe tomorrow...

[Potemkin_Prod]

Well, I guess it's tomorrow. Have updated our website with the following:

BUILDING THE BRIDGE 11 -- Three photos of the nearly completed bridge.

Thomas Sasser's decals are beginning to come in to be printed. Only have the turbolift applied so far, but we're working on it.

Bill Walker has provided a screen grab of his forthcoming SPFX work for the vignette. Looks very promising.

Updated the cast and crew listings, including the character biographies several folks were asking for.

Hope to have the railing in place by 6pm Sunday evening. That'll keep me busy all day.

[Tom Hendricks]

Where are you going to build the ready room set? Are you planning any others, like hallway or transporter? Are you planning on filming some green screen? or is all the action only going to take place on the bridge or ready room?

[Potemkin_Prod]

In our test vignette filming this coming Friday, all the action takes place on the bridge. It's only a four minute film; the idea is to see how our set, lighting, cameras, sound, etc work, as well as give everyone a chance to get the chuckles out of them.

I'm hoping to film the first episode in early August before high school football season starts.

As far as the sets go, we built, filmed and struck our Klingon bridge set (not much to it, even though it took days to build). We've got a two-dimensional background made of printed vinyl in mind for the turbolift set that will be set up behind the "working" turbolift doors.

We plan on constructing a small ready room for the first episode. The location is my office at Fast Copy, mainly because it's so oddly shaped, readily convenient, and free of rent. The only real change will be the modification of an outside wall to have a window to space and the hanging of pocket doors and a wall across one end of the space. Lennier1 has been very helpful in this design, and construction shouldn't take very long. Like the bridge, the readyroom set will be kept in standing condition.

Eventually, I intend to build a corridor set. One of our special effects guys (who appears as our chief engineer in our series) is talking about creating a couple of engineering consoles and using a green screen in the background for our engine room. So far, we don't have any scripts either in the works or received to date with a Sickbay, so that's not a priority. And nothing in those scripts and stories indicate we need to construct a transporter room set either.

But who knows? Might have a sudden need, and then we'll see...