Article with Gary Hutzel on B&C budget, 1800 FX shots and virtual sets

[Candlelight]

http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/C...a_blood_chrome

Blood & Chrome was originally envisioned as an innovative Xbox project comprising nine 10-minute segments with a budget of only $2 million. “Obviously, we can’t shoot Battlestar Galactica for $2 million,” remarks Gary Hutzel, VFX supervisor at Universal Cable Productions and on Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome. “I suggested that we look at a radically different approach to the show: to shoot it entirely against greenscreen. As the project gained momentum and the studio realized the cost benefits of this approach, the project gained more financing and grew into a two-hour ‘backdoor’ pilot for a potential new television series.”

Hutzel and the team at Universal were faced with a formidable challenge: producing a Battlestar Galactica-quality, VFX-heavy film from scratch—with “no sets and no locations,” he recalls—at a cost far less than a typical sci-fi pilot. “The way that we accomplished that was to do the entire show on greenscreen,” Hutzel describes, “and I mean the entire show. We are breaking the mould. Right now, we have 89 minutes of content and roughly three minutes of that is filmed against a set piece. The rest of it is greenscreen or pure CGI. That’s how we attacked the project.”

1800?? That's almost on par with The Phantom Menace!

[NewHorizon]

Candlefright wrote:

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http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/C...a_blood_chrome

I think they could have said "Lightwave" a few more times. lol I wonder how much they get paid to promote lightwave like that.

[Sindatur]

Only $2Million? I could swear I heard several times from legitimate sources it was $5Million. If it was only $2M, and they have all those files now, they should definitely do more if it doesn't bomb

[TheNatureRoy]

Sindatur wrote:

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Only $2Million? I could swear I heard several times from legitimate sources it was $5Million. If it was only $2M, and they have all those files now, they should definitely do more if it doesn't bomb

If you continue reading, later in that paragraph he said it gained more financing, although it remained very cost effective.

[Robert Maxwell]

NewHorizon wrote:

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I think they could have said "Lightwave" a few more times. lol I wonder how much they get paid to promote lightwave like that.

I dunno, but Lightwave could use the publicity.

[Ian Keldon]

Does anyone know if there are any concept art pieces or beauty renders for the "prime condition" Galactica or any of her support ships for this project online anywhere? Of a compaison of the "new" CIC with the one from the most recent show?

[137th Gebirg]

Considering how sparse such information was for NuBSG, I highly doubt you're going to see anything substantive for some time, if ever. Doug Drexler usually did a good job putting some stuff on his blog, but that's about it from any official sources that I can recall.

[Ian Keldon]

^Mojo used to put a lot of stuff up too...were either involved with B&C?

[137th Gebirg]

Doug definitely was. I'm pretty sure Mojo was, too, as he disappeared from his blog around the time they went into post. Being all CG, that was a really long time.

[Ian Keldon]

^Cool...I'll keep looking then. Neither has been very active blog-wise lately.

[Ian Keldon]

Does anyone have a link to Drexler's FB page? I can't find it.