At long last, it's Production Day One here at Ares Studios! Our time call was 7 AM and now at 8:45 our thirty-odd person crew is hard at work. Green screens are going up, light stands are being assembled, dolly track is getting laid down, and the cameras are up and running for testing.
Today’s shoot is actually out in the parking lot, under the full sun – or at least it will be under the full sun eventually. As of right now we’ve got a pretty good SoCal marine layer that’s waiting to burn off. The reason today’s shoot is outside is that our location is an exterior scene on an “unnamed alien planet.” Of course, we here at Ares Studios know exactly what planet we’re on, and what race our characters are, but that’s yet to be revealed to all of you!
We have two actors for today’s shoot, one male and one female. One is a character that should be quite familiar to Star Trek fans, and the other is a brand new character making her debuting in Axanar. Our actors are sitting in their make-up chairs as we speak, with teams of artists working to apply wigs and… well, various appliances that can’t yet be revealed!
Executive Producer Alec Peters is keeping things running along smoothly with the help of Line Producer April Eden and her team. Director Rob Burnett – wearing his trusty Free Enterprise baseball cap - is busy conferring with DP Milton Santiago (who was DP on Prelude). The coffee’s flowing, as it should be, and we’ve got a little Oscar Peterson music playing to keep our talent entertained. Everything is looking good so far! With a little luck, we should begin shooting around 10 AM, provided the clouds cooperate.
And man, is that green screen really, really GREEN.
Back with more later. Stay tuned…