A successful first day's filming

On Sunday we had our first day of location filming at Magna Science Museum, Rotherham. A big thank you to the museum and its staff for allowing us to use their very dramatic car park for the 'city bottom shoot out' scene. We were extremely lucky with the weather and although it was cold it remained dry, so we were able to complete all the required shots on the day.


Congratulations to all the cast and crew involved. I was expecting enthusiasm, but was blown away by the professionalism and commitment shown by everyone. Edmund Dehn's performance looks amazing in the footage. Greg Staples also looked great as Dredd and Matthew Banwell was excellent as Minty's shooter.


In all, there was some excellent acting from everyone, which changed the dynamic of the scene for the better. I was tempted to go into details, but it would only mean anything if you were there. Needless to say there were some dramatic deaths and some superb part building. Everyone managed to give their own character an individual personality, which really shows in the footage.

If it wasn't for the fact that everyone was pitching in we never would have managed it in time we had. A MASSIVE thank you to all involved. At no time did anyone say a word about the cold, lying on the floor for ages or the number of retakes.

Dan's costumes and props looked spot on in the final HD footage and Steve Green's camera work is excellent. Barry Renshaw's suggestions and eye for continuity were essential and his story boards were a joy to work from.

David Lindsay took two roles on the day, as both stills photographer and Second Unit Director for some other 'special' footage. I've loaded a selection of his stills in this post.

Judge Dredd is cast!

The first day's filming is less than a month away, so we're very busy getting everything together for the shoot.

Renowned Artist and Judge Dredd favourite, Greg Staples has kindly offered to play the part of the man himself in our film. Although Dredd will only be making a small cameo and will only be shown in shadow, blurred or extreme close up, we are lucky that Greg has the correct look for a young Joe. It's also a nice touch for fellow fans.

Greg also managed to call by when we were blocking a scene at a Sheffield location. We also had time for a quick costume check, see picture above.

BICS update

The Birmingham International Comic Show went very well for us. A big thanks to the people at the Galactic Knights costume group who brought our costumes to life over the weekend and also thanks to the Hollywood Heroes group for appearing in some cool shots as well.

It was a bit of a rush, but we managed to have some quick chats about Minty and show a few people some work in progress. Steve Green went snap happy so we've got a bunch of cool images, which can be found here, BICS pictures on Flickr.

Birmingham International Comics Show 2009

Just a quick post to say that Team Minty will be attending BICS this year. Not in any official capacity, but we will hopefully be bringing a couple of Judges along, with the help of the Galactic Knights costume group.

It should be a good opportunity for some nice pictures and perhaps discuss the Minty project with fellow fans. If you see us feel free to stop us for a chat. We should be hanging around the Judges.

At last a proper announcement

CASTING CALL FOR:
- Filming on Monday December 14th at a Sheffield Location

CAST
- Required, 6 Mega City One Criminals (The Kovaks Mob)
- Please provide a simple picture of yourself for reference and rough measurements (to tailor the costumes)
- Please let us know any relevant experience (amateur dramatic, futuristic criminality)
- We would like to keep your details on file as other parts will become available later
- Plus there will be a chroma key studio session in London, scheduled in 'pencil' for January Saturday 16th.

CREW
- Make-up
- Wardrobe
- Grips and other location personnel
- Crew will not need to commit to the London studio shoot

Please send your details to: steves@thespiritof.co.uk

Hopefully we will not have to reschedule, but if we do, we will understand if you can't re-commit.

I am also delighted to announce that main role of Judge Minty has been cast. Edmund Dehn has generously offered to help us out (real proper paid work permitting). It will require us working around his schedule, but it's worth it, as he's perfect for the part.

A minor update

At last we have penciling some dates in the diary for filming. Nothing confirmed yet, but at least a loose deadline to aim at. Hopefully we'll be able to put out some requests for help within a couple of weeks.

I don't like posting without a nice picture of something, so I thought I'd upload this quick comp using a test shot with a CGI Lawmaster, created simply to double check proportions.

A couple more pages

Just thought I'd post these two pages from our project document. Nothing new, but some nice pictures all the same.

Full on Dredd!

I'm in the process of putting together a document to help entice the perfect Minty actor. I thought I'd post this page as it shows a nice full image of Dan's Judge costume.
>

Last cover recreation for a while

It's been fun recreating these covers using the images from our costume reference photo session, but I'd better stop and concentrate on some work for the film itself. Just time to finish this Cliff Robinson inspired cover.

Based on the artwork of Cliff Robinson

Colin Wilson cover

Just a quicky to post another costume photo session cover image.

Based on the artwork of Colin Wilson

You're Next Punk!

We recently took the costume into the studio for some test shots. A Minty aged model was unavailable, so we decided to use a younger character. Couldn't resist creating this image, just for fun.

Based on the artwork of Mick McMahon

New Mick McMahon Judge Minty portrait

For those that missed it, just a quick update to post the excellent new image that Mick McMahon created of Judge Minty. I think it's pretty obvious that we are heavily McMahon influenced with this project. So it was great when Mick agreed to produce the sketch, which was a prize in the official HI-EX! raffle in aid of Children 1st. I have to admit I had a little trouble letting it go.


Illustration by Mick McMahon.

Because of all the help and encouragement from the HI-EX! organisers, we decided we didn't really want to turn up empty handed, regards stuff to give away. Dan made a duplicate Judge Minty prop badge as a prize for our free draw, from which we would hopefully gain some email details to add to our database.


Steve Green also created a beautiful Mega Cityscape, which we printed on canvas and added to the HI-EX! raffle.

HI-EX! Minty is go!

The Highland Comic Expo (HI-EX!) represented a symbolic 'start' point for our project. Although we have been working behind the scenes for quite a while, on things like the script, costume and CGI, we haven't shown much progress recently.

We set HI-EX! as an internal deadline to get certain key elements finished, namely the first draft of the script and more importantly a 'working' costume. These elements allow us to begin the task of finding the right man to play Minty. Once Minty is in place we can work around the actor's schedule to plan filming. We can refine elements as we progress, but we are keen to start getting some dates in the diary.

Of course HI-EX! also represented a golden opportunity to show our progress and gauge opinion. It was great to chat with people about the project and Judge Dredd in general.



We also hired character model/actor Harry T. Docherty for the day, to perform a walkabout and pose for some costume reference images. Stephen Green has enhanced the 'snapshots' taken on the day. Harry did an excellent job and the images have come out brilliantly. They have already increased interest in the project.



One last thing. I'd just like to welcome Barry Renshaw to the project. Barry has been creating storyboards for the film. As well as bringing the script to life they create a 'bible' for everyone involved with the project to work from. I usually like to storyboard myself, but Barry's work far exceeds my own, he has brought an extra dimension and fresh set of eyes that is improving the story telling.