Inspector Koenig shows off his Z-force privates

Weekend shootings

Principle shooting for the trailers is DONE! We’ll be doing a couple of reshoots today and then it’s hunkering down in the editing suite (read: desk in bedroom) to Becker* them to perfection. We’ve had an intense couple of days and have some more production tips to pass along. Today: ALWAYS HAVE A SPARE!

Dollarstore doings

In our last production log we referenced pound and dollar stores as a source of dolly accessories. Of course, they are not just for sparkly streamers, you can buy a whole load of awesome and inexpensive props there. We needed some guns for Z Force and Koenig, the charming Inspector. The larger ones, like the one pictured above, are repurposed from items we had in the house already using black spray paint.

For Keonig, though, we needed a smaller kind of weapon. Enter the dollar store. Which we did, and purchased a variety of hand guns to see which would fit in the rather spanky shoulder holster he sports. We found the very piece and duly sprayed it. Job done.

Expect the unexpected

We were shooting a tightly choreographed (ahem) action sequence yesterday where Koenig has to pull his weapon (TWSS). It worked great in rehearsals and looked The Business. It looked great for first four times we shot it, too, while we captured all the angles we wanted for editing. Fifth time out – tragedy struck! The barrel caught in the holster and Keonig pulled out a truncated stump (TWS also S). Hilarious? Yes! Helpful? No!

For the sake of $1

Unfortunately we didn’t have a backup of the gun that fitted the holster and production halted while we worked out how to work around it. Luckily we managed just fine, but it would have been much more helpful to have a backup. So, kids, that’s the tip of the day. If you are using cheap plastic shinies expect them to break and plan accordingly.

The Happy Couple

And now, to reward you for reading this far, here’s a picture of the happy couple, Jeremy and Petunia. Ain’t love grand!

dulce et decorum est pro Petunia zombie

* Becker, verb: to be confined to a small room/chair for extended periods while editing top-notch comedy webseries gold.