Blade Runner SUSHI BAR + SLICE OF LIFE making of

HEY YOU GUUUYS!
I'm back with my "every-two-weeks" update! :sick What can I say - job... blah... blah...

So, in the next few days you'll get another production diary, but today we'll jump a few years back first! As I mentioned a couple of times, next thing we film are the scenes set in the "toilet set". Its a small toilet from the Sushi bar, actually. If the Sushi bar is a gas station, we figured it should have a toilet. And since the station is not in use anymore, the toilet is a disgusting place, full of graffiti and used syringes. :) So today I'll show you the set, and how we built it. It was originally built a couple of years ago for that other ambitious scifi project that turned into Slice of life. It has been standing half finished in my shed since then but now finally its time had come!

(sorry for bad quality of the pictures, I took them with an old phone back then) :darnkids

1_zps126c4d4f.jpg~original.jpg


We used particleboards to build the walls.. They were relatively cheap, hard, and you can easily screw them all together..

2_zpsce450270.jpg~original.jpg


The toilet is built in the same room where we filmed the car (the car was parked on the right side of the room). We glued thin paper to the insides of the set to simulate walls, and also installed usual stuff like windows, sink, mirror, etc.

3_zpsdd440c54.jpg~original.jpg


Here you can see a couple of years younger me (with a slightly shorter beard) painting the walls with - mud. Yeah, we wanted to dirty the walls and we figured, well let's just mix earth with water and we'll get a dirty browny moldy color FOR FREE!

4_zpsd6a8ec7e.jpg~original.jpg


It worked good, it instantly looked older and dirtier.

5_zpsef3139a5.jpg~original.jpg


Here's the other side, with an actual toilet that I found on a huge garbage pile somewhere down the road (!)
I.. I don't know.. Did I wash the toilet with the miniwash or something? I can't remember.. I hope so.. :lol

6_zps0cca5999.jpg~original.jpg


Ok, so the toilet needed some personality.. My good friend Stipan who is a painter came and for a couple of days he was just vandalizing the whole set by himself.

7_zpscb59d8e1.jpg~original.jpg


He had a couple of spray cans and a couple of permanent markers and he was trying to reproduce a couple of years of graffiti and writings.

8_zps9c2ea422.jpg~original.jpg


9_zps66a6e39c.jpg~original.jpg


10_zps08d3a8b2.jpg~original.jpg


In the end there were many layers of graffiti on that wall and we felt that it gave it realism..

As I said, later we gave up on that project and it was left like that for a couple of years - just wasting space in my shed. Then we wrote the Slice script in a way that we could use the existing set.

The other day we did a small lighting test to see how the set actually looks when properly lit. Our friend who plays the cop was also here so he was a stand in ( without a costume or anything, he just grabbed a helmet).
Introducing our police officer - Ivica aka. Dragonrage:

wcweb_zps9e23de6b.jpg~original.jpg


Overall we are satisfied with the look, but we feel that the background is too busy so we are currently making some modifications. For example we realized that we haven't written not ONE Asian symbol on the walls, which is of course - unforgivable.

So that's it.. These days the set is getting a paintover + some other set design changes, but more about that in the next production diary!

See you soon! :cheers(not in two weeks)
 
Last edited:
Great stuff you guys!...just that window for some reason, I didn't picture that type of design (maybe a simple rectangle without any "crosses" to separate the glass?). Love the sink also by the way:)
 
Yes! I completely agree with you both!

The Banksy Pulp Fiction tribute is already gone, most of that wall is painted over actually. The window too will get some bars over it, maybe even a plank or two to break up the lights coming from outside.. I'll try to remove those crosses, I think I glued them with silicone caulk so I hope they will come off.

On the other note, few days ago I FINALLY got some of that two-part silicone I ordered, and I tried to mold something. I made the force badge since that was the only one left to do:

1_zpsd8f8c037.jpg~original.jpg


It worked great. It was such a joy to work with proper materials for once, and not having to improvise. Here it is unmolded.

2_zps73b64f99.jpg~original.jpg


Next thing was to test temperature endurance of silicone. I powdered the mold, viced some MDF to the back side and poured pewter through the hole on the top.

3_zps9087cc35.jpg~original.jpg


And YES! It worked! I got a great cast!!! And there was no damage to the mold so I can reuse it as much as I want.. Even though I only need just one cast for the film.. hm.. :lol

Okay, so next problem was the belt buckle bezels that go to the middle of the badge..
I ordered a couple from the company called Eloxite but I was not sure they will fit. They only have 38mm bezels so that's the ones I ordered.. I got them in the mail today and they fit perfectly so it's obviously some kind of a standard size and they used the same ones on BR. The number of the little spheres around the ring is also exactly the same. Well, lucky me!

6_zpsb3489fb1.jpg~original.jpg


I temporarily put my ID card mugshot into the bezel - I'm gonna replace it with Dragonrages picture when we get one.

4_zpsb6274b4b.jpg~original.jpg


So I ordered a huge pack of silicone for other stuff, and when it arrives I'll be able to make those pins and hat badge that some of you asked me about.

That's it,
talk to you soon!
 
Last edited:
Wow nice badge! I love your pewter castings! It's crazy how silicone can survive that heat. Will the police officers have any cool blasters?

R.A.M.
 
Excellent work once again Luka! Eager to see what other "window treatment" you'll come up with for the bathroom scene:)
 
Hey Ville! I know, I know.. It's horrible!!!
The reason as always is work, and (un)fortunately there's TONS of it, so the film is awaiting the better times. I think we'll be able to continue filming in February next year.. :( I'll try to post something now and then, but expect next two months to be slow...

Ok, so since we didn't do much in the last month I decided to at least finish Production diary No. 4 that I promised you..


Apart from tweaking the toilet not much has happened.. I feel that repaint of the wall helped, as now it's much more monochrome and uniform, but we'll be sure only when we do some tests - which we don't have time for..

wc2_zps10a7651d.jpg~original.jpg


Now, I didn't really want to post anything I do for a living and mix it with this project, but since I'm "update-desperate" I figured what the hell! A couple of links won't do any harm.. :)
So, if you are interested here's some projects I've been working on:

A music video for a local band where Dino, Anton and me even made a cameo, haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgUtYr7GLw

And here is a small making of the video so you can see how we did it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jeC4qSR7PE

Here's a couple other breakdowns for projects I did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O5ochfLD8g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M0Tra7c08k

Mostly its all about special effects so I hope you'll find it interesting..


Well that's it! I really hope I'll have something to post soon, but can't promise anything!!
And thank you ALL for nice comments and words, they do mean a lot!!!

bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the update! I think the toilet set looks amazing now! :thumbsup And it's cool that you have work (the music video you did was funny). That's what pays the hobby, right? :lol
 
The window looks much better now with all those planks against it; you're right, it makes for a more interesting lighting effect. I'll be in my bed now, taking meds for my withdrawal from the lack of updates (February is a loooonnnng time to wait:D)
 
HEY EVERYBODY!

I'm just stopping by to wish you all a Merry Christmas!!
I wish you a lot of free time for your projects, and a good job now and then to pay for all those silicones, rezins, and paints! :lol

Happy holidays from Slice team, and Slice oOf Life Tobacco Corporation. ;)

slice_zps3c217488.jpg~original.jpg
 
Last edited:
You should most definitely get in touch with this guy on Youtube called NoirDeco to do your score. He did some music on a buddy o' mine's short not too long ago and it's great. I think his sound would go exceptionally well with your film.

Here's a sample of his work (and in the vein of your short):



Also, I meant to ask earlier, do you have a motion tracker/control for your passes? I want to try my hand at optical effects and video production and was wondering if that's how you get your shots.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi everybody!!!

Finally had a couple of free days to do at least some work on the film!

RAM recently asked:
Will the police officers have any cool blasters?R.A.M.
The answer is - OF COURSE! I started working on them two months ago but only today I finished them to the presentable state. Here's the whole story:

Almost a year ago I purchased a BR Blaster metal kit from Mr. Coyle. I did a lot of work on it but it's still half way done. Here's an old photo of the kit as it arrived when I bought it:

c50858af590c67b5f43b87e285e3d640_zps94e4f42e.jpg~original.jpg


At that point I bought it only for my collection and we were just beginning the work on the film, so I didn't know police officers had similar ones - and actually I didn't even know that we will base police officer costume on the ones from BR.
So a couple of months ago time came to tackle the police Blasters. Even though the police officer only has one blaster I knew I needed at least three of them. They will get thrown around during filming so I'll need replacement.

I contacted Mr. Coyle and explained all about the film. He offered to sell me a couple of his resin kits at lower price which was really nice of him, but since he makes display pieces they were still too expensive for my modest budget, and would surely get broken during filming anyway.

So in the end we made a deal that he will sell me just some parts that are hard to cast, and I would make a few copies of the metal one I bought from him myself. Since we all know the RPF's standpoint on recasting it was really important to me to have his consent.
Again, I must point out that I made only three copies exclusively for my film, and that Mr. Coyle will be properly credited in the credits, and I'll use this opportunity to thank him again!

That being said here is the photo of my three blasters:

4_zpsb905a243.jpg~original.jpg


For obvious reasons I will not show my molds (also because they are embarrassing :lol), but I'll say that I did not cast it as one piece - I broke it into a couple of segments since I wanted to maintain at least some mobility. Grips are obviously cast separately, and the upper receiver was also cast as a separate piece.
Note how my grips are not translucent as Coyle's are, I just tinted the epoxy orange. I found some Allen/hex screws in the city, so all screws are real -at least that could give it some realism.

All this was a pain in the ass to cast and I must say I admire even more all the artists that made their own versions through the years. I cast them in the cheapest epoxy I could find, and since that kind of epoxy cures to a hard but fragile finish they broke on some places even as I was putting them together. So they are made of a really crappy material, but at the same time that's the thing that saved me a lot of money. As always, camera wont know the difference. :)

Here are the close ups. First my metal Coyle version, currently disassembled again. It's awaiting final polishing, painting.. Many work to be done one day when I find some time.

0_zpse9dc93c3.jpg~original.jpg


This is the the HERO blaster. All the best casts ended in that one. It will have functioning lights and will be used for the close ups:

1_zpsed11fe5d.jpg~original.jpg


Then we have the MAIN blaster. That one is also made from good casts, and will be used most of the time. The actor will carry it in his holster and use it for everything but the stunt scenes. I suppose it will get a lot of scratches and beating by the end of the shoot. It's quite similar to the HERO one, but in real life you see some differences:

2_zpsdf4a281c.jpg~original.jpg


And last one is the STUNT blaster. That one is made from the worst/test casts and it will be thrown around. As I said the epoxy cracks easily so I suppose it will break in pieces pretty soon. It would be good to have a rubber one for that purpose, but as you can presume - no rubber where I live, so we'll see about that:

3_zpsd94fca4e.jpg~original.jpg


They still miss some smaller parts, weaver knob and such. Haven't had time for that.

And that is the story of my three blasters. Once again I thank Richard Coyle for letting me use his work for this purpose.

do you have a motion tracker/control for your passes?

Thank you PoopaPapaPalps for the link to NoirDeco. His music is really cool!
We do have some colleagues that make music for our personal and business projects, so we will probably go with them, but it is always great to hear fan-made BR music.

Apropos the motion control: for those tests at the beginning of the thread we used to borrow just a simple slider that has only speed and direction controls. Pretty primitive! We did manage to get a couple "identical" passes, but I really don't want to make the whole film like that.

Right now we are thinking of buying the motion control slider from CINETICS. They are a young company and have many options to choose from. You can choose from one, two or three axis systems and you get much more controls. You can program and repeat your camera path, you have easy in- easy out animation, stuff like that..
If anybody worked with their motion control slider feel free to share your experiences, and in the meantime:


:cheers:cheers:cheers HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY AND SEE YOU IN 2015!!! :cheers:cheers:cheers
 
Last edited:
...Apropos the motion control: for those tests at the beginning of the thread we used to borrow just a simple slider that has only speed and direction controls. Pretty primitive! We did manage to get a couple "identical" passes, but I really don't want to make the whole film like that.

Right now we are thinking of buying the motion control slider from CINETICS. They are a young company and have many options to choose from. You can choose from one, two or three axis systems and you get much more controls. You can program and repeat your camera path, you have easy in- easy out animation, stuff like that..
If anybody worked with their motion control slider feel free to share your experiences, and in the meantime:


:cheers:cheers:cheers HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY AND SEE YOU IN 2015!!! :cheers:cheers:cheers


Never heard of Cinetics but just seeing what they offer, it sets my imagination reeling! Similarly, I was looking at a more limited, but effective, option for motion control called the Syrp Genie. It looks good for linear and simple movement and more so, for what it is; small, simple, and portable. However, the Cinetic stuff looks just the thing I might have to invest in for what I'm aiming to accomplish.

Best of luck to you in the new year!
 
Last edited:

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top