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Iron Sky – Day 21

Luke and I are here in the office doing a bit of half on half off day so we can do laundry and spend some kind of time sleeping a full 8-10 hours. Think of it as base camp activities before we have to go back out on patrol hunting space nazis. The heat in here, even though its trying outside, to rain – its still brutal. I feel that it’s incredibly unfair for anyone to have to work in this heat and I’m going to try do something about it starting tomorrow. There has to be a straight forward  and cost effective solution that can be introduced because its starting to drive people nuts (including me) and its actually causing the machines to wonk out. If we have to rent a flat and pump it with A/C, put the farm in there and throw the renders on a drive and walk it over every day – so be it. If we need to split the staff into two shifts one working days, one nights and then rotate them – let’s do it. Frankly I think that would work a lot better because the Nuke guys could ram through tests and previs renders of their comps while at work and not have to wait around for it and get it into approvals faster. Same goes for us in the 3D department. One of the things that is noticeably dragging things down in terms of speed is the requirement for us to wait for director approvals. This is a system “hitch” that in Europe probably keeps the EU film production industry from being able to stand on its own two feet more. In North America at this level of production – the director typically hands in his directors cut (which I am told these days is a courtesy nod) and then isn’t seen again – leaving the decision making on VFX, post, sound etc., to the relevant supervisors and producers. Now some might say that this is “bad” because it removes the director from the process, but we all know how many (not all but a huge majority) directors “like it when they see it” and really have zippitydodaa of a clue as to what that is until they do see it. Then there are director’s who ask for things that are completely out of budgetary scope from time and budget points of view. This is where producers and supervisors keep things on track. Of course that blade swings both ways and it is double edged. It’s a fine balance between getting it done and getting “done in”. I can’t really explain that right now but it’s one thing you could probably guess at and be pretty correct for what comes up in your head with respect to how either way or path of production (European Production Hierarchy vs. USA studio methods) can take you down the rabbit hole, or dig you out.    


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