While recently scanning over my blogroll, I clicked on a link to William Eubank’s production company. The recently relaunched Darkshelf site looks great (Darkshelf.com was designed by Will Etling). The site is very shiny and while it takes a while to load, it’s not too over the top. If accessible flash had been used it would be near perfect. Anyway, the site gets the job done and appears very professional. Darkshelf now bills itself as “An Imagination Collective™” and the site displays reels from Will’s work as director and cinematographer and Matt Wessen’s work as producer.
One reel caught my eye in particular; Plastic Soldiers is a (very) short WWII movie I worked on with Will and Matt about a year ago. When I say “worked on”, I don’t mean anything glamorous or extremely vital to the production – I was some sort of special effects technician / production assistant. Basically, I sat in a hole alongside a trench with Jesse Hoy where we operated the fog machine and the compressed air cannon. At other times, I operated squib-type devices or just ran errands. The project was particularly impressive as, aside from the material provided by the reenactors, Will had made everything himself: the pyrotechnic devices (PVC pipes, an air compressor, sprinkler valves), the fake blood (red food coloring, molasses, crushed strawberries), the trench (wood posts, planks), the falling debris (chunks of foam, baby powder), and all sorts of other things. The shoot was really fun and I learned a lot from it (like always wear sunscreen). I also met a bunch of interesting people including a few guys from Panavision Woodland Hills. The dailies looked great and the final version looks extremely cool. Check it out! [Watch “Plastic Soldiers” at Darkshelf.com]
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Jeff McCoy has some really neat behind-the-scenes photos of the trench scene that you should check out.