Principal photography on Dubstep Trooper is a wrap! For those who don’t know about the project yet, I’m part of a crew making a Star Wars fanfilm. The initial and core crew being 3 other freelancers at the Pudding Factory (the creative hub where I have my residence), and many have joined besides. It’s an open source project based on crowd funding and crowd sourcing. Details can be found on www.dubsteptrooper.com.

After prepping the set on Friday, we had the weekend of 16 and 17 December to shoot our blue-screen footage at MyFacilities in Groningen. In fact, every shot in the film will be either blue-screen or full CG. We shot 60 slates, covering I don’t know how many shots.

We wrapped at 23:45 on Sunday and I can’t help but admit that the days were long and exhausting. But we did it! Thanks to the patience, perseverance and enthusiasm of our cast and crew. Let’s face it, the Dubstep suits and Vader armor are wholly impractical. That and the wait on this busy shoot made it pretty hard on the actors. You were real troopers, guys and gal: Joe, Ivan, Rick, Rik, Rienk (that sounds funny) and of course indispensable Elleke.

Thanks also to the visitors on the set, who provided moral support to the cast and crew. Our sponsors Wietze and Duco (from Wyldebeast & Wunderliebe) actually got to do some light effects and—literally—pitched in.

A particular thanks to Geert for giving up a part as stormtrooper on screen to support and guide the cast in gearing up and staying alive. Then again, he probably realized what the others were in for so he might be a right bastard 😉

Was it all hardship? Well, imagine standing on set, seeing Joe in his stormtrooper suit arrive, having an actual Darth Vader walk by, looking at footage and thinking “we shot this, it’s not original footage but it sure looks like it.”

We witnessed the birth of the Dubstep Trooper character as Joe brought him to life. It was a joy to behold and I was glad to see his lines triggering laughs on set. Ivan (Darth Vader) had me in stitches when we let him improvise: “You are one big pile of shit!” I am excited to see a first rough edit of the footage. Our fingers itch.

I’m secretly hoping for pickup shoots, to go back to a Star Wars set and spend more time with the cast and crew. But then we only just started. Postproduction is about to begin, starting with a rough edit of the material, followed by more 3D setmodeling, keying, rotoscoping, tracking, compositing, etc. We’re looking at months of work here. Especially with our own companies to run we can probably use all the help we can get.

So there’s plenty more to come and we’ll keep you posted with awesome new stuff. Don’t forget to check out the facebook page; it has a lot of pictures and clips from the set.

Once again a big thanks to the sponsers, cast and crew.