Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log (Page 1) - Production Logs - Forums

1 Topic by LegoStudiosP February 25, 2017 (07:53am)

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Topic: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Day of Vengeance is the natural follow-up to The Vengeful and The Five of the Pit, my two previous westerns.

UPDATE!
Due to its lenght, Day of Vengeance will be released periodically divided in 3 parts, each of around 15 minutes.
Part 1 will be about 12 minutes long and will be released in the middle of August. The following parts will be released in the subsequent weeks or months.
STAY TUNED FOR THE CASTING CALL!

When a gang of bandits murders a Mormon Pioneer's family, he enlists two bounty hunters, the Native and the Vengeful,to help him in his quest for vengeance, but on the way, he's torn by his religious believes and his thirst for vengeance.

Day of Vengeance is closer to a Spaghetti-western than a John Wayne Western, because I personally feel them to be more realistic. This means that there will be a slow-pacing, some quick and gruesome, bloody violence, and anything you might find in a western like Once Upon a Time in the West ir The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

This film is shot back-to-back with The Nine Billion Names of God, a quite different project I'm working on.

Some time ago a teaser for this film was released. Check it out HERE.
Recently a full trailer was released.
Here's a shot from the first scene of the film. It's an unlinked "prologue" showcasing one of the main characters, the Native:

Check soon back for more updates and backstage pics!

Last edited by LegoStudiosP (July 10, 2017 (04:34pm))

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2 Reply by LegoStudiosP March 1, 2017 (04:41am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Here are some additional frames from the prologue scene:
WARNING! CONTAINS SOME GORE AND MINOR SPOILERS!

Two extreme close-ups, a trope of Sergio Lone films that I'm using in this one.

Unlike most of Spaghetti Westerns, which objectively have much graphic violence, but not always copious amounts of blood, the prologue kickstarts the film with a quite bloody mess.

Lastly, a backstage picture:

I thought that this picture is interesting because it shows how I didn't built anything unneccessary. The top of the cliff is the only part of the cliff that has been built, and similarly I built only the portion of desert visible in the shot. The horse rider isn't even on a baseplate in the scene.
Check back soon for more pictures!

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3 Reply by PSM Films March 1, 2017 (07:39pm)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

I allways wanted to do a western brickfilm never had the time to animate though.

I am supposed to put something here.

4 Reply by LegoStudiosP March 2, 2017 (10:25am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

PSM Films wrote:

I allways wanted to do a western brickfilm never had the time to animate though.

I am a slow animator, I don't have enough time to complete a film in a short time. I wrote this around September, and animated since then only a few scenes. If you go and see Stalker: Mirror of Conscience, that took me nearly one year to film. The important is to complete the project, when, is in my opinion more relative. That said, I hope that I'll be able to finish this film ASAP.

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5 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 1, 2017 (03:55am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

WARNING! MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here I am with frames from the second prologue. DoV Starts with these three introductory prologues, each introducing one of the three main characters of the film. This second prologue introduces the character referred to as Vengeful, who was the main character in The Vengeful and The Five of the Pit.

This scene is almost a reiteration of the previous prologue, but with an opposite outcome, and without a moving horse.

Anyone wondering why is there a desert in the background, it's because I didn't have other green plates when shooting the scene. (Funny fact is, that I found tons of green plates for the following "prologue" scene, after completing this scene).

In the end, having the Vengeful go towards the desert, makes sense: the Native's prologue was set in the desert, and also the town where everyone will converge is supposed to be in the middle of a desert, in Spaghetti Wesern fashion.
If anyone was wondering, the horse rider is intentionally out of focus.

The next prologue will be the most functional one to the story, and the one I like the most as for how it turned out.

Last edited by LegoStudiosP (April 1, 2017 (10:57am))

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6 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 14, 2017 (12:40pm)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Here's a few frames from the third prologue.

This first one, is the middle frame of a shot that mimics the opening shot from "A fistful of dollars". Camera is focused on ground, moves up, and the cart moves in the frame. In the original one, it was Joe riding his mule, and the movement wasn't from right to left as here:

I had seen "The great silence"(directed by the filmmaker of the original Django movie, Sergio Corbucci) some time before shooting this scene. The Hateful Eight has many references to that movie (one being the wagon picking up various people on the way, anotherbeing the snowy environment). That movie had a low budget, and there are a few shots that track the wagon while it goes on, but the camera is very shaky. I did some similar shots for this cart sequence, and this is a frame from one of them:

This shot references modern filmography. If you see some newly shot car chases, but even if you see Interstellar, you get plenty of shots made with a camera mounted on the side of the vehicle. We have the same thing done here:

I really liked Breaking Bad. I cannot deny that. The sequence that shows the Mormon's mourning for his loss (loss which I purposely avoided to showcase here) parallels that of Walter White in a scene of episode Ozymandias (5x14), directed by Rian Johnson. Here is a frame from the sequence:

One of the "iconic" shots from the film. This shot follows a shot that quites "Once upon a time in the West", with Sancho seen blurry in the distance and walking in focus, just as Frank does in a flashback sequence from that film. This shot, however, has importance within the movie, and a scene that will be around the end.

Last frame from this bunch. The Mormon walks away.

Hope you enjoyed this. There's many things I chose not to show or explain, because I'd rather want the average viewer to see it when the film will be ready.

Last edited by LegoStudiosP (September 13, 2018 (08:00am))

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7 Reply by Greenshirt April 14, 2017 (05:19pm)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Those shots look great, really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

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8 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 15, 2017 (06:15am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Greenshirt wrote:

Those shots look great, really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Thank you so much!

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9 Reply by Dragon Brick Studios April 15, 2017 (08:30am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Any idea when this brickfilm might be finished? I can't wait to see it!

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10 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 15, 2017 (09:33am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Lego Figure Productions wrote:

Any idea when this brickfilm might be finished? I can't wait to see it!

Great question I hoped to avoid Now, with this and the following montage I've already shot, I've done about 10% of the shooting. Looking at the script, it might be more optimistic than that, but realistically, the opening credits roll right after this scene. Due to school, I will be working quite rapsodically for the next few months on this, while completing the post production of The Nine Billion Names of God, but then, as it happenned to other "long" projects I did, I guess I'll speed up by 150% during June. Realistically speaking, I think this will be released around September (trying to avoid being hidden by the Summer contest entries). If during June I can also do all of the post production, I might be able to rlease this in August or really optimistically in July, but I don't want to give false promises.

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11 Reply by VN April 15, 2017 (09:48am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

LegoStudiosP wrote:

The hand effectively appears as his forearm, pretty cool.

Life is like a box of LEGO, you never know what you're gonna build. - mrgraff

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12 Reply by Dragon Brick Studios April 15, 2017 (11:20am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

10%?! How long is this brickfilm going to be?!

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13 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 15, 2017 (03:58pm)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

Lego Figure Productions wrote:

10%?! How long is this brickfilm going to be?!

Again, take that percentage with a grain of salt. I intend the film to be 15+ mins, with now being at around 5 mins without yet really starting the story. Maybe, if I did the math, I could be at about 15-20% of the film, but I'm not sure. There's tons of scenes yet to be shot. As I said, this film is much longer than my previous westerns, The Vengeful (which was practically a duel with a flashback) and The Five of the Pit (which was a shootout with flashbacks).

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14 Reply by LegoStudiosP April 15, 2017 (04:00pm)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

VN wrote:

LegoStudiosP wrote:
The hand effectively appears as his forearm, pretty cool.

Thanks for noticing that. After I mistakingly had a few shots in The Five of the Pit in which the hand was just holding the gun but seemed separated from the arm, I did my best in paying attention on that.

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15 Reply by LegoStudiosP May 3, 2017 (11:01am)

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Re: Day of Vengeance (Western) Production Log

IMPORTANT NEWS!
Day of Vengeance is now 9:30 minutes long, about 12 minutes with all the footage I've shot. This equals to about 1/4 of the entire film. because of that, I decided to release it in four parts. Mind, the film is one, and sill have one single directors, but between June and September-October I will release each of its three or four parts, and afterwards a complete edition, with all links directly on the directory page. Teasers and updates will alert those interested about the upcoming releases. This will lead to an imminent Casting Call aswell.

Another thing I wanted to reveal is, that I composed the theme music for the film, which is very close and sometimes quites to the theme music of some less known but inspiring spaghetti westerns. The original scores composed by Ennio Morricone for the western films The Great Silence and Navajo Joe. I'd like to point out that, still, the score for this film is original, and is its own thing, not some copycat.
Now, on to one of my favourite sets I have built so far: the western town:

A general overview to the town (not frame)

A closer look to the building that imitates some sort of a town hall or bank. In the background you can see some partially built structures that act as background building.

A closer look at the Sheriff's office. Some might notice the similarity eith the sheriff offices lego released over the time, and might wonder, why aren't I using any of those sets. The answer is simple: I don't have them. I simply never had a western lego set. However, I will require buying a few western soldier related sets for some scenes later on.