Point Defiance

In the summer of 2000 a script was sent to me entitled Point Desolation.  It was twelve pages of science fiction set in a world devastated by alien robots.  After several instances of calling the script after a local region known for its park and zoo, we surrendered and changed the title to Point Defiance, liking the change of tone the the new label gave the story.

The script lay fallow for several months while I anguished over how to implement the visual effects (FX) of laser blasters, a huge bio-dome and, most daunting of all, evil alien robot killers called Scraven.  

As summer drained into autumn, we prowled the aisles of Home Depot, scoured web sites and costume shops searching for the right look. (at the right price)  Evil alien robot killers need, after all, the right look.  The last thing we wanted was silly-looking robots.

In October I ran across AlamDV and my world changed.  One piece of the visual FX puzzle fell into place at a price that was as stunning as their software.  Then a person who shall remain unnamed (Fergus) offered to create animated Scraven.  

At this point we committed to creating Point Defiance.  It was far beyond anything we had previously attempted but I was convinced that taking the plunge was the only way to get that experience.

Location scouting had identified a terrific spot for the desert scenes near Vantage, WA.  It had the look and, just as importantly, restrooms within a short drive.  This area is along the Columbia River and is famous for gale-force winds that sand-blast everything in their path.  Also, it would take until early November before filming could begin so we had to risk the possibility of snow, or rain, in combination with the wind.    

On the first day of shooting five cars loaded with cast, crew and gear drove 250 miles from Seattle to the deserts of Eastern Washington.  We had an enormous shot list and one day to get it all.  The day started out near freezing but quickly warmed up and we had perfect weather with high constant cloud cover.  The last shots were filmed as the sun sank behind the mountains to the West.

A week later we filmed the bio-dome scenes in the lush forests of Redmond, WA.  Heck, all the forests in the county are lush so that was no trick.  Again, the weather was perfect with clouds diffusing the sunlight as evenly as any scrim.

I patched together a rough cut as fast as I could and was devastated.  This was going to take a great deal of work to make presentable.  I hadn't yet heard the quote from Francis Ford Copolla that movies are never as good as dailies and never as bad as the rough cut.

January 2001, the unnamed animator (Fergus) quit the project.  I would have withheld his money but he wasn't getting any.  Now we had an awful rough cut and no Scraven.  Snows were falling in the mountains and in Vantage so we couldn't just run over there and film the missing parts.  Besides, we didn't have any Scraven to shoot anyway.

After puzzling on the Scraven problem all winter I came to the only conclusion left to me: the Scraven would have to look like people and girl-type people on top of that. (Hey, I did it before T3)  We experimented with metalic makeup but we really didn't have the skill to make it look good. 

I re-wrote the Scraven scenes to make two of the things instead of just one and gave them some dialog between them.  First I figured out what I wanted them to say in English, then I made up words to be their own language.

As soon as the snow melted (thank heaven for highway cameras!) we took Suhmer and Anna to Vantage to get those missing shots in April of 2001.  There's a distinct difference between November and April in most regions.  November is dead and brown while April tends to be green and blooming.  The desert, we discovered on arrival, was no different.  Ah, well, one more thing to fix it in post.

The battery for the shotgun mic died on location so I got to learn about ADR (Additional Dialog Recording) a few weeks later.

I cut in the new scenes and suddenly it started to look like a movie.  A great deal of work followed then the final pieces came together when Aaron Nanto agreed to create the bio-dome portal FX and Allan Loucks wrote the original score.

There just isn't any other way to get this kind of experience other than doing it.  It was more than we were ready for and we didn't know how everything was going to turn out but we forged ahead anyway.  The lesson learned will show up in our next project.

Copyright © 2005 Trinity 8 Productions, LLC
Last modified: September 24, 2005