At the earliest stages of development on LVJ we always planned to have a large scale space battle between the Earth forces and the invading aliens, the Veranyi. Along with every space battle comes the requirement for an assortment of fighter craft that will perform in dynamic dogfights in space or over the surface of a Mothership or space station. For this we have our X74 on the side of the humans and the Veranyi have a small one man fighter, named the Wasp.

The Wasp fighter began life as an initial concept design by Chris Taylor.  The look of this first design was a short stocky, snub nosed fighter with a real chunky feel to it.  We liked the chunky design, but deep down we knew it could be improved, so moved onto other tasks while stewing on the Wasp fighter for a while.

It was around this time that concept designer Lee Ray offered to help out on the movie and he suggested making it sharper and angrier looking, which fitted in perfectly with the idea of the fighter attacking in a swarm like fashion.  Along with refining the design, Lee also created the digital model that is used in the movie.

So we had our fighter for our space battle, but there was one thing that we still needed and that was a cockpit interior.  Using Lee's model as a guide, Chris Taylor created a more detailed interior section just for these cockpit shots. We wanted the fighters to feel like they'd seen a lot of action so a significant amount of wear and tear was required to make them looked lived in.  This was more apparent in the cockpit since we'd be much tighter in on the model and it would need to stand up to closer scrutiny.  Although the Wasps are from another world we wanted to see familiar aspects like handles and pipes and even a seat with a leathered finish that would remind people of WWII fighter planes.

Now all that remained was to add our pilots. Actors playing the alien fighter pilots had been shot previously against bluescreen and were now composited into the CGI cockpit.  Like any visual effects shot that includes creating an entire environment virtually, a certain amount of 'comp love' will be required.  This means adding a load of sweeteners to help bring the shot alive, in the case of these shots that included reflections in the canopy, depth of field and lens distortion artifacts, not to mention a fair smattering of glows, halos and flares.

The film LVJ is not in 3D but as technology has moved forward throughout production we’ve planned a few special shots that will be finished in stereo 3D.  They’ll appear as extras packaged with the film upon completion, but just for fun, here’s a stereo 3D test shot featuring the Wasp fighter.  Put on your funny red and green glasses now!

1. X Wing
An iconic ship, the X-Wing needs little introduction. But if you've ever wondered what one would look like flying in real life, wonder no more. In 2007 a San Diego based rocket association built a 23 foot long flying X-Wing model powered by 4 giant rocket motors. Complete with servo operated S-Foil wings and an astromech droid, its maiden flight was nothing if not spectacular. Although fitted with a recovery parachute and in theory capable of reaching an altitude of almost 1000 feet, the giant model leapt into the air on four bright red jets of flame from its rocket engines in the style of a true X-Wing but exploded shortly into flight.  Check it out here


 

 

2. Earth Directorate Starfighter
This fighter from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century started life as a concept design by legendary designer Ralph Mcquarrie for Battlestar Galactica. Originally conceived for the Colonial Viper, when the show’s producers instead decided to use the now familiar Viper design, the Starfighter was resurrected as the main Earth defence ship. The series which ran from 1979-81 will be remembered fondly by any scifi obsessed teenage boy who grew up at the time, although possibly not for the starfighter or it’s die cast model which fired little red laser bullets. Instead two words might capture the appeal of the show..Wilma Deering.. Nuff said

 

 

3. Colonial Viper
The primary space superiority fighter of the Colonial Defence Force in Battlestar Galactica has been a scifi favourite since its debut in 1978. It was so popular that the designers of the series remake decided it was the only element they wanted to carry forward from the old series virtually intact. However even if you think you’re a fan of the Viper, we're guessing you still have nothing on car builder Dean Shorey. This amusement park engineer handbuilt a street legal, pimped out, Viper car that looks just like the starfighter but with a chevy V8 engine. No word on whether it has a turbo mode or not. Check out his extraordinary ride here.

 

 

4. Gunstar
The production team on The Last Starfighter were so concerned about the realism of the state of the art CGI that they projected a still frame onto the largest screen at MGM and walked right up to the screen to scrutinize it heavily.  The ship was designed by Ron Cobb who had worked on Alien and executed by a company called Digital Productions who were famous for using a Cray supercomputer to render their animations.  Because The Last Starfighter was presented in 70mm, the CGI was rendered at a resolution higher than most movies made today, however the average polygon count per frame was 250,000, while something like an XBOX 360 averages several million, per second; this was however in 1982.

 

5. Jedi Starfighter
The design of this space fighter, first seen in Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones, was intended to be a bridge between the designs of the original movies and those of the prequels. Based around the distinctive triangular shape of the Imperial Star Destroyer from the original trilogy, it hints at the growing power and influence of the Empire in the prequels. By Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the ship had evolved further, now incorporating the look of the TIE fighters and the ship was redesignated the Jedi Interceptor Starfighter.  The design of this final ship also had expanding wings, a feature inspired by the Hasbro toys made for Episode II.

 

6. Lockheed Starfighter
A starfighter in name only, this cold war era jet almost became a true space borne fighter. Designed to train astronauts and responsible for numerous high altitiude records the Starfighter operated at the very edge of the atmosphere. The air was so thin that conventional flying surfaces had little effect so it used a reaction control system or RCS, similar to the ones used on the space shuttle. It was notoriously lethal to fly, earning the nickname “Widowmaker”. One such crash is documented in the film The Right Stuff as legendary pilot Chuck Yeager loses control at extreme altitude

 

7. X-74 
The X-74 Orbital Defence Fighter or ODV is the primary space superiority fighter of the Earth Defence Forces in LVJ. Following time honoured traditions of others on the list such as the Viper and X-Wing the X-74 is capable of both atmospheric and orbital flight, a scifi concept now being realised in the latest developments of real world spaceplanes. Its X designation comes from the legacy of experimental planes like the X-15, the first ever spaceplane. All the X-74s are named and we have been running a competition for fans of the film to get their names on the side of the jets on screen. Many have already won and more rounds of naming are expected before the films completion.

 

8. Star Fury
The design of this fighter from Babylon 5 pays homage to the Gunstar designed by Ron Cobb, but the primary aim of the brief was to create a ship that looked and behaved like it obeyed the laws of physics.  It's combination of thrusters pointing forwards and backwards allow for very tight turning angles and a high degree of manoeuvrability.  The Starfury was among a variety of CGI assets created for Babylon 5, all produced by Foundation Imaging using Lightwave 3D on Amiga based computers, which revolutionised the way VFX for TV was produced.

 

9. VF1 Valkyrie 
The 1980s Japanese anime series Macross and it’s US adaption Robotech combined an F-14 Tomcat with a transforming battle robot for this inventive fighter. Capable of walking upright, flying as a jet or in orbit, the VF1 became one of the most popular mecha for scifi fans. The series focused on technological advances gained from a crashed alien ship in the Pacific enabling Earth to defend against alien invasions. Warner Bros acquired the rights in 2007 aiming for a new franchise and attached Toby Maguire’s production company. Maguire was said to be pursuing the lead role with Lawrence Kasdan, writer of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back also on board.

 

10. Veryani Wasp 
We hope you will excuse us including a couple of our own ships in this list but we couldn’t omit the main enemy ship from LVJ.  This small, highly agile alien fighter started life as a more robust, blocky design but when concept designer Lee Ray joined the film he noted it didn’t appear menacing enough. So it was redesigned in its current, sharper and more angular form. When in battle, wasps attack in swarms using advanced navigation systems to prevent collisions in a similar fashion to how birds fly in flocks.

 

Much of the information here we found all over the internet and in books but special mention should go to the blog site of Gavin Rothery. Gavin was the VFX supervisor on Moon, one of our favourite recent scifi films and his site is a treasure trove of great blogs and superb images many of which we had never seen before. His site is where we found the original Buck Rogers concept art and it's now a permanent resident on our bookmarks. We would highly recommend giving it a look at www.gavinrothery.com

 

In the next article we will be showcasing the WASP fighter from LVJ in a lot more detail but for now we hope you enjoyed this little diversion of scifi trivia. Which ship should we have included? If you've got a bit of trivia you think we'd enjoy, let us know in the comments, on facebook or twitter.

It's hard to believe we started filming LVJ before 9/11.  Although it was ten years ago today it seems as though it was yesterday.

We’ve always had a love affair with New York. From an early age its iconic landmarks, made famous through decades of movies, captured our imagination. When director Chris Taylor first came up with the concept of an epic scifi movie involving two 1970s cops, we had to decide where to set the cop show element. LA, northern California like Starsky and Hutch, somewhere less covered like Chicago or Detroit or the big apple? The decision was quick and unanimous.

In the early days of the film we had no idea how we were going to realise New York on screen for a British zero budget film shooting in the English countryside. Our first concepts included a plain shaded NYC CGI cityscape that would feature in the film's intro and set the locale before moving onto scenes primarily shot in London alleyways doubling for Manhattan.

We shot initial footage in the UK, our heroes driving against a bluescreen and intending to place NY library footage behind them. As the ambition for the film grew we realised the film deserved its own custom footage and the only way to get it was to head across the pond. So it was that Director of Photography David Le-May and Producer Mark Shields would head to New York in August 2001.

The flight in was memorable as, through personal contacts, we managed to secure seats in the flight deck for the landing into JFK, something that would never again be possible months later. Looking at the world famous skyline during final approach no-one could have had any idea of the events that were shortly to occur, events that would change the world.

New York is an amazing city to shoot in. Every direction you point the camera yields a backlot famous to generations of film goers. The support offered by the New York Mayors Office and the NYPD is second to none. We could never have believed a tiny no budget film from England could shut down city blocks and fill streets and bridges with 70s cars complete with NYPD escorts. We would return many times over the years and it was always an incredible filmmaking experience which would forever seal our love affair with New York City.

As the end of the trip neared we wanted to capture as much stock footage as we could of the city, unsure what could be used in the movie, but sure it would be useful. So we headed down to the World Trade Center.

It's hard to convey to anyone who never saw these majestic structures close up, just how awe inspiring the twin towers were. Looking up from their base they seemed to stretch up forever and we spent a long time filming vertigo inducing footage. We even managed aerial footage from a helicopter capturing the towers and the city in all their glory. Little did we know that in mere weeks that skyline would change forever.

It seems tragically ironic now, looking back, that we had been concerned about whether we would need to digitally paint out the twin towers for the 70s scenes. As our film is set in '74 and the towers were completed in '73 that wasn’t an issue but we never imagined we would have to consider erasing them from footage representing modern day.

We returned to London with amazing footage, having added many new friends to the close friends we already had in the city, friends that would all be in our hearts in the coming weeks.

They say you will always remember where you were when the news broke. We heard the news of the first plane hitting on the radio, like many dismissing it as a light aircraft accident. Alongside millions we watched in stunned disbelief as the second jet hit the South Tower. We shared the world’s shock as the Pentagon was hit and United 93 went down.

We later learnt footage we saw in the UK was subtly different from that shown in the US, American networks showing less of the heartbreaking shots of  people falling from the towers.  I remember breaking into tears as the South tower collapsed, the loss of life difficult to take in.  My girlfriend called, incoherent and inconsolable as her father was on a jet from Boston now missing and presumed to have hit the towers. The cellphone network had crashed making it impossible to find friends that were missing.

Our friends and loved ones were the fortunate ones, all of them escaping unharmed. 2996 others were not so lucky. When we were finally able to reach friends who had escaped lower Manhattan they told stories of being evacuated across the Brooklyn bridge. Alongside hundreds of others they looked back upon a burning New York skyline, images more akin to a Hollywood disaster movie.

10 years on, the world has changed more than we could have imagined. New York has long since regained its hectic, bustling vibrancy but the memories of that fateful day will forever remain.

For us, the twin towers remain in our movie and in our hearts as a symbol of a tragic day that changed the world for millions. Every time we watch those parts of the movie that featured the towers it's impossible to not remember that day with a lump in your throat.

Today we reflect and remember all those that lost their lives or their loved ones on that beautiful sunny day 10 years ago and we salute all the emergency service personnel of our favourite city that bravely gave their lives trying to save others.

For the last ten days we have been running a competition to name the next space shuttles used in the movie and we had a great response with over 150 entries. Suggestions ranged from the epic and adventurous through personal to comical. We're grateful for all the suggestions and want to thank everyone for taking the time to get involved, it's been great connecting with you all on facebook and twitter.

So onto the main event. Which names won? It was a tough decision and we were only planning on choosing two in this round of shuttle naming. However we got so many great entries that we're announcing a bonus round of two additional shuttles and we thought it would be fun to get you involved again.

So here's the plan. We'll announce two shuttles with our favourite names now but we'll also list our next six top choices and open it to the LVJ community to select two bonus shuttle names from that list.

Tomorrow we will open a poll on the LVJ Facebook page where you can vote for a bonus shuttle name from the shortlist. When the polls are closed the two shuttle names with the most votes will also take their pride of place in the fleet. Anyone can vote so invite friends to join in. They don't have to be fans of the movie on facebook to take part. Although we'd love to have them join us of course, they can just stop by to vote.

But that's not all !! If your name wasn't chosen, didn't make the shortlist or doesn't win the vote you are still in with a chance. We're not discarding any suggestions. We'll do another round later in post production and ALL names suggested are eligible to win.

One final thing, a number of people suggested names that already existed on shuttles we had already named. You couldn't have known this as we have only released small amounts of footage so far. So if that's you, you'll get a joint credit with us. Seems only fair.

So without further ado let us celebrate the commissioning of the latest X74s joining the 1st Orbital Defense Squadron. First up is....

The Yeager.

It seems fitting that pilots flying the X74  would name one in honour of legendary pilot, General Charles "Chuck" Yeager, first man to break the sound barrier. Congratulations to William McCauley who'll see his name in the credits, a "Yeager" shuttle on screen and get a limited edition print.

The second of our choices is, drum roll please.....

The Adriel.

Suggested by Demonix Topper Harley Olas (real name or are you just a fan of Hot Shots like us?) who sent a great personal message explaining why it would mean a lot to name one after his wife's online character. We hoped for a mix of personal and non personal ideas so thanks for sharing your story, it's our pleasure to name a shuttle after her. We've shortened it from "Adrielian Condor", hope you don't mind. If so just let us know.

So that's our choices, they now take their place on the squadron wall. Now it's over to you to choose the next two. Tomorrow we will post the shortlisted entries and open the polls. Get voting and encourage others to vote for your favourite.

This is just the first of many opportunities to get involved in the movie. There are great new competitions coming up soon so stick around.

LVJ's X-74 hypersonic spaceplane may seem like pure science fiction but it could be closer to reality than you realise.

In LVJ the ultra secret black ops organisation SABER operates a hypersonic spaceplane, the X-74, as an orbital defense weapon. It has the capability to take off from Earth, fly through the atmosphere like a conventional aircraft and even operate like a spacecraft in Earth's orbit. This may seem like a scifi flight of fancy but future spaceplanes are closer than you think. Hypersonic aircraft are in development or already flying.

Hypersonic Airliner

If you've dreamed of jetting across the globe in a matter of hours, you'll be pleased to hear that plans for a hypersonic airliner were unveiled at the Paris air show this year that could fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles in less than two hours and 30 minutes.

The Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation Jet would take off as normal, then climb steeply using normal engines before powerful ramjet rockets engines would ignite and power the jet into the stratosphere. It would then accelerate to Mach 4, four times the speed of sound or twice the speed of Concorde.

If you're worried about the effect on the environment, they've got that covered too. The aircraft would use a combination of biofuel and zero emission oxygen and hydrogen which as well as saving the planet would mean airlines would not be at the mercy of oil prices.

The announcement in Paris was just a development plan but given that it's backed by the biggest aviation group in Europe including Airbus, this has a good chance of becoming reality. A development model could be produced by 2020 and could go into commercial service as early as 2040. In your lifetime you could vacation across the globe and visit space in less time than it takes to watch Avatar but don't expect the airline food to be any better or the security lines to be any shorter. Technology can only do so much.

The Falcon Project

Just like in LVJ, governments have often employed secretive "black" programs to develop future planes capable of incredible speeds. As far back as 1957 the US Air Force experimented with spaceplanes like the X-20, the first officially acknowledged program. Even the space shuttle was initially a joint Air Force program which is why launch facilities exist at Vandenberg Air Force base even though they have never been used.

Over the years most of the spaceplane projects have been shrouded in secrecy, it's estimated over $4 billion has been spent over the last 30 years on vehicles that, until now, few people have seen. Recently the military have focused on a program known as Project Falcon, designed to produce an aircraft that can reach anywhere in the world in less than two hours.

The latest spaceplane in the program is the Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 or HTV-2 which debuted rather ignominiously this year. Designed to test hypersonic flight, it's launched on a rocket before gliding through the atmosphere at incredible speeds. It cruises at a speed of Mach 20, twenty times the speed of sound making the journey time from London to Sydney less than an hour and LA to New York just 12 minutes! This could an excellent opportunity for short film makers to make in flight movies that last the whole flight.

Probably best to not book your seat on the HTV-2 just yet though. The first test flight did not end well with the vehicle crashing shortly after takeoff and the second faired little better with the vehicle terminating itself by crashing deliberately into the Pacific Ocean. Luckily as it is unmanned no-one was injured but I think I will stick with human pilots known for having a little more sense of self preservation for now.

X-37B

The fastest of all our spaceplanes is the US Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. Utilising a very similar body design as the space shuttle, this automated robotic spaceplane could herald the future of the space shuttle program. Launched from a rocket in the same way as a shuttle, it similarly glides back to Earth reaching speeds of around Mach 25.

Designed as a reusable launch vehicle and capable of landing itself back on Earth the X-37B is being seen by many as a test bed for the next generation of reusable space vehicles that could be able to stay in orbit for up to 9 months before returning to Earth and landing as a conventional aircraft.

There are many more spaceplanes being tested around the world than we have space to cover in this article but one thing is for sure. The idea of a flying vehicle like our X74 that can fly in the atmosphere and orbit at hypersonic speeds certainly isn't science fiction any longer.

Would you like to see a future spaceplane named after you?

LVJ are running a competition looking for the best suggestions to name an X74 in the movie. There's 48 hours left before the next deadline so get your ideas in quick.

An iconic spaceship should have a cool name and the history of scifi on the big and small screen is littered with great examples. The inspiration behind these amazing ships are varied, often literary, historical, visual or just plain out there.

We are currently running a competition to name the X-74 space shuttles in LVJ and we’re getting some fantastic suggestions. If you’re seeking inspiration take a look at ten of our favourite spaceships from film and TV with great names and maybe find out a thing or two you didn’t know about these iconic craft.

The unique look of Bounty Hunter Bobba Fett’s appropriately named ship that first makes an appearance in The Empire Strikes Back has a disputed inspiration. Legendary concept designer Ralph McQuarrie and VFX art director Joe Johnston had tried their hands at designing the ship, but it was assistant art director of VFX Nilo Rodis-Jamero who finally nailed it.  It was often thought that he was inspired by the design of streetlights that hung near ILM although he has dismissed this as a stubborn myth, claiming the look is based upon a radar dish found in Menlo Park, California.

9.  The Valley Forge
For those unfamiliar with US military history, the American Airlines space freighter Valley Forge from the 1971 film Silent Running is named after the 1777 military camp of General George Washington’s army in the American Revolutionary War. Interior scenes were filmed on the actual decommissioned USS Valley Forge aircraft carrier. The incredible 26 foot long model used for filming took over six months to build and reappeared in Battlestar Galactica as a surviving ship in the Earth fleet. What remains of the model now resides in the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle.

8. The Betty
A hidden gem of a ship that you may have missed as it appears in Alien Resurrection, possibly not the most revered of all the films in the Alien saga. It’s a great design, a workhorse that has been battered during its time flying round the galaxy in much the same vein as the Falcon or the Serenity from Firefly. Plus it’s a spaceship in a scifi horror pic that has the same name as LVJ’s producer Mark’s 91 year old Grandmother. Doesn’t get much cooler than that.

7. Klingon Bird of Prey
Arguably the coolest looking of all the starships from Star Trek, the Klingon Bird of Prey which made its first appearance in Star Trek III has an awesome name to match.  From the moment it appears and destroys a merchant ship its reputation as an aggressive predator was assured. Again art director Nilo Rodis-Jamero was involved in its creation although much of the credit for its look is given to director Leonard Nimoy who described its predator like, low slung, stance to ILM

6. The Tardis
Dare we say not the coolest looking spaceship of the list? I suspect we dare not, as Whovians are often fiercely loyal to this unique space and time travelling craft.  They would also tell you its acronym stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space and that it made its first appearance in  Doctor Who's first adventure in 1963.  Although it may lack the curves of the Enterprise or the cool of the Falcon any spaceship that has been delighting scifi fans for almost 50 years deserves a place on the list.

5. The Leonov
Arguably the most realistic space ship, at least from a design point of view with a rotating mid-section to create artificial gravity, this Soviet ship from 2010 takes its name from Russian cosmonaut General Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space.  It’s a stunning looking ship, designed by legendary futurist and concept designer Syd Mead and is believed to be the inspiration behind the look of the Omega class destroyers in TV show Babylon 5.

4. TIE Fighters
The moniker of the main short range fighter craft of the Imperial Navy is an acronym, standing for Twin Ion Engine. The Star Wars model shop team thought the design really came to life when its distinctive screaming sound effects were created by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt who combined a modified Elephant’s bellow with the sound of cars screaming by on a rain soaked highway. So now if you are ever driving on the freeway in the rain and an elephant steps into the carpool lane at least the one thing that won’t surprise you is to hear the sound of a TIE fighter.

3.  The Nostromo
The tug ship from Ridley Scott’s 1978 seminal horror scifi Alien takes its name from a Joseph Conrad novel. Conrad’s influence can be felt throughout the Alien saga, the Colonial Marines crew transport ship the Sulaco from Aliens is named after the fictional town in which Nostromo is set and the escape vehicle in Alien is the Narcissus, also from a Conrad novel.  If, like us, you are a fan of the Nostromo you will probably love that a group of film modelmakers were involved in a restoration project to rebuild the original 7 foot model from the first movie. Truly a passion project we can associate with.  Check out the amazing ten minute video here    http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/07/restoration-of-the-nostromo-from-the-movie-alien/

2. The Enterprise
The Star Trek flagship and one of the most iconic spaceships in history that transcended its fictional beginnings and entered the world of real life space travel, the Enterprise has undergone many transformations over the years. From its inaugural voyage on the small screen in 1963, where it is referred to as the United Space Ship Enterprise on a show that broke many taboos it was fitting that the name would be destined to go into space history. The first ever space shuttle, used for flight testing, was named Enterprise and now the first commercial space craft taking space tourists into orbit has been named VSS Enterprise in honour of the groundbreaking show.

1. The Millennium Falcon
Is there a cooler ship anywhere in the world of scifi? We don’t think so. From that moment in 1977 when we saw her dismissed as a piece of junk in Star Wars we were in love. Originally simply known as The Pirate Ship, her original design was a more rocket shaped version which eventually became the Blockade Runner from the opening of the movie.  Lucas changed it to avoid similarities with the elongated ships from Space 1999. The unique design we now know and love was partially inspired by a hamburger with an olive speared into the side.  Almost every model maker at ILM worked on the Falcon because they needed to nail it fast so that the set builders in London could create the full size set.

We hope you enjoyed the article and maybe got some inspiration for naming a spaceship of your own. If so why not get involved with the movie and let us know your idea?  We have a competition running right now where the best names suggested get included in the movie so check it out here.

What do you think of the choices? Which of your favourite spaceships should have made the cut? There’s so many to choose from it’s hard to pick just ten favourites. If ten cool spaceships are not enough, you will probably enjoy these superb in depth article from Den of Geek which goes into a lot more detail on the top 75 spaceships of all time. http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/286589/top_75_spaceships_in_movies_and_tv.html

LVJ has been an amazingly collaborative project. For over ten years people all over the world have helped complete this unique indie film and there's still plenty of ways to get involved.

In 2011 an era of space exploration came to an end as NASA retired their fleet of aging space shuttles. Seems an ideal time to share with you a new idea.  Watch the short video below to find out more.

We're big fans of the shuttle, they feature heavily in the movie.  For the film we needed our very own shuttle, a next generation military craft that could fight in space. So we built the X-74, a hybrid space vehicle at home flying like a fighter in the Earth’s atmosphere or duelling with alien craft in orbit.

In keeping with the best sci-fi traditions we want to give our spaceships unique names.  We started traditionally with famous folk like Kennedy and historical references like Midway but we’d love your help.

We want to offer you the chance to name the space shuttles in the movie.

You can suggest any name you like.  Your name, where you grew up, your school or maybe a family member or loved one you want to honour.

All you have to do is this...

• Become a friend of the film on facebook. Visit www.facebook.com/LVJmovie, click like and join the people already following the film or click the like button in the sidebar on the right of this page
  

• Tell us your suggestion. Give a reason or just “my name would look good on a spaceship”. Post on facebook, in blog comments, on youtube or wherever suits you best. We'll read them all.

As long as you're a friend of the film you're eligible.  We'll start a countdown before each selection for last minute inspiration.

If your name is chosen…

• It will appear on the side of one of the space shuttles in the movie.

• You may hear actors refer to it in the film.

• You will receive a special limited edition print with a picture of your shuttle and your details.

• Last but not least you will also receive a credit in the final credits of the movie.

You can see all the winners whose shuttles will appear in the movie over at the LVJ squadron page

So if you’ve got a great idea head to www.facebook.com/LVJmovie and share it. We look forward to seeing it.

This is just the first of many opportunities to become involved in the film with some great new ones coming up.

Important Email Privacy Notice

We value your email privacy highly and guarantee we will never pass your email details to a third party. Any information we receive about your email address from your shuttle naming submission will only be used by us to contact you in regards to your submission. If you wish to receive important email updates about the film such as a notification when the film is released you can subscribe to our email newsletter.

These ships were named by facebook friends of the movie and will appear on screen in the film.

We're still recruiting. To have a chance of seeing your name on screen and in the credits it's easy..

THAT'S IT ! We consider every suggestion as long as you're a friend of the film. Find out more HERE

When we're about to name a new shuttle we'll start the countdown below.

We passed another milestone this week on LVJ with the completion of the first stage of dialogue editing. This is a big deal for us as we have been waiting over ten years to get to this point and it’s exciting to see the dialogue of the film start to come to life.

In the early stages of my filmmaking journey, before I moved to producing and composing, I worked a lot as a sound editor.  I still have a love affair with a movie’s soundtrack and relish the opportunity to get stuck in with sound editing whenever possible. Although much of the sound work on LVJ will be carried out by dedicated editors and mixers, I was keen to take on the challenge of dialogue editing personally.

Before we carry on, I probably should explain what a dialogue edit actually is

Dialogue editing is a bit of an invisible art, hopefully most of the time you don’t notice it.  This disguises the amount of time and effort required to create, and the importance of, well-crafted dialogue tracks.

The dialogue you hear in a finished film often bears little resemblance to what was recorded on set or even after the editor has finished their picture edit. The dialogue edit is a crucial step on the path towards cinema ready, high quality dialogue and requires a lot of man hours to complete properly.

The dialogue edit performs a number of functions to ensure the dialogue you hear in the final film is as clean and well presented as possible. Extraneous noises such as the film crew in the background, cameras moving, microphone boom noises, coughs, lip smacks or other unintentional sounds must be removed.  This detailed work involves cutting out the offending sounds and replacing them with background room sound so you don’t notice their absence.

Sometimes these noises are on top of dialogue requiring specialized tools to remove them without affecting the underlying dialogue or, if this is not possible, we look for alternative takes of the actor saying the same word to act as a substitute. This often involves changing the timing of the new, cleaner dialogue, to ensure words stay in sync with actors’ lips on screen.

Using alternative takes in this fashion can also help when an original take is recorded “off mic”, or not picked up clearly enough by the production microphones. It is the job of the dialogue edit to present an actor’s performance in the best possible light so if that’s not ideal for any reason, be that technical or a stumble in delivery, a dry mouth or noisy dentures the dialogue edit can help.

I am often amazed at how often production dialogue, thought unusable, can often be saved with careful dialogue editing and so it was the case with LVJ.   It’s wonderful to see the dialogue come to life, hearing every line clearly without distracting background noises or “off mic” recordings. The subtlety of actors’ performances really shine through and you start to hear details you missed before.

Sometimes dialogue editing cannot rescue a problem with a recorded take and you have to consider replacing a line.  Now that we have completed the first stage of the dialogue edit we have been able to identify those lines that will have to be re-recorded by actors.  This was a vital phase, enabling us to now proceed to the next stage of physically recording the actors, known as ADR.  More on the ADR process coming soon.

The dialogue edit performs many other functions, all of which require multiple, often tiny, audio edits and an attention to detail. Often, tiny parts of a word, as small as a syllable, are edited. As an example, at the completion of the dialogue edit, a typical scene in LVJ has over 90 individual audio edits. The completed film will likely have over 5000.

A normal dialogue edit often takes a few weeks for an editor working full time. For LVJ this had to be fitted in around jobs that pay the mortgage and other production work required on the film so everything takes longer. However, with a way to go on completion of the VFX, that’s not an issue.  The extra time meant I could focus in close detail, often spending a day working on just one scene to remove noises, smoothing the edit out and ensuring the dialogue is as pristine as possible.

So here we are, several months and several thousand audio edits later with carefully prepared dialogue tracks that are ready for the next phase of audio post production which we will share with you in the coming weeks.

If you are more interested in the technical aspects of dialogue editing we have prepared an article in the LVJ Film School section talking in more depth about the subject and an advanced level article for experienced sound editors looking for dialogue editing tips is coming up shortly.

We are delighted to announce the passing of another milestone in the production of LVJ today as VFX supervisor Chris Taylor completed the 200th VFX shot in the movie.  LVJ requires a large number of visual effects to bring to life its world of aliens, space battles and secret military agencies and the huge number of shots required has always been one of the more daunting aspects of the production.  To pass this number of shots is something we could only have imagined years ago when we started and sometimes wondered if we would ever reach.

There are many aspects of filmmaking that play a ‘numbers game’, whether it’s negotiations surrounding budgets and stars or the box office revenue as it pushes towards a billion.  However, numbers and their apparent value aren’t always as obvious as they look.  

So let’s take a look at our numbers in a bit more detail.

We have completed 200 VFX shots.  That’s a big number for any movie, especially a low budget indie and especially one with no budget, but we can guess your first question…“ So how many have you got left to go?”

Let’s look at that first.  The current projection for the final VFX count is standing at 560.  Now you’re thinking “Well done and everything but that means it’s taken you ten years to do 200, if you have a total projection of 560 shots, you’ll be in your fifties by the time you finish!”

We’re pleased to say that is not the case. The numbers above are not all that they seem.  In reality 133 of those 200 shots were done in the last four months.  That’s an average of 33 shots per month, more than one a day, every single day. However even this simple average is not the complete picture. In truth the rate of VFX completion is accelerating, with shots coming out faster and faster than ever before. To explain how that works we need to look in a bit more detail.

The VFX in LVJ runs the gamut for variety and complexity, some of these 200 shots were completed in an hour, others took many months. At one end of the scale sits the less complicated shots including the removal of items from a shot like wires, a boom or piece of equipment. They may also include less complicated blue/greenscreen shots requiring backgrounds made up from photos or video footage.  The shots move along the complexity scale as you introduce moving cameras. This requires a VFX artist to match a virtual camera to what the physical camera performed on the day of filming in order to make the shot look believable and appear as if it was all shot at the same time.

Finally at the other end of the scale are the extremely complex shots such as giant space battles.  These shots begin with a blank page, everything that will be in the shot either needs creating from scratch or filming as an effects element. Many of the shots in LVJ combine elements of all the above, compositing live action of actors shot on bluescreens combined with complicated digital elements and backgrounds.

To give an example from the finished movie, a shot was recently completed that featured our hero spaceship doing a flypast. It’s not a complicated shot, the animation of a single ship is simple, the lighting is straightforward and there’s no explosions, laser blasts or missiles to contend with and the whole shot was rendered and composited in less than two days.  However, the creation of the hero ship “asset” was a culmination of several months work, from design, through modelling and texturing into look development, all of which had to be completed before the shot could be done.  

It is worth noting that with normal VFX production, there would be multiple artists working simultaneously on all aspects of a show, in the above example just creating the hero Moth Ship alone might have a team of half a dozen people. Just take a look at the credits list at the end of a major motion picture to get an idea of the number of people involed. As LVJ is entirely self funded, the lions share of all the VFX is being done by one person.

The VFX work that could be completed before the edit of the film was locked was extremely limited as was the number of shots that could be commenced without the building of the required assets. As we saw above, the hero Moth Ship took months to create and that is just one asset. There are a huge amount of individual assets in the finished movie. The great news is that almost all of the assets have now been built and this is the reason why the VFX are now flying out at an ever increasing rate.

We will be taking you behind the scenes of many of the VFX sequences in the film over the coming months but hopefully here we have given you a quick insight into what the first 200 shots entailed and why we are so pleased to have completed them.

We hope you will share our excitement that, with 200 shots done and 360 to go and with the rate of completion accelerating every day, it’s the knowledge that most of the legwork is already behind us that gives us the confidence to state that we won’t be finishing LVJ from a retirement home.

As the space shuttle Atlantis hurtles into orbit today it’s sad to realize that this will be the final journey of the most incredible spacecraft mankind has ever built. Atlantis’ mission will be the last for the Space Transportation System with the fleet being retired to locations across the United States.

If you are feeling inspired after watching the launch today and want to see more space shuttles in action, here’s our suggestions for the top ten movie moments of this most iconic of spaceships.

1. Moonraker
Released in 1979, one of the first appearances of the space shuttle on the big screen has Roger Moore’s James Bond foiling another mega villain’s world domination. Pushed into production after the success of Star Wars, this was amongst the first Bond movies released on VHS. Watching then as a kid, the scene where a shuttle is stolen mid-flight from the back of a 747 seemed entirely plausible. It is however impossible as the shuttle is unfuelled whilst being transported. Disappointing to find a Bond scenario isn’t possible in real life..

2. The Core
There’s a lot of sketchy science in this 2003 sci-fi end of world flick including the reasoning behind how the space shuttle Endeavour becomes lost during reentry. Luckily the Los Angeles river bed offers an emergency landing field for the 100 ton glider and its commander played by the always amazing Bruce Greenwood who joins a good cast keeping a straight face amongst the nonsense. Inside VFX gag:  during the scene in which birds lose their sense of direction and crash into a window watch out for the fish which was added as a joke.

3. Armageddon
Made with the support of NASA and the use of real shuttle launch footage, although the film starts on a downbeat with the destruction of an orbiter in a meteorite shower it comes back strong with the creation of their next generation space shuttle, the X-71. Demonstrating true Michael Bay understatement you can’t get a lot more fun than two next generation space shuttles launching in close formation.  Whatever you may say, beat for beat this is textbook action film making.

4. 2001
Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic is notable for its realistic depiction of space travel with the director employing two NASA advisors to help guide his production design team.  Unlike much sci-fi of the era, a lot of the director’s future vision is surprisingly accurate and has stood the test of time. His reusable space vehicle for example is aircraft shaped, unusual when all spacecraft of the time were rockets and the shuttle was still 6 years away.  Its passengers also watch seat back videos long before they were common on airliners in the 80s. Sadly Pan Am, the company flying Kubrick’s spaceliner,  never made it to 2001.

5. Spacecamp
Watching as a kid this looked like an insane amount of fun to have during school holidays. Growing up in the UK we looked forward to a summer break of playing with Star Wars figurines whereas kids in the United States could not only spend the summer learning to fly the space shuttle but might even get launched into space by accident. Over 25 years later I would still like to spend my holidays at Spacecamp. Originally due for release in 1985 the film’s release was pushed back significantly after the tragic 1986 Challenger disaster.

6.       Space Cowboys
Another film made with the assistance of NASA there are some great shuttle moments in this tale of Apollo era geriatricnauts who finally get their chance to go in space. The visual FX from ILM are top flight miniature work is especially well done as are the simulator sequences showing how the shuttle pilots train. Bizarrely for a film of its genre the picture opened the Venice Film Festival and was voted by an influential French film magazine in the top ten films of the 2000.

7. Starflight One
This 1983 scifi disaster pic is  Aiport 77 in space and follows the misadventures of the first hypersonic airliner on its inaugural flight from LA to Sydney. NASA launches the shuttle Columbia in a rescue bid three times in 24 hours, something impossible in the real world due to shuttle launch turnaround times but possible through the magic of Hollywood melodramatic license. Also in the real world a plan for a hypersonic airliner capable of flying LA to Sydney in a matter of hours was announced last week at the Paris Air Show by Airbus. With no shuttles left and Lee Majors getting on in years who will rescue this if it hits trouble?

8.       Airplane II
Not sure NASA was heavily involved in this one but being a fan of both the space shuttle and comedy, we couldn’t resist including this. Too many favourite moments to list but William Shatner’s character Buck Murdock on a viewscreen that is actually a hole in a door and the recycling on many classic Airplane gags in space has us in giggles like a four year old everytime….”Over Macho Grande?...No I don’t think I’ll ever be over Macho Grande”

9.       Superman Returns
Probably the best sequence in the film involves the caped crusader rescuing a stricken experimental space shuttle which becomes unable to detach from its launch aircraft.  Interestingly enough Richard Branson cameos as one of the pilots of the space shuttle which seems fitting given that Branson’s new Virgin Galactic is to be the world’s first spaceline. It’s initial design Spaceship One and maiden ship the VSS Enterprise led to the development of Spaceship Two which will soon carry space tourists from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

1. THEY ARE DETERMINED AND SELF MOTIVATED
   
   Number one for a reason. Dedication, determination and commitment are essential for a producer. You will face challenges that would test anyone’s resolve.  If you are finding it hard going just realize it’s a very tough business, it’s not that you aren’t capable.
   
   Others have been there before you. Read articles in print and online and learn how they overcame the same challenges. You are not alone.  Be inspired by how famous films got made but also follow filmmakers in similar situations on twitter and Facebook. You will find a lot of similarities and maybe some answers.
   
   Get rid of a limiting self-belief. You can make it. Don’t assume successful people made it because they were born richer, smarter or with a genetic gift.  Generally  they succeeded because they didn’t quit. Read life stories of those with success in business,arts, music, sports or any field with lot of competition and potentially high rewards.
   
   Keep your goals clear. It’s easier to keep motivated when you know  what you are aiming for. Imagine them fully formed. Write them down. What does your finished film look like? Where is it playing? Why is it successful? Visualizing a goal in this depth will motivate you and help you identify exactly what steps you need to take
   
   
   
2. THEY HAVE  AN EXCELLENT  UNDERSTANDING OF STORY
   
   A good story is the backbone of any great movie whether a hundred dollar short or a hundred million dollar epic. Many people you will work with, especially in your early career and amazingly including writers,  do not understand  story and structure as they should
   
   It is your job as a producer to make sure the story is sound. You are a storyteller, don’t let anyone tell you differently. You are not merely an accountant or a “suit” even if sometimes you feel like one.  It is your responsibility to bring together  the elements to tell the story so make sure you know how to tell a great one.
   
   A great concept, told in a tight script and shot by a talented director with a top crew all serve the story. However from the film’s inception, often before there is even a script, through shooting and post production and finally getting it to an audience, long after the director has moved on, you are the final guardian of it.  Read as much as you can about this vital art. Start with Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat series of books for a superb quick guide to structure.
   
   
   
3. THEY ARE EXPERTS AT PITCHING
   
   As a producer you are going to do a lot of pitching. You will pitch to studios, financers, actors, agents, crew, vendors and locations to get their help in realizing your vision.
   
   Master the different types;  verbal ten second ones for  short windows of opportunity, longer ones for meetings and written ones for marketing, emails, business plans and press.
   
   You can always improve. Lots of good books out there but also take any opportunity to practice. Before a meeting, pitch a friend or colleague and get feedback. This will hone the pitch and relieve performance anxiety that can often distract if you have not rehearsed first.
   
   
   
4. THEY KNOW HOW TO SPOT TALENT
   
   Can you really tell a great script from an average one? Spot a director who truly knows where to point the camera, or know a potential breakout star.
   
   Your ability to team with talented creatives is instrumental to the quality of films you make. No matter how passionate you are, if you have chosen a flawed script because you didn’t know any better or a director who cannot direct you are in for an uphill battle.
   
   Learn from the best, find out why top directors and writers are good. How will you know if a writer is worth $300,000 for a thriller if you don’t know what a great thriller script looks like? Discover new talent and build relationships. Try film festivals, film schools, short films.
   
   
   
5. THEY HAVE EXCELLENT FOCUS AND TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS
   
   Another essential. As a producer you are going to be working many different projects at once, dealing with multiple responsibilities so maintaining razor sharp focus , with your priorities straight and managing your time effectively is crucial if you are to stay on track.
   
   Our current workload involves a multi-million dollar film going through casting and financing, another in development, LVJ in post-production, marketing and social media work and two television shows. A decent amount but no different from others with similar, and worse, workloads where focus and time management are critical.
   
   Many of us are not innately good at this but it is a skill that can be learnt and improved with practice.  An in depth article on the system I use is coming soon but for now, here’s a couple of quick tips.
   
   Get everything out of your head. You can’t operate at optimum efficiency with a clogged up mind. Write down your commitments to see the demands on your time, then set your priorities. Try a weekly review to take an elevated look at your life and projects. Anything stalled? How will you unstall it?  Take a strategic overview without worrying  about the task list. Try reading Making it All Work by David Allen.
   
   
   
6. THEY UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS OF SHOW
   
   This means a REAL understanding of the actual way the film business works.  It’s fine to think you will revolutionize Hollywood. Some people do but most don’t. You’ll have a longer, more sustainable career if you understand the business and work within it. You will be taken more seriously enabling you to make better connections and deals. 
   
   Understanding the business means understanding ALL aspects of the business.  Many producers are actually writer /director / producers. That’s fine, we all wear many hats. However whilst they often understand the nuts and bolts of filmmaking they often lack the in depth knowledge of financing, distribution and how to reach an audience. Try to learn.
   
   Study all about film financing, equity participation, investment memorandums, discounted tax credits, sales agent advances, debt financing and other filmmaking terms that make you glaze over. Learn what to expect, what they cost, what they contribute and where they, and you , sit in the process. There are many superb resources on the net but to get a heads start you can’t go far wrong with www.filmspecific.com.
   
   
   
7. THEY UNDERSTAND BUDGETS
   
   Less crucial at higher budgets but when starting out it can be essential.  Knowing exactly how much your film costs is vital to present a realistic business plan to investors. On higher budgets you may have a line producer, production manager or both who can deal with the specifics, on a micro budget film it will probably be you.
   
   If you spend any time in the micro to mid budget range, studying budgeting is a good idea. Read a book, attend a course or learn Movie Magic.  Try hiring an experienced production manager to produce a budget for you. Many will do it for a reasonable sum if they believe you will get the film made and you will learn a lot from them. The ability to know what you can cut from a budget can make the difference that gets a film financed.
   
   
   
8. THEY HANDLE REJECTION WELL
   
   Refer to point 1 above. It’s a tough business. You will hear no a lot. Don’t let it bother you. Successful people face rejection FAR more than unsuccessful people who, when faced with no a few times, are more inclined to give up. It’s not fun but there are ways of dealing with it. Study how successful people turned a no into yes. Their stories can provide perspective and avoid you getting demotivated.
   
   Try to understand why you got rejected.  Perseverance is admirable but continuing on a path that’s not working isn’t. It’s  banging your head against a brick wall.  If you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you always got. Maybe you need to change your approach?
   
   Is your script really ready? Is your package worth the several million dollars you are seeking?  Put yourself in the shoes of the person you are asking and be brutally objective. Would you REALLY have said yes? If not, can you change your approach to improve your chances?
   
   Learn to treat every no as just a step on the way to yes. Expect to hear no many times, plan for it and it won’t throw you. Give 100% and accept you will be disappointed sometimes but you’re one step closer to yes. Think ahead. If an actor says no, who is the next approach?  Now there’s no time to dwell on rejection,  just move to the next option you planned for.
   
   
9. THEY KNOW HOW TO EFFECTIVELY NETWORK
   
   “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.  Huge breaks come from personal connections. Relationships in completely unrelated fields can be invaluable connections. However you have to work for it, building them one by one.  How do you do that? Obvious really…
   
   Get out and meet people. Attend seminars, join an online community like Shooting People or Film Specific, attend Cannes, Sundance or Toronto, mixers or networking events. Use online tools like LinkedIn and twitter to build relationships you can develop offline.
   
   What to say seems to be the bit many people find daunting but if you find networking excruciating, relax, you’re not alone.  Here’s a simple common sense tip, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t follow it.  Talk less, listen more. People will warm to you much quicker if you shut up occasionally. People love to talk about themselves, start by asking a question and you might learn something.
   
   Be interesting and promote yourself but ensure the balance is always about them rather than you. NEVER open with “what do you do, what can you do for me? ” then zone out when they don’t  offer to fund your movie. Treat every introduction as valuable, you never know where it will lead.  Once you have built a new relationship maintain it by following up with a short email and stay in touch enough to stay on the radar but without bugging them.
   
   
10. THEY HAVE THEIR FINGER ON THE PULSE OF THE INDUSTRY
    
    Successful producers are up to speed on industry news. Who is financing what?  Who are the new distribution companies? Where are the new tax credits? Who is the hot new talent?
    
    This is an easy one to miss, when you are swamped it’s tempting to say you don’t have time to read the trades but the truth is you can’t afford NOT to.  Many opportunities and developments directly affect you and your film so stay up to date to compete.
    
    This doesn’t mean succumb to information overload reading every news story and RSS feed.  If you subscribe to the trades, skim the daily update in your inbox.  If not subscribe to a free newsletter like Film News Briefs or Baseline. Look for immediate relevance. If you have a new low budget horror script and you see Lionsgate are financing a slate of sub $2m horror films (true story) that could be useful.
    
    If you find relevant articles but don’t have time to read them, use a service like Instapaper or Read it Later to save the content for reading offline and catch up on your commute.  Save important articles to Evernote or OneNote to build up a searchable reference library.

Hopefully you found some food for thought in the list. Anything we missed? Agree or disagree?

If you want more detail we're covering each point in the producing section of the LVJ FILM SCHOOL with free articles providng more depth, suggestions for further reading and resources for the indie producer.

Today the Space Shuttle Discovery touched down safely for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center having logged over 365 days in space on 39 missions. It has carried 246 people into space and traveled over 148 million miles making it the most well traveled of all the Orbiter space vehicles.

The name of Discovery seems fitting for a spacecraft designed to push the boundaries of human space exploration but what would you call a space shuttle if you had the chance?   Do you think you could come up with a more memorable name?

We're offering facebook fans of the film a chance to name a shuttle in the movie. You can suggest anything you like, no catch, nothing to sign up for, just send us your suggestions and the best ones will get used in the film.

After the latest round of deliberation we're delighted to announce our latest winners...

We also wanted to honour the original space shuttle fleet that inspired the design of the X-74 so we will also have a DISCOVERY 2

Congratulations to our latest winners who will have their chosen names printed on shuttles in the movie and will see their names credited as 'pilots' in the closing credits of the movie.

There are still plenty of shuttles left to name. When we are close to completing a visual FX shot with a shuttle that needs naming we will give 48 hours notice on facebook for final suggestions then pick a new winner.

There will also be  more chances to get involved with other opportunities to suggest ideas for the film, show off your creativity and see your name on the big screen over the coming months.  To get involved  just join the conversation on facebook or twitter or keep checking the website for the next chance to win.

If you want to learn more about the Name a Space Shuttle competition the orginal blog and short video is here

As a tribute to the inspiration behind the X-74 and a reminder of its time as one of the most amazing spacecraft man has ever created here is some video of Discovery's final voyage starting with its ascent to orbit

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and finally its triumphant return to Earth. Farewell Discovery, you will be missed.

Along with Chris Taylor and Mark Shields, Dave LeMay forms the third part in the triumvirate core group of filmmakers creating LVJ. Not only was he a Producer on the film but he was also a one man camera department, not only planning setups with the director but also operating and loading the camera along with gaffering the lights.

For more information, here is a link to the list of award winners for the ACS: http://www.cinematographer.org.au/2010/11/sawawinners/

Ronan’s Escape has a website here:  http://www.ronansescape.com/

As a filmmaker you want to connect with people.  You tell stories you hope will resonate with others or that will entertain, enlighten or educate but it’s always about connecting on some level. When we started LVJ over ten years ago the way we connected with audiences was very different.

You would go off into a huddle with your crew, cut off from the rest of the world for months or years and emerge with a movie that you then tried to engage audiences with.

How the world has changed.

Connecting with audiences worldwide

Now as an independent filmmaker without millions of dollars of marketing we must connect with audiences as soon as possible and in doing so we gain a great opportunity to listen to their ideas and desires and to get them involved.

Through social media we have the opportunity to connect with audiences long before a film is finished and to make the collaboration of filmmaking truly global, even on indie micro budgets.

On LVJ we have begun to offer many opportunities for people all around the world to get involved in the completion of our sci-fi epic and the response has been just what we hoped for.

We started by offering facebook friends the chance to name one of the space shuttles in the film and got all sorts of great suggestions, some serious, some very funny but one in particular stood out.

Presenting the latest Space Shuttle - McKinnon

Raymond Koster, from the Netherlands, sent us a very heartfelt and fabulous suggestion to honour his own personal hero, Gary McKinnon.

Gary is a British computer hacker who suffers from Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, and who is accused by the United States government of the biggest computer hack of all time. Convinced that the US concealed information about alien technologies and energy sources that could benefit the planet, he was determined to uncover the truth and show the world.

Unfortunately for him, he chose a less than ideal way to do it and is accused of hacking over 97 computers of the US Military and NASA from his home in his quest to find the truth.  Seven years after his initial arrest Gary is still waiting to find out whether he will be extradited to the United States where if convicted he will face up to 70 years in jail. If you want to find out more about Gary McKinnon go to www.freegary.org.uk or his mother’s website www.janissharp.com.

There does seem something appropriate in naming a shuttle after a computer hacker who was trying to find the truth out about aliens, in a film which is packed full of alien technologies, government conspiracies and top secret cover ups. The fictional ultra secret government agency at the heart of LVJ called SABER would probably hire Gary rather than lock him up, but this isn’t the real reason for using the name McKinnon.

Connecting with audiences rather than broadcasting to them

In starting these social media promotions for the film we wanted to really connect with people who shared our interests and ideas and to give them a chance to contribute something meaningful to the movie rather than just presenting it to them and hoping they like it.

None of us have ever met our first winner, Raymond Koster.  He lives in The Netherlands and it is likely that without LVJ we would never have come into contact but now he has helped push the movie closer to completion.  We are also enjoying following his tweets about all things UFO, aliens and conspiracies through his twitter account @nynomatica.

Raymond himself has Asperger Syndrome and describes McKinnon as a real hero to him.  Now for years to come when Raymond and everyone else see the space shuttle named McKinnon on the screen and in the end credits of the movie or if people learn a little more about Gary by reading this blog, Raymond will know it was  because he got involved and took the time to connect with us.  As filmmakers, that is everything we could ever ask for.

One Space Shuttle named, 19 to go

So we proudly present the space shuttle McKinnon and thank Raymond for taking the time to support the movie.

There are still another 19 space shuttles to name and there is plenty of opportunity for you to see a name of your choosing on the screen.

So if you have a great idea why not let us know? It’s completely free and there is no catch, all you have to do is become a friend on facebook  and send us your idea. We’ll keep announcing more winners every couple of weeks as we go through post production.

To find out more about how to suggest your idea check out the original article  http://www.lvjmovie.com/Blog/name-your-own-space-shuttle/

Growing up 30 years ago I remember being called a geek was not a good thing. I quickly discovered that playing Dungeons and Dragons, reading comic books and being fascinated with sci-fi was unlikely to get you picked first for a sports team, invited to hang out at the cool kids’ house party or noticed by the cutest girls in school…or in fact any girls.

How things have changed

Now it’s almost chic to be geek. People are not ashamed to celebrate their inner nerd. Geeks rule the net, run fortune 500 companies, make billions developing software and even celebrities are proud to display their geek colours. Evolution at work if you ask me.

There are several meccas for geeks where you can join thousands of other fans to celebrate your love of comics, films, games, sci-fi, fantasy and all things geekesque. One of the biggest is Comic Con. The original, SDCC was founded in the 70s in San Diego and is huge with several hundred thousand attendees every year. We have been in the past and it’s truly amazing and overwhelming at the same time.

NYCC : Comic Con of the East

Four years ago the East Coast finally got its own geek nirvana in the form of the NY Comic Con. I was lucky enough to be invited this year by one of the film studios who gave me an all access behind the scenes pass so I was very excited to attend for the first time and check it out.

On the way over to the festival I was already picking up the vibe on twitter. The hash tag #NYCC was updating every few seconds with something new and cool that someone had found and wanted to share. With every new tweet I willed the taxi to drive quicker in case I missed something.

As we got closer to the venue on Manhattans West Side it was obvious I was in the right place. Thousands of people filled the streets, approaching the convention center from every direction. Years ago, dressing up as a superhero in a public place would probably have got you locked up. Now it has its own name, "cosplay" or costume play. Thousands of adult cosplayers  paying tribute to their favorite superheroes, comic and sci-fi and fantasy movie characters in some incredible outfits waited in the huge entrance queues that snaked round several blocks.

What is actually inside comic con?

Well comics obviously..but once inside you get an idea of just how big this whole affair is. Several halls are packed with all manner of booths and attractions. In one you find rows of comic book publishers and creators plying their wares, many of which only available at conventions and online. Elsewhere movie studios have elaborate marketing stands to promote their latest film, like the interactive Aliens booth where you can lie in one of the Nostromo’s hibernation chamber to promote Fox’s amazing 6 disk Alien box set. Games companies have huge gaming areas where you could challenge the best players on giant screens, race in a Formula 1 car or just try out the latest games months ahead of their release.

Why am I here?

Apart from indulging my inner nerd and geeking out at all the comics, games, sci-fi movie paraphernalia and the like there was business to be done. We are looking to connect with comic creators for a two reasons, one to help source new stories perfect for movie adaptions and also to work with us on our own movie projects. We are developing a world outside the movie LVJ, an indie sci-fi brand, starting with webshows as well as graphic novels and comics both online and physical. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the world of comic creation as well as connect with potential collaborators to work with developing different aspects of the LVJ universe. To that end there were a number of places I needed to be.

Artist Alley

Always one of my favourite areas at a comic con, this is an area of the hall that allows artists to showcase their work and it is often stunning. We’re looking for artists to work with us on film projects both big and small and need storyboard artists, concept artists and web artists. Right now we’re working on films whose budgets range from LVJ right up to several million dollars and they all need art. Specifically on the LVJ front we are looking to work with an artist who can develop ‘key art’, most often the poster and the face of the movie as well as on the website. We love the painted style of poster you used to see for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the like made famous by the fabulous artist Drew Struzan. To that end I talked with several very talented candidates, one of which would be PERFECT for the job…fingers crossed we can get him.

Creator Connection

This was a great panel. Basically speed dating for comic book creators. Everyone got a badge which indicated whether they were a writer, penciler, inker or colourist. The host ran around like crazy matching up potential collaborators in an attempt to get creative teams to connect and maybe start new ventures. They have had many success stories over the years and I was hoping to be one of them. As a producer, I didn’t fit into a category, instead floating amongst the groups discussing our movie and our desire to connect with comic creators. The response was fantastic and I’ve got a lot of following up to do. In fact I’m off to an meeting with one of the comic publishers in NYC tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.

How to fail in comic books

Naturally titled sarcastically, this was an interesting look at how to succeed in comic book creation given by someone who had failed spectacularly before succeeding. Our host, Jeff Kaufman, had initially lost over $1.3 million dollars setting up his own comic studio and was keen to impart the lessons he learned, so we didn’t make the same mistake. In what was often a humourous look at the real world of comic creation , I saw a lot of parallels in what Jeff said with the indie film world. Mainly make sure you find an audience, just becasue you build it doesn't mean they will come!

If you are looking at paying full rate for comic book creation you are often looking at base costs of over $300 PER PAGE. So for an average 22 page comic, that is $6600 ! I know indie feature films made for that amount ! Factor in printing costs and ad spent and you can double that to around $12,000. Now you have to sell it. After printing you will make about 50c per comic. You do the maths.

Anyone thinking comic book creation is easier than film, think again. You may need less people to do it but it’s just as tough a business. Oh and anyone complaining about distributors in the film business will get no sympathy from the comic world. In the US there is ONE distributor. Yep you read that right.

Kickstart your creative project

I had attended the panel from creative funding website kickstarter.com to discover how two filmmakers, and three comic artists had used the site to raise finance for their creative projects. The facts and figures I learnt at the panel were very fascinating and I’m going to write a separate blog with all the pertinent details that you may find interesting if you’re not familiar with the site or you’re not sure it’s for you.

The panel was so popular that it overran, lasting twice as long as planned and if it hadn’t been time for the convention to close I think we would still be there now! I got the opportunity to talk with Yancey Strickler, the unassuming but highly charismatic and passionate co-founder of kickstarter and discussed potential ideas. To say he was inspiring would be an understatement, I had a lot of questions answered and came away fired up.

Behind the Scenes

With an all access pass I was able to find out what goes on behind the scenes at the con and it’s a miracle of organization…sometimes. The corridors behind the halls were crammed with exhibitors, publicists, press and stars with their make-up artists and groomers. A hectic atmosphere and tight schedules were not helped by the total lack of any cell phone or email service due to being in the basement of the convention center and making co-ordination a serious headache nor groomers not turning up for stars about to do TV interviews! That's all I'm allowed to say :)

In some rooms press sat in round table interviews with the directors and stars of films such as Saw and once in a while a familiar face would pop into one of the green rooms for a moments respite from the craziness. It was telling that in amongst all the Hollywood actors and celebrities, it was one 88 year old man that got the most respect and awe whenever he entered a room. A bundle of energy, still making deals and devising new comics, the legendary comic creator Stan Lee was the one everyone wanted to meet.

Celeb watching

Even if you weren’t behind the scenes, if you wanted to spot your favourite celeb there was plenty of opportunity at comic con. A whole area was dedicated to meeting the star of your favourite sci-fi show or comic idol and getting their autograph. My favourite celebrity encounter? That would have to be Tricia Helfer, star of Battlestar Galactica whom I bumped into purely by accident. I met Tricia and her husband a couple of years ago back in LA and hadn’t seen her since so it was lovely to catch up. For all you BSG fans, yep she really is that gorgeous in real life and even better she is smart and a lot of fun to be around.  Another fave celeb from the fest would be Cary Elwes, there promoting the final 3D installment of Lionsgate’s Saw franchise. It was his first ever comic con and he was really excited. It will be no surprise to hear that he was asked to sign more Princess Bride merchandise than anything else. Well it is a classic Cary.

Till next Year

It was a great comic con, crazy, hectic and tiring to be sure but an absolute blast. I came away with new friends and connections, some of which I hope will join us on our LVJ adventure, and I learnt a lot as well as being thoroughly entertained. The next time we are at comic con I hope will be an even more special one. We hope to have LVJ completed in time for the big summer 2011 San Diego Comic Con and to show footage and talk about our scifi movie there.

So to all the people in their amazing costumes and everyone that turned up with such enthusiasm and creativity, thanks for making NY Comic Con 2010 so much fun.

You’re our kind of people.

It feels good to be a geek.

LVJ has been an amazingly collaborative project. For over ten years people all over the world have helped complete the film and there's still plenty of ways you can get involved.

Here's the first..

In 2011 an era of space exploration came to an end as NASA retired their fleet of aging space shuttles. It seemed an ideal time to share with you our first, very special,  idea.  Watch the short  video below to find out more or simply read on.

At LVJ we're big fans of the shuttle, they feature heavily in the movie.  For the film we needed our very own shuttle, a next generation military craft that could go into combat in space. So we built the X-74, a hybrid space vehicle at home flying like a fighter in the Earth’s atmosphere or duelling with alien craft in orbit.

In keeping with the best sci-fi traditions we want to give our spaceships unique names.  We started with usual suspects, famous folk like Kennedy and historical references like Midway but now we’d love your help.

We want to offer you the chance to name the space shuttles in the movie.

You can suggest any name you like.  Your name, where you grew up, your school or maybe a family member or loved one you want to honour.

All you have to do is this...

• Become a friend of the film on facebook. Visit www.facebook.com/LVJmovie, click like and join the people already following the film or click the like button in the sidebar on the right of this page
  

• Tell us your suggestion. Give a reason or just “my name would look good on a spaceship”. Post on facebook, in blog comments, on youtube or wherever suits you best. We'll read them all.

As long as you're a friend of the film you're eligible.  We'll start a countdown before each selection for last minute inspiration. All winners are shown on the squadron page of the website along with the countdown.

If your name is chosen…

• It will appear on the side of one of the space shuttles in the movie.

• You may hear actors refer to it in the film.

• You will receive a special limited edition print with a picture of your shuttle and your details.

• Last but not least you will also receive a credit in the final credits of the movie.

So if you’ve got a great idea head to www.facebook.com/LVJmovie and tell us. We look forward to seeing it.

This is just the first of many opportunities to become involved in the film with great new ones coming up.

Important Email Privacy Notice

We value your email privacy highly and guarantee we will never pass your email details to a third party. Any information we receive about your email address from your shuttle naming submission will only be used by us to contact you in regards to your submission. If you wish to receive important email updates about the film such as a notification when the film is released you can subscribe to our email newsletter.

We first met actor Giles Alderson many years ago in the early days of shooting LVJ. We were casting for a pop promo video destined to promote the film. The brief was to cast a female dance group so when Giles turned up for the audition we politely informed him that he really wasn't what we were looking for. Not to be deterred, he stuck around, eventually persuading us that the video would work even better with a male dancer offering a counterpoint to the girls. He persevered all day to win us over and boy are we glad he did. His tenacity, drive and integrity impressed us all and soon he would not only be appearing in the promo but also would become our first choice as a suave good looking agent to appear in LVJ and a longtime friend. 

In LVJ,  Giles  plays Agent Kyle Fraser, a suave British government agent who delights in humorously mocking our hapless hero Agent Vincent and his permanent desk jockey status. However Giles is no stranger to darker roles, as anyone who saw his charismatic turn as the  vampire lead,  Vincent, in Night Junkies can attest to.  Now audiences get to see his his darker side once again in the new horror film The Torment (The Possession of David O'Reilly in the US) . As we are huge fans of Giles and he has become very much part of the LVJ family we thought it only fitting to give a shout out to this talented actor on the day his latest, and most impressive, acting role hits the big screen in London.

The Torment tells the story of David O'Reilly (Alderson) who, when he finds out his girlfriend has been cheating on him, goes to stay with two friends, Alex (Nicholas Shaw) and Kate (Zoe Richards). However the couple soon regret opening their home to him. You see there is a good chance David hasn't come alone. As the days go on and events become stranger and more unsettling around the trio and their neighbour it becomes apparent that David may be possessed by demons who have their sights set on the group.

Told from the perspective of a fifth, unseen, member of the group in a handheld, documentary style the movie shares thematic elements with Paranormal Activity and recent supernatural box office smash The Last Exorcism but is very much its own movie. The film delves deep into the minds of the characters and questions whether what is happening to them is even real.  Alongside the deeper character exploration the film provides plenty of genuine scares and hide behind the popcorn moments. If all that wasn't scary enough, we understand it's based on true events which should really make the hairs stand up. If you want a sneak peak, take a look at the trailer below.

This weekend Giles, and all of us at LVJmovie.com, are particularly excited as the film has a cinema release in London and is being really well received.  It opens tonight, September 3rd at the Lexi cinema in Kendal Rise, London with a very special screening including a Q&A session with the cast. If you are in London and feel like a late night scare why not head along and join the fun. If you are on the other side of the Atlantic there is no need to feel left out as the film is currently showing on IFC under the title The Possession of David O'Reilly. You can also buy the DVD in various online stores. We have watched with great admiration as Giles' acting career has gone from strength to strength, appearing in ever more prominent lead roles in major pictures and we predict even bigger things to come.

Therefore we are delighted that we'll soon be welcoming Giles back into the less scary world of LVJ in the new webshow, Encounters, in which he will have a lead role. More information on that coming soon. Then of course there is his performance in the LVJ feature film itself to look forward to which is not too far away now.

Staying with the theme of sci-fi, one of Giles' upcoming projects is one we are very excited about but can't say too much about at this stage. Not content with acting in numerous lead roles he is now moving behind the camera as a producer. Along with Martin Owen, his producing partner at  production banner Gold Films, he is producing the new British 3D sci-fi feature Transmission. We covered  a little about this in our recent blog which it seems lead to almost every single sci-fi and horror site on the Internet picking up the story ! There is a lot of buzz on this film already, just type Giles' name and Transmission into Google if you don't believe us :)  so we won't spoil the fun by giving away any more  just yet. However we can say that we've read the script, followed the casting,  talked with a director who may or may not be attached and seen his vision for the film and we don't think you'll be disappointed.  We'll keep you up to date when we're able.

According to the movie industry there’s a good chance that by the end of next year we’ll all be annihilated, or at least ruled over by some alien overlords because the next twelve months is shaping up to be a busy time for alien invasion films.  So unless we get lucky and they start having a pop at each other in the middle of the ruckus, allowing us to make an escape kind of like Fay Wray or Naomi Watts did while King Kong had his T-Rex smackdown, we’re all pretty much toast.

Battle: Los Angeles

sounds like it’s shaping up nicely after announcing at Comic Con that there will be some high intensity battle scenes like in Private Ryan or Blackhawk Down, with one key difference, the enemy is from another planet.  He did it with the film The Core and I have no doubt that Aaron Eckhart will bring an enormous sense of gravitas to the movie, lifting it above the usual summer blockbusters.

8mm

JJ Abrams working with Steven Spielberg should be enough to get your alien invasion juices flowing, but if it’s not, what about the fact that, no wait, hang on, there is no story announced yet because all they’ve released so far is a tiny teaser (but what a teaser) with the rest to unfold in front of our viral marketing obsessed eyes.  Just as he did with Cloverfield, we can expect a drip feed of laser targeted marketing that will whet our appetites right up to the point of the film’s release, but this time they’ll no doubt have to turn it up to eleven; bring it on.

Transmission

This alien invasion pic is still to be confirmed but we understand it's receiving a lot of attention behind the scenes in Hollywood. Talulah Riley stated her intention to appear in it during an interview at the Inception premiere but little information was known about the project. We have since learned  that it is being developed by Gold Films, the production banner of LVJ actor Giles Alderson with his writing/producing partner Martin Owen and is a British sci-fi feature being shot in 3D and centered around an alien invasion during an eclipse.

We’re not able to reveal too much but what we have learned sounds exciting and if the talk we have heard around town comes to fruition the film should have superb sci-fi credentials.  The rumour mill has Roger Christian, Oscar winning art director of Star Wars in talks to direct, with a stellar crew including Tony Noble, production designer of Moon and creature effects maestro Bob Keen (Hellraiser).  As well as Talulah Riley, the latest cast rumoured to be in heavy talks are Bob Hoskins, Jason Flemyng and Willem Defoe as well as Alderson and Owen.

All signs point to an exciting, dark film with elements of Pitch Black. We’ll try to report more details as we find them out.

Skyline

created a buzz at Comic Con too this year and then dropped a first teaser on the net recently which contained some startling imagery.  There’s no doubt the visuals will be stunning but the filmmakers need to prove themselves after their previous film Alien vs Predator - Requiem.

Attack the Block

has all the potential to become an alien invasion equivalent of Shaun of the Dead, the director Joe Cornish has a great comedy pedigree and with Nick Frost on the team what could go wrong, apart from another alien invasion.  The thing I always respected hugely about Shaun of the Dead was that if you took out the zombie genre it was still a well written romantic comedy with strong characters and if they can do the same with Attack the Block I feel it could do just as well.

Falling Skies

So just in case 8mm turns out to be a duffer, Mr Spielberg is hedging his bets with this TV series revolving around, you guessed it, an alien invasion.  If he can deliver a Band of Brothers level show that features extra terrestrial thrills it’s possible the longer format could win out over the shorter format movies; although that never helped the reboot of V.

Iron Sky

Maybe this shouldn’t be on the list because it’s not aliens invading earth, but Nazi’s who have been holding out on the dark side of the moon since the end of WWII. However they do attack in  flying saucers and they most likely want to take over the world again, so here they are.

We're really looking forward to seeing Iron Sky having been inspired by the production team behind it since their early days of creating the Star Trek parody Star Wreck. Even in their low budget beginnings the filmmakers were never short of creativity and now they have a lot more money to play with as the projected budget is around $8 million. Expect lots of imaginative sci-fi action with a good dose of humour. Count us in.

Cowboys and Aliens

has a trick up it’s sleeve in that it drops the alien invasion genre in the middle of the western genre which is a teasing spin on the idea, other alternatives to be considered should be "Pirates and Aliens" and "Samurai and Aliens".  Due to the huge success of both Iron Man movies it seems that Jon Favreau’s toybox is suitably large enough to make a spectacle of a movie,  which combined with a deft hand when it comes to actor’s performances should provide a good dose of emotion in there too.

Battleship

due to start shooting at the end of August  this is an even more unlikely alien invasion pic. Based on the bestselling board game and helmed by Peter Berg (Hancock) this pic was almost shelved at the eleventh hour with reports of Universal getting cold feet. It’s not hard to see why, no A list star power with Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna and model Brooklyn Decker being the only ones confirmed (although it might now include Alexander Skarsgard) , a reported budget of over $200 million and the link to the famous game seeming tenous at best. Still could this be a surprise winner? One thing you can be sure of, someone is bound to utter the line “You sank my battleship!”

Monsters

is such an innovative looking alien invasion movie that we at LVJmovie.com are really excited to see the film when it comes out.  Having met and spoken to Gareth Edwards (the director) at an fxphd meet up in London, he deserves all the success that Monsters will most likely bring him and his approach to filmmaking seems very much akin to the DIY/guerilla style that has served us well with LVJ.

The Darkest Hour

From the utterly bonkers mind of producer Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) comes the this alien invasion flick set in Moscow. Despite having had production shut down due to raging forest fires on the outskirts of the city, it’s been confirmed the film will be finished in time for next year.  The story revolves around a group of American students visiting Moscow just as an alien invasion happens and with a filmmaker who likes to shake things up stylistically, I think we can expect some incredible visuals.

LVJ

Which brings us neatly to a small film called LVJ, which pits three unlikely heroes against an alien invasion and which has all the . . . okay I think we’ll let other people write the reviews on this one as we might be a little biased.

So which alien invasion pic do you think will be next years Independence Day?

Once the Moth Ship model was ready it was deployed into an all CG shot which was considered to be a good candidate to put it through it’s paces.  The shot ID is: crd_050_tug_scout_rolls_in, which is from the beginning of the movie and features the Moth Ship as it rolls and drops rapidly down to a low level flypast over the Nevada desert on it’s way to Area 51.

After some really basic animation rigging the shot was animated so that we could see how much of the Nevada desert environment would need to be created.  Although we’d filmed extensively in California and Nevada, we didn’t have any footage shot from a helicopter so the desert background  would have to be created entirely digitally.  It sounds daunting, trying to create the entire Nevada desert but then I thought about how we would do it if we were filming miniatures and having to build a background set by hand. We'd never try to build the whole background, just what the camera would see.  Additionally with the camera moving quickly, motion blur would be our friend and we wouldn't have to worry about detailing. Therefore I created a virtual backdrop covering just the area of sky behind the Moth and then a long thin strip of desert for the Moth to fly over. You can see this demostrated in the video below.

The scene was lit with virtual lights simulating strong sunlight and then rendered by the computer using the Mental Ray renderer in 3DStudio Max.  I also used a technique called final gather which provided a lot of the natural bounce light.  There was a separate render pass for the desert background and the Moth Ship’s shadow pass had the keylight repositioned to cheat the shadow so it worked for the shot, making it look as if the Moth Ship was coming in at a really low level.

Like the majority of the VFX in LVJ, the shot was composited in After Effects.  There were no real tricks used for the shot in 2D, the render pretty much nailed the look we wanted adding only an extra pass on top to give us some bright highlights to sell the  hot desert.  The only 2D trick that we employed was using a displacement effect coming out the back of the ship’s engines that was driven by a really basic particle system rendered in 3DStudio Max.  It’s a pretty standard trick that uses a mixture of red and green particles that displaces the pixels in the shot creating a kind of heat haze effect.

The Moth Ship is one of LVJ’s hero ships and as such appears a lot in the movie.  At times, it’s right in the thick of the action, getting shot at and busted up, while performing some pretty crazy flying action.  As post production continues, we hope to follow this article  with some more insight into how these shots are produced.

In 1947 there had been hundreds of reports of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, in the sky across the USA. On July 8th 1947 on a sheep ranch near the small town of Roswell, New Mexico an unidentified object crashed in the desert. What exactly the object was has been the source of debate ever since and the incident has become one of the most important events in UFO mythology. The original official explanation that sparked all of the interest came in the form of a press release from the nearby Roswell Army Air Field which stated they had recovered a "flying disk". All signs initially pointed to it being the first official announcement of a recovered alien UFO, or flying saucer,  by the US government. However by the next day the official story had changed, the Army was now reporting it had recovered nothing more spectacular than a weather balloon along with some associated equipment. Stories claiming that the government had recovered alien bodies from the craft were also quickly discounted by authorities who claimed that the "bodies" which had been seen were in fact crash test style dummies, dropped from weather balloons during testing.

So what is the truth behind the Roswell encounter? Well that really depends on your viewpoint. For some it's simply a mundane event with no real significance. For others...millions of people worldwide who want to believe...Roswell is one of the central events in UFO Mythology. A classic tale of alien contact and subsequent government conspiracies and cover ups. At LVJ we don't have any better idea than anyone else what the truth  is. What we do know is that we love all things UFO and alien and it was events like Roswell that inspired us to create LVJ in the first place.

It would therefore seem fitting that today on the anniversary of the Roswell incident we would start to share our own secrets concerning UFOs and aliens by introducing to you our story of aliens and secret government agencies, LVJ.

As you can see on this site, LVJ is an independently produced Sci-Fi action comedy feature film that we have been working on for a long time. Today we want to share some of that journey with you all.  The movie is still in post production and nearing completion but prior to releasing the film we want to try and engage as much as possible with our potential audience. To that end we have produced the new website which we expect to be the final portal for the film running up to its release and which will grow weekly with a lot of cool fun stuff about the movie. We will be creating lots more behind the scenes articles and videos showcasing how the film was made, sharing exclusive glimpses of the finished film, the soundtrack, the visual effects and much much more. In addition we will be sharing with you the creation of the new spin off webshow, LVJ Encounters, which will launch for free ahead of the film and continue after the film's release with lots more stories of aliens encounters and secret goverments.

As an introduction to the world of LVJ we have created a short, 8 minute, mini-documentary called 'LVJ First Look' where the film's director Chris Taylor and actor/producer Mark Shields take you on a tour of our new sci-fi story. You can watch it here.

Alternatively if you don't have time to watch the full documentary you can watch shorter excerpts on the video page here.

As well as articles on the making of the film we intend to share here on the site and on our twitter feed some of the cool UFO and alien stories and legends that have inspired us and the story of LVJ over the years.

As much of the world in 1947 were introduced to the possibility that alien life might have found us by the discovery of a crashed flying saucer, so in LVJ the central character Agent Roy Vincent begins his journey with the discovery of a downed alien craft. We hope you will follow Agent Vincent and join us on our own journey to continue our epic sci-fi adventure, it's going to be a fun trip and it all began with Roswell. So today we celebrate the anniversary of one of the greatest UFO stories ever and all those who continue to believe we are not alone out there.

LVJ has a LOT of music. From the bombastic orchestral opening action scenes and heroic main themes through the Starsky and Hutch like 1970s cop show moments to the numerous original songs that fill the soundtrack, the film is chock full of tunes. Or at least, it will be. I say will be because the process of actually scoring the final music to the film is only really beginning in earnest now, despite the fact that the film has been in production for years. Allow me to explain.

The first reason the soundtrack could not be produced until recently is that we didn't have what is known as a "locked edit", which is the stage when the editing of the film is complete and no further changes will be made to the timeline of the film. This means no extra scenes or filming, no taking scenes out (hopefully) and certainly no more "what if we just changed that bit". There were several reasons for waiting for locked edit. Firstly as a composer until you have a copy of the movie in front of you that isn't going to change it's very hard to make the music fit the picture exactly. The worst thing you can hear is a director saying, "I've just done a new edit of the film, don't worry it hasn't changed much, I've just taken a few seconds out here or there". Although it doesn't sound like a big deal, adding or removing time, even a few seconds plays havoc with the music. Suddenly those beautiful pieces of music you wrote that fitted against the picture perfectly now seem to be out of time, no longer sitting against the action correctly. There are ways around this but it all takes time and there is little point in starting the process when you know the editing of the picture is still in a state of flux.

What you can do in the meantime is start thinking about themes and what sort of musical ideas might be useful for the film, as well as possible songs. Over the years we have tried out many different musical ideas as the film took shape. Some stuck, others were discarded either because they were not suitable or, more often, because the scene the tune was originally written for was deemed no longer necessary in the finished film. Some of these tracks were completed, others were left in a more sketchpad form. I'm planning to share a lot of this musical journey with you in more detail here on the website in a music blog but for the moment here are just a few excerpts from some of my favourite early musical forays into LVJ.

New York Sunset : Co-written with Shane McKenzie, this was a love letter to my favourite city, designed to be playing on a radio as our heroes drove over the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. Here is a small excerpt from New York Sunset.

{mp3}excerpt from NY Sunset{/mp3}

Real Love : Another collaboration with the very talented Shane McKenzie and the first of many with singer/songwriter/comedian David Holler on vocals who would go on to appear as NYPD Captain Lieberman in the movie. Taken from a flashback in the film where Frankie imagines himself as the ultimate ladies man, unfortunately this scene, and this track, didn't make it into the finished movie. The incredible Ann Bailey provides the smooth female backing. Here is a little clip to put you in the mood.

{mp3} excerpt from Real Love{/mp3}

Get Back : Co written with Shane McKenzie and David Holler who also provides the lead vocals. For a long time "Get Back" was a front runner to be the main song from LVJ. In the very early days of the movie we wanted to write a funky track mixed with a modern dance beat and so "Get Back" was born. Setting the ludicrous lyrics against funky guitars and a modern beat seemed to sit well with the film's retro meets future feel. We even shot a pop video for this track with a ton of extras and dancers. Exactly how and in what form all of this will appear in the movie will be revealed a little later so check back for a more detailed report on "Get Back". For now here are a few excerpts from different incarnations of "Get Back" that we have played around with over the years.

"Get Back" - First Version example 1

{mp3}Get Back Version 1 excerpt 1{/mp3}

"Get Back" - First Version example 2

{mp3}Get Back Version 1 exceprt 2{/mp3}

"Get Back" - Alternative Version

{mp3}Get Back Version 2 excerpt{/mp3}

Pegasus suite : This is one of the first orchestral themes I ever wrote for the movie and I still think it's a lot of fun. It came about as I was asked to compose for an upcoming orchestral concert and the musical director asked me if I had anything from the sci-fi movie I was starting work on. As it happened I only had a few ideas for themes but I put them together into a suite just for the concert and it turned out pretty well I think. The crowd seemed to enjoy it and we videotaped the performance just for our own enjoyment. You can watch the video over at my music website here. This theme did not make it into the final score of the film but if you listen carefully to the finished soundtrack you might just be able to occasionally hear little musical ideas that first surfaced in this concert piece. Here is an excerpt from the Pegasus suite as played in concert

{mp3}Pegasus Station Attack{/mp3}

So for years, as the film went through production, I would revisit different musical thoughts for the movie, some would still seem like a good idea, others would be discarded. However despite all the time I have had waiting for the finished movie and all the different music I have jotted over the years it didn't all come together until very recently when we were able to sit down and watch the first locked cut of the film. I find that there is something magical that happens when the story works correctly. Suddenly everything seems to make sense musically as well. You can see the full journey of all of the characters and the way they develop and you get a real feel for the tone of the film. In the case of LVJ that was very much true, the film has a lot of heart and I find the characters very endearing and easy to empathise with.

So with a locked edit I started to sit down and compose the final music for the film. Watching the finished edit of the film you really got a feeling for the tone very quickly, it's a great fun adventure ride of a movie that never takes itself too seriously. The director and I felt that the music should mirror this, so the action packed orchestral sections would harken back to classic adventure films of the 80s and 90s such as 'Back to The Future' with a sense of fun, hopefully memorable melodies and a big Hollywood sound. At the same time the 1970s sections had to sound authentic, placing the viewer firmly in front of a 1970s TV cop show. Equally the film has a lot of comic moments and it was important to come up with comedic themes that would not seem too quirky and would fit in with the old school adventure type movie we were aiming for. So the composing process begins in earnest. I will be writing regularly for this blog and posting examples of the music, written examples of the score for those who might be interested, behind the scenes videos on the making of the soundtrack as well as pop videos and more information about the very talented performers who appear on the film soundtrack. In the next blog I'll start by talking about the process of coming up with LVJ's main theme. Till then, thanks for listening.

There’s a scene in the movie where the aliens quite

literally roll out the big guns and when they do, this is what they open the blast door on; a three crew anti-gravity tank with a great big gun on it.

Right from the very start of production there was always a plan for the aliens in the film to have a hero ship that would feature prominently throughout the movie. The Moth ship, as it became known, was one of the first space ships on the drawing board and throughout production and post has morphed through many designs. It has also found itself living in a total of four different 3D modeling programs that began with Lightwave, before moving into Maya and 3DStudio Max with some extensive texturing done in Modo. It is the latter two programs that were used for the version that will be seen in the finished film.

Over the course of production, which ran for quite some years, we found ourselves unable to tackle the task of actually producing many finished visual effects shots as the edit was in a constant state of flux. Despite the lack of a locked edit which would allow us to produce shots that would end up in the final film, we were however able to work on CG assets like the Moth ship. This involved creating concept art and rough sketches showing the shape and form of the ship along with defining fine details that would help to sell the reality and scale of the CG models. These artworks would then be used as reference for the 3D model.  

The Moth Ship was originally modeled in Lightwave and some very early tests of it can be seen in a few shots that were done in the early stages of production.

As the seasons came and went and the film continued through production, so too the landscape of 3D software changed and we found ourselves doing some of the film’s VFX using Maya. A decision was made to remodel the Moth Ship, taking the opportunity to revamp some of the detailing and rig it for animation that would allow us to take full advantage of the design which had these big ‘fins’ at the back which were some kind of steering mechanism, a cross between a bird’s tail and a boat’s fin.

More tests were done using the new model and a few shots that were extremely good candidates for becoming final shots, even though at this stage the edit still wasn’t locked, were tackled.  One of these shots featured a flyby right past camera as the Moth Ship bears down on Skylab, and up until only a couple of years ago was still in the movie although it has since been replaced with the final version of the ship.

This version of the Moth Ship stayed with the movie for quite a few years, and although it was used in quite a few shots that were all CG and didn’t require any live action or a locked edit, it was still waiting for it’s time in the movie’s VFX spotlight. As was the case though with a lot of elements from the film, after a few years it began to show it’s age, a combination of computing power, new modeling and texturing techniques and my ability when it came to modeling and texturing meant that it basically wasn’t good enough anymore.  

The decision was made to proceed with version 3, which just happened to coincide with a major shift in the film’s story regarding the Moth Ship.  Although there has only ever been one hero ship in the film, there was another alien ship featured and it was the design idea of turning the Moth Ship into a kind of ‘Tug boat’ or ‘Truck Cab’ that prompted the melding of the two designs. The two different ships would effectively be the same ‘Tug’ ship, that would attach itself to two different other ships and act as their propulsion system. There would be a transport attachment which is known in the film as ‘The Bucket’ and a Scout attachment which due to it’s saucer shape is known as ‘A Hoax’ (who says SABER don’t have a sense of humour).

Sometimes it feels like we should be members of the United Nations when it comes to the amount of 3D programs that have been used on the film and for version three of the Moth Ship it was the turn of 3DStudio Max and Modo. Modeling can be quite a quick process but I find that texturing can take almost twice as long sometimes, especially if you’re trying to achieve a large amount of uniqueness across the texture maps. To help speed this up I brought Modo into the loop to use it’s texture painting tools which to be honest are largely responsible for the quality of the texturing work for the third (and final version) of the Moth Ship. Although Modo was used for texturing, the modeling was done in Max, this was purely for speed as I knew Max’s modeling tools better (I know, Modo is world class at modeling - but speed was also a major factor). The process of using both applications was pretty much pain free, some parts of the model were UV unwrapped in Max, in which case the model stayed there and only the textures were painted in Modo, while other times the mesh was unwrapped in Modo and then passed back to Max. Although Photoshop is marvelous in many ways, you just can’t beat the intuitive nature of painting directly onto an object as if it were a plastic miniature.*

* If you haven’t seen the demo of Weta and the Foundry’s new texture painting tool Mari, you should check it out here and here.

So a brand new website for the film, some new videos, facebook page and twitter amongst other things but more importantly.... What's happening with the movie?

Well the answer is...we're getting there. It's been a long journey for sure but one which is very much nearing completion. The reason it's taken so long is actually a pretty straightforward answer. It's simply a really huge project, with no funding behind it. That means that the only way it can be completed is by all of the team giving up their spare time between the gigs that pay their rent on any given day. That's not to say that we aren't working on the movie constantly, in fact quite the opposite. There is something happening on the film every single day right now. Whether it's visual effects shots being worked on, elements of the score written, sounds designed or additional dialogue recorded, today the movie is moving towards completion every hour.

So what is done and what's left to be done?

Well the hardest part to complete was the actual filming, taking place in London, New York and Los Angeles in over 50 locations with a couple of hundred of cast and crew over several years. First of all we filmed all of the scenes that the script called for and began the editing process which itself took over a year to get the first complete edit. However at that point it became apparent that the story was not really working on screen the way that we had hoped and extra filming was going to be required. We didn't undertake this lightly as we had just come through several years of filming to even get to this point. However there seemed little point in spending all of that time and so much effort from so many people to get a movie that was only "sort" of working. We owed it to ourselves and everyone who had worked on the movie to make the best film we could.

Some of the extra filming was pretty ambitious and to get it all done took two further separate filming blocks. However with the filming complete it was immediately apparent it was worth it, we'd solved the problems and the film was starting to look like how we'd imagined it. Again the long process of re-editing the film began but this time at the end of the process we had a feature length story that represented what we had set out to do.  Watching the full length edit now you finally get to see the true scope of the film and how much fun the story is.

It was a frustrating time, until we had completed this second round of filming and editing we couldn't move forward on any of the other elements of the film. There was little point in spending weeks creating visual effects for scenes that we didn't even know for sure would be in the film. The same restriction applied to writing the score, designing the soundtrack or recording additional dialogue. Now, however, all of that is finally underway.

Visual effects are now being completed literally on a daily basis. It's incredible to see the film's huge space battle coming to life and gradually all of the blue and green screen footage being composited into it's intended background. Equally the films soundtrack is now coming together, you can hear clips from the orchestral score in the First Look documentary here on the site. The sound design has started, creating the original sounds that will bring the aliens and technology of LVJ to life. The additional dialogue that is needed to be recorded from the actors is now being scheduled and will be completed shortly.

What else is happening?

So as we move closer to completion we have turned our attention to what to do with the film when it is completed. After all there is little point in making a movie that no-one gets to see. This is why we have been spending time preparing the new website, social media sites and behind the scenes videos. We want to share the making of the movie with as many people as possible and hopefully make some new fans in the process. This is also the reasoning behind the new webshow, LVJ Encounters. As well as being an ideal way to continue the LVJ story with an exciting fun new show, hopefully it's also a great way to introduce a lot of new people to the LVJ universe. After all, if you're going to spend 10 years creating a story, you might as well make it as expansive and engaging as you possibly can.

Worth the wait?

So we're on the final straight. Whether you have been with us since the early days or have just discovered LVJ, we hope you'll stick with us a little longer. We promise it's going to be worth it and a lot of fun.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on anything about the film, the webshow, the website or anything LVJ related. This page is currently under development but very shortly we will be providing polls where you can vote on aspects on the movie and actually have a say in how the finished film turns out as well as how you wlll be able to see it

The Story Continues

The LVJ universe naturally lends itself to a comic adaptation. In fact the first genesis of the film came from a short comic strip that had been written by the director. The film is set in a fantastical sci-fi universe with alien races, spacecraft and other imagined technology, secret government agencies and features a large number of primary and secondary characters all with rich backstories to tell and new story lines to explore. Some of these stories will be explored by the webshow but others can be better told in a comic series.

When and how can you read the comic ?

The initial plan is to release two graphic novels which are currently being developed and then to continue those into a regular series. The exact release schedule and format are still under consideration but it is likely that we will release a digital comic on a regular basis ahead of the movie which will then be available as a combined graphic novel around the time of the feature film's release. At the moment we are looking at the opportunities offered by the iPad and similar devices on the horizon and hope to be able to release the comic series in a format ideally suited to the iPad. We are also considering offering the series as a regular digital download to be played on any computer as well as a more traditional print release.

As far as story lines go the comic series will deal initially with events leading up to the start of the movie, both in the modern day timeline and the 1970s one. It will offer the chance to find out more about the main character's backstories as well as posing questions which will be answered in the main film.  It will be designed to complement the webshow which will have a similar approach but deal with story lines occurring after the main feature.  The storylines of the initial comic release and the first season of the webshow will come together at the start of the feature film and then continue on telling their different stories and focusing on different characters beyond that point.

We are currently exploring the option of launching a second, additional, much smaller, comic strip series in a humorous vein. Created in a short, funny style, it is thought this strip could explore the lighter hearted and more quirky side of LVJ, particularly the everyday adventures of our hapless heroes, Frankie and Joey prior to the feature film.

See some early artwork

We have experimented with comic adaptations of the LVJ story before. Very early in the film's production, before the filming was complete, we worked with a number of comic book writers and artists to explore different ways of telling the story in a comic. You can see some of this early work showcased here as a look into the first incarnations of an LVJ comic strip.

Looking for artists

As the film continues through post production we will be entering into partnerships with content creators. If you are a comic writer or artist please get in touch about the possibility of working with the team.

Coming Soon