DAY 01 LOS ANGELES, CA…

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Welcome to another behind the scenes video log entry for the Zelda Project (www.thezeldaproject.net)!

If you’ve been keeping tabs on the entire Zelda Project to date, you’ll notice that this is the first official blog with photos from all the behind the scenes action involved. Our trip started off on a Friday evening from two different points. Team A: Sarah and JoEllen from L.A. to Fresno where they crashed at Anthony’s pad for the night. Team B: was myself and Evan James IV from Orange County to rendezvous with SeptemberSky & Alondra in Victorville and then crash in Westley, CA for the night.

On the morning of the Saturday the 24th, both teams departed for Hiouchi, CA.
Grand total for the entire round trip was almost 1,476 miles. The drive was very long and yet beautifully scenic.
Anyhow as usual, the Cameras were rolling most of the time and captured a lot of the highlights on the road along the way and the rest of the antics for the days to follow.

Before I go any further, I have to really thank Aimee (aka SeptemberSky) for the huge assistance with all the Behind the Scenes shots which helped make this blog possible! =D

“Check out a half hour doco of “The Lost Woods” in HD”

DAY 02 SAN FRANCISCO, CA…

Saturday, July 24th, 2010
(We pretty much spent the whole day in transit) It wasn’t until 11pm that we finally met up with Team B who had arrived at noon.

DAY 03 HIOUCHI, CA…

Sunday, July 25th, 2010
“Epona & The Starship at the Hiouchi Motel”

“JoEllen worked on Alondra’s ears while Sarah worked on Anthony’s…”

“Ears are on, time to suit up!”

“Sarah performs some last minute fine tuning on Saria’s wig…”

“Getting the final touches just right before the wig placement…”

“Ready to go!…Any further refinements will be done at the shoot location…”

Once everything was all squared away we got our models packed into the vehicles and loaded up all the equipment for the shoot. Our point of destination would be Jedediah Smith State Park home of the Smith River and also home to the location used for a very famous movie, “care to guess?”…
Well here’s a photo to give you a hint:

If you haven’t guessed what legendary movie was filmed here, here’s a more obvious clue!…lol
That’s right folks, Jedediah Smith State Park was home to Return of the Jedi’s “Moon of Endor” home of the ewoks ^_^

When we got to the location that Sarah had scoped out much earlier that morning, we noticed that it was rather full of visitors, so we made a quick change of plans and shot at a different location to take advantage of the light through the dense trees around us.
The trail to this part of the forest was full of potential shoot areas and no matter where we looked, they were all great, so we picked a spot and started to offload the gear.

“Setting up the 4′x6′ Zebra Reflector….”

“Jo helps Alondra to pre compose her poses for the shots to come….”

With a good balance of shadow and a careful manipulation of the reflector, Jo helps me achieve some very dramatic shots for this sequence…”

The shots were coming out beautifully, but I wanted more so we moved from area to area within the location that we set up. I asked Anthony to pose on a fallen tree in and hold a series of positions for me. The light was perfect and the environment was to die for. The only down side to all this was the damn bugs everywhere. Not so much the mosquitos because I brought some pretty hardcore mosquito spray, but unfortunately it didn’t keep away all the damn spiders that kept biting me. Regardless, It was all worth it for the shots that were coming form all this ^_^

“Jo flexes her reflector wielding guns!”

“Jo steps in to help set up the next series of shots for the Ocarina instructional scene.”

Alondra was really getting the hang of this modeling idea and so she became even more adamant to do whatever it took to help us bring the character of Saria to life with all her passion and personality. The bugs were not a problem for her, she was quite the lil’ trooper and carried right along with the flow of the shoot…

“The resulting shot from this location with some effects by the wonderful miss Julia Starr.”

“Taking it all in through the lens…”

After the spending close to 4 hours in the woods, we decided to call it a day and head back to the motel where Anthony and Alondra could get changed out of their costumes and freshen up for dinner in Crescent City. Overall the shots totaled over 700 for the time that we were shooting in the woods. After a day like that we dumped all our shots to my lappy and backed them up on a portable external drive for safe keeping. ^_^
“Alondra passes out after a long day of posing in the forest.” =)

After getting cleaned up we jammed out to a place that Sarah tried out the day before. It was a seafood joint on a jetty in Crescent City. The name of the place was ‘The Chart Room’ and I gotta say that it was some damn good food! The place was pretty packed, but I can understand why after having a bite ^_^

“Crazy Awesome wood carving of a mermaid on riding what appears to be an orca with gills?”

“Decisions….Decisions…”

“The food was UH-mazing!!!!”

After dinner we hit up the grocery store where Anthony introduced to me the concept of Nutella on Crepes for the morning snacks! XD
The morning would be a brutal one considering that 4am would be the start of the next days events. So we called it a night and hit the hay early.

DAY 04 HIOUCHI, CA…

Monday, July 26th, 2010

After a good night’s sleep, we we got the day started at 4am as scheduled and started hustling to get Link & Saria prepped and suited up for the early morning river shoot. I noticed that the fog was rather thick that morning, so we were in for a real treat =D
At 6am we were finally ready to roll and hit the highway out to the Smith River. The temperature was hovering around 48ºF so it was quite cool and with the costumes being of thinner material, Anthony & Alondra were playing hell to try and keep warm, but they did well, such troopers they were!

When we got to the parking lot that was so packed the previous day, we were happy to see that no one was around, for the exception of one van that was parked but running. Anyhow, we gathered up everything we needed for the shoot without carrying too much stuff.

“The trail was not too bad, so we trekked along til’ we hit the river…”

Once we got to the riverside, we started to setup the shots immediately for Zora’s River and other shots alike. The rocks made it a bit tough to get around smoothly, but we managed.
“Sarah and Jo help Anthony set up for the Zora’s River shot….”

“Here’s what the resulting shot with Julia Starr’s awesome CGI touches have produced…”

The next shot was one of Link playing the Forest Song on the Ocarina of Time near the water front. It was a bit tricky to get Anthony on the rock with all the moist Algae making it slippery and what not. Once in position, the reflection of the water and the background just made the shot all that much more beautiful! =D

“This is what the resulting shot with Julia Starr’s CGI effects & compositing produced…”

“After spending a good hour or so by the river, we wrapped things up and headed out to get the shots for the Lost Woods series…”

The next location was very green, I mean there was foliage on top of foliage. This was the perfect stage for Saria’s shots to take place. Even though yesterdays spider bites were in full bloom on my forearms, it still didn’t stop those little blood-thirsty bastards from biting my scalp and head. I never once saw what the damn buggers looked like but they sure left their marks on me.
We had hoped for the sun to come shining through like yesterday, but the fog never burned off and we were left fighting with all the available light possible. My ISO was 2000 just to keep up with the dim lit nature of the woods at that time in the morning.

Slow and steady wins the shot…

Alondra poses with the help of JoEllen’s guidance as she makes her way around the foliage for the next series of shots..

One of the resulting shots from this location. Effects by Julia Starr.”

Getting things moving again we carried on to some other nearby areas to grab a few more shots before calling it a day.
The ears were not holding very well and so it became a race to get in the last shots that we could before heading back to the hotel.

“Another great shot of Anthony with added effects by Julia Starr”

The areas we found were quite magnificent and so very full of potential but alas we were running short on time for the prosthetic ears were beginning to come off. Sarah, Aimee & I agreed that we will definitely have to make a return trip to this location to get some of the shots that we lost due to time =)
“Some of the places we planned to shoot at…”

“I forgot to mention that there were Banana Slugs everywhere, very poisonous lil’ critters and so we just minded where we placed our hands”

Once we left the woods, we got back to the hotel and began to pack everything up for the long haul home. The shoot was a testament to out willingness through adversity both big and small. All I can say is that this is one of the most amazing projects that I have the honor of participating in and I look forward to the Gerudo Valley shoot in November 2010.
“Packing the saddle bags…”

Overall I have to say that it was a pleasure to work with everyone over the course of these 4 days. Sarah has been working hard to kick out the costumes for the Gerudo shoot and we are already planning a 14 person caravan into the deserts of the Great Mojave and beyond. It will be tough, but we will do our best to deliver another great set of shots for the Zelda Project!

That’s about it for now, we’ll catch you all on the next TZP vlog!

“Cheers!”
~Indi

©2005-2012 Indigoverse Photography. All Rights Reserved.

“Thank you for visiting my site and viewing my work, 99% of these projects were funded through my own personal earnings when ever I get them which unfortunately is not too often in this economy. If you wish to help me in any way possible, please donate what ever you can to help me continue sharing the world with you through these projects, Thank you very much!… ~Indi”