Ok, here's a message from one spy whose life is a bit charmed. You see, he or she was lucky enough to spend the last 2 week of shooting on the Armageddon set, and here is there report. It sure seems like they had a good time... I know I really wanted to be on the Asteroid set...
As luck would have it, my habit of taking a walk around at lunch, bumped me into the key grip on the set of Armageddon. After shooting the breeze for a few minutes, I was invited onto the set, and even better, invited back to watch and absorb as much as I could for the final 2 weeks of shooting. Needless to say, I was there. My first comment would have to be that the difference between a $3 mill. pic, and $150 mill. pic. is bigger than Godzilla himself. It sent my heart a racing just to see 5 or 6 Panavisions just sitting around, not being used except here and there.
Now, on to the meat of the story. Not only were the sets, and the props absolutely mind boggling, but the skill of the cast and crew on this will be what makes the film. Especially Billy Bob Thornton, who in addition to being very professional, was convincing, and fun. He would hop around the set between takes to another unit shooting some static scenes, and want to direct them, or ride on the camera dolly. Just all around pretty cool. Not to mention his stunningly beautiful assistant that was always around when he was.
As far as props and sets go, these were amazing. The Armadillo, which is the "Asteroid Rover" they built, not only looks mean and bad-ass, it was fully functional too. Built on top of a HUMVEE chassis, and everything else was custom designed and built. Now, on Stage 2, they tore out the floor, and dug down approximately THREE STORIES, giving the stage an almost 7 story interior height. Here, carpenters and set builders spent the better part of a year running steam piping, building the forms, and all the scenic elements for the interior of the asteroid. The effects and shots I saw in here in the last week were fantastic. Lot's of stuff being blown up, gutted, trashed, and blown up again (these being some of the exceptions to the Panavisions "just sitting around", each shot had a minimum of 5 cameras on it.)
The last night of scheduled shooting, they actually had a huge crane that picked up the Armadillo from the front end, and suspended it in mid-air. They had "green-screened" a huge spot underneath it, and had another crane from which the stuntman tumbled and bumped his way down the underside of the Armadillo. This shot was fantastic, and came from a buddy of mine operating the TechnoCrane. Brad is a pure master on this. They had stacked the TechnoCrane up ON TOP of another truck mounted Chapman camera crane, so that even more height and motion could be achieved. In-fucking-credible is the word. If the effects that were done without CGI were as good as they were, I can't wait to see the finished product. Each and every set was meticulously detailed (and then most of them were thoroughly destroyed), and wonderfully crafted. I didn't get a chance to bump into any of the other "stars", but many of the other actors (whose names now escape me) we're just having a good time. The crew was a bit worn out after 100+ days of shooting, and the tension was pretty high on the set towards the end (Mr. Bay is a pretty weird guy, very very quiet, and not nearly as communicative as many other directors).
I had to write in this piece because I went to see "Deep Impact" last week, and it SUCKED. Not only did I not empathize with any of the characters, all I could do was laugh at the "love story". The best part of the whole damn film was the "Armageddon" trailer. Anyway, I hope y'all do go see "Armageddon", the story line is COMPLETELY different from "Deep Impact", the only thing in common is an asteroid, and unlike "Deep Impact", if the set "fun factor" is at all indicative of the theater "fun factor" this movie's gonna be a helluva ride. Buckle up "A".
- One Charmed Life
