Episode #3

Le troisième episode de <<Les chéries de la galaxie>>, s'il-vous plaît...

Episode #2

Achtung, meine Schätze!

Die Liebchen der Galaxis folge zwei ist hier!

Episode #1

Keep one polybagged and get another one as a reading copy.

Poster by Christopher Cho

Uh ... I have no words for how this makes me feel.  But they would be good, if I could come up with them.

Poster by Christopher Cho

Kickstarter rewards: original artwork by Tallest Silver

Sweethearts of the Galaxy Web series star Tallest Silver drew these gorgeous original pieces of art for some of our wonderful Kickstarter backers!

The hills are alive with the sound of Sweethearts

Here we are at our first notes session for post-production sound with David Van Slyke of Slick Sounds, Emmy Award winner for making CSI sound so good.  Why is he working on our little show?  Because he's a really darn nice guy.

Dexter Adriano, director/editor, and David Van Slyke, post-production sound editor

It's amazing to watch this man working Pro Tools to clean up dialogue and layer in sound effects.  I thought the show looked good already, but now it sounds great as well.

Screen captures from episodes the second and third

In this episode, Katelyn's roommate Lilly deals with what she believes is a delusional woman, while she must solve a problem for their neighbor Paul.

"I need a ride to a job inter--  Uh, what is she doing?"  Katelyn (Kit Quinn), Lilly (Lola Binkerd), and Paul (David Dickerson).

"She's taking you to the Abyss of Worlds."  "But I don't wanna go to the Abyss of Worlds."  "Jackass!  That's what she thinks she's doing."  Lilly (Lola Binkerd) and Paul (David Dickerson).

"Stand back, human.  This one is dangerous."  Katelyn (Kit Quinn), Paul (David Dickerson), and Lilly (Lola Binkerd).

"We have to catch Necrocide."  "Execute maneuver delta."  "Maneuver what?"  Katelyn (Kit Quinn) and Lilly (Lola Binkerd).

"Can I play too?"  "I'm sorry, honey, but you must be this tall to ride."  Paul (David Dickerson), Lilly (Lola Binkerd), and Morgan (Megan Alyse).

Shopping for a costume.  Morgan (Megan Alyse).

"What the--WHAT?"  Katelyn (Kit Quinn), Paul (David Dickerson), and Lilly (Lola Binkerd).

"Tremble before me, bitches."  Morgan (Megan Alyse).

"It's called a Mind-Blast ... trademark."  Paul (David Dickerson), and Lilly (Lola Binkerd)

And $#!7's about to get real when Element 47 draws her blades.  Paul (David Dickerson), and Lilly (Lola Binkerd)

Hang on tight for the next episodes, Sweethearts Army!

Screen captures from episode the first

To coin a term from Megan Alyse who plays Morgan in the show, I can't stop squeeing over what I've seen in rough cuts, and I cannot wait to share the final product with y'all, but in order for it to be the best quality, it will take time.

But here are some screen caps to give you a sense of what you'll see in the series premiere:

Silvia (Tallest Silver) and Katelyn (Kit Quinn) march into the comic book convention, as Wanda the Fan Girl (Kelby LeNorman) watches.

Silvia (Tallest Silver), LeeAnna Vamp (as herself), and Katelyn (KIt Quinn).  "Are you entering the costume contest?"  "Oh, look!  Cards against Humanity."

Wanda (Kelby LeNorman), Silvia (Tallest Silver), Reporter (Gina Manziello), and Camera Man (David Downey) watch as Katelyn prepares to jump to take an in-flight shot.

Silvia (Tallest Silver) tries to get a handle on things as Katelyn (Kit Quinn) now believes she's actually the character Trinity Infinity.

LeeAnna Vamp (as herself) hosts a costume contest.  Seth Thygesen enters, dressed as the super-villain Necrocide.  "Is that an original character?"  "It's from Sweethearts of the Galaxy."  "I've never heard of it."

Katelyn (Kit Quinn), LeeAnna Vamp (as herself) and Silvia (Tallest Silver):  "We actually won?"

Katelyn used to dress up as her favorite characters at comic book conventions.  And then at a convention with her fellow cosplayer Silv, something happens that causes her to think she really is the character she admires most.  Her roommate Lilly devises scenarios straight out of fiction, so Katelyn can make her way through real life.  But then when the rest of their friends get into the game, it starts to get out of hand...

Featuring Kit Quinn, Tallest Silver, Lola UnWinona, Megan Alyse, and David Dickerson.  Written by Michael Premsrirat.  Directed by Dexter Adriano.

Series preview

Well met, Sweethearts Army!  We have a new series trailer as an aperitif while we finish up post-production:

And don't forget to subscribe to our channel at GalacticSweethearts YouTube channel, so you don't miss the premiere!

I know lots of you have patiently waiting--some of you may have even completely forgotten about this--so I hope you'll bear with us a little longer.  It was a learning experience for me to be patient and respect the entire post-production process--which is deliberate and precise compared to the wham bam of production--and have faith that the time we take makes for a better final product.

Picture editing is complete.  Just a little VFX work left to do.  It's now in the hands of the two Davids:  Emmy Award-winning David Van Slyke, the man who makes CSI sound good, and David Stone, composer and funktastic bass player, who are going to make it sound as great as it looks.

The Guild of Calamitous Intent rings are here!

These were rewards for some of our Kickstarter backers. They've proven to be so popular that the artist has decided to make them available for sale to the general public at the SoloRoboto Industries Storenvy.

Oh, I can't wait for you to see this

In this day and age, post-production entails a lot of sitting in front of computers, which is why I haven't done a lot of visually driven updates at this stage.  Even though Dexter and Stephanie ARE pretty dang sexy...

Editors Stephanie Goldstein and Dexter Adriano

They showed me a rough cut of the entire series, and I found myself enjoying it in a way I hadn't expected.  I thought, "I wrote this, I was there for shooting, nothing will surprise me, I'll be seeing mistakes..."  Instead, I was taken aback by how pleasing it was, and I was LOLing at some of the great performances by the cast.  Even the last three episodes, which were the toughest to shoot in our production schedule, were not bad at all.  And again, this is only a rough cut.

They still have tweaking to do on the early part of the series and things to finalize in the later part, but we're close to picture lock.  The post-production sound editor, composer and color corrections folks have started their work.  And we appreciate y'all's patience, because unlike shooting--when everyone put the rest of their lives on hold for ten-plus days to be on set--all of our post people (all of them professionals in the field) have to balance their time on this project against their day jobs (and if they don't do their day jobs, there will be some big holes in this fall's network television schedules).

Here's a little hint at some news I'm holding off on until a later official announcement.  Dexter brought in a good friend and colleague to work on our show, and I'm still freaking out that he wants to help us.  All I can say for now is our post-production sound editor is the reason why CSI sounds so good.

We're hoping to launch in mid-August.  Please subscribe to our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/GalacticSweethearts.

Our first panel! Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks to the wonderful folks presenting the Big Wow! ComicFest in San Jose on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of May in the year of our Lord 2013, we had our very first panel for Sweethearts of the Galaxy, at which we presented a rough cut of scenes from the series and then had a rousing Q&A.

Megan Alyse, Tallest Silver, Kit Quinn, Dexter Adriano, Michael Premsrirat
(photo by oldnerdybasterd)

The rough cuts were exclusively shown there and shared via pneumatic tube to remotely controlled magic lantern shows for our Kickstarter backers.  My gentle readers will have to wait until the final product.  Sorry!

But if it interests you in the least, please watch our terribly amusing discussion of the vicissitudes of production and the tribulations of wearing fishnets around a lot of snaggy metal equipment (thanks to ytshawzam who posted this video):

It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness...

Right after our camera test, we went into production, and it was a grueling ten days—12 hours per day of shooting with at least a couple hours after the actors and the crew went home for the production team to clean up and deal with business then prep for the next day.

Rehearsal and blocking at one of the locations.  Must get this stuff down before the camera goes up.

What in tarnation is going on here?

The stress and hours and intense activity interspersed with NOTHING to do while waiting for something else to fall into place reminded me of what I've read about being in war, making me feel like we really were a Sweethearts Army (and I apologize to those who actually have been in war for making this facile analogy).  People say that production brings out the best and the worst in people.  We had really good people on our team, and everyone dealt with the pressure in the best ways they could.

Hair/make-up/wardrobe lead Kelby gets Megan Alyse ready for a shot.
Kelby gets mad respect from me for not only doing triple duty on the crew side,
but she was also one of the actors.

All I know is that I didn't want it to end.  I was so proud to be surrounded by people I like, watching all of them do wonderful work.

And here's Kelby on set now!  She rocked in front of the camera, and you wouldn't know that
she barely had time to prepare herself, because she was getting everyone else ready first.

And it was a lot of work.  Not in the sense of it being hard on us, as I already covered that.  I mean that we produced a lot of footage in a short amount of time.  We shot nine episodes' worth of material (74 pages in the script, looking at a finished product of nine episodes of seven-to-ten minutes each) at a pace that even most television series wouldn't do, because they have more time and more money.

Lola UnWinona and Kit Quinn keeping warm.  You wouldn't have known that only the day before
in the same location it was hotter than—Tarnation!  Too hot to come up with a colorful analogy.

The veterans on the crew were kinda blown away by how much footage we did each day.  Their colleagues who weren't on the shoot, upon hearing that, tell them, "Bull@#$%, that's impossible."  But we did that.  And we're grateful to all of our Kickstarter backers and our friends who believed in us and those who came on set and gave us their time and energy for making all this possible.

Good friend and Kickstarter backer Yato (L) visits Useless Writer on Set me (C) and Director Dexter (R) on set.
The smiles would not last long, because it was a particularly grueling weekend.
(photo by Sherry Li)

Another thing I marveled at during shooting was how we brought together veterans and newbies and everybody in between to work on this thing together.  The experienced folks were very patient with those of us who didn't know what the &%*# we were doing and exceedingly generous in teaching us how it's done.  On a "real" set, some of us would've been fired, but instead the operating principle was "Let me show you how it's done."

See?  I told you.  Grumpy face does not even begin to describe...
(photo by Juan Garcia)

Someone remarked that it was kinda like school, and one of the veteran crew members responded, "Wow, I guess this makes us the professors."  I'd take a bullet for any of those guys, because that kind of giving spirit is rare in this world.

You know what kept us going?  Fear of this man.  Do not piss off Director of Photography Hassan Abdul-Wahid.
(photo by Juan Garcia)

I also believe that some of the newbies instilled anew in the veterans an enthusiasm for making film.  I heard one of the veterans said something like "This reminds me of why I wanted to get into filmmaking in the first place."

But once the cameras start rolling, it was pure joy.

After production ended, I think most everyone needed to crawl into bed and sleep for a few years.  However, the editor's work was just beginning (Dexter had to switch hats ... no rest for him).  He put together a rough cut to show at the Big Wow! ComicFest in San Jose on May 19, and more on that in the next post...

Tallest Silver, David Dickerson, Kit Quinn, Lola UnWinona and the intellectual property of a large
media conglomerate who lovingly appears under the aegis of fair usage.  If you're going to spend
12 hours per day for ten days together, then you'd better like each other lots, and they do like each other...
lots and lots!

Camera test at Panavision Hollywood

We were all giddy that we got to go to what may be the most famous camera house in the world to try out lenses and filters for a particular, very special look we're seeking for a few particular, very special moments (can't give away the surprise).

Crazy Daisy make-up test.

Checking make-up and costume with different lenses and filters.

Seeing how different fabrics and textures will read on camera.

Some of these lenses are more than 50 years old and captured light for some cinema classics.

Found my old Sweethearts comic books!

I was digging through my old comic books, and in the same box as my Doom Patrol and The Invisibles, I found my old Sweethearts of the Galaxy comic books.

Vol. 1 No. 1 origin issue

Vol. 1 No. 48 "What Is the Velocity Vortex?"

Vol. 1 No. 49 "Exile on Earth"

If anybody can tell me the Overstreet value on these books in Very Fine condition, I'd appreciate it.

Kickstarter rewards being mobilized

Gorgeous prints of Kit Quinn and Tallest Silver cosplay are being mobilized at the Sweethearts Army Northern Command.

Kickstarter rewards ready to go

But don't fear, my friends ... if you want them, and you weren't a Kickstarter backer, then you can purchase prints at the KitnSilver store.

All proceeds go directly to production for the Sweethearts of the Galaxy Web series.

We're getting the band [back] together...

Well, it's been a very busy two weeks!  Assembling the crew, scouting locations, scheduling actors, sewing costumes. It's all coming together, and we should begin shooting less than two weeks from now.

Director Dexter Adriano and VFX Supervisor Ron Shaw scouting a location.

We had an immense amount of fun at our first table read of the script with most of the cast (some folks were out of town :( and we missed them terribly).  We've been in Kickstarter land and pre-production country for so long, we hadn't even thought about the script in quite a while.  It was really good for us to laugh and aww and remember how sweet and funny the show could be (if we don't blow it), and it reminded me why we wanted to do this in the first place:  we have a great story to tell you.

Spoiler alert!  A page from the second-to-last episode.

And a little business to deal with too.  There's interest from [NAME REDACTED] to be our home on the Interwebz.  Can't say anything more lest I jinx it, but I hope the Sweethearts Army will cross their collective fingers for us!

Once we're shooting, then I'll have more exciting updates and images for y'all.

Much love from the Sweethearts to all of you!

The work begins...

So it took us a full day for it to actually sink in:  Wow, you guys really want to see us do this. This project is bigger than us.  We have as part of our crew all 539 of our backers and the 900+ folks who like the Sweethearts of the Galaxy Facebook page and the nearly 11,000 viewers of our promo on YouTube and on Kickstarter.  And we have a responsibility to you ... not only to fulfill rewards ... but to give you the show that we promised.

And we're going to do it ... or die trying.

Wanna know what inspires us?  Moments like this.

I'm still a little shell-shocked myself, but pre-production begins today.  I'm going over the scripts one last time to prepare them for shooting and going over the budgets.  I've placed orders for sound recording gear we need to purchase (you won't believe how much in demand the sound recordists are in this town, so we have to build our department).

The director is working out his shot lists, and then he and I will meet later today to calendar our shooting blocks.

As soon as the director of photography is available (he's on another production at the moment), then he'll be scheduling his crew, and we'll go on location scouts.

In a week, we'll assemble the cast to do a table read of the entire series.  They'll start doing their character work and costume preparations.  Rehearsals will begin in two weeks before we start shooting.

I'd like to keep y'all apprised of our progress, but feel free to comment and let me know if I'm bugging you with too many messages.

And we're still looking for crew:  sound and camera departments are pretty much set, but we would welcome PA's, crafty, post-production sound mixer.

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts ... we're about to take off.

We hit our Kickstarter goal!

A couple weeks ago, we were so ready to be disappointed, but then we had a wonderfully warm tumblr from comic book writer Gail Simone, an enthusiastic tweet from Mythbuster Grant Imahara, and an outpouring of love from fans and friends who liked, shared, commented and donated.

Now, you have given us your confidence and your money, and we will make a great show and return the favor by giving you something you will love to watch.

Like our Facebook page and get ready for the first episode in late May.

And now to work...

WonderCon Anaheim 2013

Thank you, everyone, for all the love you've shown this project. We will not disappoint you. Very encouraged by enthusiasm we felt from folks we met at WonderCon Anaheim this weekend.

We introduced to the public the arch-nemesis of our series...

Megan Alyse as The Wretched

Megan Alyse as The Wretched and Kit Quinn as Trinity Infinity

We also did a truly fun interview with Bill Watters and Mary Anne Butler of ComicsOnline.  Podcast to come soon, but text available now.

And Leeanna Vamp and ilovenerdgirls.com were so kind to welcome us to their signing event...

Megan Alyse, Leeanna Vamp, Kit Quinn

Now it's less than 24 hours left ... but we're so close ... GAH! The suspense is killing me!

On behalf of the Sweethearts, XOXO and <3 to everyone. This show is a love letter to you all.

Sweethearts comic book covers

Two days left!  We passed the 75%, and we're feeling good, but still so nervous.  Thank you to everyone who's given so far and gotten us to this point!

oldnerdybasterd made us pee our pants with these comic book covers he drew...

See more at oldnerdybasterd on tumblr,