Series X News – ‘All he did was to paint it red and cut it into small squares.’

News comes in today of further production woes from Doug. In this particular case though, ones that might have a rather happy outcome:

Just off to see Bill Pearson to look at models for our miniature reshoot.

Miniature refurbs looking really good – detailing so much better and not even finished yet!

Great news: Steve Begg, Skyfall Vfx super heard about our disastrous first miniature shoot and has offered to help!!

1st shoot brought 4ward in sched with little notice 2 save £. Mins not ready or built in a day, no test shoot, director busy on main shoot.

I’d say with exception of 6 shots, everything has to be reshot on 1st miniature shoot. So happy I’ll be there 4 reshoot.

So pleased Bill Pearson and Steve Begg who weren’t involved in our 1st miniature shoot are on the reshoot.

Before dealing with the fact that they are reshooting, let’s just take a minute to celebrate the fact that Bill Pearson and Steve Begg are once again involved with the show. In case the names are unfamiliar to you, the two of them were responsible for the (sadly all too infrequent) model work on Series VIII, as well as a whole host of films such as Alien, Moon, Casino Royale and Batman Begins. Many fans will of course know Bill from the Series VIII DVD, where he spoke about his part in the model work, and recounted the story of how he came to do a bit of work for Mel Bibby in return for some wine. Much like a tramp in that respect, but one with superb model making skills and less of an odour of stale urine. Well we hope so anyway.

So, to the reshoot. The last we heard, members of the production team were enthusing about how wonderful the models looked. However, it appears that things weren’t quite plain sailing, and it would seem that the lack of detail on the models was the major issue. This is after all the first time Red Dwarf has filmed models in HD, and the demands upon them are that much greater than they would have been in previous series. One thing to note is that while the team have to refurbish the models for a reshoot, there is nothing to say how much of the shoot needs to be redone. The Dwarf model for example was pre-built in the 90s, and already had extra detail added to it for this series when it underwent a ship-ectomy from its original re-mastered form. It’s entirely possible that this model proved to be fine while the others suffered under the high definition lens. This is really no surprise if their production was as rushed as Doug says though.

Whatever the state of the models though, it seems nearly everything will have to be reshot anyway. Considering the lack of a dry run and the absence of the director, it’s lucky that they managed to get 6 six salvageable shots at all. The work load that this now creates must be huge, but it’s great to see that Doug will get to be there this time and that the team are using this opportunity to touch up the models to get the best results. Bill and Steve come with a great pedigree, and on past form alone I trust they’ll come up with something that looks stunning. In the meantime, here’s a picture from Richard Naylor from the reshoot.