- Series X News
With the last of the footage being completed last week, the production has largely moved to ONSIGHT in Soho. From what we understand, this has largely involved reviewing the VFX for the series. We also hear dfrom Richard Naylor on Wednesday that there were:
Important people from Dave coming to view final two Red Dwarf X shows – Ep 4 and 5. These shown last in order to add scenes from pick up day
Richard also had this to say on the subject of when we might see the publicity photos that he mentioned a while ago:
Y’know those exclusive Red Dwarf X screenshots I was talking about? Yeah, coming soon. And by soon I mean….. days. I’ve always been one to jump the gun
While everyone is in Soho, Nathan Cubitt still remains at Shepperton working his way through the behind the scenes footage. So to round off, here’s a quick round up of what he’s had to say about it on Twitter:
Just logged 1000th Red Dwarf X behind the scenes shot. Can’t show that but here’s a moment halfway through 989. Ed Moore is the photobomb king.
Behind the scenes log stats: Richard Naylor 12.9% of shots, Ed Moore 10%, Neil (A Cam) 8.9% & new on the board Lucy Pearson 1.2% -all to play for
If only you could hear the genius questions Andrew Ellard asked the cast in their interviews. But you can’t, I’m cutting them out 🙂
- Peter Wragg RIP
As reported earlier this week, we were all very sad to hear of the passing of Peter Wragg last weekend. There have been a variety of pieces dedicated to him in the last few days including ones on the official site, Ganymede & Titan, the fan club site and our own. There have also been a variety of quotes from friends and colleagues around the net, and so for the roundup we thought we’d collect a few of them here.
Doug Naylor:
The last time I saw Pete was at Mel Bibby’s funeral. He told us he was enjoying his retirement and doing up his house. Craig wondered if his front door looked really “sci-fiey” and opened automatically due to an unseen stage hand pulling a rope. Everyone, including Pete, cracked up at the idea and we all chipped in with our own ideas about Pete’s home improvements, including a lift that didn’t work but had lights that made it seem you were moving up through the floors.
Pete was a modest, lovely, self-effacing, brilliant man who made budgets stretch beyond all reason – and no-one could do explosions quite like him. In fact, bits of his Gazebo from the tank explosion in Beyond a Joke are still falling in parts of southern England. He never said anything was too hard, too impossible or not affordable. I loved him to bits. We wanted an animatronic polymorph – no problem, we wanted a pair of radio controlled skutters – coming right up. In the environment of, “You guys go off, think up anything you like and leave us to worry about how we make it”, Red Dwarf became Red Dwarf.
Often, in later series, we’d go to the pub before a word had been written and ask what Pete and the VFX boys could do. The ice planet in Marooned was written around the idea that “Snow’s not a problem”; Back to Reality came from a “Why don’t you do an underwater one?” I remember the production meeting when he told us he and the VFX boys had been working on that ship-to-planet craft we wanted: it was green and looked a bit like a bug. In fact, they wanted to suggest a name for it: “Starbug.” We loved the design and we loved the name.
When the Red Dwarf model was first built, no-one realised the series was going to become what it eventually became. The fact Pete’s work still holds up today, nearly 25 years later, says everything about his creativity and professionalism. We’re forever in his debt, as we all continue to sail in the ship that Pete built.
Pete Tyler:
I first worked with Peter on Series I. We became friends pretty much immediately, partly because of a shared love of beer! He was largely responsible for getting me involved with the BBC Visual Effects department, and I ended up working with almost every Vis FX designer there over many, many happy years. Peter was quite a large man in the early Red Dwarf days but despite his appearance was very nimble – he had been a ballroom dancer in his youth!
One time during filming, Peter was required to fly Blue Midget across a landscape. We rigged a long scaffold board 10 feet above the set which he ran along, full tilt, with only a rope to act as a hand rail. The board wobbled and bounced alarmingly and, as I was directly beneath it, I feared it would crash on my head any second. Despite that Blue Midget sailed through shot perfectly smoothly as if on rails!
I remember Peter Wragg as a constantly genial and good natured man, and his passing saddens me greatly.
Norman Lovett:
I remember him as a very friendly man and that was always happy. I got on very well with him and he was brilliant at his job. Goodbye Peter – It was a pleasure to have known you.
Robert Llewellyn:
Very sad news about Peter Wragg, the lovely man who made the original Red Dwarf ship and Starbug model. RIP
Bill Pearson:
Bye Peter. Hope we’ve carried on the high standard of Model VFX you established. To a Great and Kind Man, God Bless,
Andrew Ellard:
So sad to hear about Peter. Amazingly talented guy.
Stuart Murdoch:
I worked with Peter in the BBC Vis FX Dept from 79-87 and always found him to be generous with his time and his knowledge imparted with good humour and lots of fun. He was one of the good guys.
The fan club are currently collating tributes to Peter from a variety of people, including some longer ones from people mentioned above, and these will be published in the next issue of Back To Reality.
- Robert Llewellyn On TV & In Print
Robert’s episode of ‘Hero In My Family’ has now been given an air date. The show, also featuring Angela Rippon, will air on Tuesday 5th June at 8PM on Channel 5. You can find more information about the series on the Channel 5 site and on this promotional poster:
In other Bobby-related news, ‘News From Gardenia’ had it’s launch party this week and should hopefully be sent out before too long. Going by his tweets, Robert certainly seems to be pleased with the final results. We hope to bring you a review of the book sometime in the future.
- BUCKY Wraps
Filming on Danny’s new short film ‘BUCKY’ has now wrapped, despite the distraction of Danny knowing ‘every single person in west London by name,’ and having to be told by the grip to stop chatting to Paul Weller and get back to the shoot. The shoot saw Red Dwarf X’s Ed Moore on camera duties and in further Dwarf links saw Danny using props lent out of Bill Pearson workshop. Here’s a picture from the shoot:
- Andrew Ellard’s ‘Future Inc.’
Created for the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge, this short penned by Red Dwarf X script editor Andrew Ellard has now been released online and is well worth a look. With 48 hours to create it, here was the brief given:
TITLE: Future Inc.
PROP: Post it notes. We see a wall with at least 6 post it notes, all written on. We see a character write another note and stick it on the wall.
DIALOGUE: I will be away for one week starting tomorrow until this Sunday.
OPTIONAL THEME: mobile/cellphone that controls body functions and appearance.
You can view the results for yourself below:
[vimeo 40513691 w=500 h=275]
I can’t wait for the to release those promo images!