Blade Edge

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So rehearsals were finally over three days after the show opened. It was quite a ride this year – I don’t even know where to begin. In retrospect I guess it would have been cool to have posted more frequent updates during May – but I kept thinking no one would be interested in hearing about stuntwork, but at the same time I keep forgetting that there are people around here who are interested, so sorry to those of you that have been wondering how the show has been going.

So anyways my last entry was almost a month ago, the day I got walloped in the face with a foot. Luckily I didn’t get kicked or hit again during rehearsal, tho that dirt bike did mess me up a bit. The first injuries were to my right shin thanks to that damn kickstarter. The first time I missed and scraped my shin up on the peg, the second time it slipped and smacked me in the shin. So yea, my right shin still gets splints a bit if I work on it too much, and there’s a little bump there too. I also got tossed off – I did a jump and gave it too much gas and went nose-up, landed on the rear tire and slammed the front end into the ground, which bucked me straight over the handle bars. It was cool tho – I flew through the air and just tucked when I hit the ground and rolled out to my feet, got up and quick picked the bike back up. I got a minor scrape on the shoulder I rolled on, but I was wearing a BMX chestplate with shoulder pads so I was barely even shaken. It probably looked bad ass – wish I had it on tape.

So lemme just be quick and say that the show was a trainwreck when it opened. Six Flags opened this new section called the Golden Kingdom and a new roller coaster (world-record holder for tallest and fastest) called Kingda Ka, so all resources were being tied up by that, so like nothing got done on our set. The first day of rehearsals our director was planning on us doing full run throughs of the entire show in costume sometimes with pyro halfway through the month. Instead we didn’t really get there until like 4 days before opening. The catsuits didn’t even arrive until 2 hours before the first show opening day, which means none of the Catwomen had done a run through in costume. The pyro and crane (which hangs Joker’s balloon) were all on manual control because we didn’t have a finalized soundtrack to program them to. The tower Batman ziplines from during the show was covered in nothing but black fabric. The wire rig Catwoman uses to climb up a building was only installed a few days prior to opening and none of them had adequate training on it. Worse, some people were doing things in the show they had never rehearsed, like Batman climbing up the cargo net into the Joker’s balloon while hanging 15 feet in the air with no life line. FINALLY (and worst of all) the CEO saw the show the day before opening and said he wanted it cut by 5 minutes (so it would be a 15 min show rather than 20) because there was too much fighting.

So not only was the show not really ready for opening, they wanted us to open anyways and with a show that was going to change over the course of the week as we cut things out to bring down the length. Well, we did one show and it totally sucked – worst of all was when Henchman #2 on the quad went nose-up off the jump (like I had during rehearsals) and bailed off the back. SO while he was getting his act back together Henchman #1 and Robin improv’d and ended up both throwing hooks as if the other was to duck and smashed fists together (#1 was on the bike by the way, so we’re talking some serious speed here when the fists collided cause he was going about 6-8mph and they both swung hard to miss, not hit). So Robin (who happened to be played by Steve, the one who nailed me in the face) got a bad contusion in his hand and #1 almost broke his thumb.

After that we all screamed bloody murder and they shut the show down for the rest of Memorial Day weekend (which must have been really rough for corporate) so we could cut what needed to be cut and finalize the soundtrack and show elements for a proper reopening on Tuesday. So I worked like at least 30 hours over Memorial Day weekend (big ass fat check headin my way tho). But now the show is open and things seem to be going fine. I get to do my first real show of the season tomorrow, so wish me luck!

In other news, I swore off all contact with GarageGames and Torque 2D in order to focus on rehearsals. I still haven’t been to the GG site to check in on the latest and I won’t for another week or so – I plan on using the time between shows to catch up on some reading first, then I’ll start bringing my laptop with me to get back to coding.

So expect more regular updates now as I get my life back in order. Yea, no more of this early to rise shit – I don’t have to be at Six Flags until 12:30. ha HA!

kseeyabye

P.S. – I finally picked up REAL Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book. Funny as hell so far.

P.P.S.S. – I see that my absence has allowed Evo to surpass me in journal views. Drat. *shakes fist* (sry John, you still don’t count)