Back from LA with Honorverse move news

Quinlan73 wrote:On the point of invisible lasers and grasers, in my minds eye I see them whenever the written word says they're fired when I'm reading it. So I'm all for some artistic license on this.

They appear as green in my mind. Thank you Star Wars.

This may be coming in from a totally random direction, but in order to boost the number of possible fans wanting to see the films, could Evergreen create a PS3 Home space? Selling virtual Manty, Sollie, Andie and Havenite uniforms would generate at least some cash flow (hopefully with the Mad Wizard getting a slice of them) and the Home space (perhaps set on the being-build Hephaestus-II to allow for upgrades etc) could also be used to raise awareness that the series actually exists. Include a Dempsey's and you can use its Holo-windows to introduce the landscapes of Manticore, Gryphon and Sphinx. Personal quarters can be sold for a few pounds/dollars/whatever each and it can include a "public relations concourse" showing possible artwork/stageshots from the upcoming film as well as existing starships designs etc. Heck, have some of the starships moving across the background starfield.
As I said, this is probably totally random, but it would boost the public awareness of the Honorverse.
And I really want to have my PS3 avatar wear the uniform of the rank I've gained here. Maybe it could be set up to link to this site in a manner similar to Pottermore?
Not sure it would work on the XBox, the avatars there are just too styalised...

Direwolf18 wrote:

Quinlan73 wrote:On the point of invisible lasers and grasers, in my minds eye I see them whenever the written word says they're fired when I'm reading it. So I'm all for some artistic license on this.

They appear as green in my mind. Thank you Star Wars.

I use the colors used in Babylon 5, namely those awesome purple beams of the Shadows' battlecrabs, but also the weapons of the EA Omega-class destroyers and the Minbari war cruisers. Face it, visible beams are a really cool visual image.

I wouldn't mind seeing them made very diffuse and "sparkly" to replicate what a laser beam looks like going through dust, fog, etc..

61Cygni wrote:

Direwolf18 wrote:
They appear as green in my mind. Thank you Star Wars.

I use the colors used in Babylon 5, namely those awesome purple beams of the Shadows' battlecrabs, but also the weapons of the EA Omega-class destroyers and the Minbari war cruisers. Face it, visible beams are a really cool visual image.

I wouldn't mind seeing them made very diffuse and "sparkly" to replicate what a laser beam looks like going through dust, fog, etc..

Sword of the Stars for me - Meson beams for grasers, proton beams for lasers, phaser PD for point defence lasers.

I think that the movie could make the identity of ships obvious with subtle changes in hull design plus musical cues.

The RMN ships would have sleek hammerheads with cylindrical cross sections.

The RHN ships would have blockier hammerheads with rectangular cross sections.

The GSN ships would have hammerheads with square cross sections plus very obvious particle cannon turrents.

Enlarge the missile tubes and weapons bays relative to the ships so that the number will be obvious to the audience. This will allow them to distinguish ship classes.

Then throw in some theme music for the RMN, GSN (country western?) and RHN (ominous).

Problem solved.

Direwolf18 wrote:

Quinlan73 wrote:On the point of invisible lasers and grasers, in my minds eye I see them whenever the written word says they're fired when I'm reading it. So I'm all for some artistic license on this.

They appear as green in my mind. Thank you Star Wars.

Don't forget, Sidewalls bend and disperse Grasers and Lasers - think Prisms here - once the Grasers hit the Sidewalls, the walls should flouresse and parts of the dispersed Beam should be visible on the far side of the Sidewall.

61Cygni wrote:

rdt wrote:Or it could be a "Europa Report," done on a low budget but with a quality script and good direction and acting, and very clever photography, and getting quite nice reviews.

I'll take live actors over cartoon characters any day.

Europa Report, along with Moon are more smaller-scale intimate sci-fi/thriller films, and can be done well on low budgets. The Honorverse is space opera/military scifi, and unless you want the space battles and action scenes greatly pared down or done in a minimalist style (like people watching the holo plot most of the time), it's going to need a much larger budget. It's why I use Serenity ($40 million budget) as an example. Another one would be Danny Boyle's Sunshine, though again it's a sci-fi thriller and doesn't have battles, it does have a lot of space scenes/exterior views.

Of course, one of the prime ways to save money is to cast mostly unknown actors, as well as to cut down on the number of speaking roles (i.e. eliminating and combining characters), and I expect both will be done with HoTQ.

As I recall, there are four "space" battles in HotQ:
the forlorn hope battle in which Courvoisier is killed;
the exchange between McKeon and the enemy LAC;
the short battle in which Theisman disables Truman's ship;
and the ultimate battle in which Honor destroys the Haven/Masadan battle cruiser.

The first requires the most exposition and set up time. Good dialog is needed. In the middle two everything happens rather quickly, so they are all action, but again good dialog is needed to set them up. In the latter, more exposition and set up are needed and are crucial. There's more tactics than shooting, at least until nearly the end of the battle, and it all takes a long time. That will have to be handled carefully, if it is kept in, because it involves a lot of waiting and maneuvering, which might be a drag even though in the book it was suspenseful, but in the movie it might be tediously boring.

There is one "land" battle with almost all the action taking place in interior spaces. And there is the fight in the Protector's Palace, which would be highly choreographed, very fast and violent. And then there is the rest of the movie which is fascinating in the book, but how will it play on the screen? That is why I said the Europa Report was worth looking at.

Just coming home from the cinema - Elysium.

Nice flick, although it contained plotholes the size of Jupiter.

Anyway, there was one scene which made me thinking about the upcoming Honorverse movie:

We're already talking about carrying out the space battle with proper distance, with no sound, etc... but we're hardly ever talking about the dirtside action.

MWW is always going to great lengths in describing how violently a human body reacts when being hit by, for example, a flechette gun (with violently actually being an understatement).
Therefore Star Wars- and Star Trek-like gunfights are a big no-no - people being hit by laser pointers and dropping dead, with some smoke if it was a REALLY heavy gun.

Anyway, in Elysium there was one scene where Max was using a "CHEM RAIL" (whatever that may be) to shoot an opponent (through a corner, nonetheless!). And this looked absolutely like the gorey firefights I'm envisioning when I'm reading MWW's description thereof...

There is a movie rating issue with gore. Not sure exactly how it works, but notice that PG and PG-13 movies might have people dying, but they don't have blood spraying all over the set and other actors or bloody chunks of bodies stuck to the ceiling.

clancy688 wrote:Just coming home from the cinema - Elysium.

Nice flick, although it contained plotholes the size of Jupiter.

Anyway, there was one scene which made me thinking about the upcoming Honorverse movie:

We're already talking about carrying out the space battle with proper distance, with no sound, etc... but we're hardly ever talking about the dirtside action.

MWW is always going to great lengths in describing how violently a human body reacts when being hit by, for example, a flechette gun (with violently actually being an understatement).
Therefore Star Wars- and Star Trek-like gunfights are a big no-no - people being hit by laser pointers and dropping dead, with some smoke if it was a REALLY heavy gun.

Anyway, in Elysium there was one scene where Max was using a "CHEM RAIL" (whatever that may be) to shoot an opponent (through a corner, nonetheless!). And this looked absolutely like the gorey firefights I'm envisioning when I'm reading MWW's description thereof...

That's because Elysium is thankfully an R-rated movie (a rarity these days, but that might be changing), which allows for that kind of stuff. PG-13 on the other hand gets you Star Wars and Star Trek and Marvel comic movie-style action. I'm really hoping Evergreen has the guts to make the HotQ movie R-rated, 'cuz then we can get the Saving Private Ryan-style action of the books, but will probably be PG-13 for more general appeal.