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Did I
mention the cold? After our short soundstage tour, the visit became mostly an
exterior shoot. As we headed to the outdoor sets, it became clear that my winter
jacket would not protect me from what residents of the Pacific Northwest
regularly experience when humidity and near-freezing temperatures meet. I
believe the phrase is akin to "cold that seeps into your bones." But I digress.
It's the "Watchmen" sets! The joy of seeing this masterwork
come to life overshadows any personal discomfort! Right?
Arriving on the New York stage, we met Zack Snyder, who was shooting an iconic sequence from the novel in which angry citizens, fed up with supervigilantes (our heroes) acting as law enforcement while the police are on strike, are protesting and close to riot mode. As we watch the scene progress, an actor playing a protester picks up a Molotov cocktail and throws it into a storefront window. A huge (and loud) fireball comes straight at the camera. It looked cool without viewing the video playback, but Snyder wasn't satisfied and they set the shot up again.
In the meantime, only 100 or so feet away, Wilson and Malin Akerman, the second incarnations of Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, are shooting a second-unit scene in their characters' "secret" identities. Again, it's freezing, but, while Akerman sits in a cab, Wilson talks to her under an umbrella as a rain machine pours on him. He later tells us it's the second night in a row he's been under the rain machine and thanks the thermals provided by the costume department.
Before we returned to see more of Zack Snyder and his fireballs, Deborah Snyder took us on a little detour to see something really special: Nite Owl's Owlship. Now, while many productions may have created a prop like this in post, the director insisted on creating a real version of the iconic flying vehicle.
Just completed, the ship was used a few nights later during an expanded shot of the riot scene being filmed across the way. The ship can't actually fly, of course, but a crane and wires suspended it when needed.
Deborah Snyder tells us that the life-size prop weighs four and a half tons (it looks it) and, "It's practical inside and out. It's fully dressed inside, including the coffee maker. But we had to take a lot of the stuff out to actually suspend it."
Walking into the ship is pretty damn cool. It is, however, made of real metal and has lots of sharp edges (just like in the novel). It makes you wonder how the occasional turbulence doesn't hurt real superheroes, let alone the actors playing them.
A reporter suggests to Deborah Snyder that they should bring the ship to Comic-Con for the fans, and while, at the time, the convention was eight months away, she alludes that it's under consideration. Snyder or her husband listened, because that July it was on display for every fan at the event to geek out over.
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