Vavasseur cannon painting process

Despite de light drizzle today in Lima, the cannon paiting process went along fine. I commissioned Cesar who -apart from being an extra in the film- is a painter, to take care of the painting process. He recommended not to do it under rain, even a drizzle like today, but the porous finish it gives it is exactly what I'm looking for. I don't want the cannon to look smooth and glossy (it looks shiny in the pictures because the paint was fresh but its more like a matte color in the end).

This is the main body plus the long neck that is able to come out in order to put the blast charge inside.
Now that it looks painted, it resembles more like a period cannon.

Apart from being huge it is quite a look alike of a real 250 lb. Vavasseur.
Now, I'm not bothered by any scratches happening on the way to the top of the Morro Solar where the battle scenes are gonna be for up there I'll even give it a more beaten up and aged look. Make it look used, so to speak.

So far...so good. :)

Vavasseur ready for painting

Today, the new Vavasseur cannon was brought to the painting place to start on Thursday.
Quickly, the cannon was built on the support wooden sides and checked for balance. Didn't take off the plastic wrapping as these days, the humidity and rain is becoming an issue and is starting to rust the metal. Because of the extra thick casing shell inside the long neck (that forms a compartment that is going to be used for actual firing special FX) the nose tends to dive down faster than the back.

This is gonna be fixed by attaching a heavier piece in the back hidden under and a hook in order to keep it pointing upwards depending on the firing direction. The rest of the firing explosion will be added digitally in post.

So far, it does looks huge just like the 250lb. Vavasseur in actual scale. With the painting it will simply look amazing.

Can't wait to see it painted and test the firing mechanism!!

Chiclayo conference - 2DP

So, this week is basically full of meetings and pre-production work to gather all stuff required for the next big scene: the Morro, Bolognesi's and Ugarte's immolation.

It is required a lot of things in that scene, no wonder it's taking a lot of days to prepare, specially when the army is so busy now getting ready for a new president entering office soon.

A few weeks back, I was invited by the University of Sipan in Chiclayo to do a conference for their Communication Sciences career department to talk about my career as a filmmaker and also about the film. Today, I'm finally flying there and the conference is scheduled for tomorrow.

Among all the stressful situation's being lived lately, I see this flight as chance to renew a bit and to get in touch again with the academic side and recall the times when I taught in Inictel some years ago.

UPDATE: The conference called 2DP was smooth. It all went pretty well and the atmosphere was in general very appealing and of much sharing. The students were very interested on what was said regarding film-making advices and tech experience and afterwards was flooded by people with questions for more info. Next day it all continued with a local TV interview.

Thank you Francisco Barquero - a great guy, also his wonderful staff and the Universidad de Sipán for a great time and offer to teach your students the ins and outs of this wonderful but hard field that is film-making.

Shooting more footage for the Alto del Alianza battle

Shooting more footage and takes in Ancon outside of Lima for the film's opening scenes of the Alto del Alianza battle.
Moving such quantity of people, many cannons, rifles and horses has been quite hard on my wallet but it adds up to the film's strength.

Peruvian soldiers like the Husares and Chilean soldiers like the Cazadores del Desierto were finally shown together with Bolivian Colorados and Aroma.

Vavasseur cannon almost done. Parrot still on the way.

As the Vavasseur and Parrot cannons' contruction continues I get so excited to see all coming to shape. The base of both cannons are done and just needs some touch-ups and finishing/painting. The 250 lb. Vavasseur is a bit smaller than the 500 lb one in Callao near and outside the Real Felipe fortress. The size of the one in Arica is what I'm going for. Transportation and being able to dismantle and construct it again is the key here and also shape accuracy.

Compared to pictures taken while there at the top of the morro in Arica, this thing is quite big.
So excited to see it almost done finally!!

Cannons building progress

The last days it's been quite of heavy working and preparing all for the next weeks' battle scenes in Ancon and in the Morro Solar.

The cannon's contruction is progressing and decided finally to make the tube in metal instead of wood as the base will be for I want to make it fire by preparing a channel pathway inside for the explosives and powder. Thought of doing it in post with computer-generated smoke and fire but I'll try to have it live and for real also. Let's see what happens. It's gonna end up being heavy still but compared to the 18 tons of pure iron in the real ones, it's worth the effort. Even if I wanted I don't think I'd be able to transport the real one up to the top of the Morro and back. Lol!! So this is the deal now.

Dropped by Callao yesterday to take more measurements of the one near the bay to have it as exact as possible. Even if it's a 500 lb Blakely, the Vavasseur one was a bit smaller at 250 lbs. but the shape and form holds similarities. I think at least one of the biggest Vavasseur cannon will be finished by the weekend. One has to be around, in person and putting a lot of pressure on the workers as they tend to stall as it's been noticed. Dislike that attitude but...that's how it works around here. Will take more pics soon.

Horses, horses

Went to check again the location for the Elmore capture and imprisonment.
As stated in history, he tried to blow up 50 cavalry and soldiers sent by Baquedano to check on th railway conditions so he could send the whole chilean army down to Arica from Tacna via train and Elmore's mission was to blow up the railroad to delay the advance of the chileans.

While in Chacalluta valley up north of Arica, he stumbled upon the bunch of horses and soldiers and tried to blow them up and after it he was captured.

Now this is a perfect location and also am happy for I got myself 40 horses with riders and a bunch of soldiers to shoot these scenes. The remaining ten will be computer generated.

July 7, a glorious day.

A day like today, July 7, 131 years ago, 1900 Peruvians reached glory defending our nation's honor under the premise to fight until the end, with bravery, with pride, protecting our soil firing up to the last cartridge. New history is written now, gentlemen. Let's make of the sacrifice and legacy that our heroes left for us - normal human beings like you and I that did what few do nowadays- worth their effort. May whoever is upfront of our nation now lead us to a country of peace, growth, education, health and knowledge so we can value this land we are standing on and learn once and for all that we are bigger than our ordeals. Viva el PERU!!

Vavasseur and Parrot cannons construction

After some days of shuffling the idea and doing some budgeting, decided to build from scratch two cannons to take and place at the top of the Morro Solar to be the artillery pointing at the ocean under Guillermo More's command: a huge 250 lbs. Vavasseur and a big 100 lbs. Parrot cannons.

Went today to show the carpenters some designs I was drawing and pictures I gathered around of the existing ones today in museums. It will be up to real scale so they will end up being huge. The tricky part will be to make them be easily disassembled to transport it all the way to the top of the Morro Solar and assemble them there and back.

I'll be dropping by the workshop often to supervise construction as those cannons are antique now and avoid construction errors regarding design.