Chapter 5

Three months later...

“Sam, how goes the programming of the robotics?” asked Joe Banks, the special effects coordinator for the movie.

“Ahead of schedule, I’ll be done with all the main sequences as mapped out by the end of the week,” I told him. “I’ll move on to the secondary sequences next and then all the background robots in case you don’t want to use CGI on those. I should be done everything in less than three weeks.”

“Really, that’s fantastic, I can’t wait to see what you’ve got,” Joe said.

“I can show you now if you want, I can link it to the screen if you give me a minute,” I responded.

“Sure, that would be great,” he said.

I saved my work, created a link to the big screen at the front of the room and then brought up the video that the team and I filmed yesterday with just the robots in the warehouse. The movie was a near future war film set in a bombed out US with the bulk of the combatants being robots and drones, controlled by small teams of humans fighting the invaders, a near human looking alien species. I thought the premise was a bit out there but the special effects would put people in the seats if they were good enough. My job was to program the robots that would be filmed up close for some of the battle scenes and then interacting with the humans. They didn’t want shiny CGI models but live physical robots to be filmed as they travelled across the various surfaces of the bombed out cities, shooting, dodging, being blown up. As such, each had to be controlled, some by humans remotely but most by programming. I was not only the lead programmer, but I was also going to be remotely controlling the main robots during some of the scenes.

The scene was of ten robots of one side travelling together up a ridge to get to their firing position, weaving their way through cracks in the ridge while dodging explosions all the way to the top. There were a mismatch of different types of robots, some on wheels, some with tracks and others on legs that looked humanoid. The remaining robots, now only seven on the good guy’s side, immediately launched missiles and then commenced shooting lasers at the opposition, who dodged or got hit, all the while shooting back at them. Obviously, the explosions and the destruction weren’t real as this wasn’t the final shot, but the robots fell over, staggered or at least stopped at their mark if they were meant to be destroyed. The various cameras captured their movements from all angles and distances so the clips could be spliced together however the coordinator, directors and editors wanted to show the scene.

“Jesus, Sam, that looks really good,” Joe said as he moved to stand closer to the screen after the four minute clip ended. “We add sound, explosions and the dust and dirt flying everywhere and it will look just like we want it to. That looks like a genuine battle. Great work to you and your team.”

“Thanks Joe, I’ll pass it on,” I told him. “I’m sure someone will want things changed a bit but it shouldn’t be too hard, especially if we’re given some notice. Once we’re done all the robot scenes, is there something else you want us to move to?”

“That’s it for robotics, so your team will be done except for any changes and post production work,” Joe told me. “You’re the first group done so that’s good for me and the film but not so great for your team. I’ll see if there is anything else we can use you guys for but unless you can do stunt work, that may be all for this film.”

“Stunt work?” I asked.

“We’re really behind on a lot of the human fight scenes, our stunts have the added complexity of being in destroyed cities so we’re finding it hard to get enough people with the right mix of fight knowledge and adaptability to move through the uneven sets in some of the scenes,” Joe explained.

“Well, I’ve got a couple of black belts and working on a third if you think that would help,” I told him. “I also am very good at those shooting range courses that the police and army practice at.”

“Really, not all brain?” he asked.

“Think of me as a nice combination of both,” I said with a grin. “Not sure if any my skills would fit in, but I’m willing to help if you think it might be an answer.”

“I’m not sure but let me think about it while you finish up here,” Joe said. “Great work on this so far and I can’t wait to see it all together.”

“Me too,” I responded.

He left the room and I continued my work, putting in extra time to get things done just in case he wanted me to help in the stunt work.

My new identity, Sam Rollins, had me with blonde hair and glasses with expertise in computer programing, robotics and in animation, which had gotten me a job at Axial Special Effects Company. They did it all for the movie industry, from animation, robotics, CGI and even fight coordination. This was my second assignment after my first one went well. I had a small apartment in Glendale, close enough to where we were located and near enough some of the studios that we worked at. I was enjoying the new job and the new city for the most part as the weather was great. The smog and the traffic wasn’t great but I got to avoid a lot of it by using the side streets to get to where I had to go.

With the money I received from the JP Morgan/Chase bank, a cool four hundred thousand before taxes, I was able to even afford a used SUV and a decent apartment. I had to have my contact do some magic to get the money from my Dylan Forester account into digital currency and then slip it into a few accounts that I could drain for cash as required with one off transactions. A few more, with bigger balances, were kept at various banks around California and other nearby states if I needed to run again. My new job paid well enough that I didn’t have to raid the accounts for now.

For the next couple of weeks I kept busy finishing off the robot scenes and even controlled some of the robots in specific scenes where programming wasn’t worth the time. I had forgotten about my offer to Joe by the time my team was wrapping up our time at the studio for this film and we would moving on to another project. We had all chipped in for a couple of king sized pizzas and some beers for our going away party when Joe came into the room to thank us again.

“Hey guys, thanks for doing such great work, the scenes are going to make the movie I think,” he said.

We all thanked him and offered him a beer and some pizza, which he graciously accepted. Everyone talked about different things, the scenes, the movie, other movies that they had worked on while the food and drink was rapidly disappearing. Finally, everyone packed up their stuff and we cleaned up the room and made sure we left our area clean.

“Sam, you have a minute before you leave?” Joe asked as I was about to head out last.

“Sure, what’s up Joe?” I asked.

“Remember you offered to help out with some of the stunt work a couple of weeks ago?” he asked.

“Yeah, you still need some help?” I asked.

“We sure do, we’re falling farther behind and the scenes in the can look like crap,” he admitted. “I’d like you to come in tomorrow morning to building C and we’ll see if you can help out. Some of the guys might not take it well but we’re losing stunt guys, time and getting nowhere. I don’t know what you can do but I’m grasping at straws and your work here shows you’ll put in all the time and more to make it work.”

“Sure, I’ll come in,” I told him. “What time and what do I need to bring?”

“Come in at seven and just wear regular clothes, we’ll provide everything you’ll need,” Joe answered as he handed me a pass to wear around my neck and a card. “That will get you through the gate and the card will let you park in the lot around building C. I’ll have a contract for you to sign and it will include insurance and a daily rate along with extra pay for the stunts you actually do.”

“Sounds good, I’ll see you there before seven,” I told him as I shook his hand. “Thanks for the extra work, it sounds like it will be challenging.”

“Definitely, and thanks for agreeing, I hope we can get things on track,” Joe said as we left the room and walked out of the building we were in.

We parted ways and I left the VTM studios lot. It was an up and coming studio, specializing in action and sci-fi feature films as well as TV series of uncommon excellence from such a new studio. After driving back to Glendale, I stopped into my Jujitsu dojo I had found and worked out for an hour before heading home for the night. I headed to bed early as I wanted to get there early to get a sense of what they needed and how I could help.

The next morning I was parked outside building C on the studio lot by six-thirty and inside a minute later after showing my pass. Joe was waiting for me with a grin.

“I thought you’d be early so I showed up early myself,” Joe said with a grin. “Come on and I’ll introduce you to the stunt coordinator and we’ll go over the scene they’re having problems with and then you can make some suggestions before giving it a run through. Sound good?”

“Okay with me,” I replied and followed him into a set of offices with a conference room.

I was introduced to Vince Atkinson, the stunt coordinator along with a couple other guys on the team. They weren’t hostile but not exactly happy to see me.

“Alright, let’s go over the scene and a video of what we’ve done so far,” Joe said.

Vince explained the scene with pics on a white board and then showed an overhead of the course the leader of the team was going to run through the aliens in a section of bombed out buildings in Los Angeles. Along the way he would have to fight off alien robots and various aliens to rescue his team captured while he was pulled out of the field by his asshole commander. They explained the camera locations, the places where the robots and the aliens would be while the stunt man would be running through cutouts of rooms, open streets, rooftops, basements and everything in between. They could break it up into several shots but the director wanted the run to have very little cutouts or breaks in the action for this specific scene. Then they got into the specific fight scenes they wanted to show. Some were against robots and were mostly laser guns vs robot lasers and guns while the most epic would be the physical fights against the aliens. Again, some were just shooting while others battled with swords and then hand to hand against the bigger and stronger aliens. Finally they showed me a spliced together video of what they had so far. The course was run by three separate guys first, with no action other than dummies standing where the fighting would occur. It was a tough course and they were all panting when they were done with the five minute run. Two of them hurt themselves during the run and the third was not in great shape. They then split up the course into four areas and had others attempt the action sequences, running and shooting the alien robots, another gun fight with the aliens, a running sword versus a bar of steel picked up from the ground and finally a final epic battle, a no holds barred martial arts fight against the leader.

“Wow, that is some sequence, even broken down into four separate scenes,” I told them.

“It certainly is but if we can pull it off, it will be the climax of the movie and really make or break the film,” Joe told me. “What part of it do you think you can do?”

“Oh, I can do all of it, but I’ll need to practice it in the four segments for a bit before we try to do it all at once,” I said. “I’d like to run the course first and then try it again with just some targets to shoot at and then work up to the fight scenes. How much time to we have to get this done?”

“We’re behind all ready but we can give you a couple of weeks to get ready for it, once we see that you can actually run the course and then see how you do with some fight scenes,” Vince said. “You look in shape but its not the same as just jogging once in a while.”

“Well, let’s see what I can do with the course and then the shooting portion before we get to the fighting scenes,” I suggested. “Do you have the clothes I should be wearing so you can film it from the get-go just in case something looks good?”

“Sure, we can get you outfitted properly,” Joe answered. “At the beginning you’ll be wearing a helmet but that will come off early on. The actor has dark hair so we’ll have to dye your hair first and give you some stubble for a beard until you can grow yours out.”

“Alright, let’s get busy,” I said.

I was sent to a makeup chair and got my hair dyed, almost to my original hair colour, and then a fake tan and even darker colour along my jaw to fake the beard and mustache stubble were added. Finally, wardrobe fit me with a combat uniform, with fake armour and matching boots and a helmet. There was an ear piece so Vince could talk to me to guide me along the way. After an hour and a half I was finally ready to go. Vince led me to the starting point of the course, the rooftop of a two storey building that looked ready to collapse at any time.

“Don’t worry, it’s built a lot stronger than it looks,” he told me. “Alright Sam, you slide down the collapsed roof down to the street level and then take the second corner left and go straight until the targets pop up, battle there and then dive into the building on the right and race through the basement and up into the main floor of the next one. Everything is marked and lit enough for you to see where you’re going but not bright as the electricity is supposed to be off in the city. We’ll pop up robots or aliens you’re supposed to shoot at along the way until you get to where you have to fight a couple with a bar you’ll have to pick up. Once you get through them, you run into their headquarters, kill a few more and then fight the leader, who is getting ready to do nasty things to your team.”

“Alright, it’s going to take a few practice runs to get all of that straight, but I’ll try my best,” I said. “Do I just jump off the end and land on my feet or do a drop and roll to get up on my feet, maybe dodging fire already?”

“Do what feels natural to start and we can modify things after we look at the film,” he suggested.

“Alright, let me know when to go,” I said as I put on my game face and stood on the edge, holding a prop gun pointing down to the ground in one hand.

Vince backed away, spoke in his walkie talkie and then counted down from ten, giving instructions to start the cameras before he said action instead of zero. I jumped feet first, sliding down the metal roof and decided to try to land on my feet at the end. My momentum was too fast and I felt myself pitching forward so I turned it into a drop and roll and popped up running. I kept my pace a quick run to start and then took the corner too fast, jumping onto the far wall to make the turn instead of crashing into it. I got back on course and then faked shooting at a couple of robots while on the run before diving into the building, simulating crashing through a large plate window of an abandoned store.