RocketJump

NAIL HOUSE Day #1 - Soda Gag

Movie magic in the form of Matthew Arnold sitting in a box with two jugs of pressurized water.

NAIL HOUSE Opening Ceremony

Well, this is kinda funny to be posting in hindsight considering the illness we are trying to contain on set, but hey next time we'll make a better offering to the film gods!!

Regarding daily recaps, we're pivoting a bit because our BTS extraordinaire Justin (he also does the awesome Daddies docs) is on set with us for the full day, meaning turnaround on downloading and editing a recap is tight. That being said, we're gonna be uploading frequent clips throughout each day to show you how...

NAIL HOUSE - Pre-Light Day #2

It was a day of creative problem-solving as we got our last prep day buttoned up. Today's the big day with full crew and cast so wish us luck and safe stunts!

NAIL HOUSE - Pre-Light Day #1

It's the official-ish start to Nail House production! Here's the recap of our first pre-light day! We've got another pre-light tomorrow, with the all-caps OFFICIAL Day #1 happening on Wednesday. Stay tuned :)

PS - Matt's been up in that discord with regular updates. Catch his canned stove aging process and our eleventh hour stamping issues over there if you haven't already!

Production Walk-Through

Right after our last production meeting, we had our directors run through the entire scene with our available department heads. For some of them, this was their first time on set so seeing the scene play out "visually" was a much more efficient way of conveying crucial info, as well as giving them an avenue to ask questions!

NAIL HOUSE Production Meeting

Hey folks, it's shoooting week. We're on pre-light days at the moment with stunt team working out their choreo on site and Camera and G&E getting the set ready.

So what's this production meeting video? Well for the last few weeks, we've been doing a Monday morning round-up of department goals and needs; this was last week's meeting when we were able to get more department heads in person. If you like sitting through meetings in real time, this will be for you lol.

After this,...

Fist through smoke

A late night session where we figure out how to do a cool shot of a fist punching through a wall of smoke.

Matt, despite vocal opposition from me, found the workable solution. The smoke generator is a SmokeNinja (which I heard about through my still photography channels).

Box Car Lighting Walkthrough

We got two for ya today! Walk through the box car with Matt, Freddie, and our DP Bongani Mlambo (who also DPed We're All Gonna Die!) as they talk through making this stationary set look like a rocking box car on the rails.

Freddie's Training - Week One

Little bonus look at Freddie's starting point after the merciless daily four-hour training sessions with Yung. The man is le tired.

First Look at Wardrobe

The first day of wardrobe came in from Layne (our excellent and frequent wardrobe collaborator, who has been with Matt and I since VGHS and everything since). These pieces are so we can get an early fitting with the stunt guys, as stunt wardrobe has additional considerations with regards to qualities of fabric ("stretchy enough for big kicks" one of the chief among them).

Shoes, especially, are of particular concern, as stunt people would have difficulty performing acrobatic maneuvers o...

Action Chat w/ Yung, Matt, and Freddie

Action designer Yung sits down (in person, finally!) with Matt and Freddie as they talk about some of their philosophies behind Freddie's rigorous training and the action sequences we're putting together.

Department heads are filtering in. Next week we've got a video of our DP Bongani Ylambo talking lighting plans on the train car set with Matt and Freddie.

The Wannabe Stunt Man Experience

I have become reacquainted with my body in new, excitingly uncomfortable ways.

My training regimen, per Yung (who privately pulled Matt aside and, in grave tones, told him it would take a full month to whip my doughy ass into reasonable shape after our session in London) consists of two-hour session of training in the morning and afternoon, Monday through Friday. Thursday afternoons are skipped, to allow for a bit more recovery time.

The week breaks down as follows: Monday is legs...

Box Car Time-Lapse

Gaze upon roughly a week's worth of labor in under 90 seconds! Our production designer Jonathan Denmark set up a couple of GoPros and we supplemented with our own to create this awesome time-lapse of the box car going up. Big props to him and his team for putting this set together and Freddie for putting this video together. Coming soon: training and cinematography updates!

The Box Car Set

Let’s take a quick tour of the finished box car set. Our production did a wonderful job breaking in our stage space and I figured it was worth highlighting some of the practical considerations for the set.

I actually did a LIVE VIDEO WALKTHROUGH for our Platinum patreons earlier this week. So you know, that’s one of the cool things you get at that level. They also got a walkthrough of my board game pile of shame.

Anyways. The set!

2024-11-01 20:59:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Production Diary: Training with Yung

We promised footage of Freddie training, we're delivering footage of Freddie training!!

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

Hey folks. Matt here!

You may know that Freddie and I were on a European tour for our podcast, Dungeons & Daddies, for the past few weeks. That is done now. And so hell begins!

Well, hell for Freddie. It’s gonna be pretty chill for me. But for Freddie, it’s time to get into fighting shape. The truth is that he is far fitter than the man writing this post (me), as he does rock climbing where I paint miniatures and has been gaining upper body strength doing aerials while I�...

Forming Movie LLCs

One of the first steps you take on the road to producing a movie is the formation of a dedicated corporate entity for the project, usually in the form of a Limited Liability Company or LLC (or GmbH if you're German.)

I should start by saying that I have no legal background, but I have hung around a lot of lawyers of different stripes, and according to them, the formation of an LLC for a film is generally considered “a good idea with numerous benefits” and “worth the $800 (!) a yea...

We have a train car door!

Progress!! And the walls have been specifically tested so that they can withstand Freddie's body being thrown against it allllll thhheee days.

Check out the pic of the build below too!!

The Train Car Build Begins!

Hey folks! Cherish here. While Matt and Freddie traverse Europe for the Daddies tour, the rest of us will be holding down the fort as things move forward. The big thing is the build for the train car set is starting this week!! Lumber has been delivered and we've got a great production designer on board; let's see if I can convince him to do a little interview with us. But the idea is that we'll have a train car up and ready to work out of by the time the dudes return to LA. Wild, right? Let'...

Tour of the New NAIL HOUSE HQ!

Join us as we sort through the old storage space, wade through the much-discussed board game piles, and show off the shiny, new RocketJump warehouse, where Nail House will largely be shot!

Shout out to Justin for putting all these great videos together, and to Olivia for managing this epic move into the new space!

Yung Begins Training Freddie

Last week, Freddie began training with Yung for the strenuous action marathon that will be Nail House. Every morning at 10 AM, Yung gets on Discord and directs Freddie through stretches and his fighting form. And I do mean EVERY morning. I tried scheduling a meeting with Freddie during that time, and I was quickly greeted with a text telling me 10 AM is his "SACRED" time.

2024-09-19 23:26:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Move-in Day! We got our stage.

Hello, all you wonderful early supporters of this gonzo action comedy. We just wanted to let you all know we finally signed a lease and are currently moving into our stage space.

We will have a little video tour shortly, but we still wanted to share that today is the day!

You can see it's about 4500 sqft of warehouse space that we will use as our stage. MAMA WONG'S will eventually be built here, but first it will be the boxcar for our initial action scene.

The top floor is D...

Pitching: Dark Tales from the RocketJump Archives

A little presentation about RocketJump pitches!

RocketJump Pitches (Discord Presentation)

Hey folks,

We're doing a presentation on Discord this week! Matt, Freddie, and I will be bouncing around the server this Thurs 9/12 at 4 PM PST. The theme is pitching, so bring any and all questions on that front.

Matt and Freddie will try to share a handful of the pitch decks RocketJump has put together over the years too. In case you can’t make that time, we’re gonna record and upload the session here the next day. See ya on Thursday!

Cherish 2024-09-10 00:24:55 +0000 UTC View Post

Nail House RAW - Action Design Meetings

RAW! This is that rough, raw, unfiltered behind-the-scenes set of meetings we promised. Well, it's a little cooked. I've edited these meetings down to save time and your sanity as we ramble on about unrelated topics.

As we've discussed before, we are working towards shooting the Train Car fight scene before the end of the year. So our action designer Yung spent three days out in Toronto with a stunt team to do a first pass on the sequence.

Each night after their day of choreo, ...

In Defense of Skibidi Toilet

While we plug away at Nail House, I am sometimes motivated to write about stuff I'm seeing in the world of film (or in this case - online video). So this isn't a production update, but just a thing I've been thinking about:

Obsolescence is inevitable.

Lately, I’ve detected a stubborn resistance to this inevitability from my own cohort, the Elder Millennial. I think we Milennials are mor...

Why We Prioritized Location

As we fast approach locking down a warehouse, the guys dig into why one of the first things on the NAIL HOUSE pre-production list was to find a home base.

Production Update: Actions & Locations & Producers, Oh My!

Hey RJ Patrons,

Cogs and things are moving over here. Straightforward update for ya this week, but we should have some exciting visual things for you all next week. For now, here's the Cliff's Notes version of what Team Nail House is putting together:

• We signed a lease on a stage space! Huzzah! A tour should be in the wings very soon. From there, we'll get the area cleaned up (some bits from previous tenants are getting yeeted outta there) and geared up for pre-pro.

  ...

  2024-08-24 20:38:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Production Update - Fight Choreography Begins!

Action Choreography has officially started!

That's Yung Lee, action designer extraordinaire, with a team of stunt performers out in Toronto.

As you may have seen in our video meeting with Yung, we are looking at designing the Train Car fight scene from the first act of the movie. We are looking into the feasibility and benefits of shooting that entire sequence before the end of the year. Wheth...

Eating Dumplings Because Research

A glimpse at our first research outing, where we traverse the glorious San Gabriel Valley looking for Mama Wong's restaurant inspo. We also eat a lot of dumplings... for SCIENCE.

Also, Freddie goofs up his car with boba.

More in the pipeline about locations in the coming weeks!