Ender's Game and Music

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We've told you about the Ender's Game lasertag booth on Gamescom in Cologne last weekend, but we didn't tell you about the big party they pulled off there in Germany. It's amazing how different they are promoting the film in Europe from what we have seen so far in the U.S. - it's all action, party and fun!

The German distributor Constantin Film organized the Gamescom event and they gave away plenty of promo items, including the energy drinks you see on the left, served in unique Ender's Game cans. And when there were no lasertag battles running they had a big party going on with live music from Kid Chris as you can see in the video below, released by Constantin Film.

The crowd seemed to have a blast, and if they now associate 'excitement' and 'action' with Ender's Game then the promotion was very effective. As a bonus, German audience will now be able to see the film eight days earlier than folks in the U.S. as the German release date was moved up one week to October 24.



We know that Steve Jablonsky is scoring the movie, but that doesn't mean other popular artists can't pick up the theme and release their own, unofficial music for Ender's Game - a pop culture icon for more than 20 years.

One of those artists is Kid Darkness, a California D.J. who has previously worked with Will.I.Am and David Guetta. He just released a new dubstep/electro track titled Ender's Game, produced by French masterminds Daft Punk (Around The World, Get Lucky). Check it out below.

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Set Visit: 20 Exciting Props From the "Ender's Game" Movie

Last May, prop master Don Miloyevich gave us a detailed run down on all the Ender's Game props - and some really interesting tidbits about their use in the film.

Here's fun fact #1: Theresa Wiggin, Ender's mother, tries to send her son away to Battle School with his grandfather's St. Christopher medal, but Graff refuses to let him take it with him. No personal items are allowed as they don't want the students to have even more reasons to become homesick.

But if they're not allowed personal items, how exactly do they play baseball in the space station?

© Summit Entertainment

They used a plastic tube they had found and some rolled up socks! Makes whoever caught the ball look a little less impressive, doesn't it?

Here's the prop rundown!

Desk Pad: The desk is used by the students in Battle School for homework, research, and a trip into the school's psychological evaluation program, the Mind Game - though the props themselves are not actual computers. They used different gels on the screens to indicate what the kids are supposed to be working on in the scene, plus a simple blue screen when the VFX team needed to add in visuals later. It also comes with a storage bag!

"Sold separately," Bob Orci winked.

Monitor: This was an actual prop, not just digitally added-in as most probably imagined. Miloyevich pointed out where the monitor would light up in a pale blue ring. To remove the monitor, a German surgical robot opens it up and yanks it out of the back of his neck and essentially his brainstem. Yikes!

Bugger Mask: Peter makes Ender put on this mask at the Wiggin family home and uses the "Buggers and Astronauts" game as an excuse to beat up his little brother on a regular basis.

Cubify 3d Printer used in Ender's Game

Cubify 3D Printer: This printer, designed by 3D Systems, is making its cinematic debut in the Ender's Game film. It was also featured at the end of the experience at Comic-Con.

Space Ship and Mobile: These were both designed using the 3D printer mentioned above -- a Formic space ship and a mobile which depict's Mazer's battle with the Formics.

It's easy imagine why these would be attractive for young kids of the time period to hang in their rooms.


Zero-G Barf Bag: "He then makes his way to battle school where someone throws up and we have our Zero G barf bags." We now know that this was Alai played by Suraj Partha -- his barf bag was featured in the Ender's Game experience!

Flash gun © Ender News

Flash Guns: "It takes a couple seconds for them to charge up and then you hit where the hammer would be for them to flash -- and of course digitally they will add in a nice electron particle beam."

---> Fun Fact #2: We found out that Salamander Army plays a dorm game with the flash gun. The gun is made out of ten different pieces, and all the soldiers have a contest to see who can take it apart and put it back together again the fastest. Some of the kids got really good at it!

The Hook: Graff uses this device to pull the kids in from Zero-G. He simply waves them in or out of the Battle Room with a short arm movement.

Petra's Target Balls: She uses these in a Battle Room practice session to teach Ender how to "shoot straight." After tossing them out into the room, they digitally expand and light up when you hit them.

I.F. Rings: All the big International Fleet "swells" wore I.F. rings to inflate their already humongous egos.

Grooming Kit: A prop which Asa Butterfield was allowed to keep, this box was stored in their lockers and filled with "the most interesting stuff [they] could find" -- a bit more exciting than toothbrushes, we're guessing.

Pneumatic Injection Gun: This absolutely terrifying gun is used in a scene in which Ender is very upset and needs to be sedated. We bet you can imagine which scene we're talking about!

© Summit Entertainment

Virtual Reality Helmets: Also used for the drone operators, these helmets are worn by the young cadets in the film -- their faces were digitally replaced in post-production.

Oxygen Tank: There's not much oxygen on Eros, so these are used whenever the cadets and I.F. personell need to journey outside. Ender also uses this tank later for another purpose -- but you'll have to wait for the film to find out what!

Kris Vector: "A .45 caliber. Basically what we couldn’t make we tried to find what was the newest thing on the market, what was in prototype, what people mostly haven’t seen before."

G Suit and Vest: Made originally for the Joint Strike Fighter, the suit and vest were on loan from the manufacture.

Gentex Helmet: Super fancy helmet by GenTtx! Through head-mounted displays actually in the helmet, pilots can now track things using only their eyes as well as target multiple targets. Also includes night-vision!

Wrist-worn Computers: Another prop used in the film after a search for new products on the market.

Raft: Okay, so we didn't actually get to SEE this but Don Miloyevich mentioned that it was sitting out in the parking lot. As we all know, it was used in the scene when Ender meets Valentine after heading back to Earth.

--> Fun Fact #3: In the film, this lakehouse seems to be called the veterans' retreat, a place for retired soldiers or people who have possibly been injured and quit the program, a bit of speculation backed-up by Milovevich's comment, "We had some great exo-skeletons and bionic arms, fancy wheelchairs for the people that were in the scene there."

The raft, you guys. It was just out in the parking lot. Does anyone want to go see if it's still there?

--

Don't forget to also check out today's interview with costume designer Christine Bieselin Clark!

Coming Monday: Press conference interview with the cast

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Set Visit #3 - Costume Designer Christine Bieselin Clark

If you were to ask the young cast members what their favorite costume was in Ender's Game, a lot of them would most likely say the pajamas.

"Those kids!" laughed Clark. "Let's just say when you put a bunch of kids in flash suits for weeks on end, then you're like, 'Now you get to go to the dorms, everyone get in bed. Put your pajamas on.' Of course they thought they were the best things ever. They were like, 'We don't have to wear our flash suits anymore, yes!'"

It makes you really feel for them.

Flash Suits

During our visit to the set in May of last year, Ender's Game costume designer Christine Bieselin Clark invited us into her office. After dodging some interns pushing carts of flight suits, we ascended some stairs and entered a room that was wall-to-wall headshots, army badges, and flash suits propped up in random corners. Little notes accompanied many of the pictures: "Kyle Clements, young Mazer Rackham" or "Payton Bourgeois, Eros, Sim Group A."

It's not hard to imagine the first thing we discussed.

The flash suits were created, as last year's production blog put it, "entirely out of thin air." The fabric was also original, designed by the film's production team to create something functional yet futuristic. The team worked hard to imagine a suit that would look sleek and attractive yet would still allow the young actors to move fluidly in a simulated null-G environment.

And then they had to tackle another problem: Asa Butterfield's growth spurt. How did they deal with the issue of scores of teenagers growing out of their flash suits?

"The suit is designed in two pieces and the design of the pants extends up underneath the jacket. So if you start growing and your jacket starts creeping up there is still something going on there. And the way the boots overlay the pant leg and the gloves the arm, it was all designed that so if we had those fluctuations we could make concessions for them quickly instead of, 'Oh my God, we have to make Asa a new flash suit. For tomorrow.' That would have been awful."

They ended up constructing around 78 flash suit helmets for the film, all custom-fit to the principle actors and complete with built-in fans to to keep the kids from overheating. Since the fans created noise that sometimes disrupted filming, they could be turned off and on as needed by a remote-control device the production team carried around. "It was like a key ring with a bunch of car clickers on it," Clark smiled. "We'd walk around, and everyone had a little label on there so we knew who we were able to turn on and off."

© Summit Entertainment

The helmets were designed in 3 parts: the  base, the visor, and the mandible. All fitting together magnetically, they were designed to be taken apart and worn with or without the visor as the reflections would sometimes interfere with CGI and camera work. On the back of the helmets you can spot the individual army's insignia -- which will look multidimensional on the big screen but is really just a sticker.

"They are decals actually," revealed Clark. "We painted the whole helmet and then we did this clear decal, but again, because you don't want it to seem flat or boring, we did 12 ink passes on the emblem so that it stood up slightly." However, we won't be seeing all 8 army insignia on flash suits in the film; only 4 versions of army flash suits were actually created to be used in Battle Room scenes.

"They all were exactly the same look, we just created different armor and helmets to represent the teams. You didn't want that feeling of something being so cute, you know, when you get a lot of colors going like that and they're all kind of poppy, it seems so adorable, which isn't really the tone of this film that we're going for," she laughed.

When it came to actually choosing the colors for the different armies, Clark and the production team used the concept of "dusty jewels" -- deep, vibrant tones muted slightly by a layer of grey, or "dust." The identifying colors were added sparingly to the helmets and suits to help distinguish the individual armies in the Battle Room without distracting the audience with color.

Military Uniforms

To create a timeless and decidedly un-American uniform for the International Fleet, Clark looked to military uniforms throughout history from countries all over the world. They wanted simple, clean style lines and mixed together pieces from different time periods to create something future-forward.

"If you think about fashion, fashion is repetitive: there are style lines that you see now that you can point to the 60s or the 80s and say, 'Oh, that's from that time period, but it's present-tense.' So to create something for the future, even the military, we borrowed significant style lines from all different time periods to create something that your mind would say, 'Oh, that's the future, but it's identifiable in some way.'"

But even though it's the future, they didn't want the suits to be flashy.

"Gavin's idea from the beginning was that the costumes really shouldn't jump out at you - they have to kind of be the backdrop for the faces and the performances, so there's a lot of subtlety in the things that we did."

© Ender News

Some of you eagle-eyed fans might have noticed a while back that each of the flight suits and BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) carry a name tag with the character's last name in braille. What you might not have known is that the braille is not embossed -- it's debossed, or inverted.

"We created a dot matrix code, and we used that as a point of reference, so it was really..." Clark paused. "We wanted to have something that, again, doesn't apply to something now but is still grounded in some kind of reality. So we wanted to use a dot pattern instead of a bar code, so it was scannable, but not the way that we would scan things now."

Females in Battle School

It's already very noticeable that the Battle School of the film admits far more girls than were admitted in the book. Since a lot of the movie is set at a military academy, did Clark have to make effort to make sure they didn't sexualize the female characters?

"Absolutely," Clark agreed instantly.  "Especially with Valentine, because you want that relationship to be a very pure emotional relationship, but if Valentine starts seeming sexy in some way, you just mess the whole thing up. You want people to watch the characters and see the innocence of these kids for who they were in that moment so that their humanity is present. So you identify with them as young people instead of sexualized people. You want her to be adorable, loving and charming instead of like 'Ooh, doesn't Valentine look hot?' And I mean they're attractive and I'm sure that there will be plenty of fans who are like 'Petra looked hot!' but not because we overtly did that to her."

We hung out a little while after the interview, chatting about stuff on her walls and how the army badges would be excellent for merchandizing. Everyone agreed that temporary tattoos would be a big hit and Clark joked about contacting "the Happy Meal people" as we were walking out the door for our tour of the props.

But wait! What about the Formics?

"I am not costuming an alien in this movie. That is my final answer."

Producer Bob Orci looked up from his phone. "What?"

"I have not put a costume on an alien."

"No, no, cause we wanted the aliens sexualized.

"The plunging neckline! We’re working on that."

--
Don't forget to also check out today's report on the 20 Exciting Props From the Ender's Game Movie!

Coming Monday: Press conference interview with the cast!

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Set Visit Report #2: Interview With Director Gavin Hood

© Ender News

As far as directors go, Gavin Hood seems to be the perfect choice for a film which requires working with a fleet of young actors. He's the kind of guy who could be your neighbor, one who'd play soccer with your kid and grin winningly from the ground after he tripped over his own feet. I've heard him described by those who spent time on the Ender's Game set as a "grown-up kid" and "our very own Peter Pan." He's likable, unassuming, and has a charming tendency to throw his hands up in the air when he's talking.

He is also a man filled with a deep passion for his work and an understanding of film adaptations that comes not only from him being a brilliant director and scriptwriter, which he is, but because he is first and foremost a fan of the material. And it's his fan side that seems to be what fuels his desire to get Ender's Game right, not just for box office numbers -- but for us.

On the day of our set visit, he snuck quietly into the press conference toward the end of our talk with a few of the film's stars, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and Nonso Anozie. He looked a little like he wasn't quite meant to be there, standing smiling off to the side of the room while Asa told of his first meeting with Orson Scott Card, admitting that he hadn't had many questions for the author; it was Card, rather, who had the questions for him.

"He hasn't read his books for a long time. He was checking with the kids," Hood quipped, to roaring laughter.

"Gavin Hood, everyone."

© Summit Entertainment

The first question everyone saw coming: What's Hood's favorite sci-fi film? Unsurprisingly, it's 2001 A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, a film which he claims influenced his decision to direct Ender's Game.

"I've always been a big fan of Kubrick, and on some level, that's what attracted me to this movie. You have these amazing visual opportunities that are big and epic and beautiful -- and you're in space. It's literally awe-inspiring. And if you watch, if you spend a lot of time watching footage that's been shot on the Hubble telescope, you get all those fantastic, big visuals. And of course there is the Battle Room and they do all this wonderful stuff - you're in the Battle School and you get all this zero-gravity stuff at the same time."

He could have probably talked Kubrick forever, and to be honest, we would have let him. However, it was then that several of the supporting cast members popped in -- Ender's jeesh.

"Come on, you are all kids," he grinned. "This is much more important."

After a lot of laughing and rearranging of the seats, the cast gathered around their director and Nonso Anozie brought us back to the topic at hand.

Physical Sets vs. CGI

"You know what's amazing? When you say 2001 A Space Odyssey, a lot of the sets, a lot of stuff which surprised me coming onto this film, are real built sets. They're real. You're not just looking at green screen all the time. There's a lot of reality there. And as an actor it's so good," Anozie admitted. "And kind of that James Cameron/Kubrick-kind of feel, that symmetry? It's like a lot of that beauty is captured sometimes in this film, in some of the stuff we do."

"And that's really the key," Hood agreed. "You have both these awe-inspiring, epic moments and you have these very intimate close-ups, detailed emotional moments, what's going on between the characters. Which I think is what's amazing about Ender's Game. It's really a fantastic set of characters. It's obviously a single wonderful character study of Ender but he's also surrounded by amazing characters like Bean, and Dink, and Alai, and Bernard, and obviously Petra. [...] You've got all these marvelous, strong, well-defined characters engaged in really human and emotional stories. And yet it's set in this wonderful, sort of epic space."

© Summit Entertainment

It really is an epic space, as we would witness all day while wandering around the sets -- huge set pieces which were built to scale there at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, including the cavernous room of Ender's final simulation. And when walking down the Formic tunnels, amber pathways with metal walkways bolted in, it wasn't hard to understand how easy it would have been for the actors to become lost in the world of Eros.

"What we wanted to create were spaces where the actors could genuinely feel the world. And then obviously there are certain worlds, like when you really are out in space, that have to be fully visually created by us. But certainly when you're in the space tunnels and in the dormitories and moving down those corridors or inside the command center on Eros..." he drifted off, possibly a little lost in Ender's world himself.

© Summit Entertainment

But what about the set pieces which couldn't be realistically built? Gavin spent some time explaining exactly how he and the VFX team went about filming scenes which were very greenscreen-heavy, such as those which take place in the Battle Room or the Mind Game. Bringing a beloved character to life is daunting enough as it is; how did Asa manage to interact with characters and objects he couldn't see?

The team made it a bit easier for him: before Asa was expected to perform, he was shown a previsualization of how everything should eventually play out. After spending quite some time working with movement coaches, he then tried out what he had learned based on what the scene was tentatively supposed to look like.

Fortunately for Asa, it wasn't necessary for him to base his actions on what the visual team expected; rather, they added in the visuals based on where he grabbed, reached, and moved.

"If he reaches here and pulls something here or he reaches slightly off there, it's fine because we're putting in those graphics certainly in relation to what we see on him. [...] It's not like, 'Oh my god, you have to point at exactly THAT because THAT is where that graphic is.' Well, the graphic isn't there yet."

But it would be.

Themes of Leadership

Gavin Hood was drafted into the military at the age of 17, and it was his time spent in service which he says helped him connect emotionally to Ender's story.

"A lot of those feelings - feeling like you were just a number in an organization with strong authority figures that you were not supposed to question, feeling like you wanted to rebel against it… I connected with this book in many ways based on feelings and experiences that I'd had. And I also really think that the ideas and themes of leadership in the book and hopefully in the movie are timeless and classic. You know, what is good leadership? What is bad leadership? What is responsible leadership?"

These are themes which Hood feels are important to address with young people today. And what's a better platform for reaching teenagers than a huge Hollywood blockbuster?

"So often there are films that we go to and they're fantastic and they're fun and they're wonderful. But it's like, 'Well, that was great. Wanna get pizza?' as opposed to a story like Ender's Game where kids really talk about it. 'Well, what do you think about the way Ender made that decision? Was he too violent, or wasn't he?' These are important conversations, I think, for young people to engage in, but in an exciting way. If you can deliver that kind of debate and conversation  in an exciting, visually powerful way, then I think you're getting a little more than just spectacle. We can combine spectacle with a good old-fashioned argument afterwards and that's kind of fun."

Book Adaptations and Locke and Demosthenes

One complaint heard most often from fans is that the Locke and Demosthenes storyline has been cut from the film. In what might have been my favorite part of the set visit, Gavin Hood addressed this question and the challenge that inevitably awaits every book-to-movie adaptation.

"The film making experience is very different to reading a book. It is a contained 2 hour experience in which you have a beginning, a middle and an end and you leave before your bladder hurts," he stated, grinning. "These are the facts, right? The medium is different. And one of the facts I think we have to own up to is that saying, 'Is the movie like the book?' Wait a minute, the book is the book. It exists, it can never be taken away. It is a different experience to sit and read over a period of weeks or days, chapter by chapter, put it down, reflect, pick it up. So that is why movies are based on books. They cannot be the book."

At this point, everyone in the room was nodding, including the boys sitting around him. Everyone could tell that this was a conversation they'd had many times and a topic which Hood had given a great deal of thought. He gestured to Alai actor Suraj Partha who was sitting to his right.

"If I said to you, 'Here is a young Suraj. I want you to take his photograph and I'd like you to sculpt him, I'd like you to paint him in oil.' And these 3 pieces of art were presented to the class. Would the class say, 'Hold on, this oil painting looks nothing like the sculpture!' You'd go, 'Of course it doesn't. That's an oil painting and that's a sculpture.'

"So the question becomes: Does the oil painting capture the spirit of this boy in some unique way? Does the pencil sketch capture his spirit in a way that moves you? Does the sculpture capture the spirit in a way that moves you? And that for me is the same with books, I did it with Tsotsi - it was an adaptation in which I made many changes -- and Athol [Fugard] was very pleased with it. He said, 'Because you stayed true to the spirit of the character.'"

© Summit Entertainment

But if Locke and Demosthenes are cut from the film, how is Hood going to reveal Peter's depth, his better qualities? How will we ever relate to a boy who is found skinning squirrels alive halfway through the novel?

"I've tried to do it without giving it away, and had to do it in a matter of about 3 very economical scenes," he replied. "We meet Peter at the beginning of the movie, and he has everything I think that the book has - that aggression and bully and nastiness. But to your point, if you had interviewed Peter and said, 'Why are you doing this?' he would say, 'Because this kid has to toughen up or he's not going to make it.' He's engaged in what he would justify as tough love. And at some point in the film, somewhere in the third act, you will find a scene in which that idea presents itself. [...] I've tried to do it in a very subtle scene between him and Valentine which is not a scene from the book."

The door opened then and the director was called back to set, but he took a moment to turn and thank us all for being there. "I love these questions because they’re so tough to answer but they're so honest. You're right to ask them so I hope I’ve given you some idea. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much."

He left then, back to the realization of an adaptation he had been working on for over 2 years before he had created something he believes to be good, something true to Ender's spirit.

I have no doubt that he has succeeded.

--

Coming tomorrow: Part 3 - Costumes and Props

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AICN Teases the Refounding of Dragon Army

We definitely weren't the only ones who visited the Ender's Game set over the course of production! Quint from Ain't It Cool News stopped by last year and had the chance to wander around around, speak to cast and crew, and take a sneak peak at a few scenes being filmed. Maybe this scene is one you'll recognize:

"[...] you have a habit of upsetting your commander."

Ender replies "I find it hard to respect someone just because he outranks me, sir." At this, Graff leans back in his chair, giving Ender his full attention, rocking back and forth slightly.

"That puts you in a difficult position, doesn't it? You don't like taking orders from Bonzo... perhaps you'd prefer to give them," says Graff slyly, kind of like a parent about to unveil a Christmas present. Ender is confused. "Sir?"

Graff: "How would you like your own army? Dragon Army."

Ender: "Sir, I've never heard of Dragon Army."

Graff: "We discontinued the name four years ago. No Dragon Army ever won a battle."

Ender: "Why not a new name, sir?"

Graff: "Because we already have the uniforms."

Ender: "Who will be in this army?"

Graff: "Misfits, like yourself. Outcasts who might just be brilliant with the right commander."

Sounds like Ender disobeyed orders and upset Mr. Madrid -- and instead of being punished, he's given Dragon Army.  Mind you, this scene could have been reworked later in filming or scrapped all together, but I like what I'm hearing.

Other fun bits from his report:

- his geek-out over getting to speak to Harrison Ford

- the flash gun props actually light up when you pull the trigger

- he confirms what Khylin Rhambo told us on EnderCast, that Hailee is shooting with Dink as a shield in this photo:

© Summit Entertainment

- "Asa was first to go and while he was good in the wide it was in these close ups that I really saw Ender come alive. Asa was doing small things, like grinding his teeth when he thinks he's in trouble causing his jaw muscles to pulsate... it made him look both nervous, impatient, angry and eager all at once."

- Harrison Ford doing wire work -- a great image.

Check out Quint's full report over at AICN!

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Set Visit Report #1: The Production Art Tour

"Can you guess this?"

At his question, we smiled and shuffled in our seats. It certainly looked like the giant and the impossible game he played with the tiny mouse, but now was not the time to jump to conclusions, not with producer Bob Orci looking so entirely pleased at the front of the room.

"The Mind Game! In the Mind Game, you know, in order to contrast it with the technology and the sci-fi -- this is more beautiful and impressionistic and just fantasy-like," Orci went on, clearly unaware of the bomb he had just dropped.

"Wait… so, it's being filmed? The Mind Game?"

"It's in the movie."

That was only a few seconds of the hour-and-a-half long roller coaster ride that was the Ender's Game production art tour -- and the tour was only the tip of the iceberg. During our set visit on May 22, 2012, we had the fortunate opportunity to sit and chat with the film's producers, actors, and production team, having intimate discussions in which we learned tons of exciting tidbits about how they brought Ender's story to life.

What you'll be reading the next few days is what we discovered.

© Summit Entertainment

The movie was, for the most part, filmed in chronological order, something the producers were immensely glad about later since Asa Butterfield (Ender Wiggin) grew nearly three inches during filming. "He starts the movie seeming like a much smaller kid and by the end of it, as he becomes a leader, he's actually sort of grown into it." Orci explained. "I think it's going to have a weird, subtle, psychological effect when you're watching it in the movie. We've been shooting it chronologically so let's talk about method acting, huh? 'GROW!'"

While it isn't clear over the course of the film exactly how much time passes, Bob Orci assured us that they do sort-of specify -- in height.

"Three inches pass," he winked.

So, why Asa? What was it about this then soon-to-be 15-year-old boy that made everyone who met him believe he could pull off a credible and moving Ender Wiggin?

"[During] the casting process we looked at a wide age range and ultimately the only thing that mattered is who would we believe could be Ender and who would we believe could be the leader of his peers by the end of the film in a believable way," producer Linda McDonough explained, "He has that deep, wise soulfulness in his performance. [...] And so all of the things that you get in the book where people judge him at first blush as an underdog? We still have that in Asa's interpretation of the character."

For younger, supporting members of the cast, they needed actors who were talented, athletic, and willing to work really, really hard.

© Aramis Knight

"When you spend time with them at the press conference, you should ask them about their time at Space Camp and also the military training they did," McDonough suggested, "Because, you know, whether you have twenty kids or a hundred -- when you're talking about the extras, they have to all be prepared to march and know how to do it and make it look good before you start shooting. I think that that's kind of a cool experience for them because it was months of training while we were prepping the film."

While there was a lot of hard work, the kids definitely got to kick back on the weekends -- on occasion to the dismay of the adults in charge. One day, during a Walmart run to grab a few much-needed supplies, McDonough spotted some very familiar faces outside the sliding glass doors: several younger members of the Ender's Game cast -- all on bicycles.

"I'm like, 'How did you guys get here?' It wasn't in a good part of town and I was like, 'Ahh! Actors! Where are your parents?!' And they're like, 'We took our per diem! We took a cab to buy cheap bikes!' and then they rode off and this looked like ET, this little pack of them going."

Ender's jeesh.

Peddling off into the sunset that day, friends from the moment they first met at the welcome dinner in New Orleans, it seems unlikely that these boys had any idea about the long road that had been travelled to see them there that day. But as she stood in the parking lot watching them speed away, McDonough knew, and so did the other excited men and women we shared a room with last year.

A Futuristic Earth

Set during an unspecified time in the future, Ender's world is a far cry from the dystopia we are so used to seeing today in futuristic YA tales such as The Hunger Games or Divergent. There are no barbed-wire fences or barefoot children running around looking for scraps. It is a rich, colorful Earth, filled with beauty and art, where the citizens thrive under an authoritarian yet very peaceful government. "A world worth saving," Orci smiled as he flipped to a mock-up of Ender's classroom.  "Looks like my classroom as a kid."

© Summit Entertainment

And the production artists took care to ensure many elements of Ender's earthly environment remain familiar to those of us stuck in 2013. Even the Wiggin family house, while most likely equipped with a far better home theater system, isn't so different from fairly modern homes you might run across today. "Why wouldn't there be classic houses?" Orci asked, pointing out that the Vatican has existed virtually unaltered for the past 500 years. Even the location Ender visits on the lake during his short landside leave with Valentine - the veterans' retreat - looks very much like a resort you could currently find nestled in a forest in North Carolina.

© Summit Entertainment

While many aspects of Ender Wiggin's futuristic world have remained relatively unchanged, there is one area that has flourished: the space program. When sitting down to decide on a look for advanced launch vehicles, the production team was fortunate enough to be able to consult Elon Musk, a genius in the field of rocket technology.

"Originally we had concept art of shuttles taking off like an airplane, like a shuttle, and he said, ‘No, that's highly... that would never happen. Since you're trying to get up, just point the damn thing up!'" Orci laughed.

"And that's what the future's gonna be."

Battle School

© Summit Entertainment

So, the shuttle was pointed up -- and aimed directly at Battle School.

Very early renderings of the Battle School were nearly identical to the structure we recently saw in the trailers: an enormous space station located within Earth's orbit with giant rings containing the student and faculty's living quarters. The entire construction rotates around a massive, transparent sphere -- effectively creating gravity everywhere except where it's not needed: the Battle Room, the center of the school and the focus of everyone who lives there.

And the film's version is definitely a far cry from the dark, nondescript Battle Room of the book. "One of the big changes, obviously, is that the Battle Room is transparent," Orci pointed out. "That allows us to have the light change. It gives the feeling when you're out there that you're actually in space ‘cause you can see the Earth out the window, you can see the sun, you can see the moon and it just gave it this scope that seemed to be practical for the fact that they're training these kids to operate in space." They plan to make good use of lighting changes; some battles will take place at night, some during the day, and every time the Battle Room is shown there will be a different feel to the incredible null-g environment.

© Summit Entertainment

While a lot of the Battle Room must be computer-generated, the majority of the Battle School hallways and rooms were built to scale as it was important to director Gavin Hood that the actors had tangible spaces to work in. To emulate the school's ringed hallways, they constructed a set piece they called "Corridor A," a beautiful, curved walkway they used to film the cast travelling up and around the ring. Unfortunately it wasn't there when we visited; to make room for other set pieces, it had been torn down, though it had been a cast and crew favorite.

"We had a little memorial for it last week," producer Linda McDonough admitted.

While the Battle Room is a huge part of Battle School, just like in the book, it's not all lasers and flash suits. The young soldiers also attend to their lessons - though it doesn't seem to be biology and literature books they're cracking. It's in history class where they study the Formic invasion and Mazer Rackham's incredible victory. It's in these classrooms, which were also built to scale in New Orleans, where the young soldiers view footage or "vids" of Earth's first interaction with the Buggers -- and not just on their desks, but displayed in front of them using advanced holographic technology.

It will be easy to see in the film how these videos could be used as pro-Fleet propaganda on Earth: The swarms of Formic jets well outnumber Mazers fleet, with fighters that are advanced but not a huge leap from the ones we fly today, "We want it to seem grounded and more immediate. You know, that this is something that's gonna happen to us soon," Orci explained.

The Mind Game

Bob Orci called it "beautiful, impressionistic, and fantasy-like," a mixture of motion-capture mixed with artistic renderings. In the film, Ender plays the game on his desk, and the audience will be sucked into this beautiful, fantasy world not just once, but off and on throughout the film -- the same way Ender experienced it in the book.

We got a brief look at the production art of the mind game, including the mirror Ender peers into and sees Peter instead of himself reflected back. I remember it being faintly reminiscent of the "Tale of the Three Brothers" animation in the final Harry Potter film - gorgeous, and I can't wait to see the final product.

Eros and the Final Simulation

While Earth is all greens and blues and Battle School filled with steel blues and grays, the Eros of the film, while maybe not specifically called by name, is a beautiful amber color.  It's a formerly thriving planet which was occupied by, not a monstrous race, but an intelligent species with culture, history, and dreams of colonization. The surface of Eros, which in part jets up toward the sky in skyscraper-esque dwellings, is only the tip of an iceberg; the structures stand tall above miles and miles of underground tunnels in which the humans later bolted in their steel walkways - which we got to visit while in New Orleans!

© Summit Entertainment

"To interpret the idea of the Formics being an insect-like race in a sense, cinematically, Gavin was very much inspired by the giant ant hills of South Africa which is his home country," McDonough revealed, with Orci nodding in the background. "When Lynn says giant ant hills in South Africa, she means giant ant hills in South Africa. Like spires, totally gigantic. And Gavin can explain this, how it's all about keeping the queen totally comfortable in her air conditioned chamber."

Eros is the home of Command School where Ender and his friends are sent to complete their training with the International Fleet -- but the film's version is obviously not a factual representation of the real-life Eros asteroid that sits between Mars and Jupiter today. That particular tiny, potato-shaped rock has no atmosphere, almost no gravity, certainly no underground structures; it would fit on Vancouver Island more than 82 times.

Command School is also the location of the battle simulation room where Graff and his team overlook Ender's final exam from a observation deck above. And this room is absolutely epic.

During his final battles, Ender is standing on a podium in an absolutely cavernous chamber with the most elite of his soldiers and his very best friends forming an arc in front of him, each on their own console, helping control the ships' movements. The scene looks very much like a deadly symphony is playing with Ender Wiggin as the conductor.

It is going to be a gorgeous visual experience, the entire simulation playing out in front of Ender and his confidants in encompassing holographic projections. For the young soldiers, what they are experiencing both looks and feels real.

Sequels

So how does it end? I can't tell you that. Will there be sequels? Maybe, but Bob Orci doesn't like to count his chickens before they hatch, though there's no harm in ensuring that the coop's big enough.

"[We have to make sure] that emotionally it is over in a way, it is a chapter. The emotional chapter is, ‘I now know the truth and I won't stand by and let that stand. I must make that right and I will make it right.' And that is him coming into his own so it's all about what you feel at the end. The idea is to make it feel that he is making a promise to do right and that's lots of classic films. Use that logic even though I could continue on."

"Any movie could have another chapter."

--

Make sure you also check out the set visit reports from EnderWiggin.net and Ender's Ansible!

Coming tomorrow: Part 2 - Interview with Gavin Hood

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Fansite Exclusive: Official Companion Book Coming This Fall

Coming this fall, every fan who sat on the sidelines hoping for sneak peaks during the film's production will get an incredible, colorful look behind the scenes of Ender's world in an official movie companion book: Enders Game: Inside the World of an Epic Adventure.

The book, which includes a foreword by director Gavin Hood, will be a must-have for every Ender-fan. From the release:

"Packed with in-depth interviews, removable posters and army badges, stunning concept art, unparalleled access to the visual effects archives at Digital Domain, and countless full-color images, this insightful insider's view of the making of Ender's Game will bring fans closer into the world of the movie, following cast and crew as it is brought to dazzling life."

Author Jed Alger is an advertising writer and creative director who also compiled The Art and Making of ParaNorman, a fun companion book that went behind the scenes and delved into the creation and production of a stop-motion animation film.

Don't miss out on what is sure to be an absolute treat: pre-order the Ender companion on Amazon today!

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Gavin Hood and adapting: "What can I do in a film that the novel might not be able to do as well?"

Ender's Game director Gavin Hood tackled a few tough questions at the Fan Expo Canada, an annual fan convention which was held this past weekend in Toronto.

On exploring "moral greys:"

"Some films masquerade as dealing with moral complexity, but in fact, for me, cop out a little by never putting the protagonist in a truly morally complex situation," Hood said in a recent interview at the pop culture fest known as Fan Expo Canada. "There are films we can think of where, yes, the protagonist kills people, but actually all the people they kill are bad or awful in some way, (without) that moment of really having to face up to the grey zone, that place where you ask, 'Am I capable of doing something morally repugnant because I believe it’s for a greater good?'

On his adaptation and decision to cut the beloved Locke and Demosthenes storyline:

"I think I was a little naive myself," Hood says. "As a filmmaker, it offers tremendous opportunity for visual spectacle. … And I have young kids, and I want to take them to a big fun movie and then talk to them about it afterwards. I want to encourage conversation. Great. Of course, then I start adapting it, and it took me two years." [...]

“My wife actually says to me, ‘Gavin, you have to stop going on the Internet. It makes you crazy.’ There’s so much chatter,” says Hood. “I found it hard to cut. But it really means you need to make a 15-part miniseries, and I was given the opportunity to make a two-hour film, so my focus was, ‘What can I do in a film that the novel might not be able to do as well?’”

Check out the full article over at  Metro News.

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"Ender's Game" Lasertag Tournament at GamesCon

GamesCon is currently underway in Cologne, Germany and Constantin, the German distributor of the Ender's Game film, has put together an epic promotional lasertag arena and invited all the Con attendees to register teams and take part. It looks absolutely incredible!

Here are some highlights from Day 1 (translation below!):



And, well... the International Fleet personnel are looking little different in Germany than they did at Comic-Con last month:

"Our administration includes 12 selected female commanders of the International Fleet"

Video Translation:

Episode 1: The Preparations

It is now 2013. The threat of a third alien invasion is ever present and still controls life on Earth. On the search for the chosen fighter who has what it takes to save mankind, we've built our boot camp at the world's largest event for interactive gaming and entertainment, the GamesCom! During the next 5 days, around 300,000 of the most skilled warriors of very diverse origin will meet.

Our administration is made up of 12 chosen female commanders of the Interstellar Fleet -- in short, the I.F. We have equipped our bootcamp with a giant laser tag arena. In it we will test the abilities, strategies, and especially the bravery of our fighters.

Since there is a huge crowd, we are offering the opportunity to register online for a Fast-Lane pass. This allows for privileged participation in the Great Game.

Prove your abilities. This is your chance. Form your army and register now at http://www.facebook.com/EndersGameFilm.

The next message from the GamesCom site will be coming tomorrow at noon.

 Check out the official German Ender's Game movie page on Facebook for more photos of the event!

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Aramis Knight's Ultimate 'Shredding' Skateboarding Playlist

ET Online

Any skateboarding Launchies around here? Aramis Knight teamed up with ET Online to share a list of songs he loves to listen to while "cruising in [his] neighborhood or local skatepark."

Hint: there's a lot of Kanye West. Here's few of his favorites:

All of the Lights - Kanye West
m.A.A.d city - Kendrick Lamar
HAM - Jay Z and Kanye West
Tom Ford - Jay Z
Started from the Bottom - Drake

 You can check out the full list and his commentary at the source!

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Introducing the Ender News Gift Shop: By Fans, For Fans!

Hey, Launchies! We are super pleased today to launch our brand new Ender News Gift Shop -- an online store targeted at those who enjoy the Ender's Game novel, related genres, and other work by the film's cast and crew members!

The shop's inventory is entirely hand-picked by Ender News staff members (with community recommendations) and will always be evolving: new products will be added as they become available, from official Ender's Game merchandise to unique products we find or are suggested by other Launchies like yourselves! We also encourage publishers, manufacturers and individuals to submit their products for inclusion if those items fit into this range of products.

Our Categories:

The Ender Series: The Enderverse books and box sets! This category will also include the movie tie-in versions of the novel and any possible companion books when they become available. Also included in this group are secondary works such as Ender's World and Ender's Game and Philosophy.

Book Recommendations: We asked and you guys answered! Everything in this category is recommended reading for fans of Ender's Game -- mostly science fiction with a focus on YA novels -- and many more items selected by our editors and recommended by our community of Ender's Game fans.

Discs: These are all handpicked, quality movies (DVDs or Blue-rays) with some kind of connection to Ender's Game. For each of the titles you will find several formats including digital downloads, just as you can find most books as a Kindle or eBook version from the same sellers. The Ender's Game score can be found here as soon as it is available!

Wall: Anything for your wall, such as calendars and movie posters. The large 24x36 teaser poster is now officially available for purchase, and we hope the final poster will be soon! Has everyone pre-ordered their Ender's Game wall calendar for 2014?

More departments will be added to our shop as soon as merchandise hits stores -- which should be happening in the coming weeks! We obviously can't wait for the Battle School board game and trading card series by Cryptozoic!

We are also very eager for reader suggestions as to what we should include and promote; our audience is mostly Enderverse fans we can't think of anyone better to recommend books, movies, and products than you guys! But please keep in mind: we really want to focus on quality recommendations only and not everything suggested will be added. We will try to continue hand-picking items so our visitors can be reasonably sure what they find in our store will be worth their money.

So make sure you check it out -- and definitely let us know if you have any comments, critiques, or suggestions. We can't wait to hear what you think. :)

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Christine Bieselin Clark: One of the "10 Hot Costume Designers In New Hollywood"

Ender's Game costume designer Christine Bieselin Clark was among those honored this month in Entertainment Weekly's list of 10 Hot Costume Designers In New Hollywood!

Entertainment Weekly

From the article:

After years of assisting on films like In Her Shoes, Watchmen, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Christine Bieselin Clark broke out as a sci-fi costume designer on TRON: Legacy. This November marks her first major solo project — the set-in-space Ender’s Game — and she's currently at work on the post-apocalyptic thriller The Maze Runner.

Well deserved! To read a bit more about her work on the film, make sure you check out the costuming post from the official production blog and her recent Comic-Con interview with EnderWiggin.net.

We will also be releasing our set visit interview with Christine sometime in the coming weeks so keep an eye out -- we know you guys have been waiting ages, but the wait will soon pay off!

77 days 'til Ender's Game hits U.S. theaters.

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Ender's Game: Battle School -- A New Board Game By Cryptozoic

ICv2

We've been following this story since the beginning of the year when we first heard that Cryptozoic Entertainment was planning to release not only Ender's Game trading cards but a board game as well. Thanks to EnderWiggin.net via ICv2, we now have a first look at the game meant to come out with the release of the movie this fall.

A description from the site:

Ender's Game: Battle School is a two-player game set in the zero-gravity arena of the International Fleet's Battle School.  Players take the role of either Ender Wiggin and the Dragon Team or Bonzo Madrid and the Salamander Team, and then use Commander cards with special abilities (some for the whole team, some that only help the commander) to attempt to capture the other team’s gates or freeze opposing team players with laser-light guns.  The player who completes either of the goals first (capturing all the gates or freezing the opposing commander) wins.

This game appears to be Ender vs. Bonzo, a fitting pair for a two-player game in Null-G.

We will update with more information regarding this game and the trading card series as soon as it comes in.

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"Ender's Game" Cast at Teen Choice Awards 2013

Last night's Teen Choice Awards included some exciting appearances from a couple cast members of Ender's Game!

Starting off, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin presented the award for Choice Movie Actor: Drama to Logan Lerman for his role in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. After the event, Abigail tweeted:

So fun presenting at the Teen Choice Awards tonight with my #EndersGame costar and friend @HaileeSteinfeld... #highheelprobz? (@yoabbaabba)

Sounds like there may have been a bit of difficulty with the heels, but they both did an excellent job. Here's a fun picture of them presenting!

Daily Mail

Following the awards show, the fun continued for Aramis Knight who attended the Staples For Students Teen Choice Awards after party. He posted the photo below on his Instagram with the caption, "Party time @dylansprayberry."

Instagram

Only 80 days until Ender’s Game hits U.S. theaters!

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Aramis Knight: On-Set Lizard Catching With Harrison Ford

Paige Sullivan from Mingle Media TV's Red Carpet Report caught up with Aramis Knight at the Teen Choice Awards Red Carpet Event in L.A. yesterday and he had a lot to say about Ender's Game, Khylin Rhambo, and fun on-set shenanagins with Harrison Ford.

Check it out:



On the project and meeting Khylin Rhambo:

"I just finished filming a movie called Ender's Game -- it's with Asa Butterfield who played Hugo and Hailee Steinfeld, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis... a lot of people are in it. It was really cool. It's probably my favorite film I've ever filmed cause it's the first film that there's actually been other kids on set. And actually my best friend, his name is Khylin, he's over there -- he plays Dink in the movie, I play Bean. We met there and we've been best friends ever since. I met a lot of great people from it."

Teen Choice Awards Red Carpet Event

And Aramis made more than one friend on set! He also describes some fun with Harrison Ford and a certain daring NOLA lizard:

"There was always this lizard that would hover around our classroom and it was like this big green lizard, like a cool guy. And we were trying to catch him, to keep him in our classroom 'cause we have the heat lamp and all that stuff. And we were trying to catch him! And Harrison walks by and he's like, 'Hey guys, let me help, I used to do this when I was a kid, and helped us catch the lizard. Yeah, so we caught a lizard with Harrison Ford. That's pretty cool."

83 days until Ender's Game hits U.S. theaters.

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New Photo of Launchie Ender in Null-G Training

Thanks to Dread Central, we have a new photo of Ender in his Launchie uniform about to enter the Battle Room with Colonel Graff -- who is looking almost amused. Any guesses as to what he's thinking?

According to the source, this image will be found in Entertainment Weekly's annual Fall Movie Preview issue hitting stands today. Let us know if you pick up a copy!

Edit: Crystal pointed out that the image BELOW is the image in the print issue. Note how happy everyone looks:

Thanks to EnderWiggin.net for the tip!

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EnderCast Episode #26 - Shoot Straight, Stay Calm

Yesterday Aramis Knight (Bean) and Khylin Rhambo (Dink) dropped by our podcast for a bit of trailer talk and to participate in the most epic round of Pop Quiz Fart Eater ever -- check it out!

A few of our topics:

- What was it like for them to finally see all the effects put in?
- Find out what scene brought tears to Aramis’ eyes
- Listen to us butcher poor Admiral Chamrajnagar’s name
- They tell us who are the five seated with Ender on Eros
- Who IS the human shield in that brief Battle Room shot?


Don't forget to subscribe to us on iTunes so you can listen to EnderCast whenever and wherever you like.

Thanks for tuning in -- and a big thanks to Aramis and Khylin for coming on the show!

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Graff's Ride: The Audi Fleet Shuttle Quattro

Audi AG

Remember how kickass Graff's ride is in the upcoming film? Now we know who's responsible!

German car company Audi revealed today that the automobile recently seen in the full-length Ender's Game trailer was a virtual vehicle created by their design team solely for the movie. Working together with director Gavin Hood and the film's production team, Audi used "the latest technology to digitally and seamlessly integrate the Audi fleet shuttle quattro into the futuristic environment of the film."

From the press release:

"The Audi in the movie represents progress and it appears in key scenes that have a lasting impact on the life of the protagonist," explained Florian Zitzlsperger, responsible for Brand Partnerships at AUDI AG. "As a result, our Audi becomes part of this fictional world."

"Designing the Audi fleet shuttle quattro was similar to customizing a tailor-made suit. We adapted it to the requirements of the world in 'Ender's Game' and at the same time had to take care to preserve our brand values," said Frank Rimili, chief designer for the film project. “We were ultimately able to perfectly project our design philosophy into the fictional world of the movie." Linda McDonough, a producer of "Ender's Game," added, "The Audi brand is already very forward thinking which made their inclusion in our film an organic fit."

Audi AG

As of right now, this is a purely virtual car -- the Audi Fleet Shuttle Quattro doesn't actually exist and it seems pretty unlikely plans pop up to make one.

Visit the source to check out more pictures!

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SDCC: Making Ender's Game Flight Suits - Badges Edition

When the first trailer released for Ender's Game, I was most excited to check out the costumes, of course. But in specific, I was really curious about how they were going to break down the Battle School armies and distinguish them from one another, how far they'd go to differentiate, etc.

I was really pleased to see that they went with a universal uniform and patches, something that on the surface seems pretty generic, but gave them a lot of options for subtlety and interesting details.

I like the flight suits (even though they're a pain to sew, for the record). I especially like that the patches looked removable, as though students could be transferred or traded from one army to another without changing uniforms, just badges.

It makes total sense. Why would there need to be an entirely different colour suit for each army? The launchies in yellow is a strong visual choice and I liked it, especially because all the remaining students were in that dusty blue grey. They could have gone down the blatant route and made each army an entirely different colour suit. And while I like that the launchies are in yellow, I especially liked that the rest of the kids were all the same colour with their army colours as accents.

What this meant in terms of the SDCC costumes was that the badges would be crucial and arguably the most important part. Otherwise, it would just look like a generic flight suit.

I spent a lot of time breaking down the badges. Like, a LOT.

(And somehow I still missed that there would be two per person, one on each shoulder, until Kelly pointed it out. Whaaaaat?)

So I got as many screencaps from the different armies as I could, mostly to look at what the silhouettes were doing, a size comparison to the kids' shoulders, and what it looked like they were made of.

Then, I made some decisions:

• The badges are flexible. They are stiffer than fabric so they don't move as well, but they bend, so the material I choose should as well. (aka not acrylic). The actual material was probably something synthetic, like a rubber, though of course I wouldn't be able to mimic that completely.
• The animal shape was etched into the material, so the badge itself wasn't flat. It had dimension, which I wanted to make sure mine did too.
• All the badges seemed to be the same size regardless of the kid's shoulder diameter.

With that list in mind, I brainstormed a lot of ideas. I could cut the shape out of stiff fabric and place a thinner one behind it. I could buy a plain patch and paint the animal silhouette on (and then lose the dimension).

I decided I wanted leather. It's sturdy but flexible. Can be dyed just about any colour, cut into a variety of shapes, but most importantly: it can be laser-cut.

Summit provided the Ender fanblogs great images of the four main armies; big and outlined, it suddenly simplified everything for me. I didn't have to speculate what the back of the Dragon Army logo looked like (though hey, I got kind of close) or get all technical OCD about dimensions.

I pulled the jpg into Illustrator and converted it into a vector image with Live Trace.

With an outlined image, Live Trace tends to get me about 90% close to what I actually want, which is pretty amazing for a computer program, really. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the border pattern, since the laser cutter would be pretty precise, but in the end I decided that the badges would be too small to really see the discrepancies like that, anyway:

Notice the squiggles that warp the border - it won't show up on the badge, though.

 I bought a bunch of leather (untreated, unfinished) and then headed down to this great place called Metrix Create:Space. It's a communal workspace in Seattle, WA where I live that allows just about anyone access to expensive machinery that they would otherwise be unable to, with technicians on hand to help out. For example, they have a couple laser cutters, a 3D MakerBot, industrial sewing machines, all kinds of things, and they are definitely not the only place that offers this kind of access, so definitely check out google to see if there's one in your area.

The smaller of the two laser cutters they have. And our super nice technician!

All the different settings the laser cutter is capable of. The object on the left measures the thickness of the material.

OK, first of all, laser-cutters are awesome. Here's a video of the cutter in action. It's actually cutting here, which is why it looks so burned and dark like that, but it looks much more cool than the etching does (no awesome laser sparks), and it also takes far less time.

Assigning properties to each line for the laser to follow.

It took a few tries to get all the settings and sizings right. The program seems pretty complicated in that there are dozens of settings. We used the smaller laser cutter because it actually had a setting for cutting into leather, which was really cool.

I think the girl that was helping us out was a relatively new technician, so there was a lot of fits and starts, but we managed to figure it out finally, and I was really pleased with the raw outcome.

The etching wasn't as deep as it appeared to be in the original badges, but it reads from a distance so I figured it would work out okay.

We made a lot of mistakes:

The laser moves too fast for my camera. Bottom right: the pattern was cut, top right, the edge was cut instead.

But figured it out finally:

final product.

It took awhile to make three sets:

They etched them too close to each other, but it worked out okay.

What was supposed to be the easiest part ended up being the worst. I bought orange and black leather dye, but the problem was that since I purchased scraps of leather (cheaper and I didn't need a whole skin anyway, it's a lot of leather), each piece took to the dye very differently. The orange turned incredibly dark and I spent many hours agonizing over how to make it less maroon and more consistent:

Ugh. WHAT is this. why.

Another interesting and frustrating reveal: sometimes the dragons darkened when dyed, sometimes they didn't.

In the end, I left them in the sun for a few days, soaking them in watered down rubbing alcohol. I can't tell you if that is an actual tactic you should try but it did even the colour out a bit for me.

Then, I spent a lot of time colouring with a very thin Sharpie:

I think they worked out really well.

I used the same process for making the name badges, except I didn't have such a perfect image to start out with, like I did with the Dragon Army badge.

It took awhile to hunt down a good font for our last names. I started with a site called What the Font? which has been around for AGES and is pretty hit or miss. They're either great or terrible. In this case, with a few modifications the results were more to my pleasing.

I made a vector image of our names, as well as the braille lettering (another font I just googled and downloaded). It took some tweaking, and a lot of printing for size adjusting, but the actual laser cut process went far quicker this time.

I used the same leather I had before, mostly because I still had scraps remaining. Originally, I wanted them to be acrylic so they'd be more solid, but in the end, the leather worked out just fine.

I painted them with acrylic paint, but there was a bit of a dilemma on what coloring the lettering was - white or black.

Simply put, it was hard to tell with the single image shot from the trailer and while it's really pretty dumb, I tend to get focused on little details really easily and it's hard to just turn a blind eye.

In the end, we went with lighter over darker, and aside from the hell that was colouring those little braille dots, I think they, too, came out pretty good.

The issue was that I didn't plan for white. I had planned for black - bought the microscopic sharpie and everything.

When we realised it was white, not black, I had to improvise with paint, which definitely defeated the point of using a laser cutter, at least when it came to the braille dots. They also scuffed up pretty quickly while wearing them at SDCC (as you can see), so I think if we were to wear these again, I'd remake the tags with acrylic. Then they won't be so susceptible to being bent and also, the edges will be more exact.

But despite that, they did the trick all right.

At SDCC they had the actual suits on display, as you've seen online all over I'm sure. I found it interesting because a lot of the little details I was struggling to align were problems that, of course, I had created for myself. For example, I wanted the badge installation to hide the edges of the badge because I thought that's what they did in the movie. Naaaaah. It just fit perfectly against the seam.

With the name plates, they were actually cut, not etched, and a piece of paper was glued behind it.

Oh well. Next time I know! ;)

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