Courtesy Diana Savage, Art Director

This week the art department spent most of our time preparing for and installing the “Wapos Bay Street” set.

Usually sets are about the size of a big dining room table but this one is more than twice that size — our biggest set so far at Wapos Bay. We used two big tables and several extensions and background tables.

Jordan, our Armature and rigging person also loves an electrical challenge. He designed, wired and built the traffic light at the front of the set. The animator can flick a switch for red, yellow or green.

Stacia, our prop builder is also amazing at making roads, forests and trees look real. She spent an afternoon painting the set floor to look like road, grass and lawn. And the rest of us built and painted fences, painted houses, and made some smaller props to fill the space up.

We’re pretty excited about this set build because it’s the first time we’ve seen a whole Wapos bay street. We’re looking forward to seeing it come alive in the movie.

Watch as Art Director, Diana Savage, builds Old Man Gabriel!

Here are some pictures of some of the things that go on behind the scenes at Wapos Bay The Movie!

Notice the detail in the work that has been done by the art department:

Check out the Director of Photography (Peter Christiansen) looking over a shot:

Catch Dennis Jackson (Director & Producer) as he lines up some puppets in one picture:

And looking over the “Wall of Storyboards” to make sure his shot will match the shot before & after in the movie:

Get a sneak peak of what’s going on in the World of Wapos Bay before you see the Movie!

While Wapos Bay is in production on the movie, Wapos Wheelz! video game and eBook, the Art Department’s Amber Rees finds time to sculpt the maquette for CHUM, one of the characters of “Guardians,” Dennis Jackson’s next project.

The sculpt of CHUM is based on a concept drawing by Andrew Doll seen here:

and the detailed architecture of the maquette here:

‘Guardians is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic adventure series for teen boys.’ – Dennis Jackson, Creator.

‘I think we’re all excited about trying something new and that’s original and that’s another creation from Dennis that we can all sink our teeth into creatively and technically because it will be a totally different thing than shooting Wapos Bay. There will be lots of action sequences, lots of robots, and lots of different terrains that I think we’ll be able to create for the show.’ –Anand Ramayya, Producer

Synopsis:  In the distant future, the Earth is reborn and nature has been replenished after a global catastrophe triggers a twenty six thousand year long ice age, the result of which has destroyed modern civilization and has brought about the extinction of ninety five percent of planetary species as we know it.  n massive bunkers built deep beneath the Earth, the Guardians, advanced machine-like androids were pre-programmed to initiate human births. The Guardians raised the children specifically to re-populate the New Earth. The oldest humans are fifteen years old and must lead the human race. They soon learn that they are not alone on the planet. They discover that an intelligent species, the Dumathar, has staked out a home world beneath the Earth’s oceans. Connected to their past, armed with advanced technology, the youth must balance the danger of repeating history and co-existing in the New World.

Guardians is in development with support from the Canada Media Fund, SaskFilm, APTN and Wapos Bay Productions.