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Re the sight.. I did have a 20mm rail with a small holosight on it at one stage, but that got nixed..

Yes..

I can.. But I won't. I can only sort of comment on stuff that's already out there..

Yes, she is. And quite a nice person too..

Oh, and we're doing concept and design work, we're not doing FX.. It's also something we happen to do, but thanks for sharing

I don't think so.. Haven't heard anything about it.

The armourer took care of those guys, but he's the same guy who did District 9, sooooo....

Story (which you may or may not have read from the leaked script) doesn't lend itself to too many vehicles.. I however have no idea what the VFX guys have up their sleeves, as there is some outside stuff.

I'm not a fan of huge, oversized "hand guns" so I think the current design works practically. Just for fun it could have been given a half moon read-out on the side that didn't create a "hump" that would interfere with the "sights".


The current design is tons better than the "toyish" Stallone version.

The brief was to make it as physically close to the practical firearm as possible, so it wouldn't look like a box stuck on top of a gun..

There is a readout on the side of the gun, you can just see it in the pic. Again, realism was the priority. There is a hump, by the way, but that's meant to be an enhanced sighting device of sorts.. And that's all you're getting for now  

Technically it's a multi munitions capable sub machine gun.. Think MP7 with selective tipped rounds.

A large heavy weapon has also been designed.. Justice department assault rifles were sourced by the armourer. I fired one. It's awesome. As is the Lawgiver. Full auto will make anyone giggle.

Hiho all..

Here I sit, this forum on one monitor, the Lawgiver design spinning around on the other..

And here I thought *I* ws going to drum up discussion on the lawgiver.  

So I'm guessing you weren't inspired by Flint at all?  I'm curious about the (apparently) missing "hump", then.

Let's put it this way.. After starting enthusiastically with my own take, I was kindly reminded to stay closer to the approved concept and then renamed the image of it 'drawthisstupid.jpg'.. In the end the weapon in those proportions would've looked like something out of Warhammer 40K in Olivia's hands.

The weapon was ultimately designed to look like it would really function. The whole tone of the movie is steered towards realism, sort of in the same way Batman begins was intended. Everything is there for a reason, and there's nothing on it that's doesn't serve a purpose (I've thought of a reason for everything on it, being a bit of a gun nut). Big dials and humps on the weapon would look out of place in the future now look.

I hope so. I'll need the money 

Thanks for the update Michael, I really appreciate your willingness to tell us stuff, somewhat officially, that you don't have to. How long are you staying in Cape Town?

I'm lucky enough to live here.. Moved here 5 years ago. Was fed up with European weather and doing mechanical engineering..

Thanks for poping along Michaelvk, good to hear there is a positive vibe about the film and your info most welcome, Anderson Blonde? collar and cuffs?

Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? To be honest, there's not that much of a difference in colours.. But it is very dark on the set every time I drop by, so I'm probably not the best person to ask. Besides, when I am on set, the last thing I'm looking at is the wardrobe.. Olivia's quite pretty up close.. That and I'm focussing on making sure they don't drop the Lawgiver..

I'm personally actually not very busy at all at the moment, hence the long drawn out post just now.. Effectively most of my work here is done. We're just jumping in whenever set dressing, props or fabrication need us.. But the guys in the workshop are hard at work (I'm typing this to the sweet tune of angle grinders as we speak). The guys in prosthetics are creating some lovely stuff right now. One thing's for sure, they aren't sparing the blood in this one.

Hiho all..

Here I sit, this forum on one monitor, the Lawgiver design spinning around on the other..

To awnser a few questions, Jock wasn't the only person to do concepts work on this movie. As far as I know he did pre-pre production work, moods, feelings and the like, but since we started I haven't seen anything else. They do keep us on a tight leash, so I do stand to be corrected. There were 7 of us at one point. The three of us from Altered States ( Jason & Andre Human and myself) are tied in to the manufacturing side of things (hence why some of my facebook updates involved manufacturing comments), props, bits of wardrobe, little bits of set dressing here and there, while the other 4 from Hero concept art (Joe Pistorius, Lorraine Alvarez, Daniel Hugo and Graeme Cowie) were doing more sets. They had a more limited run on the show, as they came in later and didn't have the fortune to be associated with the fabrication department, and were more or less done when they started to nail the first bits of wood together.

Personally I've been doing the Lawgiver, the Lawmaster's cannons and one or two other weapons and some small stuff. The Lawgiver was my baby, so to speak, and I'm really, really chuffed that it's been so well received. Obviously I had an initial concept from Jock to work on, and had to work within the designers brief, but it's not their birthday and Land Rover's license plate number in the weapons serial number

I must admit that early on I was somewhat skeptical of some of the decisions being made, but by seeing more and more of the bigger picture it's all fitting better and making a lot more sense. Also seeing the sets and having a look on the monitors (for instance, I needed to sort out some paperwork for my car and had to go to the civic center, seeing the set, then visited a location shoot which happened to be up the road from where I live) is making me really excited about the look of this picture. I might be biased because I'm so close to the show, but I feel it's going to be pretty good. Hopefully I won't end up having to eat my words here..

Everyone here is working very hard to create a good result. Obviously with a big production like this (big for South African standards, that is..), there's going to be the odd communication failure, but so far the atmosphere's been great, which helps.

I'd LOVE to show everyone the pics I've taken so far, but I'm in no position to do so without jeopardizing my position. I'd rather err on the side of caution and not spoil anything.. But as said before, there are definitely eagles, the helmet doesn't look that big when you're standing next to him and yes, she's blonde.. But don't expect to see anything changing. Everything is locked down.

Cheers all

Michael van Kesteren

Concept designer DREDD