Big Scene development post 6: Sets for Salt Mine sequences are now completed! (AND HAPPY 50TH DAF!)

First of all, I just want to say Happy 50th Anniversary to Diamonds Are Forever! Amazing to think that this diamond in the rough came out half a century ago, delivering one of the most unique and interesting Bond films you could see.

And of course it with its potential and creative ideas it also sparked off inspiration for me in 2018. The inspiration for me to make this still on-going project.

I still maintain that I will do my best to preserve a considerable amount of the original film's spirit. Without sacrificing the On Her Majesty's Secret Service sequel angle that is the whole point of Diamonds Reimagined, of course.

And I believe it's safe to say I've reached a pivotal point of said project. Over the course of this week I have begun animating the sequences set at a salt mine in Mexico. Where Bond and Blofeld shall have their final confrontation; a fight to the death!

There are three main sets built for this scene. The first is the beach set, where Blofeld's Bathosub stops at and the villain discovers Bond hanging from a weather balloon. Not a particularly complex set, as it merely uses false perspective to make it look as if there's a salt mining operation in the distance.

Below is a piece of raw footage of one of the shots filmed on this set for the sequence. It features a take of Blofeld emerging from the Bathosub and then turning around.

The second set is the biggest one of all three; it's a re-creation of the existing salt works operation near the town of Guerrero Negro in Mexico. A little artistic licence allows me to add more enormous mounds of salt that Bond and Blofeld can run up and jump off.

And then there's the third set, arguably the most important of all. 

It features the footbridge where Bond and Blofeld will engage in hand-to-hand combat, ending with Blofeld being thrown down into a salt granulator.

On the conveyor belt below the granulator will be some oddly reddish pink coloured salt mounds, which will mysteriously emerge after Blofeld is killed..

I have no idea how long it will take to animate these sequences (especially the fight, which shall have to be carefully choreographed), but I believe this whole segment will be one of the crowning achievements of this project.

In the meantime, happy returns once again to the original Diamonds Are Forever. May its sparkle lustre on!

- The Retro Captain