Mini update #2 - Re-setting a dinner sequence

 Sometimes in the development of a film, you'll find changes being made on set to the script. Naturally, such a situation has occurred repeatedly during the production of Diamonds Reimagined with its animated scenes.

In my post on the deleted scenes of the original Diamonds Are Forever, I said that I would not include the scene of Bond's dinner with Plenty O'Toole at the Dome of the Sea as it would not fit into the story of Diamonds Reimagined.

But I have since changed my mind - I feel bad about not giving Lana Wood more screentime as Plenty in the script, so it will be slotted back in its original intended placement.

Here's the problem with making that change though - I already have an animated scene where Bond converses with the other Bond girl Tiffany Case over a meal, which takes place later in the story.

And this animated scene has a setting which was deliberately made to look similar to the Dome of the Sea. I called it the Atlantic Dining Palace, and in the script I implied it was part of the Whyte House.

Thing is, I've never been completely happy with it. Aside from some good lighting, the background and layout never quite looked as impressive as I wanted it to be.

I had tried adding in things like dancers performing in the background, but this just looked too distracting. You're supposed to be focused on Tiffany in this sort of shot, not the dancers behind her.

Since this scene is vital for progressing the plot however, it had to stay in. But upon tweaking the dialogue, I decided I also had to change the scene's setting.

This way, it wouldn't look quite as unfair for Bond to be having a meal with another woman not so long after he'd done so with Plenty O'Toole.

Instead of a fancy restaurant setting, the scene would be in a private lounge which has a bar.

The name of this lounge comes from a line of dialogue in the original film, which mentions that the Whyte House has a 'Starlight Lounge' at one of its highest levels. This would put it a floor or so below Williard Whyte's Penthouse.

Rather than this being a situation where Bond and Tiffany are going out for a meal, the scene now has a slightly less glamourous tone to it. 

Tiffany has ordered Bond to come to "talk shop" in this lounge, where although they both dress fancily, the topic of the conversation is supposed to be more businesslike.

Not that James Bond would miss an opportunity to put on the charm of course! It's all part of his usual attempts to seduce the film's main Bond girl.

Bond's outft in the scene is partially inspired by a chocolate brown pinstripe suit made by Anthony Sinclair for Sean Connery. It was intended for him to wear it in the original Diamonds Are Forever film, but ultimately went unused.

Although Moviestorm does have a black pinstripe suit I didn't personally feel a brown pinstripe suit would suit Connery's Bond. Hence why I chose to just colour the suit brown, so it therefore is more like the ones that Connery's Bond has worn before.

Tiffany Case wears a red evening gown with a pretty necklace, which I felt suited her with her red hair and her objective of gaining the real diamonds from Bond's possession.

It's worth noting that this will technically be the first time the viewer sees the animated version of Tiffany in Diamonds Reimagined. 

Like in the original film, there will be a gap between when she last appears at Los Angeles International Airport when she and Bond went their separate ways, and when she reappears on behalf of her superiors.

So naturally, I wanted her to make an impression in her reappearance. First things first though, it's absolutely true that the hairstyle of her 3D character model does not match that of Jill St John's in the original film.

Unfortunately, the character models in Moviestorm just don't have available the kind of hairstyle that St John has. 

It's the same reason why I couldn't replicate Lana Wood's hairstyle for the Plenty O'Toole character model.

I am no 3D modeller, and since the Moviestorm software is barely supported these days, I decided to compromise and pick a different hairstyle that suited the character models.

With the set for the Starlight Lounge though, I'm very happy. As you can see in the screenshot below, I was able to add a backdrop of a lovely sunrise over Las Vegas to be seen from the windows.

I also added a glass dome on the ceiling with a star-shaped pattern of colours. It only will appear in a few shots, but I thought it added some character to the setting.

That's all for now - I am continuing to tweak and re-shoot small scenes here and there that I have previously worked on. 

But the long phase of re-shoots is nearly over, and with the next major sequence update I hope to discuss the work on the animated Penthouse scenes.

Till then,

- The Retro Captain