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Tag: Battle Room

PHOTO: Ender and Bean as Launchies in the Battle Room

The LA Times has published a set visit report and an interview with director Gavin Hood and gives us a bit more insight on how he came up with the Battle Room’s design. In addition to that, we have a photo of Ender and Bean in the Battle Room!

As written in the novel, the Battle Room feels like a big, dark room, and the “Ender’s Game” combat situations unfold on something akin to personal computers.

“You had to feel it was the real thing — not a video game on a screen,” Orci said. “Visually, it had to be visceral, a you-are-there experience.”

Hood says two chance visits to Los Angeles landmarks — Griffith Observatory for a planetarium show and Disney Hall for a symphony concert — helped him solve two of his most pressing visual obstacles.

During the planetarium show, Hood realized that the battling spaceships could fly around Ender and his subcommanders like so many spinning galaxies inside the domed Griffith theater, immersing the cast (and the audience) in the clashes. And in watching Gustavo Dudamel lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the filmmaker figured out that Ender could conduct his team of pilots as if he were guiding them through a prestissimo symphony — front and center, orchestrating everyone’s movements in harmony.

Hood’s production designers also enveloped the Battle Room with panoramic windows, so that the cadets were both figuratively and literally floating amid the stars. “What is the point of going into space and being stuck in a black box?” Hood said.

You can read the entire piece at LA Time’s Hero Complex.

August 30, 2013
Ain’t It Cool News on the Rebirth of Dragon Army

Ain’t It Cool News has posted their set visit report and in it they provide us with the scene where Ender is assigned Commander of Dragon Army.

“[Y]ou 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.”

It should be noted that this is his transcript of the original scene he saw and that later takes may have changed it. Still a cool look into Ender’s promotion into Dragon Army, though! He also mentions the scene that we see in the trailer that Khylin Rhambo confirmed on EnderCast was with him and Hailee Steinfeld.

I didn’t spend much time in the Battle Room set, but I did see Hailee Steinfeld film a scene with Khylin Rhambo, who plays Dink Meeker. It’s one of Ender’s gambits where one person from his army is sacrificed and used as a human shield. In this case Dink is frozen into place and Petra (Steinfeld) takes his flash gun and fires John Woo style as Dink hugs her, protecting her from enemy fire.

In order to get this shot they had to get on a weird little contraption that the wire team called the lollipop. Imagine a bar stool seat attached to a long stick with one affixed wire attached at the middle. Hailee sat on the seat, Dink on the bar, his arms over her shoulders and her legs wrapped around his waist with both her arms shot out under his shoulders firing away as they float away from the enemy gate.

Dink whispers “Did you get him?” Petra smiles and says, “Oh yeah.” He’s looking behind her and sees their momentum is taking them on a crash course with a star and they both cringe, anticipating the impact.

Read his whole report here, including an amusing interaction with Harrison Ford.

August 28, 2013
‘Ender’s Game’ Shot Five Battle Room Scenes

Set visit reports are pouring out today and Slashfilm’s piece had a particularly interesting tidbit of info that should relieve fans still worried about author Orson Scott Card’s comments last year about how one Battle Room scene was “one too many”.

There will be about five scenes in the Battle Room and it took about 4 weeks to shoot them all.

Whatever the cost, producers knew the zero gravity battle scenes had to be done right. Stunt coordinator Garrett Warren said he was never given any kind of restrictions in developing the zero gravity tech because everyone knew the movie hinged on it.

Hood and Warren looked at all kinds of different ways to capture the zero gravity including, but not limited to, actually filming in real zero gravity. They investigated more mundane solutions such as computer graphics and motion-capture, but eventually decided on elaborate practical effects.

They also reveal that they learned that each of the three stars built on set weighed a whopping 13,000 pounds!

To read their full list of 30 things they learned on set, click here.

August 28, 2013
Fan-Made Friday: Ender Wiggin by ~Jdbag75

It’s Friday, so here’s a bit of fan art for you guys to start your weekend. We’re now 69 days from Novender 1st!

This one was done by ~Jdbag75 on Deviantart and depicts Ender in the Battle Room firing his flash gun.

August 23, 2013
PHOTO: Ender at the Gate from EW’s Fall Movie Preview

Update: This image is the bonus tablet photo from EW. For the Fall Movie Preview image, click here.

We’ve seen a slightly different version of this image from Entertainment Weekly and with the new Fall Movie Preview issue on stands this week, we’ve got yet another new photo of Ender as a launchie. In this photo, he grips a bar at the gate to the Battle Room with Graff smiling with approval behind him.

Any speculation on why Graff would be the one to take Ender to the Battle Room personally? Why wouldn’t Ender go with his launch group? Give us your thoughts!

Source: Dread Central

August 9, 2013
PHOTO: Ender Wiggin in Salamander Flash Suit

Here’s a scan of a new image of Ender in the Battle Room in his Salamander Army flash suit. This image appeared in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly’s op-ed piece Pop Culture’s Big Gay Panic. If you’re not sure which issue it is, it’s the one with The Walking Dead on the cover.

Thanks to Ender News for the tip.

July 26, 2013
PHOTO: Ender and Petra at the Gate

Thanks to a slideshow put up by Entertainment Weekly for their Comic Con 2013 preview, we’ve got a new look at Ender (Asa Butterfield, right) and Petra (Hailee Steinfeld, left) holding hands as they’re about to jump into the Battle Room.

The photo gives us a better look at the flash guns, as can be seen on Petra’s hip, but it also brings up an inevitable question: are Petra and Ender a “thing” in the movie?

In the book, Petra acts more like a tough older sister to Ender when he first joins Salamander Army under Bonzo. But Ender was around 7 or 8 at that point while in the book he’ll be around 10 or 11. When we first saw Petra in the trailer, she was giving a sly smile to Ender.

Now in this photo we see them holding hands as they get ready to go into the Battle Room, something that Ender has presumably already done himself because we’ve seen him in the Battle Room wearing launchy colors. So what do you guys think? Do Petra and Ender have a different type of connection in the film? And if they did, how do you feel about it?

Source: EW.com

July 12, 2013
‘Ender’s Game’ Rotating Battle Room Theater Display

Big thanks to @VivianizCool for posting this Vine video of what looks like an ‘Ender’s Game’ theater display with a rotating Battle Room! (click above to play)

Are my eyes playing tricks on me? It looks insanely cool.

And why doesn’t my theater have one yet?!

June 19, 2013
Hi-Res Version of Ender in the Battle Room

Last week we got a great new image of Ender Wiggin in the Battle Room, presumably it’s his first time in the Battle Room because he’s wearing a yellow helmet, which we’ve all guessed is the official Launchie uniform color.

Now thanks to a hi-res version of the image, we get a better view of the look on Graff’s face as he watches Ender hang on to the handholds outside the gate. He’s clearly smiling, or at least looking at him with admiration.

I didn’t comment much on this last week, but looking at this closer up, I do love the statement this image makes about the “technology” of Ender’s Game because Ender floats just a few feet away from Graff, who is clearly standing in a hallway with gravity.

Whether or not this is possible at all, I’ll leave up to the people who know science. I still think it lends some cool factor to the world they live in.

It’s also easier to see the flash suit (click for larger size):

View the full image below or in the gallery.

June 4, 2013
New ‘Ender’s Game’ Still with Graff and Ender in the Battle Room

Let this be a lesson to me that the next time I hit the snooze button on my phone alarm, I should check email first. Haha!

Empire Online has just released a new still from Ender’s Game showing Ender in the Battle Room with Graff watching nearby. We get a really amazing look at the gate from the inside along with a better idea at just how massive the Battle Room is.

Empire spoke with Asa about the Battle Room scenes. Some of it we’ve heard before, some of it we haven’t, including the Battle Room scene he’s most proud of.

During their training, Ender and his unit take on a lot of other teams in the Battle Room. Any stunts you’re particularly proud of pulling off?

There’s a really cool sequence where I’m sort of spinning over backwards and I let go of my guns. They’re floating by my side just going along. As I push myself through these two stars, I spin back over and grab the guns, then shoot the people around me. I loved doing that.

He also mentions that they spent a month and a half filming scenes in the harness, which should be comforting for fans that were concerned by something author Orson Scott Card said last year at a book signing that one scene in the Battle Room is too many.

Source: Empire

May 31, 2013
Gavin Hood Talks Battle Room with Yahoo! Movies

In a phone interview with Yahoo! Movies, director Gavin Hood talked about the size of the Battle Room.

“This is the high school football field, only it’s in three dimensions. It’s the size of a football field in all directions: up, down, left, right. And the idea is teams jump out from opposite ends of this amazing space and play this amazing game of 3D paintball, almost.”

Ever since we saw on set how they planned to show the Battle Room, I’ve been dying for other fans to see their vision, which makes my own imagination’s gray room and cubic stars seem so lame in comparison. So how did they arrive at the design?

One deviation from the book is that in the original text the Battle Room is described as being a giant hollow cube. But Hood felt that to really convey the size and dimensionality of the space, it should be spherical. Hood said he then proposed, “What if we could see through? What if we could see out of the space, and we’re moving around the Earth and turning at the same time?” He said he felt that would create “a really strange, disorienting experience,” that would better capture the notion in the book that in space there really is no up or down.

Strange and disorienting is right! I’d probably be downright terrified the first time I saw the Battle Room. With Earth visible right outside I can imagine the feeling that you’re floating in space takes some getting used to. Or do you think that young children would have an easier time adjusting to such an intense arena?

Read the full article at Yahoo! Movies.

March 25, 2013
Gavin Hood Previews Ender’s Game One-Sheet Teaser

Some of you may have seen a leaked image last Friday of the first Ender’s Game and stuff like that is always a little unfortunate because while we’re all starved for Ender’s Game stuff, there’s always that disappointment at seeing something not as we were intended to see it.

Thankfully, director Gavin Hood has an official teaser of a teaser (I love saying that!) on the Ender’s Game production blog for us to drool over until we get to see the poster ourselves in theaters. He’s also given us some insight into his own personal tie to the story of Ender Wiggin.

It’s been four years since I first began writing a screenplay based on the classic novel. I love the book. And I especially love the character of Ender Wiggin. I was drafted into an army myself at 17, and Ender’s journey of self discovery – his battles with authority figures he does not trust and his development as a leader – are themes I strongly relate to.

Here’s a look at Ender’s feet at the edge of the gate to the Battle Room:

We are now well into post production and the famous zero gravity battle room scenes are looking fantastic.

[…]

And today we are looking at battle room scenes that will blow your mind!

To read the full entry, head over to the Ender’s Game Blog.

What do you guys think? Tomorrow we’ll get to see the whole thing unveiled via Yahoo! Movies, so be sure to keep your eyes on Yahoo tomorrow!

March 24, 2013
‘Ender’s Game’ Still Breakdown: Battle School Mess Hall

I’m thinking the same thing you guys are. Finally something new! Now that we have a new still to pick apart, let’s get started shall we? You can click any image to see a bigger one.

First, the full image:

With only the expression on their faces to go by, I’d guess this is when Petra first offers to show Ender what she knows in the Battle Room on their own time. At this point they’re all in Salamander, Ender’s first army, so it’s a safe bet. They’re in the Battle School mess hall, which shows at least five or six teams and a Launchie. It’s possible that Fly Molo is in this image as well, sitting on the far table on the right end.

The other boys were talking about things—the big scoreboard on one wall, the food, the bigger kids. Ender could only watch in isolation. The scoreboards were team standings. Win-loss records, with the most recent scores. Some of the bigger boys apparently had bets on the most recent games. Two teams, Manticore and Asp, had no recent score—these boxes were flashing. Ender decided they must be playing right now.

Rat and Asp are on the board and therefore currently in the Battle Room, so I’m assuming the red patch on the soldier in the middle is actually for another army, despite the logo looking very similar to Rat. On the far right, you can see a group with teal patches and a guy with a darker red logo, though he could be in the same army as the red patches in the middle. Update: I received a tip that the dark red patched soldier is Cameron Gaskins, who plays Leopard Army commander Pol Slattery.

On the left, the bright yellow color of the Launchies. The scoreboard differs a bit from the book in that it doesn’t seem to list the standings of all the armies, but I do love that the Battle Room’s layout is in the center.

You can see the matching colors on both sides of the sphere, so these have to be the gates. The white obstacles floating around being the star configuration of that particular battle. Next to each army logo you can see several meters.

Next to the vertical meter are what appear to be soldier profiles of them taken in the plain whites we saw Ender wearing in the first still. It’s possible these swap screens in and out with the rest of the army because I think we asked how big each army was and although I don’t remember what it was, I know it wasn’t 8.

I’m not sure what this is, but my guess would be it’s the top three soldiers in each army. There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places on both sides of the board with a line graph. Shooting record perhaps?

If you’re wondering why I’m zooming in on what I’m assuming is Battle School breakfast, it’s because I want to try to recreate this for my blog Fictional Food. I even found and ordered one of these trays on Amazon already! It’s a lot shinier, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same model.

I can’t say I’m all that impressed with Battle School lunches. They have what looks like an energy bar as the main course, a pastry, gelatin, a green pudding, and a small loaf of bread. Is this really enough calories for a school of teenagers? Maybe the energy bar is packed with tons of protein.

Zooming in on Petra, you get to see the Salamander army patch on her arm, which doesn’t appear to be sewn on. It looks textured too, which makes me want one even more. Her nametag says Arkanian.

A few soldiers down from Petra at the other end of the table is Bonzo. His food appears to be untouched and he’s just sitting there staring either at something off the table or just at his hands. What do you guys make of his posture in this still? He looks like a bit of a loner in this one.

I can spot at least six girls in this still based upon hair buns, which is interesting as I would have thought they’d have the girls cut their hair short as well.

That’s all I’ve got for this one. Do you guys notice anything else interesting? It’s such a busy image and I wish we could see the board more in focus, but clearly the blur is intentional at this point. I can’t wait for more!

February 20, 2013