IanHubert
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Satsop Nuclear Power Plant / SOMA
🕑 Added 2020-05-26 22:58:05 +0000 UTCCheck out this weirdness!
The Satsop Nuclear Power Plant is an amazing zone a bit over an hour from me. It was never completed due to budget reasons (I've heard folks cite a shift in public opinion due to Chernobyl as well, but I dunno), and has been sitting vacant for 40 years.
They let film crews rent it out, though, and it's been my dream to shoot there for years, now. It's $100 an hour, which is fairly affordable, all things considered, but also a bit prohibitive for a hobbyist. But thanks to you guys here at the patreon I can actually think about it!! Crazy exciting; it'd be so great to shoot there for a day or two. And can you imagine combining some of these images with digital extensions? Zones like this? It'd be so surreal! (and talk about tracking markers)
These photos are all from when I got a chance to tour it back in 2014 when we were location scouting for the SOMA Transmissions. Imagos Films made a short webseries to tie in with Frictional Game's SOMA game (anyone played it?), and it was mostly filmed underground at the reactor (it goes like 5 stories underground. It's so weird)
Oh also- I spent a bunch of time doing post on the episodes- feel free to check them out if you want. The turn-around times were super intense, but there's robots and digital extensions and screen replacements and such (might not make much sense if you haven't played the game, though). You'll recognize Josh Truax, if you've seen Dynamo! He gets to go nuts- it's great.
It's weird looking back and old work and thinking about how I'd do it differently if I were to do it now. A lot's changed in 5 years!
Oh also they filmed some Transformers shots there. What's wild to me is that the cement wall would be the EASIEST thing to do in CG, and that's the only practical element, haha
Comments
Omg the Satsop! I used to live a couple miles down the road from it a few years ago, down in Malone-Porter in Elma! So awesome you got to get some footage of it, I've never got the chance to go inside. Standing under neath it though is just so incredible!
Davide Bertolini
I loved SOMA a lot. It's my favourite kind of game. First person but you never shoot once
My wife grew up at the bottom of the hill below the Satsop Nuke Plant. I always wanted to see inside. Thanks for sharing
sofia
Awesome!
Troll and Error
I own SOMA but I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet. I have, however, seen playthroughs of the game and watched the transmissions. Didn't realize you were involved in that. Cool stuff.
Erich Stenzel
very cool!
Ian Hubert
Yeah!!! It was my first DSLR. Totally totally blew my mind!
Wicked, thank you! My first short film was shot on my T2i, I know it's light woes well. If I end up using them for anything that doesn't come out embarrassingly bad I'll post a link, and if I use it in a production, I'll give you credit, of course. :P
Ian Hubert
Oh, you totally can if you want! I shot this on an old T2i, which wasn't the most light-sensitive, so most of them are a bit blurry, but if that's alright, go ahead!
This is great stuff Ian! There are some fantastic meaty concrete texture bits in here. Do we have permission to use any of these as textures in our own projects, or just for show and tell? :P
Bursting with inspiration!
this place is insanely majestic
Chromfell
Oh and also... TEXTURES??? I see so many awesome complexities that would enrich any virtual cement hell hole creation!!!
Chromfell
Also hilarious that someone went there just for the wall, hahaha. I guess it's do what the shot director says, always.
Chromfell
I've played it, fantastic, I also saw all the episodes of those films, also pretty cool, and when I originally found out you were part of it, it was even better! That funky TV thingy was awesome.
Cool spot!
WOAH NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST I AM COMING YOUR WAY! Thanks for sharing :)
Eevee or Cycles?
Ian Hubert
Oh man it's so cool!!!
Mitchell Hoover
Omg..SOMA wrecked me.
George Moise
awesome man! Thx for posting. It's like the end of Brazil!
Blake Rizzo
WHAT. IN ALL MY TIME OF LIVING IN WASHINGTON... NEVER HEARD OF THIS PLACE. WOAH.
Ian Hubert
Oooooo! Yeah that's one's in slightly better shape, hah- gets me so stoked though!!
Ian Hubert
Ah! I hope you enjoy it! A lot of it's pretty old. The new "Dynamo Dream" stuff is kind of a reboot to help me finish the story with folks I currently know, instead of folks I happened to live with like 9 years ago, haha
Ian Hubert
AH that's awesome! Yeah I have a friend who's recorded snare sounds in there- CRAZY reverb! And jeez yeah when I got the tour I was standing on a random piece of wood, and the guy freaked out because apparently it was a 30 year old sheet of plywood over a hundred foot drop. Also I was just happily leaning on an old rusted railing over a 75 foot drop. Great place to die, hahaha
Ian Hubert
Oh no way, that's awesome! Yeah written and directed by Don Thacker, but I did a lot of the design work and post (I think the turnaround time was like 2 days??). I did a bunch of wild stuff with Imagos Films for a while. Here's some of the original concepts and stuff (I like how my sketches are just, like, "Hey, you know The Matrix?" hahaha) https://drive.google.com/open?id=197wM4mEMKSKLdWS4P5lCsMWrKZJAKNXp
This remind me of this video of Tom Scott - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUVZbBBHrI4. It's about a "never used" nuclear plan here in Europe, also used for filming and other stuff.
Wow! cool place.
Wait are you saying you did the VFX for Vivarium?! That's my favorite piece of video game tie in marketing ever. I watch it a dozen times a year.
Zach Hoy
You've put me onto Dynamo now
gary hardesty
I do loudspeaker design and we use the turbine floor there for my acoustic testing, been there many times and often times thought about a film shoot there, or, at least grabbing some stills and video... awesome scary place! Lots of huge holes that drop straight down a couple hundred feet- don't wander in the dark... Would be a great sci fi film shoot location!
Ian Hubert is awake.. As am I... Great stuff man!
Ian Hubert
Right across the water in which direction?? I'm up on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Fes
Holy shit! I am right across the water. I need to go here.
Ian Hubert
Haha yeah!! Dude that corridor is so weird. It's like a couple hundred feet underground, or something. You get off an elevator and all the flourescent lights slowly flicker on into the dark, but the lights only go through the main hallway and all these other insane cement caverns just open up into the darkness. Super eerie, I love it! And seriously, being able to film in a place where I can just film/edit the footage, without having to build a bunch of sets from scratch or do a bunch of post would be SO cool!!
Robert Gyurko
Wait a second, that corridor is in your Conference talk! But this is so cool and I hope it isn’t too much of a burden for you to film there so that we can see some more awesome dynamo content!
Ian Hubert
Yeah!! I think they had it mostly finished, but never turned it on. In the years since all the pipes and metal bits have been scrapped, but the weird cement skeleton is still there. It's SUCH a weird environment.
Mark Miller
Dude, I've driven by that a few times, and I've always thought it would be super cool to see it closer. Thanks! I didn't realize it was never actually finished. I always wondered about it.
Cool!
