Day 8

We may be adding a few more days on to shooting. We also have been getting a good response from a slop together trailer. For those who have noticed the lack of horses in the film, just note we shot the posse riding out of town today and it was really cool. This weekend we will put together a more refined trailer since we will have the time.

Below you can see our first "teaser trailer"

Day 7

I leave for the set in about 20mins and have just completed the "temp trailer" we have been working on. Ben (the editor) and I took the night in shifts because we had a deadline of today to get it done. It is not the greatest cut trailer because we spent most of yesterday working on data management so we could find the clips easily. We didn't start actually editing until about 11:30 last night. Ben assembled the timeline and I went in and laid down as much of a soundtrack as I could, then we burned it to DVD for the producers, Tony and Ulrich.

It took us a while to figure out the best workflow but once that was fixed we began moving pretty quickly. We are editing in real time the full resolution HD files. There was a time when that was nearly impossible.

Off to set...

Day 6

We've made it half way and today we finally got to sleep in. Our day off is not particularity a day off. We are reworking some logistic issues and seeing what we can cut down in the script. We are attempting the near impossible by shooting in twelve days but are determined to make it happen. The weather could really give us some problems if it doesn't clear in the next couple of days but luckily we are shooting interiors for the next few days.

Today we are prepping all files for editing so we can cut a trailer for promotional purposes. We had a few minor complications at first but figured out the best workflow and are now getting ready to get things assembled.

The last week was intense and we are pushing to be able to complete everything within the next 6 days of shooting. We are going to have to step things up a notch to make sure everything moves as scheduled and we can be completed in a weeks time.

2 down 10 more to go

We just wrapped our second day of shooting today. If we keep pushing hard like we are doing then we may make our 12 day shooting schedule.

Day 1 was a bit interesting. Some crew dropped out the early early morning of the shoot. Then our generator never showed up and we had to rent from a different place and our lunch had some complications which set us back about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. With all that said we still came only 1 1/2 pages from making our day of 6 1/2 pages. We were slightly discouraged with the dealings of the day but the end proved that we just may make our days.

Day 2 - Today. We had a slow start. Working with the steadicam as well as making most of our wides made things difficult but we still pulled off 9 set ups before lunch. After we had some food in us and the directing team had a discussion we blasted out of the first half of the day and completed nearly 15 setups almost making our day of the gun fight.

The wide shots are hard to do at this particular location because we have a lot of obstacles to deal with as far as set dressing. A lot of modern houses sit in the background of set so we are constantly trying to hide them and frame them out. Today's epic wide was a high angle looking down on the town as the sheriff and deputies spread out for the opening gun fight. It reminded me of Gunsmoke so I will consider it my omage to the classic western.

The highlight of the day was when we were losing light and hand a handfull of shots left to do. As one of the shots was being framed and set up and I ran over to the location of our next setup and was able to combine three shots into one. At first the DP was all that happy with the idea because our lighting was at the worst time of day with the sun behind us. I walked to the other side of the buildings and to see what it looked like with the sun facing us. We went with the shot and it turned out great, thanks to the crew.

One thing I always learn while on set is how valuable each person is. Because I see how hard everyone is working I attempt to make it my goal to thank everyone before I leave set.

Tomorrow is day three with a lot to do. It ain't over yet.

This is it

No more prep. Call time is 6am. going to bed.

Breath of Air

These past two weeks have been incredible insane. I've been working pretty much every day for the past two week averaging about 15 hour days. Last minute conflicts in need of resolve, my car breaking down and soaking me dry 5 days before the shoot.

Obstacles are popping out at us from every direction and it is kicking our butts. Today we picked up have of our equipment, running into obstacles all along the way but made it through. Hopefully I will get my car back tomorrow and it will last until the end of the shoot, if not then.............who knows.

Jarret, Michelle and Austin all made it to the location today and got fitted for costumes and played with the guns. Both Michelle and Jarret got some time on the horses and the set is looking great.

Even though the weekend is here and we shoot in two days, there is no rest for me and the above the line crew. I have a meeting with Ken (Director of Photography) and Neil (1st Assistant Director) tomorrow and we will hopefully get the shooting schedule all smoothed out. All we need to finalize as far as pick up goes is the lenses, camera and filters. We are shooting on the Panasonic HVX200 with P2 media and are using the RedrockMicro M2 adapter with Nikon lenses. Ken recently shot a short film entitled "Illegal" directed by Andrew Oh and produced by one of our producers Tony Wang. You can read all about it at www.dvxuser.com, just search for "Illegal."

Ken is using a chocolate filter to shoot Bounty to give it a really cool brownish look.

No turning back now, if I get a chance I'll make another post and hopefully I'll get enough rest on Sunday before the shoot.

here we go....

2 weeks to go

With over a year of development/pre-production we are finally only 2 weeks away from going into production. Now going into crunch time I am seeing how valuable and amazing the crew I am working with is. We do another location scouting on Friday to run through things and to get an idea of how to set things up.

I have had some great new insights to the script and have finally completed the shot list. I will now go into creating overhead maps for each scene. A very vital thing that our team has been trying our best to do is to stay in constant communication. Once we fail in communicating the we will most likely fail at filmmaking. So far this team has be amazing in doing that.

Production starts Jan 22.

Down to Business

We are now less than three weeks away from shooting and this time we are not pushing back. We are one person away from having all of our key positions filled and things are moving quickly. Next week we plan on making another trip to the location to walk through the set and discuss logistical issue. We will probably cover contracts and the DP, Gaffer and me will run through the shot list and figure out anything we foresee being a tad difficult.

I have been reviewing the script consistently, making sure that I am ready for anything that may arise. Just in typing up the shot list to be able to give to people I have been able to cut out 28 shots by deciding I did not need them or combining two, three or more shots into one.

The biggest thing to hope for right now is that it doesn't rain while we are shooting.