Pre-production Diary: The Read Through
Posted by Jeremiah on May 21st, 2007 @ 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

Last Wednesday night, we gathered the four main actors in our film and most of the crew we have assembled (which isn’t very many yet) and had a reading of the script.

My understanding of the read through is that it gives everyone involved a chance to meet each other and hear the script read out loud. For Josh and me, it was very nerve-wracking because we finally get to hear what the dialogue we have written sounds like. But after the reading was over, I was relieved. I think it’s a good script and will make a good movie. We’re going to make a few tweaks to the dialogue but for the most part, it’s pretty solid.

To see a quick blurb of what the reading looked like, click this link.

BTW, we have cast every part in the film except one or two that only have a few lines. Shouldn’t be a problem to fill those roles. Soon, I’ll post pictures of the actors and let you know what part they play.

You know what is scary? Knowing that 3 weeks from today, we go into production. But on the bright side, 6 weeks from today, we’ll be done with production. (Though, that’s always a sad thing for me. I love being on set.)

Pre-production Diary: Providence
Posted by Jeremiah on May 15th, 2007 @ 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Now for today’s grammar lesson:

Providence - a manifestation of divine care or direction.

I think God loves movies. If He is in control of everything (and I personally believe He is) then He has to be a BIG fan of movies.  (Action and Sci-fi are His favorite.  Hehe.)
There are so many things that can go wrong during the writing, pre-production, production, and post-production of a movie. I have to believe that God has a special place in His heart for film productions. The fact that ANY movie gets made is truly a miracle.

We’ve seen the “hand of providence” at work in our film already. Finding the snake wrangler, being able to use a VERY EXPENSIVE lodge for free, our actors agreeing to work for us for 3 weeks with no pay… And there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I can’t really elaborate on. There have been several moments already that I thought, “Well, that’s that. We’ll try again next year.” And then, something amazing will happen to work it all out.

Now, I’m sure we’ll have many more things go “wrong” and then turn out better and this film may never get made, but in the end, I know it will be providence controlling the situation, not us. And honestly, that makes me feel really good.

This week, we spent more time on the shot list. We went up to Ellijay to the lodge. There is a paddle boat in the lake so we had lunch on the paddle boat. It was a great moment where we realized how much fun filmmaking can be. We weren’t stuck in a cubicle working for “the man.” We were making our film. No other feeling like it.

We also had more auditions this week. I think we’ve decided on who we are casting in the last 2 parts needing casting. So, aside from a couple “under five” parts, we have the cast.

Tomorrow night, we are having a read through with most of the cast and crew. It will be the first time everyone is in the same room together. I’ll post something about it on Thursday.

Pre-Production Diary: Snakes
Posted by Josh on May 9th, 2007 @ 10:03 PM | Comments (4)

Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?

Because we wrote it that way. That’s why.

So we have this scene in the movie. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say it’s a very suspenseful scene involving a rattlesnake. Now that’s something that’s easy to write, but when you have to start thinking about shooting it, it becomes a bit of an issue.

We had one place in mind that had casually mentioned that they might possibly let us use one of their rattlers, so I called them this morning to formally ask them. The lady on the phone was mortified. She did everything but plead with me not to shoot this scene. She went on and on about how deadly rattlesnakes are telling me several horror stories of death and amputated limbs. Needless to say, she declined to be involved.

I must admit, after getting off the phone with her, I was seriously rethinking this scene. I’m not really afraid of snakes, but she had sufficiently frightened me. My mind was trying to figure out how on earth we were going to shoot that scene - rubber snakes, stock footage, complete removal of the scene?!

After several frantic phone calls to my brother, I hopped on the internet to look for actual snake wranglers for film/television. Boy am I glad I did. I found one here in Georgia that has not only agreed to do it for a very reasonable price, he has assured me that he can get any shot we can come up with. He showed me a demo reel of a rattler striking someone’s leg. Scary stuff. It was a fake leg, but it didn’t look fake. Wow. I just now shuddered thinking of it.

We had a long talk about the scene and how we could go about shooting it. He’s going to bring several snakes that he can swap out if certain ones aren’t being cooperative. He’s also going to bring stand-in non-venomous snakes that we can use for wide shots with actors.

So all of that to say that our snake scene stays in the film! Not only that, but it’s going to be even better than we had originally conceived it. I’m so pumped.

Pre-production Diary: Shot List
Posted by Jeremiah on May 7th, 2007 @ 06:15 PM | Comments (0)

Josh and I drove up to Rome, Georgia today to one of our major locations so we could do a storyboard/shot list. We like to be really prepared when we get on set and the best way to do that is with a detailed shot list.

Now, we understand that once we get on set, the actors or DP (or anyone) could have a brilliant idea that could change the way we shoot a scene and we’re totally cool with that. To quote Captain Barbosa, the shot list is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Generally everyone that crews one of our films comes away impressed with how organized we are on set. And we attribute most of that to a detailed shot list.

Now as for the “storyboard” part of what we do — we usually either draw stick figures or take photos of me being every character. These storyboards are actually quite funny to look at. Maybe one day, we’ll post some. Maybe.

But as for working with a storyboard artist, we’ve never done that before. And we both suck at drawing. Really bad. I honesty don’t know how to work with a storyboard artist. I’m sure there are several ways of working with one with varying degrees of involvement. For now, the way we do it works so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Now, to give you some perspective on the amount of work it takes to make the shot list. We spent almost 4 hours at the location and did the shot list for about 20 scenes. (Some of them we just put “COVERAGE” because we’ll need to shoot a TON of angles. That’s generally for huge dialogue scenes.) So 20 down, 130 to go. That’s right, there are about 150 scenes in our film ranging from 1/8th of a page to 3 and a half pages long. We still have a lot of work to do.

Making a film is a daunting task and sometimes the amount of work needed makes it seem insurmountable.  But on days like today, when we take it one scene at a time, it almost seems possible.  We know how to make a short film.  So we’re just dividing this film up into scenes, just like we do with our shorts and it doesn’t seem like such a bear.  One step at a time, one day at a time.   It’s all good.

Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Pre-production Diary: Actors
Posted by Jeremiah on May 5th, 2007 @ 05:59 PM | Comments (1)

We’re having a few issues finding 3 actors for our film. One of our main actors backed out this week. It’s a little scary but I’m sure we’ll find a replacement. We wrote the role for this person so we are a little sad that we won’t have our first choice. But, the show must go on.

We’re auditioning a few people next week so we’ll see how that goes.

Pre-production Diary: Dangerous Calling
Posted by Josh on May 3rd, 2007 @ 01:46 PM | Comments (2)

So we have a title — Dangerous Calling. I guess you’d probably like to know what it’s about. No? Okay. Next time we talk actors.

Wait a sec. This is my blog and I want to tell what our movie is about. Here’s the logline:

Church politics turn deadly after a new pastor and his wife challenge a sweet widow-woman’s control of the small country church to which they have just been called.

Picture something like Misery or Hand That Rocks The Cradle. This is the first thriller we’ve written, and we’re really pleased with how it turned out. We’re preacher’s kids, so we’ve definitely seen the dark side of church world. We took some of our experiences growing up and pushed them to the extreme for dramatic purposes.  The result is a pretty exciting story set in that world.  The story is filled with suspense and should be quite a ride once it’s up on the big screen.

Stay tuned for more details to come. Tomorrow we’ll talk actors.