11 years

I'll be taking a break from all things Darkness Aftermath today. Kristi and I are celebrating 11 years of marriage. YAY us!

Hey...we're making a movie.

I've had something happen a lot recently and it's sort of cool. For almost two years I've been talking about making this movie. A lot of people have nodded their heads and smiled. But now that we have photos of the shoot and a quick trailer up, and people see it and they realize we aren't messing around and it's high quality, they are stunned. They are REALLY surprised. Tonight I showed the trailer to a student at IPFW and he was impressed. A lot. I think the whole thing is, a lot of people make 'movies'...a lot of college kids and high school kids and people who just have a camera make little movies that sometime might even have a plot. But this is serious and people are starting to see that. I think it's why we are suddenly having more people want to get on board.

This Saturday at 11:00...FIGHT!

Danielle will be doing battle with the GARUM and (hopefully) me on stilts.

Stuff

We are welcoming Matt on board as second camera operator. This will enable me to have more time with the actors during prep and make up. Also, this week I am building Lilly's 'rocket launcher' as well as a small version of the Drifter that will be 'placed' in the forest. We heard from another ITT student who wants to help out so I am going to have him animate (if all goes well) the Drifters getting shot by the launcher. I am also meeting with Jay (of the band who is working on our soundtrack) to give him some of the instruments I have built so that they can begin to incorporate the sounds into their music.

This is...well, cool

Bought this today and it reminded me so much of why I wanted to make films. Slap down the $35.00 and get it. Lucas is as Lucas was...meaing that in this book, e comes acrss as the cool guy I wanted to emulate as a kid, not the "oh, wouldn't it be cool if we marketed Obi-wan action figures that are really TRANSFOMERS" guy. This book really takes me back 30 years.

Cool stuff!

I just watched the footage from last Saturday and something clicked. The camera sees a lot more than I do. When Danielle and Luke kissed, I saw no magic...when I saw the footage, I totally believed the love was there. When I shot the scene where Sally dies in Trina's arms, I was frustrated because it wasn't how I envisioned it. When Sally says "I'm afraid to die", and the blood runs from her head, I actually got choked up. I can't wait until Saturday. We have some REALLY cool stuff to do. We'll be shooting most of the end sequence that is all about Gwen and the Garum.

New Banner

The above banner is about the right color and darkness for the film. Ted is working on blue fireflies as we speak.

Ted slapped this together

Click here for the day's shooting highlights

And they said that it MIGHT rain...

Well it did. It was soft rain, hard rain, rain that blows down trees, rain that makes visibility about 15 feet. And thunder! Wow. We finally had to quit one hour ahead of schedule because the sky went BLACK. It was rather creepy. The sky just kept getting darker and darker and by the time we got out to the forest, there was no light at all. So we got most of our stuff. John didn't make it, but that's just as well. Would have been a shame for him to drive to the location, get soaked and then head back home with nothing in the can.

So here are some images of the shoot.
ACTION POSE



DEEP IN THE FOREST. DANEA SPREADS BLOOD ON THE DEATH RUNNER TO ATTRACT THE GARUM.


I CHECK THE 'GREEN BOOK' WHILE ADAM WATCHES.


DID I MENTION THAT IT RAINED?


SALLY'S MOM BROUGHT SNACKS


SALLY GETS A LITTLE BLOODY




SALLY (THE BEGGAR) EMERGES...


LILLY (TRINA) FINDS THE BEGGAR (SALLY) AND COMFORTS HER AS SHE DIES.

Update

We've had 130 hits on the original trailer and 7 on the new and improved trailer...tomorrow we shoot five new scenes...Ted will be busy.

I'm ready, I'm ready...

Only one more costume to finish up and we are ready for tomorrow's shoot. They are calling for rain once again! YAY!!!

I asked Ted to make a few minor fixes...

Fixed trailer.

Late night

Well, it's almost 2 am and I just finished Danea's costume. Can't wait for her to try it on. I also spent some time on Core's costume...he's the beggar. He is played by Adam and he's going to drop by tomorrow for a costume fitting and a quick study on blind fighting. I have to finish 'the Old Caretakers' costume for John Gruse as he is dying on Sunday. I also have to finish Katie's costume as she is the 'death runner' who tries to lead the GARUM to the clearing by dipping her cape in blood to attract it.

Oh...and the trailer counter is up to 122.

106

Well, I just checked the counter and the official trailer has been viewed 106 times. I know, I know, some stuff on you tube gets viewed that many times or more in one day...or one hour...but, I told myself that if the trailer counter hit 100, I would have Ted clean it up and reload it. Time to go to work, Ted. Check your email.

Gwen teaches Clarr how to use weapons

I probably won't post scenes like this too often, but since it is the first complete scene that is edited and awaiting music, I thought I'd post it. There are a few minor tweeks that need to be adressed, but as a rough edit goes, I'm rather pleased. The music will start out playful as Clarr, though strong, is a tad ungraceful. As he improves, the music becomes more serious and finally evolves into the 'Love Theme" as they kiss.

CLICK HERE

This is our official first real trailer

CLICK HERE

We're editing...

Ted dropped by and we dined on steak, chicken, fresh rolls and grilled veggies in a butter, garlic, and lemon. We're well fed and editing!

Fun stuff

The day started with rain...which was perfect. We water proofed the camera and got Sally into costume...Liegh arrived and we got her suited up. We went to the clearing and shot the first bits of the film. It went really smooth. Both Liegh and Sally Rocked. Then we shot the training scenes of Gwen and Clarr...it was the first time they "Danielle and Luke" had met and the scene ends on a kiss...it worked out very well, extremely romantic...then Loren arrived on the location and totally blew everyone away...he ran through the forest with the blindfold on and totally became his character. It was almost creepy how well he became the character that I wrote and drew...he was inspiring!

Then Ted edited the stuff with some help from Rod Stewart.

Just watch it...

click here

Hosed!

Very tired. We started shooting at 10 and finished at 3:30, but I'm exhausted. Everything went well and Ted is burning a DVD of the footage as I write this. Everyone showed up and did their 'thing'. I'll post images and video when they arrive.

Thanks to Sally, Matt, Luke, Loren, Sharita, Damien, Shawn, Kristi, Richard, Ted, Katie and Liegh...who am I forgetting? Oh yeah. Thanks Danielle.

Music

I've been listening to Sean's stuff...and I am sure that track 9 or track 8 of the "Dream with a Window" would work for our trailer...but I don't have Shawn's email...call me, dude...track 9 ROCKS!

The voice over for our trailer...to be posted on Monday.

Five hundred years ago, the rain was cursed by God...
The rain brought blindness...
The blindness brought chaos...
The chaos brought pain...
From the pain, evil emerged.
Some would run from it...
Some would fight with it...
Only one would stand against it.

In a world of darkness, the blind must lead the blind.

Three new images...

...from Michael for our 'flashback'.

Rain Rack in action...

Gwen is stalked by a Rain Rack

Color Test 2

Just what the title says...

CLICK HERE

I've always wanted to be tall...

We did a test with me on the stilts so that Ron could animate and 'rotoscope' the Garum over me. They were fine to walk with but I was a bit nervous about faalling side ways. We're going to fix the problem with a wider base on the bottom of the stilts. They will take some time to get used to as the stilts allow no ankle movement.

Click here for TALL ALLEN

Color shift...

As the Drifter Demons get close to Lilly, the color needs to shift from blue, to green to yellow/sepia...


Ted did some color shifting based on my pictures...click here.

Banner...

Has anyone even noticed the new BANNER?!?!?

Joss Weadon

I'm watching "Serenity" and listening to the director's commentary...again...I can't sleep...I'm too excited about Saturday's shoot!

This Saturday

001 CALL SHEET
LOCATION: HUNTER’S FOREST
DATE: MAY 26
TIME: 10:00AM – 3:00PM


Scene 1.3-------Gwen, Clarr
Scene 1.5-------Gwen, Clarr
Scene 1.8b------Gwen
Scene 1.12------Gwen, Clarr
Scene 2.2-------Gwen, Tanesk, Ralen
Scene 2.7-------Gwen, Clarr
Pick up Scenes (added)
P1--------------Harel, Gahl
P2--------------Gwen, Tanesk, Ralen

ACTORS----------CHARACTERS
Danielle--------Gwen
Luke------------Clarr
Loren-----------Tanesk
John------------Ralen
Sally-----------Harel
Leigh-----------Gahl

CREW
Allen-----------Director/camera/blood wrangler
Shawn-----------Sound and boom
Richard---------Rain rack
Sharita---------Records
Kristi----------Driver
Trina-----------Costume supervisor
Ted-------------Documentary (unless fired)
Zack and Max----Gaffers

Lilly color test and 'sparks' on her weapon

Low res cool stuff. This is almost how Lillyy will appear when the Drifters are near. I think there needs to be a 'central' glow that is almost white...maybe. Also, when we shoot this scene, we'll do it in the evening so that the light from the weapon will reflect on her face.


CLICK HERE

Color Balance Test 1

Original.



Color Balanced through After Effects

Danielle's first day of shooting.

A lot of this you've seen already (me taking a practice punch to the jaw) but Ted edited the shot nicely with the music. We have five scenes to shoot a week from Saturday so there will be some pretty cool stuff posted then. I just finished building the "Garum Stilts" and will test them Saturday.

DANIELLE'S (Gwen's) FIRST DAY

Ted put some of Lilly's 'stuff' together...

Lilly has gone through the most changes of any character...strangely enough Tarina seems to have the 'carefree' attitude that Lilly possessed in the Entropy Gate series...and that's a good thing.

(ignore the annoying compression) and click HERE for Lilly-ness

Allen gets hit.

I was practicing with Danielle on her punching and she got carried away...

Click here...

This is why Ted rocks...

Ted took some of our test footage and some of my images from the blog and took a Peter Gabriel song and made a teaser. Watch...enjoy...

CLICK HERE!

Burn!

Ted just burn some DVD's of the test footage and his behind the scenes 'stuff'. After work tonight I plan to check it out. Tomorrow I'm going to run some footage through Adobe After Effects and play around!!

Welcome aboard...

A week from Saturday; Adam, Sally, Danielle, Luke and Leigh will be on location.

We also welcome to the team; Richard, Brittanie and Katie.

Still more stuff...

Blood...she sells it!




I wanted to test Danielle's aim (blindfolded) so we gave it a go...look for the blood at my elbow...that came from my mouth...yummy!




I have a mouthful of "blood" for this test take and we have all realized that I can't say "action"...

Just a few more...

Chad helps out with a scene...Danielle is about to punch me in the face here and Chad is standing in...




Look closely at her hand and you can see blood dripping from it...poor girls has been hacking at a GARUM all day.




ALLEN: "You swallowed what?"

DANIELLE: "Spider water!"

More photos...

Danielle is DOWN!




Danielle was thirsty so she drank a bunch of water that we found in a forest...actually she drank some really nasty water and almost threw up...quite the trooper!




Lilly will need to be CG at some point so we had her pose for several shots so that Ron or one of his minions could create her later...

Trina by the truck

This is our truck...it has already been in one short film...it will not be in this one. Trina is getting her costume together. Everyone loves the boots. If you look closely, Trina is eyeing the jug of blood...she knew it was fortified with wine.

More pictures...

Trina is Lilly.




Documentary dude, Ted. That camera looks so small next to the Canon XL1. It takes good enough stills and video for our documentary.



Me and my BLOOD.

The First of Many Photo Posts.

I'm getting ready to shoot Danielle and some blood. The mud on my pants happened when I showed Danielle how to take a dive in a puddle.




Tarina watches the set up.



Danielle on location. The...uh...tractor won't actually be in the film. That's Kevin, the land owner. He and his wife are letting us shoot all over thier property.

A GOOD DAY!

Today's shoot was all I had hoped for and more. We did tests with Lilly (Trina) and Gwen (Danielle). We tested Lilly's weapon and we shot Lilly get rained on. Gwen had it a lot worse. She was rained on and soaked with very cold water. The behind the scenes footage that Ted shot got that "AAAAAAH!" scream and look from Danielle as we sprayed her. Then we made her fall down in a large puddle of water, she got a mouthful, and had her running blindly through the forest. We did some blood tests too and she had the chance to "punch" me. The blood worked well...REALLY well. I'll post shots tonight when Ted sends them.

Blood Recipe

5 parts strawberry syrup
1 part chocolate syrup
2 parts dark red wine

Almost there...Stay on TARGET...

19 hours and counting...just finished making a fresh batch of blood and finished the rain rack. All the actors are confirmed...well, I mean they confirmed that they are going to be there.

The countdown begins...

We start shooting in 22 hours, 35 minutes...

The little things in life...

Now that the first day of filming is locked in I am FLOODED with detail ideas. Tonight as I was trying to start my lawn mower I got a huge blister on my hand from pulling on the cord. It made me think of Gwen. (stay with me here) As she is fighting the GARUM, after she has dislocated her right shoulder, she has to use the heavy sword with her left hand. She is going to have one bloodied palm by the time Clarr arrives...I've made a note in the script to bloody up the hand that day...it's a little detail, but it will make the characters more real!

Weapons

Danea is locked in now.

After much searching and second guessing, we finally found our Danea. Tiffany Dixie.