It's chalk walk time again...

Every year about this time Fort Wayne has the 3 River's Festival. It's an excuse to eat bad food and listen to old bands from the 70s and 80. There's a midway full of rides I'm to big for and Carnies with small hands. But there is also the chalk walk. About 100 artists or more converge on the scalding hot cement of Main Street and we draw on 8 ft x 8 ft squares with chalk until our hands bleed or we pass out from dehydration.

Below is last year's entry.

Two cool things...

1) I had Ted and Matt doing about 75% of the shooting last Sunday and it was a tricky shoot. No matter which way you looked, there was either the house, a swing, a pile of cut wood or a burn pile with a million dollars worth of spent fireworks boxes. I have not seen all of the footage yet, but what I have seen is great. There are only two shots where they caught 'civilization' in the scene and both can be cropped or edited out.

2) One of the kids from next door asked to see the stuff we shot and so I showed him some of the web stuff. Max, my younger, said, "Doesn't my dad have a really cool movie?" That warms the heart!

Just took a few quizzes for grins...

53%

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and

I am 85% Addicted to Coffee

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I'm not looking for dates! I just liked the quiz.

Putting together a portfolio of costume designs for a new job that should finally make my life less stressful...and I hear thunder...lots of thunder. Life is good!

Speed up or slow down...

We had a situation this past shoot where Danielle was a little cautious about punching her advisary, Adam. He's been in the army and he can take a hit, but Danielle, desspite her hardened exterior, was a tad soft on him and the punches were coming in a bit slow. So, what to do...speed up the action? NO...then the rain falls faster and it looks fake...instead...we...slow...it...down and make it look like a slow motion shot.

Hey...this can't be right...everyone is having fun...



The beggars...






Okay...this is funny...I stuck Danielle's sword into the ground...it hadn't rained for weeks and the ground was HARD. During the scene she was supposed to pull the sword out and she couldn't...ha ha...ha...okay...I thought it was funny.




Gwen gets ready to fight the beggar...



Hi...I'm Gwen, glad to meet ya!

Tarina was fine until the water hit her...




Too bad no one ever has fun on location! Actually, this has been a great experience for my sons...Zack especially. It has boosted his self confidence as he has been able to help with props and help with the rain rack. His expression makes it all worth it!!!



Danielle...always getting hurt...



Shawn...rain wrangler...master of PVC...



Stephanie is our propmaster and now actress...



And of course here I am not living my dream and having a crap time...oh wait...I am living my dream (which started when I was ten and first saw Star Wars and wanted to make a movie) and having a GREAT TIME!!!

A few points of interest...

1) Sunday we added Stephanie to our ranks as actress (not just prop master anymore) and she did fantastic.

2) Don't give Adam sharp objects and a blind fold. As he entered the scene, he unexpectedly went into this wild thrashing bit with the weapons in his hands and missed both Sally and Stephanie by mere inches...proof that all of our actors are REALLY blindfolded as neither girl moved.

3) I've been asked by three people this week what our budget is...I counted the receipts and was happy to see that I have spent about $85.00. The trip to the vet today was way over that...we could have financed a sequel with the vet bill.

4) Watched the "director's cut" of Daredevil...what a fantastic film. Why was the other version even released?!?!? It's like "The Professional" and then watching "Leon - the Professional"

ALL IMAGES BY LANA MABBIT

(Tomorrow I'll post the photos taken with the cheap camera...)

Tho I have done a lot of directing on this film, and am doing so here, today I turned over the role of Director to Ted...we'll see...we'll see...



Adam got a lot of scrapes and cuts doing this scene...after he fell backward into a puddle of mud and ROCKS, Stephanie and Sally dragged him away...




Okay...it's me directing again...just can't help HAVING FUN AND DOING MY ART!



Gwen (Danielle) is attacked by (Core) Adam, but alas, Core thought he was going to fight an old man...he gets bruised!




This is, of course, Sally doing what she does best...acting before she dies...




This is the scene where Core (Adam) has been bested by Gwen and Quil (Stephanie) is sulking...

Got a little more done on the GARUM...

John has begun work on the DRIFTER

Started sculpting the Garum head tonight...

It's a little out of focus, but it shows scale...



This is only about an hour worth of sculpting...probably five more hours to go...



The Garum has a lot of damage to his face...lots of scratches and cuts...



"I believe that...yes, that is a cavity. A little drilling and some drugs and you'll be killing and eating villagers in no time." I plan on making the teeth out of translucent SCULPY.

Nice...

Every once and a while you get a shot that just WORKS...the new banner does just that. Ted is working on some color correction and I am extremely excited about the fact that this Sunday we will have two Canon XL1's on location...we should be able to get back on schedule. YAY!!!

color tests...

These are in the early stage and they are a bit extreme...but this is getting close to some...some of the footage we need for the film...trust me, it will all make sense...

test one



test two

It's been a long week off

We skipped filming last weekend for several reasons and I really miss it. In the mean time we...

1) adopted a four week old kitten that my wife found at a busy intersection.



2) celebrated the boy's birthdays.



3) sat out back and watched the flying squirrels.

Addition to the team...

Last year, when Darkness Aftermath looked a lot different, John Blume did some extremely cool stuff with 'red head pony tailed' Lilly and a drifter that had legs...over time both have changed drastically...well, John, no slouch with the pencil or computer, is back on the team!

The Caretaker...

I've dyed a bunch of fabric and this weekend I'll be making the Old Caretaker's costume...it will be a combo between Jack Sparrow and Obi Wan...not an easy task...it needs to have the 'wise man' look of obi wan and the 'lets collect a bunch of stuff and incorporate it into my costume' look of sparrow... the clothe I dyed looks fantastic...

Head gear...

This is a design for a warrior's head gear based on an EXTREMELY cool drawing by Lauren Reeser. She's a fantastic artist who has graciously allowed me to draw inspiration from her sketches. My sketch is not done yet...still hammering out some details.

Can't sleep so I'm...

...making a record of all of the footage we have. We actually have shot a lot more than I realized. But tonight we also lost the guy who was doing the Drifters...thinking I might give it a go. Ron has wanted me doing animation and I do have experience in traditional animation...

Kristi loaded the BLADE RUNNER soundtrack and a few songs by Andy Hallett (It's Not Easy Being Green - just as example) into an MP3 player for me so I am a little happier than I was several hours ago...

I think I can sleep now...

Well it was bound to happen...

We had our first bad day of shooting. I was tempted to cancel because I just had this bad feeling about it this morning...I'll post more later. For now, here are some pictures by Lana Mabbit. Oh, check out our official site here.

Here I am with Danielle about to ask her if she can put a little emotion into the scene where she finds the fur vest of her mentor, the Old Caretaker. It is covered in blood and she stumbles across it while Garum hunting...just as I'm about to ask her for a more emotional run of it, she asks if she should be more emotional. She nailed it.



Here is the sequence.




Danielle had to run and fall. We made her do it three or four times. The last take rocked...Ted called a while ago to say that the tape was screwed up and none of the footage worked for this shot!





I remembered to get Danielle warm water for her hair when she is deep in the forest.

Never really realized how tall I was!

One thing that's cool is how quickly Danielle has become Gwen. Tho she's never had any formal training and only acted in small videos, the moment I say action, she is no longer Danielle...she really becomes Gwen. But fortunately she stops being Gwen the moment I say cut. It's also nice that I hardly have to direct her.

And this is something that I've noticed about a lot of the people involved. Sally turned in a performance that caused me to write her more lines. Luke is really getting into the physical aspect of his character and everyone is just doing a great job in front of the camera. Today, for the first time, as I edited the shooting schedule, I realized that very soon we'll be done shooting. I don't want it to end because it has been such a great experience.

I have been on other shoots where it has been chaos and the director is yelling and the cinematographer is stomping around and it's just no fun. This is a blast! I think one of the reasons it's been so much fun is that I have a policy...no dorks, no divas, no darn know-it-alls. Those are the three types who really ruin a shoot. I've actually had to tell some people that "we're fine, we don't need any more help," because there have been people who I know would bring the production down and we don't want them on the shoot.

Can't wait for Sunday. Lot's of dialog.

Poster contest

Ted came up with a great idea for a promotional. As we are 40% done shooting, it's time for a promo blitz. We are going to contact the local news agency (I have a connection) and a local business(again with the connections) and we are going to have a contest to see which of three posters people like best. The winning poster choice will go into a drawing and the winner of said pool will get a free poster and a copy of the DVD...but wait...that's not all. They will also get two tickets to the premiere...fancy that!

Poster #1



Poster #2



Poster #3