08/27/09 More Filming on Remote Viewing Documentary

Over the last three days I've been getting together with Vernon Mui to continue filming on our remote viewing documentary. Most of what we have been doing over the past few days is updating his website - Georgia Remote Viewing Society, and filming FAQ questions that he can update to the site to add more content. Most of what we have been focusing on is to make the GRVS website be the best it can be and attract more people.

One of the major hurtles of this documentary is the lack of a real group of people interested in the subject matter so I am trying to help Mui create content to get people more interested. This may seem like something that a documentarian should not be doing but I am not only a filmmaker on this project but I am also someone who is trying to help Mui present remote viewing as something anyone who is interested can learn.

One of the other main hurdles of this film is that Mui is still new at not only teaching but also being in front of the camera. He is someone more comfortable behind the camera and it shows in much of the footage captured thus far, but he is improving and has come a long way since we first started filming this project a few months ago.

I do not know how long this production will take before I have enough good info to put in a film but it will be an interesting journey nevertheless.

Next, we will meet to edit the FAQ that we filmed as well as work on the footage of one of his sessions that we filmed so that members of the site will have more content to view. It should be very interesting.

08/23/09 Cake Baby Productions finishes THE TEDIOUS EXISTENCE OF TERRELL B. HOWELL

Sunday was the last day of filming on the Cake Baby Production of the short film THE TEDIOUS EXISTENCE OF TERRELL B. HOWELL, which was written & produced by Kelly Silverman and directed by her husband David Silverman. The production had a seven day shooting schedule and was completed on schedule.

I was on set as a general production assistant but also provided production stills for the film. The film is an under stated drama with subtle hints of dry comedy about a married man (played by Steve Coulter) whose life takes a drastic turn when he gets involved with a woman he encounters on the street.

Although I had very little to do with this production I was able to once again work with many people that I hadn't worked with in a long time such as Renonda Anderson (make up), Donna Wong (script supervisor), Alex Turner (PA), Karli Brooks (actress), and Brent Brooks (PA). Working on this production, for me, was mostly fun and entertaining due to the fact that I wasn't responsible for much of the actual work on the film (which was a relief believe you me).

I am glad that I was given the opportunity to work on this short film as it gave me the opportunity to work with many filmmakers that I haven't worked with before and I had a lot of fun just being able to be on set and enjoying myself.

As the Silvermans take the film into post production I wish them all the luck especially since they hope to be able to have the film out to film festivals before the end of the year. I can't wait to see the final version when it is complete.

8/1/09 - 8/3/09 Filming on the "Pilot" of The 48 HOUR FILM COMPETITION SHOWDOWN

Since production on this documentary lasted more then four days, I'm just going to group the entire experience under one heading. I started work on the 48 Hour Film Competition Showdown before I ever knew that I actually had the job.

Following my work with Interstate Films on the actual 2009 48 Hour Film Festival Competition and the production TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, several of us got together to put together an auditition package for the actual Showdown (which we heard about during the screening of our film). Although only one of us got a call back to be a part of the actual crew of filmmakers being filmed for the showdown, I would eventually get on to the production as part of the documentary crew care of both Ondie Daniel and Renonda Anderson, who referred me to the production. I was hired as an assistant camera on the production.

The Showdown that we are filming is actually a race between two teams (one from Atlanta and the other from Nashville) who have 48 hours to complete a short film (in the same tradition as the original competition) andd we are filming this as part of a "Pilot" episode for a proposed television show. The production crew for the show was huge and as an AC my job was to supply the cameramen with batteries and cards whenever they needed them. On set my co-AC was Jennifer Rowland who was making her film production debute. Together we handled everything that Team Atlanta documentary crew needed during the Morning shift of production (since everything was filmed around the clock). She started work on the production a day before me but over the next 48 hours we would be a non-stop perfect team that complimented each other.

On the first day of production we were mainly on location at an abandoned werehouse (chosen by the film crew) and allowed us to be of the most use. The second day we had a lot less to do and therefore there was a lot of down time but we had to keep in mind that this was a documentary film shoot and we filmed what we needed to film.

There were a lot of surprises on set (too many for me to name here) but I guess I did a well enough job as I was asked to return for the final day of filming in which the screening of the two teams' finished films would be screened in front of an audience. I enjoyed filming on this day the most as I was promoted from AC to camera op as the production needed more camera ops for the added cameras of the shoot. This allowed me to work with the HD cameras for the second time (the first being on TURN THE OTHER CHEEK in which I used an HD camera but filmed in 24p).

The experience was an eye opener as I gained a lot of knowledge from the production personnel as well as the team members being filmed and I gained a lot of new friends that I hope to have on future productions. The experience working on this film is not one that I would have missed for anything and I'm glad I was able to work on the production and be of some type of help.

I do know that it took me two days to not only recover from the three days on set but also all the other films I worked on just earlier that week. You only get a few great opportunities to work on and with productions such as this (which was a paying gig) and I hope that the production gets picked up so that I might have the opportunity to work on the actual series.

Here's hoping!

7/30/09 Filming Continues on OUT OF SEASON or Does It?

We were scheduled to continue filming on OUT OF SEASON on 7/30/09. Director Ed Harlaque wants to see my lawyer character in the film more then just the two scenes originally scheduled so the scene we were scheduled to film today now has my character in it talking to the main character Sara.

I was up for the expanded role because it had been so long since I had done any real acting and the one day we have already shot I had a lot of fun dong.

Today's filming had to be cancelled because out lead actor playing Sara just could not get out to the location. Even though she was in Harlaque's previous film BREAKING THROUGH, she still had problems making her way out to the location. We ended up cancelling once she finally arrived becaue we ultimately ran out of time.

I'm only disappointed because I spent time going over the script and was ready to film when all of this happened, so, I was a tad disappointed. This is okay as I forgot to cut my hair and if we had filmed continuity in regards to my hair cut would not be the same (a problem I ran into on the set of JACK O'LANTERN). All in all Harlaque and I had time to discuss this project while we waited for the actor and even though we had the location/room set to be filmed (and we then had to tear down without ever filming), I don't believe the whole day was a bust.

Since I had just filmed the LAST CALL teaser last night not filming today was actually fine by me because I had another film shoot to be ready for for the up coming weekend. We'd just reschedule like we normally do and eventually we will "get it done."

Shooting the LAST CALL Teaser

Producer Ondie Daniel wants to put together a teaser trailer for the LAST CALL vampire anthology, thus we decided that we would film a scene from my fine (in addition to two others). We decided to film one of the flashback sequences since we could show one of the vampires in addition to showing how the film would look. Everyone was available except for Bren Allison so I decided to film the scene myself.

Having no asperations to direct the film myself I was more nervous going into directing this then I was HOUSE OF SECRETS, which I was prepared to direct and produce. The teaser was easier only because we had cast two actors that I had already worked with - Amy Wolkis and Jason Von Stein, while the third actor in the scene who was playing the vampire of the film and before that night I had never met him. He was an addition by Daniel as I requested that she be responsible with casting all the vampires in the film since we were going with people from Netherworld who already have or will soon have their own vampire teeth. Authenticity is key with this project and having great teeth is one of the reasons I agreed to do the project.

Another reason for doing this project is obviously because I wanted to collaborate with someone else on a creative level and Allison is someone whom I've worked with before but not so much on a creative level and this project was the perfect opportunity. I've only worked with Daniel as an actor or as a make up artist (and more recently she was casting director on several other projects) so working with her to produce this film is also new and a challenge.

One of the key ingredients that Daniel has provided is an amazing location for the production is far better then anything I could have imagined. The location is key to my story and filming at this location has given the production higher production value then I could have ever imagained. I did have to do some rewrites on the spot to accomodate that fact that I did not want to show any blood or gore in the scene (and therefore wouldn't have to worry about the clean up) but I think the scene works really well without the gore.

I think my actors all did a great job putting this teaser together in such sort notice and my crew were great as well (the make up artist was from Netherworld as well) and this was a great way to break the ice on the production. Shooting this teaser was a way to let everyone know that we are still a "go" on the production dispite the delays.

For a few moments I even wanted to direct the film myself since I was having so much fun (until it all had to eventually end) but then I wised up and realized that it was better to let Bren do all the heavy lifting while I sit back and just watch :)