Laboratory shooting, nearly done!

We're nearing the end of our time in the lab. This week we finished off a giant chunk of shooting, did a few pick ups, and started planning our final days on this set.

How about a video why not?

VIDEO:::

 We're getting to that point of "shoot what we can, cause this set is being torn down soon." We scoured all the footage and frantically made notes on what we had, and what we still needed. But in the end, we were able to knock almost everything out. In the boring in-between-shots time, the actors have invented a new sport called "Flizz"... which involves a used gum wrapper. I'm sure it's more involved than that.

Flizz, a gentleman's game... apparently.

Jason giving proper credit... four.

This week also meant the first of our CG shots. Setting up a giant green screen and tons of lighting was an interesting challenge inside of a triangle with lots of windows.

This was for my "Save the fish" campaign commercial.

Hopefully this blog can keep churning out regular content. I still have a few up coming days of shooting to discuss, and I plan to document the destruction of our amazing set, but after that it's relax time for a little while before we dive into the rest of the shooting.

Green is the new RED.

More to follow shortly. Stay tuned in.

Thanks again to our friends Fit For Rivals for all the awesome tunes for our behind the scenes videos!

-Luke (D.P.)

Shooting days 7 - 11.

What a sticky mess this was! An experiment gone wrong. But what happened? Exactly! You'll have to wait for the movie! But you won't have to wait for a video... I'm not cruel. More behind-the-scenes footage with more Fit For Rivals tunes! Enjoy!

VIDEO :::



This week was an exciting blur of crime scene footage, gallons of blood, mouse testing, and light saber dueling... off camera of course. Jason holds the title of Jedi, but Leeann is a saber-wielding padawan with an eye on the prize. I hear an on-camera battle coming up!

Garrett "Garrett Boyd" Boyd, mouse charmer.

You know, a blog post with some cool photos and fun videos is great and all... but what about the footage man? I'm glad you asked... because the footage is looking amazing! Every day we wrap, we always are amazed with what we got that day. Inevitably, there is one crazy, overly-technical shot... or some camera trick that takes a few hours... but once we've got it in the can, we all get excited again.

Abe Ruthless, the man, the myth.

Intersect P.D. (left to right)
Wes Cleveland
Frank Aaron
Dennis Moore

This looks pretty serious, I wonder what's going on.

This week we start plowing through the footage and make sure we're staying on schedule with our shot list. Our set does have an expiration date, so we need to crack on and make sure we don't miss anything important. There is no going back once we strike the set. What a sad couple of weeks that will be. This lab has become just like a cold, grey building full of metal and machines to me.

Getting blood out of electrical connections is the worst. They'll never work the same again.

Just a handful of shooting days left in the lab now. We've crammed a lot of hard work into a concentrated squeeze packet of awesome sauce. Which of course goes on top of the movie pancakes. But that part is obvious.

Uncle Sam is always watching.

Check back soon!

-Luke (D.P.)

6 days of shooting, in the can.

As of today, we've blown through 6 days of our planned 18-day shoot inside of the lab set. (That's 1/3 for you folks following at home) Barring any more major setbacks, or days for reshoots, we're basically on schedule.

How about a video, right up front like? It's just below... click play to watch.



So what did we do in 6 days? We roped in a hoard of background artists... or "extras"... dressed up our cold lab set with some warm glowing light from a bunch of hanging orbs, and had a party to unveil the worlds first time travel machine. Dean Foster from Miskatonic University led the festivities... our now fully grown whiz kids ran a demonstration of the portal they designed, while Larry Fincher of Science Journal America and other members of the press watched.

Slade Hall as Larry Fincher.

But what would a movie be without someone messing up the whole shooting match? Some crazed nutbag broke into the lab after hours, strapped a bomb-vest to himself, and went nuts. Oh, what a world.

Jose Rosete and his giant man fist.

All in all, it's been a productive week and a half. Chock full of window cleaning, chamber dismantling, and awkwardly uncomfortable camera shots.



Matt Sheick and Lyle London from Art In Metal, on set helping with a tricky shot.

Said tricky shot... the dolly needed some extra room out the back of the Event Chamber.

By the end of it all, we we're all charged by the great footage we got. We ended everyday saying "we got some amazing stuff today." Many thanks to all the great people who suffered the long hours, traded in their weekend to be told where to stand and when to talk, and stayed to help us get the shots we needed!!

Gus and one pile of extras.

Genesis. The first working time machine.

For the party scene we needed to create a set of relics. The very first portal built by Dr Ryan Winrich and his friends Dr Nate Beaumont and Dr Caitlin Webb... as well as a jar of marbles (the symbolic "first objects sent through time"), and Dr Winrich's early notebook... complete with illegible scribblings and unattractive sketches.

My rectched handwriting and doodles. Made slightly more retched for film purposes.

Ashlyn Melancon, makeup extraordinaire.

What happens THIS week you ask? Well, I'll tell you this much... it will be amazing. You will have to check back in for an update. See that... a hook.

Jason and Gus were very proud of this Miskatonic seal... sadly it will barely be in the final film.

Leeann Dearing, Abe Ruthless, and Jason Spisak

Stay chesty out there... all day!

-Luke (D.P)

Principal photography begins!

Remember remember, the 27th of November. Saturday was day 01 of shooting on "Intersect". After a mad dash of final preparation and cleaning, the laboratory set was finally ready for filming.

Windows were cleaned, the portal was wired, and software was installed into the robots. It had all finally come together. Months of sweaty preproduction and planning was mopped up and squeegeed into the first concentrated drop of the movie.

2 legit 2 quit

Saturday morning, 8am was the official first call time. Everyone was charged to be on set. The cast and crew funneled in, and the old warehouse was finally transformed into the high-tech temporal sciences laboratory at Miskatonic University.


Meet the cast (Left to Right):
Kate Kugler as Dr Claudia Pilkington
Abe Ruthless as Dr Nathan Beaumont
Jason Spisak as Dr Ryan Winrich
Leeann Dearing as Dr Caitlin Webb
Garrett Boyd as Dr Geoffrey Lucas

As the actors were running their lines and the crew was setting up the scene, we heard a very loud grinding sound coming from next door. After a few minutes of it, we went to investigate. Apparently the vacant warehouse to the east of us (attached) was being renovated for a tenant to move in. There was a single dude running a floor scraper inside a 3000+ square foot room. The plan was to tear up all the floor. At the rate the guy was working, it would have taken him 2 weeks to get it all done. Seven members of our crew and family volunteered to go next door and help him knock it out so we could film. It took till 4pm.

Luckily, during our down time we had a number of lavaliere mic issues to iron out. So we spent that time working on sound and rehearsing the scene. A lot of time was lost, but in the end, we got things smoothed out.

By Sunday, our second day of shooting, we were a fairly well-oiled machine. Our actors totally rocked the script, the set looked incredible on camera, and we got some amazing footage.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is day 3 of shooting. I hope to keep the blog posts rolling! Another video clip too! Stay tuned!

-Luke (D.P.)