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.)

The Portal, in it's home.

We made serious strides this weekend on the lab set! Most notable was the actual installation of the Portal in this final resting place, the Event Chamber. The very minute we plunked that baby down things got real.



Feast on the glory of the underside of the turn table.



He's not crazy, he's my brother... Zack.

 After some very long hour days this past week, the lights inside the chamber were hung, the ceiling dropped in, doors installed, and the floor was tiled. This was all preparation for the Portal and the rotating "turn-table" it sits on to be made active. We rolled the giant 8-ft aluminum disc into the Chamber, and designer Matt Sheick made the final calculations before we set it spinning on its casters and lazy-Susan-style base. Then it was all about the Portal. It took 4 dudes to shimmy that thing inside the Chamber. (I was dude #3) Once it was secured to the turn table we all stepped back to bask in its ominous magnificence.

Check out the behind-the-scenes VIDEO clip below... VIDEO!!! Watch it!

There was something eerie about that simple horseshoe design, draped in all that white, inside the massively intrusive metal structure. It felt like a villain for the first time. It looked epic.

Our 2 actor mice... and 1 stunt double.

After we had the Portal squared away, it was time to clean and start really dressing the set. Electronics were brought in by the pallet load, and the test mice were nestled in a corner.

Gus, and a sneak peek at one of the delivery robots.

Jason Spisak, checking the orange goop.

The next few days will be a hectic "let's-get-this-place-ready-to-shoot" sort of few days. Preliminary testing and shooting will begin at the end of the week. We can't wait to fire up the RED and start putting all this hard work on film. Science willing, we will have some great footage on our hands very shortly. Stay tuned!

Me, trying really hard to look like President Kennedy.

-Luke (D.P.)

Event Chamber and Portal update

Just a brief update... it's been over a week.

Set construction is still plowing forward. Matt from Art In Metal has installed two of the giant "blast proof" windows inside the Chamber walls. They still have the protective plastic on them, but the shape and the framing are just brilliant! Every time a new piece is introduced to the set we are blown away all over again.

Gus wiring the Portal

The Portal has also seen some new additions... mass amounts of wire and tubing have been laced through the rungs of the arch, giving it a very purposeful, science-y look and feel. The glowing blue EL wire gives the Portal that little something special and shiny. I do believe we have something nifty on our hands.

All that science-y goodness!

All that nougat-y goodness!

What film is complete without the obligatory Barqs and Charleston Chew Minis craft services table? Frankly, I wouldn't work on a film without them. "Charleston Chew, America's Chew."

The Event Chamber

Our laboratory is really coming together now! Over the past seven days we watched a giant, grey, empty warehouse transform into a movie set. Lead designer Matt Scheick and the folks at Art In Metal began construction on the truly massive Event Chamber last week. By the weekend, we saw it finally stand up on it's own.

Witness the glory of a week's worth of hard construction in the ageless format of time-lapse:

The Event Chamber as seen though the eye of The RED

Gus, The Event Chamber, and The RED

The Event Chamber, which has been capitalized for it's iconic contribution to the film (much like the Millennium Falcon or Johnny 5), will actually appear to become a character itself in this story. This giant, obtrusive structure was created to house the world's first time-machine, as well as harness and contain it's tremendous power.

All praise to the Chamber!

Matt Scheick from Art In Metal

Though the Chamber is still in the building phase, myself and the rest of the team felt the current incarnation was such a stunning achievement, that we had to share it. Building will continue all this week as the Art In Metal team install a ceiling, cut out two large windows, and hang the huge sliding doors. Once the entire thing is built and touched up, the Portal will be delivered to the set and placed on it's rotating turn table. At which time, the Chamber will be near complete. Save for a few aesthetic adornments and a couple of controller robots.

The end of a long week's weekend

One of these is a light. One of these is a Brad. The game has begun.

All in all, the film is humming right along. As we continue to progress with the film, we will try to post more often, and incorporate more video... because, let's be honest, who likes reading anyways? Check out the clip below... just a little footage from around the lab set... behind-the-scenes... construction. Good stuff. Bonus features. Enjoy.



Video footage by Steve Esparza (Steadicam and handheld) and Luke Holwerda.

Steve Esparza

Real science.

-Luke (D.P.)