Trailer -- day four
Topic: Trailer

Location: Michael Caruso's loft, basement, Downtown Los Angeles

Dust was the talk of the day. It was in the air, in our lungs, on our clothes, on the floor. Pretty much everywhere.

The basement served as three separate locations ... a torture room, a file room, and a, um ... basement.

The basement itself brought back memories of being a kid, so many different rooms that could be used as a play area. You know ... before you lose the bliss of youth and realize that it's not quite the safest place for a child. We filmed only in the big open area, each part of which looked like a different place as well, but there were also four or five other rooms, electrical and storage, that had its own unique look and feel. And stuff, too. It seems that residents use these rooms for storage. I saw a desk, files, wooden crates, a modem, and a bunch of stuff that apparently belongs to a bar being opened nearby. And in one corner of the main room, there was a large metal door that I'm guessing housed either Sloth from The Goonies or the Rancor.

The best shot of the day, in my opinion, was when one of the bad guys (Caleb) walks in on Jesse and Winston in the file room. The shot started low and moved up, and when it passed the villain's shoulders, the two turn their heads. This is the kind of shot that makes this trailer look like a "real movie." The kind of shot that will make people believe that this trailer is for an already existing film. More on this at a later date.

The other big shot of the day was our main villain, Drake, being thrown through a wall. Of course, we don't have the money for a breakaway wall (at least, not yet), so to accomplish this, our makeup guy (yes, the makeup guy) threw debris into frame as Michael tumbled into frame. In later shots, Michael also threw debris in front of him to improve the effect. His tumble across the concrete was intense. I'd break my neck if I attempted that.

We ended the day with Sean doing what he does best ... hamming it up for the camera, in the form of a blood curdling scream. Guess all that theatrical acting experience is really paying off.

Day four photos
Topic: Trailer
Today I learned that a lot of dust in the air creates an annoying effect when using a flash. But most of the pictures came out okay.


Caught red-handed.


As always, our crew is hard at work.


As you can see, Barb rarely has time to rest. There's always something that needs to be done, especially annoying paperwork.


Michael learns how to roll cable.


James, our stunt coordinator, discusses the impending fight.


Our makeup team has their way of preparing Dorien...


...and James has his.


Naomi stands in for Dorien.


Naomi has had enough.


Dorien gets her ass kicked.


But now it's Dorien who's had enough.

Trailer -- day three
Topic: Trailer

Location: Rob and Barb's apartment, Studio City

While we waited for "the talent" to get ready, several of us sat around and chatted about movies. This is always cool. I love being around a group of people with similar interests to mine. Even when a person's taste may be vastly different than yours (which isn't a problem in our group), the fact that you all love movies is common ground.

The talent that I'm referring to was actually our producer, Barb, so we cut her some slack, especially since in addition to working her ass off for this production, she's been quite sick. The extra time was worth it, because Barb looked fantastic. Her clothes, face, hair ... everything looked great. She was ready for her close up.

The exact spot for our first location had been taken by some workers making tile or something, but we quickly found a substitute. This production is much different than the last because a lot of it is being done "guerilla-style." Some of these locations are being used without necessarily being set up, where owners are sometimes just looking the other way. I've been told that this parallels past Starway Pictures production due to these guerilla elements.

After slam dunking a scene in the alley and being treated to Sean's skills to freeze in one position, we moved inside for lunch. But while most of us chatted while waiting for food to arrive, Rob was on the floor in the hallway, setting up a shot where an empty vodka bottle rolls back and forth next to a bath tub, an effect of our protagonist's abilities.

Here is an example of where we got extremely lucky on this production. Rob assumed that the effect would be done by blowing compressed air against one side, then the other. A quick test of this appeared to me that this shot would be difficult (though not impossible) to keep rhythm with Sean's fingers moving back and forth. But as luck would have it, Rob and Barb's apartment is a little off kilter. So the vodka bottle, when released from the right spot, would roll across one section of tile by itself, at which point the next tile would try to correct the tilt and make it roll the other way. One release of the bottle would get about 12-15 back and forths. The effect was amazing, a very natural looking sway. It looked eerie, to be honest.

None of us like using the word blessed, but this production is going very well and that bottle is a great example of that, although Rob would probably like us to believe that he chose the apartment due to the vortex in his bathroom.

The food still on its way, Rob got off one more quick scene with our protagonist. It was too tight to fit in the hallway, but we could all hear "build, build, build, build, slam!" bellowing from Rob as Sean was instructed to build up his intensity for the scene.

After feasting on a glorious Chinese meal (I like food ... a lot), we went back to filming. The last scene of the day was the confrontation between Drake and Dr. Hagen. While the other Dr. Hagen scene focused primarily on Barb, this scene was Michael's turn to shine. He showed just how fantastically evil he could be, and is the only person involved in this production who gets to rough up the producer.

Good day, all in all. And I'm looking forward to several more.

Day three photos
Topic: Trailer
I got several great shots today.


Shots of our set and crew...










The many faces of Michael Caruso...










The many faces of Sean Pritchett...










Barb Sanders. Before, after, and ... I have no idea.










And a few various shots...


MIchael roughs up Barb. I think this is why he signed up.


Michael's a little shiny.


Our badass makeup team.

Trailer -- day two
Topic: Trailer

Location #1: Underground parking garage, Burbank
Location #2: Michael Caruso's loft, Downtown Los Angeles

Today, we filmed the opening sequence. This is probably the most ambitious part of the trailer, because it features one of the bad guys throwing a car at our hero.

How will we accomplish this? Well, that's Rob's department. This scene does not appear in the script. It is Rob's brainchild, and he immediately started devising ways as to how to pull off the effect.

In the real world, i.e. if we were filming the feature and had much more money, we would more than likely farm out these types of effects to a boutique effects company. For two reasons: 1) they would have more experience and 2) Rob would be busy enough editing the darn thing. But for the trailer, the effect only needs to last a couple of seconds, plus we don't have the funds needed to bring in additional help. So this all hangs on Rob, and if you've seen the helicopter in the Day:11 short (it was CGI), then you should be pretty confident of how good the effect will look once Rob's done with it.

Drake and his goons might very well be the stars of the show. They get to pick up cars, beat people up, and generally act like nasty people, all the while keeping their outfits nearly immaculate. Get blood on Drake's suit and he'll be vigorously wiping it clean as soon as he can get his hands on a cleaning agent.

That's all I'll disclose for this part of the shoot, because I don't want to give much away.

The next part of the shoot, back at Michael's loft, consisted of only a couple of quick scenes, one with Drake and his henchmen, the other with Donovan chasing Drake.

Today, I got my first taste of what guerrilla filmmaking can consist of. We did not get permission to shoot in the building across the street, so we told the security guard that Barb was a fashion photographer who wanted to shoot a quick shot of the three young men in nice suits. That wasn't too hard to believe ... Michael, John, and Jay were decked out rather nicely and it is more than conceivable that we could have been conducting a fashion shoot.

Of course, very few fashion shoots would feature a model with cuts on his face (Drake), but it's L.A. ... anything is possible.

Day two photos
Topic: Trailer
I didn't have my camera for the first day of shooting, but I'll be sure to have it on set from now on.

I learned the hard way that my camera is not very good in low light. This makes it especially hard on images being shot in a darkened parking garage, especially when you're trying to shoot action without a flash because you can't mess up the shot.

But I did my best. Enjoy...


Rob Sanders gives instructions to Drake and his goons (played by Michael, Jay, and John). Don't they look spiffy?


More instructions.


Mark Ross, our DP, lying down on the job.


Sure wish it wasn't so blurry. All this shot needs is a car hanging overhead for him to catch. Shouldn't be too hard for a master of FX like Rob.


My lovely wife and child came to visit the set. Aren't they adorable?

Trailer -- day one
Topic: Trailer

Location: Michael Caruso's loft, Downtown Los Angeles

It sure is nice to be back.

It's impossible to convey exactly what it feels like to be back on set working with such a great group of people. Once again, multiple talents are converging to bring our project to life. Rob's characters, my words ... saying it's fantastic barely scratches the surface.

Everyone was immediately comfortable again. It was as if we had simply taken a short vacation, rather than a brand new project separated by nearly five months.

Compared to future shooting days, today was rather tame. All of the scenes revolved around the two lead protagonists, Donovan and Jesse. Most scenes were dialogue heavy or no dialogue at all, the feelings conveyed with only a look.

At first glance, I thought today would be a quick day. No stunts. No extended scenes. Only two actors. But when you take into account multiple takes at different angles, it takes quite a bit longer than simply snapping a few takes and moving on to the next scene.

All of today's filming was done at Michael Caruso's apartment building. We really didn't hit any bumps. We paid a security guard $20 to keep quiet, but all of the tenants were cool.

Oh yeah, when we were about to film a pick up scene in an alley, two guys at the end, separated by a fence, pissed into the alley. Just hung their tiny johnsons out for the world to see and did their business. Too bad cameras weren't rolling. We could've had a Microcosmos sequel on our hands.

The shoot went just about as smoothly as possible. We did a bunch of dialogue scenes, some brooding shots, and one special effects shot pulled off by yanking on a string to make a glass slide across a counter.

Simply put, we got off on a great start.

Ketchup
Topic: Trailer

Time to play a little catch up.

Now that the trailer for Shadow Falls is in the can and will be making the rounds to investors soon, we're moving forward with the trailer for The Twenty-Third Letter. There's not a lot of details available yet, so this list of bullet points should bring everyone up to speed:

- The final trailer script has been completed. I would say that it's about 50% me and 50% Rob.

- Michael Caruso, who played Paul in the Shadow Falls trailer, will be playing our villain Drake. Michael, who is one of the most charismatic people I've ever met, auditioned for the part and absolutely nailed the nuances necessary to bring Drake to life.

- Barbara Sanders, our producer, will be playing the role of Dr. Hagen. Her character will be somewhat similar to the role she played in Expired, so I knew she was perfect for the part from the get go.

- Sean Pritchett, who played Mobley in the Day: 11 short film, has been cast as the main character, Donovan. He also played Donovan in a short scene that Rob shot for The Twenty-Third Letter early last year.

- Alexandra Boylan, who played Jenn (Pauls' girlfriend, in fact) in the Shadow Falls trailer, will be playing Devi. She dies a bloody death in this trailer, too. Well, at least we won't cut her head off for this one.

- Auditions are being held on August 15th for the roles of Jesse, Seth, and Hadrian. I'm not sure where the information has been posted, but it should appear soon on the Starway Pictures website.

- As previously noted, the third act is going to be rewritten heavily. In fact, the entire script may go through a detailed overhaul because of locations that have become available to us.

For more information, you can go to Starway Pictures' website at...

http://www.starwaypictures.com

They also have their own blog now, which can be found at...

http://www.starwaypictures.blogspot.com