Over the last six months my film group has been a bit "fractured" and what-not with both directors, myself & Ryan Gary leaving for Univ. and the Marines respectively. So it's been tough getting all our **** together again to deal with that.

SO...things are finally back on track and after producing several shorts and recording many hours of footage, we've decided to really challenge ourselves with a full-length film. Up until now just about all of our shorts ran un the 5-10 minute mark, with our longest short film "Lost, The" (here on SF) clocking in around 20 Minutes.

The Lost was SLOW moving even at just twenty minutes, so it's going to be a real challenge for us to pace this film properly, but we believe we can do it. The goal is to create a full length film, being at least 80 minutes in length, but as long as needed. If that ends up being 80 minutes or 100 minutes, so bit.


After some deliberation we've decided to concentrate on a Horror/Action film script, specifically one taking place in the Snow-covered mountains of the Appalachian Mountain range.

The Name is "Man in the Mountain"

I'm actually writing out the full script ahead of time which is rare for our group, but it's the best route to take with such a time-consuming project. Improv simply won't cut it when your travelling several hours out into the mountain to film what looks to be at least 10 Hours of overall footage.


Synopsis of Script:(Yes it's generic, but we plan to shine in execution.) A group of guys are going camping for the weekend. Tensions run high as the guys are snowed in for the weekened with, much less food then they had planned for, and without any contact to civilization. Whilst the trip carries on one of the guys is "taken", and the other guys must go to extreme lengths to not only bring their friend back safely, but in doing so not ending up dead at the hands of the "Man in the Mountain".

With plenty of suspense, some interesting characters, and what we hope is some pretty cool dialogue at parts, it's a project I've got high hopes for

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Darkfire001,

Last night while I was going to be just past midnight, a stroke of inspiration hit me, and I've finally generated most of the "villain". Will take some panning out to resolve how the other characters are involved, but I'm VERY happy with the concept character. More so since it's an original take on the sort of Mountain Scary Movie concept. Granted uses a lot of familiar themes and occurences, but the Villain is original which is always good.

Production is getting bumped up big time. The Mountain House we had planned to film at is best available in Mid Febuary.

One-month Let's see how it goes.

Wow, didn't realize how tough writing a full-length film would be lol.

Script: 15% Completed.

Ya, writing a featyre length film can be difficult... I managed to write one in about a week and a half ontop of school, but I spent literally every spare moment working on it.

However, writing it was one thing, shooting another. Just make sure you have people that are very comitted to the project as shooting a feature length film can take some time, hell even shooting a short film can take some time... I just finished a short film which I started working on in September... anyways sorry about getting off topic.

I wish you the best of luck in your endevours, and you've got a lot of hard work ahead of you!

Just out of curiousity, what are the "technical" aspects of the movie? I.E. type of camera, mic, etc... Sounds like a pretty cool movie, I'm a sucker for those campy horror flicks. Good luck.

quote:

Ya, writing a featyre length film can be difficult... I managed to write one in about a week and a half ontop of school, but I spent literally every spare moment working on it.

However, writing it was one thing, shooting another. Just make sure you have people that are very comitted to the project as shooting a feature length film can take some time, hell even shooting a short film can take some time... I just finished a short film which I started working on in September... anyways sorry about getting off topic.

Yep it's taking A LOT of time, however now that I'm in Univ, it's giving me a lot more chances to sit down and type

Additionally I've been making so much progress writing it that, I'm really starting to realize how awesome it will be to actually have a full length script once it's done.


As for the technical aspects were looking to do the following.

Videocamera: GL2
Microphone: Audio Technica AT835B (Most likely or SGM-1X)
Tripod: Normal for now.
Lighting: 3-Lighting Fixtures from Lowes


My last mountain based production (Short Film) fell apart due to a lack of interest from the actors, I wasn't firm enough, it was a mixed vacation as well, and not enough preperation. We expected to ad-lib a lot.

In this case, I'm cracking down on everything, it's 100% workbased while I'm around, everything is being carefully prepared, full length script & shot guide, and most importantly the actors are all VERY pumped for this production unlike the last

EDIT: Got 7 1/2 Solid pages done tonight which pleases me. It's certainly an issue drafting everything as it pops in my brain, but I'm pleased with how the story is turning out considering the entire "root theme" was developed in a ten minute phone call :P

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Darkfire001,

Wow today was BIG for the actual course of the film. Primarily about the direction I was taking the film. Originally I was still deciding wheter to take a sort of humorous approach to the film, playing on the actual situation. But after listening to some songs but a person involved in the project, I'm definitely going to pull the film back into a more serious direction. It's going to mean re-working quite a lot of the dialogue, but the actual scene order will be fine.

Completed another 5-pages of the script to bring me closer to my aim of finishing it ASAP, since I plan on having a read-through next weekend on Saturday with the cast.

I've updated the main post to reflect some changes, mainly the final decision on the film's name and the finality of most the plot.

Things are going along great with the script, I'm up to 35% completed (written down) and nearly everything else waiting to be typed up from paper.

I purchased a great microphone the AT835B from Ebay yesterday for $141 (Retails for $250, MSRP $339.00) it's great, and happy to get it for such an awesome deal.

We've decided to use a remote ATA recorder with the boom, both because I don't feel like buying an XLR converter for my GL2 just yet, and this way our Shotgun can pickup more dialogue while the camera farther back gets the ambient noises.

Filming set for: February 17th to the 21st in Watuaga County, NC.

We've begun drafting out plans for a neat, cheap boom pole for our AT835B Microphone, which will hopefully arrive by Friday so we can test it whilst I'm back at home in Raleigh for the Script read through.

I got a bit dissatisifed with about 10-Pages of the script and rewrote them fairly intensively, and added another couple scenes at 5-Pages to bring the script to 40% Complete.

With less then week until the script read-through and I've got basically three or four nights to work on this, so lol, going to be A LOT of typing and deep though. But hell, most of us live for the rush of a deadline anyway

Got a couple more importat scens done and have mixed feelings at this point on the development of the script.

Pros IE: Things good lately:
- I've outlined the entire script, and formulated every signle scene.
- Just about all "Key" scenes have been completed.

Cons lately:
- Only about 50% of the script has been written, and I've got a read-through planned in 4-Days.
- 2 Significant gaps of work remain in the script so basically Scens 1-10 are done and 22-28. But 11-22 and 29-40 still remain.

So basically 1/2 the script to go in ... 3-Days :P

Although the main thing bugging me is we are aiming for a 90 Minute film and the current 1/2 of the script is at least an hour :| Looks like some stuff is getting sent to the chopping board ahead of schedule.

Read through went quite well with all, but a single actor present (were still trying to find the 4th guy).

I was really happy to see everyone fit their respective roles quite well, even better one of the main actors has actual acting expierence outside of our shorts, and it REALLY shows, and since we've got all the acting positions covered our DP doesn't have to try and assist as an actor. WOW! He's a much better DP then an actor :P lol, he's happy as well that we've got someone to fill in for him.

Read-through went well and we were all pretty happy that most of the jokes were on que, and the dialog seemed to flow pretty well. The script is still only at 55% completion, but it will be done at the next read through in a couple weeks.

In seperate news my Audio Technica AT835B microphone arrived today and it's a beauty. We also have a DAT recorder so we can pull the high quality voice work straight from the boom mic, and then use the camera (farther away) for ambient noise and such.

Things are shaping up quite well with 3-Weeks until we film our first feature

Hmm, after a lot of enthusiasm heading into this week I've got mixed results as labeled below.

Pros:
- Significant progress on the screenplay, it gets to the "meat" of the plot faster and better then before.
- After a VERY warm winter, it's supposed to get a bit snowier up here in the mountains, with the High Country and up getting up to 6" this weekend. HOPING FOR IT, since we need us some snow during the week leading up

Cons:
- Two of our FOUR main actors are unsure if they can come. 50-50 at this stage of the game is NOT what I had hoped for.
- Our DAT Recorder for the Boom mic was sent to California 2+ weeks ago, and we still havent heard back, just a minor worry with a couple weeks to go.
- I've realized that our script doesnt get "exciting" until about 1/2 way through, but their is nothing I want or can do to change it. Every scene leading up until that mark is integral to character development, and any big changes to speed things up would throw the story out of whack, so for now it will just have to be different.
- We're beginning to realize some of the fight scenes are going to be a bit tougher to pull off then we though.

Things are really starting to pick up and go well in this final week leading up to the shoot. If there was a time to peak this would be it, and glad to know that this past week of trouble seems to have passed. Of the cons listed last week:

- Both unsure actors are now almost sure they can attend and should be able to go.

- Dat Recorder is fixed now.

- Script is almost complete and although it still doesn't really get "action" heavy until about 1/3 into the script, things flow even better then last week and sets up well for the last 2/3 of the movie.

- Fight scenes seem to be coming together more like initially planned so thats good.



Only real issues were facing now are:
- Nailing down the actors coming.
- Forecast is still uneasy for this coming week, hoping for snow and not rain like expected.
- Script is still only 70% completed.

Wow time flies Script is still only at about 75% completion, but the remainder is primarily less important fight scenes that are more action then rehersed dialogue.

Time to get crackin

GOOD THINGS THOUGH:
- All the actors we originally planned on have CONFIRMED
- We think we have a way to run the XLR cable into the GL2 IE converter that we are trying to borrow for my Audio-technica 835b microphone
- Boom Pole is finished and the a new steadi-cam

OKAY, Final post before I'll have some results

Production starts on Saturday although most of my actors and crew are heading up tommorow. We had an issue with one of the actors (Cousin is visiting before an trip overseas) so we are driving up early morning Saturday to meet my DP/Crew/Actors who should be up in the Appalachian Mountains getting ready. We grabbed an extra PA do manage the Boom and just generic supply issues, so that helps.

One issue will be the weather since I will have to manage to drive a Civic through what looks to be some crazy sleet & snow saturday morning, but hoping for the best IE just snow, or perhaps having to leave earlier then planned if it means making it up there safe.

Several of my actors are in a band, and they came up with some pretty kickass samples for songs to add in post-production which is very cool. Fits the mood perfectly, and happy to see my Actors are enjoying the project as much as I am.

NOTE: Yes our productions still aren't nearly at the Calibur we would like them to be at, but having a hell of a good time getting there

We weren't able to grab an XLR converter for the Audio Technica Microphone to my GL2, so we're recording the Audio on a DAT recorder, and we'll sync the audio up later. Ugh, More needless post production work :P

Sadly I wasn't able to finish the whole script in the Calibur I desired in time for production. As of now all five actors have a copy of the first 80% of the script encompassing all the crucial dialogue & scenes, but none of the actual action stuff. Man it's going to be a hectice next 24-Hours as I transcribe all of my little action/battle notes into a coherent script

Fun, fun, fun :P

I would have preferred to have another two weeks to prepare, perhaps even a month. But you go with what you got, and this was the only available weekend

This summer should allow a bit more flexibility, which is great since I'll need a lot of it for my next project

(crosses fingers) hoping to be back in four days with some HOT! pictures for you all

OH REMINDS ME, Grab firewire card when I had back to Raleigh so I can take some screengrabs when I'm still up here in the mountains IE on campus.

Wish me luck

** SHOOTING DONE **

Okay, the film shoot has finished and man I'm worn out :P Things went so-so, there were some things that really sucked, but some things that went well. In the end I got everything shot that needed to be shot, without any HUGE screw-ups on a technical level so that's good

I would get some pictures up now, however at home in Raleigh for tonight before driving BACK to the mountainers for classes :P So Pics will have to wait until tommorow :P

Things that went Well:
- Having scripts on hand meant things flowed a lot faster then our previous films.
- It snowed, which really helped the scenery, plus it was oh...sort of an integral part of the story :P
- We got all the key scenes shot.

Things that went Bad:
- Out of our five main actors I chose all of them except for ONE, who we had to fill at the last moment with someone else. I'd never met the guy before, and well... I wish I did. He managed to play his part horribly. And yes I'll say horribly. His character was literally just a .."normal" guy, IE: simple lines, place holder, etc. Yet he managed to turn him into a maniac-depressive character. Such a different character then what the script called for, so much so that the film simply won't be the same as I had planned or even close.

- Two of the other actors had issues with what the script called for IE Dialogue and what they actually wanted to say. The script had swear-words and some zany dialogue, and both actors simply wouldn't do the dialogue like the script called because of that. The fact that they are playing CHARACTERS and not themselves, and that they had access to the scripts weeks in advance (To voice suggestions and what-not) didn't change that fact, that their characters sound much different then planned for.

- The guy operating the Microphone/Boom/Dat Recorder (friend of DP), didn't stop the recorder between takes :| I fail to see how complicated hitting stop & record is, but apparently enough so that we have 2x as many DAT Tapes as Mini-dv tapes.

- Also out of 35/Scenes we werent able to film 5 Scenes entirely. All 5 were "gap" scenes with nothing "key", but would have like to get them done. However time didn't allow.



SO...what I've learned.
- Don't rush things as much.
- Plan for more mistakes.
- Conduct bigger casting calls.
- Make a clear shooting guide way in advance :P

Garden variety mistakes. Heed them not, they make you stronger

All in all it sounds like it went really well. Congrats! I'm eagerly awaiting photos.

Finally grabbed some decent pics, but they got doubly compressed from import & resizing, but they will give you a general gist of things







K just did a few since the compression is so horrible, I'll grab better pics once I can import via Adobe

I really like the muted colors. Very winterish. Looking forward to more!