In the beginning........

 Ok guys, this class is going to be a blast, but will be lots of hard work. Either way, I can't wait to begin shooting in a few weeks! The project that I am working on with my son Tyler, who is also in the class with Dana and myself is a short thriller film. The film, which will be roughly 30-40 minutes in length will be all shot in HD using Canon XLH1 cameras as well as some location shots with my Nikon D3200 and footage using GoPro Hero 3 cams. My role as one of the two main collaborators on this project is to assist with the story as we take Tyler's written working script and adapt it and make the flow of the story possible within the time frame allotted this semester as well as to fit within the 30 to 40 minute clock. In order for us to be on the same page as far as the script that was written and ensuring that I capture the elements, meaning and of course the individual personalities of each character especially the killer, I am researching ways to do more dynamic shots. A few of the ways that I will achieve this effect is by various dollies and mounts for the cameras.

 In the beginning of the week, Tyler and I made several trips to the local Home Depot for supplies to make 2 rigs that will allow us to do some pretty cool shots that would have been impossible by hand.

 The first is a skate table dolly rig. This rig, consists of pvc pipe and an old skateboard that we stole the wheels from.

 I did a test shot with this rig here.

The other dolly is a tripod dolly which is full motion. We have been getting rain the past few days but hope to test it outdoors this weekend.

 As you can see in the last photo, I designed a spring loaded mechanism to secure the tripod legs into the mounts on the dolly to ensure the movement will keep everything safe and secure.

 Last weekend we also shot a reference video to see how the mask and killer looked behind the lens. I turned that into a short trailer which can be seen below.

http://youtu.be/OLLnuhY1srE


 Next week we will begin our location search for certain scenes. A good amount can be shot on our property, however we do have a few other places to find and get approval for.

 Beisdes cinematography, I will also be editing the project and doing the sound design. I have reached out to a few people from my old recording days as well as a few others to see if anyone would be interested in composing something creepy for the title and credit scenes.

As for budget..............

 We are trying to realistically do this as cheap as possible. So far we have spent probably $600 to $700 on props, camera and stuff for the rigs that we built. We will probably spend another $100 on tape and ingredients for fake blood etc.

 We will be having a casting next weekend for extra's and will begin shooting on the 15th of June, which will last a few weeks and should be completed by the 6th of July. It will take a couple of weeks in post to do the cgi and editing.

 The thing that we have going for us is that we have worked so many projects in the past and work very well together. We have organized meetings weekly, but being that Tyler's summer break from work has just begun, we bounce ideas and have creative meetings daily.

So this is just the beginning............