First Two Days Done

So we finished the first two days of production and it has been both fun and tough. We're trying to keep things to half days but its a lot to manage when its basically myself, Erica doing make-up and Rebecca PAing.

Thursday we started off right away finding out our location for the gas station fell through because of corporate clearances not coming in. We were already using a bathroom to double as a gas station restroom at a local coffee shop so we changed up last minute and used the shop as well as where John walks in. It worked well. Plenty of natural light, very happy to help and the owner even played the part needed. She did great! It was definitely a fairly large change but we rolled with it.







Yesterday we shot the major fight scene at the end. In it we had John getting hit by a car and our bad guy getting out and continuing to beat the living crap out of him. First thing when we met up, John had the idea of adding a sidekick for the bad guy. Our guy was available and willing to do it last minute and it was well worth it! He's going to be a fantastic addition to the story. We choreographed the fight sequence for about an hour and John and Patrick had it down. Quite a relief. We blocked out the shots outside and got going.

I guess we were doing a pretty decent job because about midway through the shoot, two cop cars showed up on a call a guy had just punched out a big man and took off running. These two were awesome. As soon as they learned our first of the 4 videos was on iTunes they had their iPhones out and were buying the single and video - pretty cool!

We wrapped up with the effects shot for the scene where John gets hit from behind. I shot 3 plates. First was a clean plate with no car and no Johnny. The 2nd with the car driving through and slamming on its breaks. The 3rd plate, I setup the greenscreen in the same spot and had John walk past and jump. I'll be able to composite those 3 together and give it a seriously nasty look!

Take a look at the following video, I think the day was a hit

Quick Test Hit from Jeremy Hughes on Vimeo.

Here's a quick test of the results.

I'm "Confident" Production Starts Tomorrow

We kick off tomorrow with production on Confident finally. As I said in a previous post, things have definitely switched up a bit. The budget is gone and we're shooting a pretty aggressive video with less people and no money. I'm stoked! Here's why:

Its getting back to the roots of what makes this all fun. I have always liked to operate small and have the ability to change up slightly. There isn't as much stress in terms of making sure cast and crew are all onboard and in the same direction. There's a little bit of "just wing it" mentality there that is nice every now and then.

Like I said before though, we're definitely prepared where we need to be. Number one, again, is a clean, buttoned up script and detailed boards. Solve your problems before you ever pick up the camera, heck, before you ever drop cash on a single prop - KNOW THE STORY. Figure out the shots that best tell it and move it along. Get away from the idea of in a scene you need a "Wide, medium, close-up" - that's lazy. You can make your life a whole lot easier in post by shooting what you KNOW you need and want. The stray shot will come along and when it does it stands out but dont be searching for them on production days, you'll just piss everyone else off.

With the approach this time though, we do have some issues still up in the air which will be fun to solve. Dates have not completely settled down - no money, work around other's schedules. Locations are still a little in flux as well. We have the majority locked down but several of the big moment's scenes are still not locked. Part of the fun, right? My point here is, as long as you can move the story along just as well, be willing to flip up on a location. We need a flower shop that will put a small stand of flowers outside. Nothing yet. I'm looking at alternatives here though such as using a cart of our own and filling it - not too bad but we may have to buy flowers then. Just be flexible on many issues but keep true to the story and you'll be fine.

Production photos hopefully coming within a couple days.

Town Folk

John Reuben "Town Folk" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

Producer: Jared Greene
Director/DP: Jeremy Hughes
Wardrobe/Make-up: Erica Stewart
Compositing: Jeremy Hughes/Tobias Roediger of Ravevfx.com
Illustration: Christen Nelson

(I'll look to add a post here soon with a little more behind-the-scenes stuff)

Boards, Locations and News

First off, its exciting to see that the first video for John is officially being released today http://tinyurl.com/jrtownfolk - it's a trippy and funny video I'm proud to have made.

Second, we're going to start shooting this week for Confident. Things have been very hectic the last week or two on all other levels so Confident has gone in a bit of a different direction in terms of how we're approaching it. It's going to be a very scaled down production but still aggressive in scope. I think it will be fun and remind me of why I love filmmaking. It will have a run-and-gun feel with just a couple of us at any given point. We're going to shoot more from a pick-up shot tempo meaning several half-days and not cramming a couple full days together. The goal is to keep energy high and the mood light.

Boards finished up and have been passed around.
Tomorrow we sort out make-up and final prepro planning. I'll look to get some more details up around all of this hopefully soon, particularly locations and how to get them to work for you for... uh, free.