Almost there...

We picked up shooting again last night for the final scenes of the video. Very fun stuff but we ran over by a good 2 hours. We really went for some solid performances and tweaked the lighting out to get what we needed. The last scene has to rock as its the payoff of course!

(Thanks to Robin Oatts for the behind-the-scenes photos)

Today we cranked out a number of scenes which leaves us with one final scene tomorrow. Overall it was a great day, but everyone is definitely ready to wrap. We again flipped up locations last minute again which was a very good thing as we were able to use two friendly studios, Spindle and Element, which helped out a lot in having a location to prep in each place. It helped enough that we finished the day almost 2 hours ahead of schedule.

The last scene was a lot of fun to shoot and one everybody was really looking forward to working on. In the scene, John stumbles back out into the main streets and is extremely dehidrated. As he stumbles along, a jogger is passing by and offers him a bottle of water from his fanny pack. RC Nelson played the part with all he had and nailed it. It should get quite a few laughs.




I do want to take a minute and talk about the importance of having a great make-up and wardrobe stylist. Even if you are no-budget - which this is - find someone who has at least a little experience here. It will take your production value up immensely. I'll admit that a year ago it's something I would not have bothered with when doing something on no-budget. But when you have someone like Erica Stewart who is willing to lend a hand as a friend and turn out quality, its amazing how much that shows up on screen.

She has stuck by John and I on all these videos and they wouldn't be half of what they are without her hard work. Town Folk is the best example. We pulled it off on about $3500 which is hardly anything and out of that only a 3rd of it was her budget. She used every bit of ingenuity and planning to pull off those costumes. She did the same for Jamboree and now as you can see for less than $100, she's done some super work - that's she's been able to repeat it day after day.

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)