Calling All Moviestar Wannabees

So we had a great table read the other day at the University of Michigan. I sadly forgot my camera though so no pictures this post, sorry. Our actors are excellent. I sat at the table read the other day and was amazed. We have professional actors for each role and each one of them is perfect for their part. I can't wait to get started with the filming. My job for this week is to get our last bit of casting done. We need to get 12 female models/actresses to play Naiads (water nymphs) and Dryads (forest nymphs). I was told by our director to be "as shallow as necessary" on their looks. It's kind of crazy but my job is to literally turn down the not-so-attractive ones for the very attractive ones. Since they are not acting but are merely to stand there as nymphs and "look good" for the movie I have to get the best looking actresses I can find. Man, Holllywood Kevin eh? A few weeks into this and I already have to be super shallow about things. So I am busy posting on various casting sites our need for them as well as TONS of extras. We need hundreds of extras to play warriors and tons of people to just hang out in the background as normal extras. So, if you're reading this and might be interested in being an extra in a feature-length, $40,00 film using George Lucas' very own HD cameras (the exact ones used for the last couple Star Wars movies) leave me a comment here or e-mail me at theiceshieldofaletheia@gmail.com We will be filming in the Lansing area August 6th-18th. This is a non-paid job but all your meals will be provided and it will be a great opportunity to hang out on the set of a movie and meet some really great people. If you're interested in helping out as an extra but live here in West Michigan feel free to contact me because I will be traveling there every day for filming so there is a chance you could just ride with me. Ok, that's about it for this week. Since I dropped the ball on the pictures of the table read I'll post a couple pictures of our cameras we're shooting with to try to make up for it.





-Kevin

Let There Be Lights

So this week I've been trying to find a good place to rent us the lights we need. It's a pretty long list of equipment. There are two primary sources I've been looking in to and now we have to decide which rental place we can afford. For all the geeks out there interested here is our light list:

::Stands::
10 c-stands
7 c-stand arms
10 c-stand knuckles
8 Baby Light Stands
8 Medium – 12 feet high
6 Junior Light Stands
3 Medium – 12 feet high
3 Large – 15 – 24 ft
2 Senior Light Stands
3 Junior to Baby Adapter
1 Long Moleboom

::Clamps::
6 – 12-24" C-Clamps (with Junior or baby adapter)
4 – 6" C- Clamps
6 – 3" C- Clamps
8 - Scissor Clamps
3 - Heavy Duty Ball bearing C-clamps with Telescoping Hangers
3 – Pipe Clamps
3 - Polecats or Wallspreaders (exact size my vary on these)
1 – 7-12'
1 – 2-6'
1 - 10-20'
5 – Baby Wall plates
2 – Right Angle Baby Wall plates
4 – Quacker Clamps (There's another name for it I think it may be cardellini clamp, but basically they're best used for positioning a bounce or bead board).
4 – Gator Clamps
10 – safety cables
20 – Large and small A-clamps

::Scrims and Flags::
6 - normal sized flags (I think its 18" by 24")
3 – normal sized Double Scrims
3 – normal sized single scrims
3 – normal sized silks
3 – normal sized filter frames
1 – Flag box to hold these
4 – large flags (3 feet in length to ten feet depending on what you can find)
3 – large doubles
3 – large singles
3 – large silks
3 – large filter frames
1 – large flag box to hold these

::Misc::
1 Package of Appleboxes (enough to level all the track we will be using)
15 – 15 pound sand bags
15 – 40 pound sand bags
10 – gloves
1 – Pack of Clothespins
15 – Medium Duty Stingers
15 – Heavy Duty Stingers
3 – Light Duty Stingers
Black Wrap

Large Sheets of Duvatene (the ER no longer has any real large sheets of it). It just needs to be large amounts of black matted sheets that doesn’t reflect any let or let any through. Some light material may be fine, but thick is better.

Several Bounce Boards. A variety of 1x1, 1x2, 2x4, 4x4, and 6x6. Primarily a few small and a few large white boards will be good. But, we will also want several that have beadboard on one of the sides, which acts as a reflector. These can either be made or rented. But if made the reflective side needs to be the same or close to the same material and it cannot move around and flutter the light due to wind.

Frames: 2 – 6x6 frames, 1-12x12 frame, and another 20x20. And if you feel like it, have them make 2 – 20x20 frames that can connect together. Some of this you can probably figure out what you need depending on a certain location. Also, we need silk for all of these and duvatene for at least the 6x6 and 12x12. Nets would be good too, but probably not needed.

::Lighting Equipment::
2 – 10k Fresnels (If we can support the wattage)
2 - 5k Fresnels (with chimeras)
1 – 5k Tungsten Par
2 – 6k HMI Par with ballasts and lenses
2 – 2.5 HMI Par with ballasts and lenses
1 – Barger Baglight with Chimera (I'll include a description of this in the email)
2 – Arri Light Kits (150, 300, 650) with scrims and barn doors and chimeras
2 – 4 light 4x4 Kino Flo Lights (with tungsten and daylight bulbs)
2 – 4 light 2x10 Kino Flo Lights (with tungsten and daylight bulbs)
6– 1k Fresnels
4 – 2k Fresnels
2 – 1k Mickey Moles (Open Face)
5-20 – 250w china balls
2 – 6k Spacelights (if needed upon location scout).
All the cabling and appropriate ballasts will be needed for the sources above 2k.



Tomorrow night is our table read with all the main cast. It should be a lot of fun. I might take a couple pictures to put on here for the next post. Thanks for reading!
-Kevin

Here We Go!

So I am producing my very first feature-length film this summer and I thought it'd be fun to chronicle the process as it happens. Today I met with Stephen (the director of the movie and the co-writer of our script) to talk through the next couple of months. In the next couple of months we will be rehearsing, filming and and all-in-all basically doing the whole production process. Then the footage will be taken to California to be edited, have the score composed for it, digital effects added to it and basically the actual film will begin to take form. The movie itself will include stunts, pyrotechnics, practical and visual effects, large-scale battle scenes (several hundred warriors) and...we're shooting it in digital HD...with George Lucas' cameras! The script is by Abraham Bard Sherman and Stephen D. Allison will be directing it. If all goes well we will have a great movie that we might even be able to distribute nationally. Here's to hoping everything goes as we hope it goes. We have several great crew members who have done films which have appeared in festivals such as Sundance so who knows where this film will end up! I am SO LUCKY to get to be a part of this thing.
-Kevin