The Mercury Cycle - A Feature Film

Mcph55

Mcph55

Active member
Synopsis:

“David Bushell, a college student struggling with social anxiety, discovers that his roommate is a member of mysterious underground cult. David sneaks into a meeting and discovers that the cult is on the brink of a new “Mercury Cycle,” a mysterious pill-induced visit to the past. When David impulsively steals a bottle of pills in hopes of resurrecting his former happiness, he finds himself mixed up in a twisted journey that blurs the line between free will and fate. David struggles to repair his life and defy a future doomed by his own curiosity.”

www.TheMercuryCycle.com

CHECK OUT THE NEW THEATRICAL TRAILER IN HD!





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About this unique production:

The Mercury Cycle is a psychological thriller, Written/Produced by Vincent Grippi and Directed by Cody Hoerig. The film is genuine because it was produced and shot entirely while the crew was still attending classes at Quinnipiac University.

Vincent Grippi wrote The Mercury Cycle in the summer before his senior year of studying film at Quinnipiac University. Within the first weeks of the school year, Grippi and fellow students Cody Hoerig and Zachary Salsman, sat down and discussed the script. The three students decided that they would defy the odds and attempt to bring The Mercury Cycle to life as a full-length feature film. No time was wasted, and within weeks The Mercury Cycle had its own crew of talented and experienced students.

After 4 long months of pre-production, The Mercury Cycle was ready to begin shooting. Principal photography officially began on January 6th, 2009, in Westchester New York. Shooting continued through the second semester of the school year, as the crew was still attending classes. Despite the immeasurable odds they faced, the crew and cast of The Mercury Cycle continued production of the film. Along the way, the production managed to garner significant attention from various news outlets and crowds all over New York and New England. The film was commonly praised for its stunning professionalism in both its craft and appearance.

On June 13th 2009, The Mercury Cycle officially wrapped principle photography, after 6 consecutive months of shooting. The film is now well into the post-production phase and continues to rouse anticipatory praise.

*** It has been quite a long journey thus far. We are currently finishing up the refined cut of the film and will be moving into the sound design portion of post production shortly.

I wanted to create this thread to spur interest in our movie, and hopefully meet new people on this site interested in helping out, or just talking about the experience in general.

We would love any feedback, constructive criticisms or critiques of any content we post on this thread. This whole project has been one giant learning experience, and we believe we can continue to learn, and improve on our project based on the interaction with the community.



Crew:

Executive Producer/Writer/Producer - Vincent Grippi
Director/Producer – Cody Hoerig
Co-Producer – Vikki Hart
Director of Photography/Editor – Zach Salsman
1st Assistant Director - Brianne Richard
Gaffer - Kelly Hyland
Art Design/Costume Design - Justin Whitkin
Production Manager - Caitlin Goldberg
Sound - Aaron Miller
Lead Camera/AC/Engineer - Josh Schnitzer
Camera/AC - Phil Dunphy
Camera/AC - Justin Schussler
Makeup/Wardrobe - Claire Currie
Composer - Alex Busi
Graphic Designers - Alex Sangeorge, Nick Accardi
Assistant Editor/2nd AC - Kyle Ambusk
Sound Design - Chris Diberardino
Production Accountant - Eric Gruenfelder
Script Supervisor - Katie Bliss



Principle Cast:

David Bushell - Bobby Ceriello
Lana McGill - Jessica Merigan
Professor Lancaster - Ted Yudain
Pateras - Xxxxx
Calvin - Jason Upchurch
Shamus - David Thomas McLaine
Tom Bushell - Greg Nutcher
Melissa - Alyssa Rose
Professor Winchell - Toni Villines
Walter - Joe Micucci
Brother 3 - Peter D’Alauro



Essential Equipment:

- HVX200
- (1) 16GB P2 Card
- RedRock Shoulder Mount
- RedRock Follow Focus Rig
- RedRock Whips
- Audio Technica Boom
- Sennheiser Wireless Lavs
- Shure fp33 Field Mixer
- 22 inch Samsung Monitor
- 5 inch Panasonic Monitor
- (4) 500GB G-Drive/LaCie HDDs
- MacBook Pro
- Omni Light Kit (plus other assorted diy lights)
- Homemade Dolly (with 30 ft of track)
- GlideCam 9 foot Crane
- Sachtler Sticks


Production Timeline:

Pre-Production – September 2008 – December 2008
Start of Principle Photography – December 9th 2008
End of Principle Photography – May 2009
Post-Production – Summer 2009
 
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The stills look good and congrats on taking on such a big project! I wish you all the best.

Todd
 
Thanks a bunch Todd, it has definitely been an experience thus far, and we still have many, many more days of shooting left.

Most of us are heading to NY tonight for a big 3 day weekend shoot, that includes a lot of sunrise shots, and a scene at a local diner, so that should be interesting to say the least.

will post more shots as soon as we get them
 
Interesting premise.

Looking forward to seeing more about it. Looks like a lot of folks on the project. Good luck with it.

-M
 
Hey everyone,

My name is Zach Salsman and I am the Director of Photography as well as the head Editor for The Mercury Cycle. I am excited to be working on a project of such magnitude. There are a lot of extremely talented people on this project, some of which I have been working with for 3 plus years now. I think we all make a great team and have produced some great work so far. I hope all of you out there help make this movie the best it can be by giving us feedback as well as raising awareness about our film.
 
Hey guys,

So shooting this past weekend in NY was great... We got a lot of fantastic shots, not without some major problems though...

I will post some screen grabs from NY as soon as i get them.


This past week has been quite interesting. You know how they always talk about that one week during a production that everything goes wrong. That god, or the universe tests the productions strength, and will power. Well this week was the test. Everything that could have gone wrong did. every day we had another problem, and today every hour we had another problem.

I wont get into it, you can read about it in more detail on my blog.

Lets just serfice to say that we survived. Since tomorrows shoot day is cut we will be taking a step back, having a bunch of crew meetings, and try and figure out what went wrong, how to fix it, learn from it, and move on.

This whole experience has been amazing for all of us involved thus far, and i am 100% confident we will learn from all of the many things that went wrong this week and be a better crew because of them.

Check out my inner thoughts at: www.CodyHoerigTMC.blogspot.com

Our Temp website is also up : www.TheMercuryCycle.com
 
Thanks,

Actually we are well into post production right now.

It has been a while since we have posted anything on here, because we have all been so busy. Its great to get a bump up to the top of the board!

We are working on the refined cut as of right now, as well as working on the second trailer which will premiere on our website August 10th.

We have been getting a lot of good feedback from people in the industry, and have a few promising meet ups to talk about the future of the film.

Stay tuned for more updates!
 
Tweeting

Tweeting

Hey All!

I'm Vincent Grippi, writer/producer/e.p. of "The Mercury Cycle."

We hope that you all enjoy whatever you may have seen pertaining to TMC so far. As always, we look forward to any constructive and concise criticism/advice.

Thank you all for your kind support and attention thus far!
 
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We are now 90% done with the refined cut, we will be going into audio post very soon and I am working closely with our composer to start the score. All is looking good.... we should be done in a few months, and then its time to tour all the festivals!
 
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