westerndirector
Member
We spent three weeks on location on a high altitude remote ranch in southeast Idaho. We are shooting a full-on action feature Western. We shot using three HVX cameras. We utilized nine, 4GB P-2 cards, shuttling full cards to our laptop downloading location.
This was a rough and tumble, remote and extremely dusty environment. Cameras had to be cleaned constantly but never failed us.
We had sixteen FULL shooting days (and several nights) in Idaho and have more coming up in September at a replica frontier fort in Texas.
For several night campfire scenes, we utilized a couple of HMI lights and appropriate gels which gave us stunning images.
Our operators used sticks, hand-held cameras and a Steadi-Cam Mini. In one case, we strapped the operator to the cab of a pick-up truck to shoot a speeding horse and rider being pursued by mounted Indians.
We used a boom truck for rising, descending and elevated shots.
We used contrast filters and a wide-angle adapter for some of the more dramatic shots.
We shot directly in front of multiple firing rifles. We utilized exploding squibs for battle sequences. We shot Steadi-cam Mini and hand-held on hand-to-hand combat sequences. We had volleys of arrows, fire arrows, charging groups of mounted Indians and a lot of physical action sequences.
We bussed in a large contingent of Blackfeet Indians from Browning, Montana, and rented a bunch of horses for them to ride in the attack sequences.
The images are stunning. The movie is called "The Hayfield" and is based upon a true story in 1867. We plan to have our website up and running soon with trailer footage.
We received extensive newspaper coverage of our production in southeast Idaho. Those reporters who came and witnessed our production were impressed with our casting, action and attention to authentic detail.
We spent almost a year rehearsing our unknown but very talented principal cast and their performances have been magnificent.
We attracted a lot of very good and dedicated people because they loved the script and saw we were going all out to shoot a good independent movie.
Our budget for this movie is less than $400,000 but the acting and production values are very high. We saved a ton of money by using military reenactors, mountain men reenactors, and camping out on the set. The set tents of the corral were used as cast and crew lodging. We found off-the-rack costumes correct for the period by buying from Civil War reenacting sutler suppliers.
We assembled a wagon train of seven authentic covered wagons and teams with settlers and outriders for some very dramatic shots. These folks already spend their summers organizing their own wagon trains and were happy to join in our effort.
Our leading lady and leading man helped with chores, including cooking for cast and crew. We don't have any movie "stars" so we don't have to deal with the egos attached to them.
This independent production is proceeding in the best spirit of independent movie making with everyone helping, even beyond their job descriptions, giving their all to get the best result. It has been a true labor of love.
We used an authentic set we built as an exact replica of the actual corral based upon historic drawings.
On August 1st, 1867, less than two dozen soldiers and civilians fought more than 1,000 Lakota (Sioux) warriors all day long in a hayfield in the Montana Territory. Eleven of our story's characters were real people. It was one of the most dramatic and one-sided stand-off fights in the history of the American frontier.
Our accumulated back-up DVD's, containing the raw MXF files fill 160 DVD's so far. We have the images stored on both internal and external hard drives and on the back-up DVD's.
Our three Panasonic HVX 200 cameras are giving us some wonderful images to assemble into our movie which we will do using Edius Broadcast software.
The future is here and those of us who have never made movies before are beginning to change the history of motion picture production using powerful tools, like the Panasonic HVX 200, now available to us.
-Randy
This was a rough and tumble, remote and extremely dusty environment. Cameras had to be cleaned constantly but never failed us.
We had sixteen FULL shooting days (and several nights) in Idaho and have more coming up in September at a replica frontier fort in Texas.
For several night campfire scenes, we utilized a couple of HMI lights and appropriate gels which gave us stunning images.
Our operators used sticks, hand-held cameras and a Steadi-Cam Mini. In one case, we strapped the operator to the cab of a pick-up truck to shoot a speeding horse and rider being pursued by mounted Indians.
We used a boom truck for rising, descending and elevated shots.
We used contrast filters and a wide-angle adapter for some of the more dramatic shots.
We shot directly in front of multiple firing rifles. We utilized exploding squibs for battle sequences. We shot Steadi-cam Mini and hand-held on hand-to-hand combat sequences. We had volleys of arrows, fire arrows, charging groups of mounted Indians and a lot of physical action sequences.
We bussed in a large contingent of Blackfeet Indians from Browning, Montana, and rented a bunch of horses for them to ride in the attack sequences.
The images are stunning. The movie is called "The Hayfield" and is based upon a true story in 1867. We plan to have our website up and running soon with trailer footage.
We received extensive newspaper coverage of our production in southeast Idaho. Those reporters who came and witnessed our production were impressed with our casting, action and attention to authentic detail.
We spent almost a year rehearsing our unknown but very talented principal cast and their performances have been magnificent.
We attracted a lot of very good and dedicated people because they loved the script and saw we were going all out to shoot a good independent movie.
Our budget for this movie is less than $400,000 but the acting and production values are very high. We saved a ton of money by using military reenactors, mountain men reenactors, and camping out on the set. The set tents of the corral were used as cast and crew lodging. We found off-the-rack costumes correct for the period by buying from Civil War reenacting sutler suppliers.
We assembled a wagon train of seven authentic covered wagons and teams with settlers and outriders for some very dramatic shots. These folks already spend their summers organizing their own wagon trains and were happy to join in our effort.
Our leading lady and leading man helped with chores, including cooking for cast and crew. We don't have any movie "stars" so we don't have to deal with the egos attached to them.
This independent production is proceeding in the best spirit of independent movie making with everyone helping, even beyond their job descriptions, giving their all to get the best result. It has been a true labor of love.
We used an authentic set we built as an exact replica of the actual corral based upon historic drawings.
On August 1st, 1867, less than two dozen soldiers and civilians fought more than 1,000 Lakota (Sioux) warriors all day long in a hayfield in the Montana Territory. Eleven of our story's characters were real people. It was one of the most dramatic and one-sided stand-off fights in the history of the American frontier.
Our accumulated back-up DVD's, containing the raw MXF files fill 160 DVD's so far. We have the images stored on both internal and external hard drives and on the back-up DVD's.
Our three Panasonic HVX 200 cameras are giving us some wonderful images to assemble into our movie which we will do using Edius Broadcast software.
The future is here and those of us who have never made movies before are beginning to change the history of motion picture production using powerful tools, like the Panasonic HVX 200, now available to us.
-Randy
