FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget

Best of luck! You're hard work and commitment is an inspiration.

Looking forward to more grabs, and eventually getting to see the finished film.
 
jasonthewho said:
Best of luck! You're hard work and commitment is an inspiration.

Looking forward to more grabs, and eventually getting to see the finished film.
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thank you :)... It is thrilling to see the puzzle being completed as each scene bring one more missing piece to the table... And I now can see the picture ... Only a few pieces missing :))

So far we are still rocking!
 
Kholi said:
Faith! How much longer til you wrap photography?

You rock!
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Until end of June. Plus maybe a few more quick shoots first couple weeks of July... So far no need for pick up shots, I cover my you know what extensively when I film by doing two thousand takes :beer:...

Tired.

Been burning the candle from all four ends LOL....

But happy.
 
Faith,

You seem to have an unlimited amount of energy! It takes a tremendous amount of passion to stay motivated as long as you've been working on this. Very admirable. What a girl!

It must be fulfilling to see the fruits of your labor coming to completion? The screen shots are lovely. How long do expect to be in post? or... have you been piecing the 'puzzle' together as you go?

Like everyone else, very much looking forward to seeing the final product.

Best Regards,

Robert
 
Robert Eldon said:
Faith,

You seem to have an unlimited amount of energy! It takes a tremendous amount of passion to stay motivated as long as you've been working on this. Very admirable. What a girl!

It must be fulfilling to see the fruits of your labor coming to completion? The screen shots are lovely. How long do expect to be in post? or... have you been piecing the 'puzzle' together as you go?

Like everyone else, very much looking forward to seeing the final product.

Best Regards,

Robert
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I have been piecing it up as i go... But so far since going back to PHASE TWO of production (modern day scenes) I have not had the chance to edit my scenes. Been much too busy and suffered several set backs one of which was the person I was counting on to be my shooter backing out on me one week before shoot time. This has put a tremendous amount of strain and stress on me just trying to keep my nostrils above water surface and struggling, but still swimming :thumbup:

It's been a rough three weeks to say the least. I feel like someone runnning after a train... Everytime my hand reaches the handrail so I can hop on, it slips and I have to run even faster to try again HAHA!

Being in front and behind the camera both at the same time is slowing us down, too... Completing a scene a day has been difficult. Maybe this will get easier?

Auditioned a bunch of actors over the last two days. One of them drove all the way from Phoenix, AZ to try out for a part in DEUCE OF SPADES. I was really stunned that his motivation was that strong, especially since the parts left are not very big, just one scene and a few lines... Many of the actors who showed up shook my hand with great respect and stated that they had heard "a lot about me"... but then again that was probably my assistant Jerry singing my praises (cause he always does LOL)... or maybe it was the press they read on my site... Not sure... But sure was cool to get a little recognition for all this crazy hard work for the last two and a half years... :D
 
puredrifting said:
Jeez Faith, you have an assistant? I am envious, I definitely need an assistant.

Dan
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Yes, I do now have my best hotrod bud, Jerry Mull, helping me with some of the stuff. He has been helping on and off for quite some time now, lined up several locations, cars (including the ambulance) and helped with making props (ex: prison bars, building cell, hospital set and glass wall, SCTA board etc etc). He has also been seven different background people through the flashback and is the detective in the crash scene. :thumbup: Over the last few months, he has become more and more involved with production and is now crewing for me, gripping, booming and also on set PA, making sure people have food, and taking care of the little stuff that I can't keep up with. he has trupy been heaven sent, because I have SOOOOOO much on my plate right now.

On a less good note, one of my main volunteers completely flaked on us last week. I was counting on her to be my shooter for the modern day scene, but she just didn't have it in her and dropped out of the practice session and then backed out of her commitment to be the shooter. A couple weeks later she also quit our team as a volunteer / grip person. :(. I really liked her and had great hopes for her, wanted to teach her the ropes and train her to become a shooter. But I think her aspiration is to be a P.A. So she lacks the motivation it woud take to learn to become a shooter. Too bad because I thought she had excellent potential, and believed in her abilities.

So now I am back to having 100% men on my set. They are tougher and can take the abuse LOL. Conditions on my set SUCK, but we love what we are filming and we usually have a blast... My current tiny team is made out mostly of hotrodders, and a couple actors. So I am not working with industry people much at all. I find the hotrodders to be more hardcore and loyal. Industry people go wherever the bucks are and will tend to drop you in heartbeat as soon as something better or bigger comes along. So the rest of my hard core skeleton team is still behind me, and we only have a mere few weeks to go!!!!

Meanwhile I have been trying different pro shooters behind the camera, and currently working with a very nice fellow from Italy. Of course the shooters never see things like I do, resulting in framing that don't match my own taste, and necessitating some adjustments and doing more takes so I end up getting more what I want. I am a bit frustrated and wish i didn't have to be in front of the camera. Although I really enjoy acting, and always have since I was a teenager, I get more of a kick being behind the camera... And then I get exactely what I want and it gets nailed fast.

But all in all, we are getting good scenes and moving along nicely.

I am very tired though.

Shot all week-end, today at work and tomorrow a mid week all day shoot. then back at it all week-end.

:beer:
 
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I´m always impressed how much stamina you have.
I was almost dead after only 4 weekends of shooting UNZEIT under similar conditions as you do. But you do that all year round. :beer:

By the way, I replicated the timing tower in 3d and your "crowd" shot is rendering while we talk. I can start the final compositing tomorrow so you can have a low resolution version thursday.

Frank
 
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Postmaster said:
I´m always impressed how much stamina you have.
I was almost dead after only 4 weekends of shooting UNZEIT under similar conditions as you do. But you do that all year round. :beer:

By the way, I replicated the timing tower in 3d and your "crowd" shot is rendering while we talk. I can start the final compositing tomorrow so you can have a low resolution version thursday.

Frank
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:thumbup:

YOU ROCK FRANK !!

And you know what I love about you? When you say you are going to do something, YOU DO IT. So many people now a day promise a lot but never deliver, or tell you they are committing to something and then back out like there's nothing to it. I find there is very few people of integrity left in this world. So the ones left are that much more precious to me.

THANK YOU!
 
Had an AWESOME shoot yesterday. Worked with two wonderful actors who kicked major ass and I dialed in some really good lighting for this dramatic pivotal scene in the film. As always it was a VERY LONG day filming, my day started at 7AM and never ended until 1 AM the next day. But we nailed the scene and I am very happy with what I am bringing back home in my HVX 200 hehehehehehehe...

One down another 20 to go. :beer:
 
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THank you :))

Today I got to build a fake search engine website with fake newspaper article results. It was fun!!! It's ready for MOndays' shoot :)). Everything is coming together...

Shooting on location for 2 days in Burbank this week-end. I have taken the habit of leaving my travel trailer hitched behind my truck and I sleep in it parked in front of the houses we film at. This way I save the energy/time that would have otherwise been comsummed driving back and forth and it allows me to arrive a night earlier, and scope out location, unload etc the night before the shoot :)). Works great. THANK GOD FOR MY LITTLE TRAVEL TRAILER. It was heaven sent the entire time I filmed this film!
 
Faith, your devotion to this project is unbelievable. I seriously wonder if I could ever bring as much to one of mine as you do. Just amazing...
 
Man I keep reading this and it really motivates me. I think we all as filmakers, have days when we want to "bag it" I know I do. This weekend I have to travel from Massachusetts to D.C. to film what will probably end up being around 45 seconds of footage in my documentary. Expensive and time consuming but necessary. One of my subject was a POW in North Vietnam for over 6 years..He recently told me they had a saying in the camps that would help them. I will bleep out the actual word used but I like the saying:

"Don't let the Bas--rds Get you Down"

Keep up the good work Faith...The end is in sight!
 
I have found that the dvxuser members are the ones that come through for me. Sat and Sunday, Robert helped me. He is wonderful to work with, easy to get along with, helpful, without interfering with me as a director / DP. we had a few challenges during the 2 day shoots, including a crazy cricket that decided to sit in the attic of the living room we were filming the very important dialogue in, and 'he' never stopped 'cricketting' the entire time I was trying to film my dialogues.

:crybaby:

the boys also had to chase crows and misc bird around the block, running around with sauce pans and banging then together... yes, we got it on film hehe....

Dvx user Luis came by for a few hours Saturday and brought his steady cam rig and shot a nice steady cam shot for the opening of my scene. Luis is so adorable! Love you maaaan!

Monday, dvx user Chris came to support me and was behind the camera. We did two beatiful dolly shots, which are always very time consuming, and ran into some problems with my gear which decided to crap out on me (1- My PC died just when it was time to film the "computer" scene and 2- my marshall monitor battery adapter died too).

This threw a wrench in my plan for the computer scene, which was instantly turned into a"laptop" scene instead. Ironically this turned out to be a real blessing in disguise and made the shot much more interesting. Chris did a great job behind the camera, and hopefully he doesn't HATE me too much LOL for keeping him on the set longer than he was hoping. As I always say: I'm not fast when I film. Having hardly any crew and doing most of everything myself, plus the fact I like choregraphed shots and am slightly perfectionist all contribute to my slow pace. But as I alwasy say: Good cinematography cannot be rushed. Monday we shot two short scenes, so all in all, we were not doing so bad :).

Now I regroup and prepare the BIG shoot coming up. This is the El BIGGO, aka the CLIMAX scene of the film... Hope I nail it! I will be filming the end of the film for about 6 days in the desert at two seperate locations. :thumbup:

WOW.... I SEE LIGHT AT THE LACK OF END OF THIS ENDLESS TUNNEL.... LOL
 
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Hi again.

My head is spinning, no time to breathe and no time to post. My blog is 10 years behind too (sigh)...

I'll feel better once this huge on location shoot is behind me...

But for now, I am unable to devote any time to anything other than preparing for the shoot. We will film two days in Palm Springs and then zip up to the Mojave desert for four days. The logistics involved are a nightmare! :eek: We will really be in the middle of nowhere, so we have to bring everything with us.

Boy I have a lot of awesome stories to tell... But that will be for another day... Soon
wink.gif
...
 
I'M BACK I'M BACK!!!!

Nine days shooting out in the desert and back in one piece with DROP DEAD GORGEOUS shots!!! :D

the dry lake was GOOOOD to me! I am on cloud nine! Can't wait to share some screengrabs, but I have to download all the footage into my PC first, and it is going to be time consuming. I hope to start having some grabs in a few days!!!

We had a blast!!

Shooting a climax scene that takes place at sunset was NERVE WRECKING cause I only had about 20 minutes worth of sunset light to shoot each night. So it took no less than 7 sunsets to create one sunset scene in the film. I was SO stressed each time the sun would start nearing the horizon and franctically try to get as many shots as I could. We could only do a couple takes of each and I barely got them all done by the end of the week, but we did it.

Another scene was at sunrise, so same scenario, plus waking up at 5AM every day trying to beat the sun rays... So the shots would match light wise...

OYE.

The results though???

Gorgeous cinematography. I am very pleased, I think we did very well!!
 
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