mainstreetprod
Veteran
About 3 years ago my wife wrote a comedy -drama screenplay called "Class of '91" about a couple , Roger and Diane, who are living large and looking forward to flashing their lifestyle in front of their high school friends at their 20th reunion. Roger loses his job and they learn some valuable lessons about trust and faith as they look forward to attending their reunion homeless and unemployed.
A few weeks ago we decided it was finally time to produce this movie. Originally we planned on doing it as a giant church project as was done on "Facing the Giants" and "Fireproof". After some thought, we decided to produce and finance it ourselves , getting actors from around the Nashville area involved. We placed an ad on Craigslist and it snowballed from there. Cast and crew from Tennessee and several adjoining states applied for parts and positions (we decided to pay our key actors to hopefully get a better quality actor for the parts). It worked. Nearly a hundred responded and about 50 auditioned, both in person and by video. Some exceptional talent surfaced and we are confident in our cast. The actors who did not get paid parts were offered bit speaking parts and the movie and gladly took them, so the movie is fully cast except for extras. Many of the scenes that require extras will take place in large rooms at our church , so we can recruit extras from the congregation.
What is really cool is that some recognizable names (at least in the "faith based" world) are already involved. Christian comedian Tim Steed will play Roger. One of the actors who auditioned by email was Tim Brazeal of "Star Trek" New Voyages. National radio talk show host and financial guru Dave Ramsey agreed to do a voiceover as himself, when Roger hears financial advice on the radio. Country songwriter /singer Kelly Lang brought her daughter to the auditions. We happened to know her from a behind the scenes shoot, talked for a while and she agreed to score the movie for us. And to top it off , a major (and I mean MAJOR) movie distributor noticed our Craigslist posting and wants to know more about the project. We will talk with them next week. So, needless to say, things are falling into place and who knows what will be next. As my wife says, we are just "along for the ride and holding on for dear life."
A few minutes ago Fedex came and delivered a slightly used HPX500 I purchased for the film (thanks to Kit Hannah). Will post a picture of me unwrapping it like a kid at Christmas. To help with the production values, I will be using a 10' crane, glidecam,
and DIY indieslider. My crew will be small, consisting of me on camera, my wife directing, a boom operator ,a lighting tech, makeup and script supervisor. . A couple of guys who want experience have offered to work for free as crew, and we have some great possibilities for our main paid crew.
Not having much serious lighting experience, I have come to an agreement with one of the best DP's in the area and he will conduct a mini seminar for us , suggesting camera moves and lighting setups. Might have him on site at some of the more complicated scenes. Hopefully all of this will translate into reasonably good production values, given the ultra low budget . Shooting will start August 15th and run through Oct. 28th . We will only shoot three days week, including weekends, working around the actor's schedules.
The web page for the movie is:
http://www.classof91movie.com/
Not much there yet but will be soon. The facebook fan page we created already has 170 fans after only a couple of days. I will be posting our progress as things happen.
Below are some screen grabs from the auditions:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/album.php?albumid=211&pictureid=1436
A few weeks ago we decided it was finally time to produce this movie. Originally we planned on doing it as a giant church project as was done on "Facing the Giants" and "Fireproof". After some thought, we decided to produce and finance it ourselves , getting actors from around the Nashville area involved. We placed an ad on Craigslist and it snowballed from there. Cast and crew from Tennessee and several adjoining states applied for parts and positions (we decided to pay our key actors to hopefully get a better quality actor for the parts). It worked. Nearly a hundred responded and about 50 auditioned, both in person and by video. Some exceptional talent surfaced and we are confident in our cast. The actors who did not get paid parts were offered bit speaking parts and the movie and gladly took them, so the movie is fully cast except for extras. Many of the scenes that require extras will take place in large rooms at our church , so we can recruit extras from the congregation.
What is really cool is that some recognizable names (at least in the "faith based" world) are already involved. Christian comedian Tim Steed will play Roger. One of the actors who auditioned by email was Tim Brazeal of "Star Trek" New Voyages. National radio talk show host and financial guru Dave Ramsey agreed to do a voiceover as himself, when Roger hears financial advice on the radio. Country songwriter /singer Kelly Lang brought her daughter to the auditions. We happened to know her from a behind the scenes shoot, talked for a while and she agreed to score the movie for us. And to top it off , a major (and I mean MAJOR) movie distributor noticed our Craigslist posting and wants to know more about the project. We will talk with them next week. So, needless to say, things are falling into place and who knows what will be next. As my wife says, we are just "along for the ride and holding on for dear life."
A few minutes ago Fedex came and delivered a slightly used HPX500 I purchased for the film (thanks to Kit Hannah). Will post a picture of me unwrapping it like a kid at Christmas. To help with the production values, I will be using a 10' crane, glidecam,
and DIY indieslider. My crew will be small, consisting of me on camera, my wife directing, a boom operator ,a lighting tech, makeup and script supervisor. . A couple of guys who want experience have offered to work for free as crew, and we have some great possibilities for our main paid crew.
Not having much serious lighting experience, I have come to an agreement with one of the best DP's in the area and he will conduct a mini seminar for us , suggesting camera moves and lighting setups. Might have him on site at some of the more complicated scenes. Hopefully all of this will translate into reasonably good production values, given the ultra low budget . Shooting will start August 15th and run through Oct. 28th . We will only shoot three days week, including weekends, working around the actor's schedules.
The web page for the movie is:
http://www.classof91movie.com/
Not much there yet but will be soon. The facebook fan page we created already has 170 fans after only a couple of days. I will be posting our progress as things happen.
Below are some screen grabs from the auditions:
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