HERITAGE - Geoff Reisner

Thanks Brandon! I'm glad that one turned out well, it was our third lighting setup for that scene... The first two setups I tried weren't working and I refused to shoot... my gaffer, Wes Carrosquillo, ended up nailing the third one and we finally shot!
 
Wow Geoff, that last batch of screenshots are really nice. I love the city! The closeup of your guy in the chair/couch is lit really well, vey nuanced; I like it when faces go in and out of darkness.

Did you have to get permits to shoot on that street/sidewalk?
 
We didn't get any permits and not once did we get bothered by police as I expected. We're shooting in Chicago which is very laid back about filmmaking and we've got a two man crew.

I've never once been bothered on a shoot, even when we've had 20 people and HMI's booming ten feet up in the middle of the night on busy streets. The only time I make the initiative to get a permit is when I'm shooting in an alley or need to hold traffic on a street or something. In those instances, you'll get angry truck drivers or civilians calling and complaining, which forces the police to respond. If they don't get a complaint, the majority of the time, the police here don't do anything. They might watch for a bit and leave.
 
Wow, that's very impressive. You just can't get away with that in California (I mean, you can guerilla-style, but not with doing actual setups and stuff, at least in my experience). Super-cool, man, rock'n'roll.
 
Yea, you can't get away with anything in LA. That's one of the many reasons I moved back to Chicago. (I was out in LA for a short while) I wanted to make some more shorts but everything was too expensive and difficult in LA. If I had a little bit of money, it wouldn't have been a problem and I could deal with paying a little here and there to rent gear, locations or obtain permits but I'm literally broke.

So I'm back in Chicago, jobless... but rent free, just spending every day working on little projects.:grin:
 
Finally got around to making an official poster...The one I'd been using was from searching around google images until I found a miniature train set photograph. :cheesy:

heritage_poster_02.jpg
 
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Mark Harris said:
yeah, the grabs look nice Geoff. Glad to see some others shooting so late, like we did...
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Thanks Mark. I've been following the progress of Katrina for some time now. Your screen grabs are a constant reminder that I'm up against serious competition. :thumbsup:
 
Excellent stuff here - did you modify the CU of the actor's eye in the poster in any way? Very arresting color and texture regardless...

I love the lines within the open spaces of your exteriors. I assume this guy is making an important trip? Fun to imagine story from the just the stills that people choose to post.

Looking forward to seeing it...
 
Nice job, Geoff. Looks like you had some snow during your filming as well. Of course, that's probably pretty common over there. It adds such a beautiful element to the shot, I think. I am looking forward to your entry.
 
AmbassadorTex said:
Excellent stuff here - did you modify the CU of the actor's eye in the poster in any way? Very arresting color and texture regardless...
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Thanks, there is heavy alteration to that image concerning texture and color but the actor's eyes, (Christopher Jennings) are already a strong blue and the detail in the photograph was so high which gave me a great base to start from.
 
Hey Rebecca, the snow was a nice addition for the exteriors. I wish it had been snowing lightly for the last scene of the movie. There was a slight chance on my shooting day but we missed it by a couple of hours...

I've been following 'Semele' and 'Where Silence Falls', they both look and sound like they're turning into really great films! I look forward to seeing them both.
 
Post Update...

I'm taking a short break from editing... I've been cutting since late Friday night, sorting through a little over an hours worth of footage. So far I'm on my fourth cut, the first one came in at more than 7 minutes, I'm now down to a 5:30 picture cut without credits (which consists of very few people, so no worries there). I'll cut it down a little more tonight but so far it's looking good and I'm not running into major problems where I need to axe an entire scene.

When I started this project, I knew it had to be simple story that would fit within the six-minute time limit. I didn't want to deal with the same problems I had during my horrorfest entry. I hated the fact that I would end up with two versions, a six-minute and the now upcoming thirteen-minute version. I hated it for the same reason I hate alternate endings...it ruins the illusion of an alternate reality. Since I plan on submitting Heritage to the 'On the Lot' reality show, I need to make this film fall under five minutes. I don't want both a five and six minute version of the film.

I've got a little more trimming to do, perhaps some creative re-arrangements of scenes will allow me to shave some time off.. No matter what, I have to deliver the picture cut to my composer tonight or tomorrow morning at the very latest.

UPDATE - 7 PM - All right, so I hit 5'00 exactly...without credits. But I've still got some problems. I need breathing room for some of the more important moments. I'm going to have to cut a small scene unfortunately...
 
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Good luck with the final edits and work, Geoff. Try to get some sleep also.

Our film 'Fade' is finished for the video-editing. Only the audiotrack will need some fine-tuning (a couple of sound-fx and some mixing, perhaps even making a 5.1 mix).
 
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