LEAP (An End Times Feature)

So I'm just a few days away and things are still going strong. I had one last training with the girls today to see at what point they'll need doubles. Fortunately, the way the film is written, two of them won't need doubles as they've been doing pk in the film as long as they've actually been training with me. The other one though has to look like she's been doing it for a year or two, so I've been extra hard on her. I think she'll be able to do 75% of the parkour. If she can't do an element of the chase, I'll either modify it or if it's something that "just has to be in the flick", I'll double for her.
We're holding the carwash this Friday to raise some funding to pay for the Leap crew shirts the actors wear and to pay for food as well. Looks like it'll also pay for me to get a wig from the Display House, a local costume store that has supplied my makeup needs since my early shorts. They have all sorts of rubber appliances, wigs, costumes, and even my favorite-liquid latex! The stuff smells like something awful, but you can do a lot with it.

Just to rant for a second, is it just me, or do a lot of DP's seem to be high and mighty? The impression I get from a lot of them is that they think we can't make films without them. I'm not against working with a DP, but I can light a scene and compose the shot just as well myself in half the time. I don't need them, and they get irritated when I tell people that I'm my own DP. I enjoy and I'm faster because it's one less thing I have to communicate. Plus, it's one less crew member to worry about showing up.

But anyway, I seriously can't wait to get this thing going!
 
Well, the car wash ended up being a bust-we were one hose short so we couldn't do anything. We did manage to ask for donations from people driving by. Made ten bucks too. I spent it today on tape stock. I shot seven hours of tape on "Wulf", so I'm hoping for nine hours on this film, seeing all the action that's involved. Since it's been so hot here lately, I'm going to use my ice chest to keep the camera and tapes at a good temp while driving to location and walking to our shooting locations. No, there won't be ice in it, that'd cause condensation, which I don't need!

The actors had their last training session with me today, as we start shooting tomorrow. We actually went to both of the colleges today so I could get the actors on the actual obstacles we'll be filming with. I also pulled out my "directing hat" today. It's a military issue desert boonie hat that I've worn on every short and feature I've done. It's my thing. Also cleaned up my computer to prepare it to start loading footage tomorrow. I want to try editing while I'm shooting. I know many of you reading this are thinking, "What an idiot", but since we're only shooting five hour days, I'll have time.

One thing that I'm really glad I've done so far is that I shot the teaser trailer before we started shooting the film. It allowed me to find my way again with the camera, since it's been two years since "Wulf". I'm definately going to be making this a regular thing in the future.

Anyway, that's where I'm at, wish me luck tomorrow!
 
So the first day of shooting went great! We had a late start, but still finished early. I'm so glad that I picked the scenes I did to start shooting today. We shot both parkour and dialogue so it was a good chance for the actors to see how I handle the two types of scenes. I ended up not having a scripty today, but hey, on these no budget flicks, what can you do? So I had actors who weren't in the shot act as a scripty, feeding lines and making continuity notes.

My shooting style is definately much more different than "Wulf", which is good, because I'm actually having fun cutting dialogue, which I hated doing on the last film. Oh yes, I'm already cutting! We shot for three hours today, four pages of script, and it's coming out to be like five minutes of screentime (due to the pk training footage. I'll try to post some screen grabs later. I actually need to go e-mail my actors some costume notes... See ya in a bit.
 
So I edited everything I shot yesterday! We managed to get five and a half minutes of finished movie in the less than three hours we shot, so that's pretty good. It was really cool-I had a huge grin on my face the entire time I was editing, something that's never happened to me before. I love this! Today, we're shooting the scene where Sierra takes an ice bath after her first pk lesson (which we shot yesterday), the scenes where the group talks about summer, where they go looking for Shane, and the scene where they watch a parkour vid online. That last scene will be shot using my laptop that doesn't work anymore, so I'll just comp in a screen and use one of my old pk vids.
 
El Director said:
Just to rant for a second, is it just me, or do a lot of DP's seem to be high and mighty? The impression I get from a lot of them is that they think we can't make films without them. I'm not against working with a DP, but I can light a scene and compose the shot just as well myself in half the time. I don't need them, and they get irritated when I tell people that I'm my own DP. I enjoy and I'm faster because it's one less thing I have to communicate. Plus, it's one less crew member to worry about showing up.
Click to expand...

Judging by what I've seen so far, you could have used one of those "high and mighty" DP's... and it's true... we can't make films without them... well at least good looking films...
 
I respect your opinion, but I still hold to mine. Besides the trailer, all I have on the site are some very roughly corrected grabs that I just quickly saturated and added grain to get an idea how the would look, which are hardly anything to judge. I shoot everything to have a neutral tone, then create the mood in post. It works for me. Those frame grabs still have a ways to go.

Today will be day four of shooting. The composites for the laptop monitor turned out better than I thought they would, thanks to a last minute idea I had to shoot from the laptop's POV to get a reflection plate that was flopped, cropped, and set to like a 20% opacity, turning it into the reflective glass on top of the video comped beneath it. Yesterday, we shot the scene where Shane and Crystal plan their one year anniversary, the scene where he's leaning towards relgion and she think's he's crazy, and the scene where they get into a fight in the car and she has him let her out. On my first film, we just drove the car around circles in a parking lot, and it looked like crap. I couldn't get any good angles since I don't have a camera mount. This time, I set up a greenscreen in my garage and backed the car in. I had one work light on top of the car to light the screen, and a smaller work light that I set on side mirror to light the interior. Since it was supposed to be night, we shut the garage door. I also ran my boom mic into the car so I could better hear what they were saying for ADR purposes later. We first shot the scene as a two shot, then again with close ups for both actors. I did a rough composite (which you can see stills of on my site) to make sure the technique was going to work. I'll have to do a little bit of rotoing, but not too much. I still need to go shoot a background plate as well.

My lead actor came up with a really cool idea for his costume: before he's a Christian, he wears a black tank, when he's on the fence about it, it's grey, and when he does accept Christ, it's white. I almost wish I had thought of that =) (see I do collaborate) lol!

Today, we're going to shoot the scene where Shane commits to Christ, the rock climbing date, the scene where Crystal breaks up with Shane, the birth of the Leap Crew, and the stealth run. It sounds like a lot, but really isn't. We start shooting at three and should be done by 11pm tops. Lately we've been finishing ahead of schedule, so I'm not too worried.
 
My goal is to make a film that shows my beliefs on certain prophecies. I do realize what the odds are of it going far. However, I also have seen a lot of films that sound like crap, and look way worse than mine that still get distributed because of their story, so that's the angle I'm taking. The story is a roller coaster ride about fear, love, loss and faith. I'm making it look the best I can-which is still at the low end, but better than some I've seen. However, it's real production value is in the parkour and the sound. My ADR technique sounds better than 90% of the indie films that get distributed (I've been told so at festivals from numerous people and filmmakers), so I have no doubts that my film will at least be seen, which is really all that matters to me. If nothing else, I'll post it to my site and make sure it gets seen. I have some serious issues with Left Behind, and I feel they need to be addressed.
 
Last edited:
El Director, I don't think that Brandon is simply speaking about the color correction of your shots. I believe he is referring more to the shot composition, framing and the angles chosen. Either those screen grabs are really blurry or they are out of focus. These are all things that even a decent DOP would have know and taken care of. I agree with Brandon that your lack of a DOP shows in the quality department. I have been silently keeping an eye on your project as I do most christian productions. I wish you the best, I just ask you as I would all christian filmmakers to please make a product that accurately represents Christ. Don't forget we are His ambassadors on this planet, and when we do something subpar it reflects on Him. Do all you do with excellence! If the funds aren't there to do it right, then wait. Remember God has 3 answers to prayer, Yes, No and Not Yet.
 
Day four. Shooting went pretty well. Alex, who plays Shane, made it over to my place by 3:30 and we shot two of his scenes. While we were shooting, August Wyssman, my script supervisor from "Wulf" came over to help out on this picture. After shooting with Alex, we went to the Valley YMCA where we shot "Wulf" and I set up my climbing gear on one of the cliffs there. We shot the actors rappelling down the rope from a couple of different angles, then I let anyone else who is involved with our project go down as well. The cliff was about 70-80 feet high, and safety was my number one priority. Since my rope is a dynamic rope and not a static line, I had them rappel double rope style. Also, I had them use my ATC (Air Traffic Controller) instead of my figure 8. The ATC is more abrasive on the rope, but it locks up better and thus is safer for the actors. I used the figure 8 though and had some fun showing them how quick you can drop. My final safety measure was that I had August down bellow performing what's known as a fireman's belay. Basically, if an actor ended up slipping (which they didn't), August could pull down on the rope and stop them from falling. I demonstrated how it worked while going down the rope with my camera. August was controlling my fall.

After everyone had a chance to rappel, I dropped the rope to the bottom and we shot the rest of the climbing date scene. I just had the actors coiling up the rope while they delivered their lines. Following that, we came back to my place and shot the scene where Crystal breaks up with Shane because he's a Christian, and then we shot the scene where the group comes up with the idea for the Leap ministry. Then, everyone changed into their pk clothes and we hit up the community college to shoot the stealth run. The area I wanted to shoot had some great obstacles and lights, which would have given me a real nice, contrasty look. However, when we got there, all the lights were one, except where we wanted to shoot. So we improvised and found another area with a picnic table, bike rack, and a ledge, and shot the parkour stuff there. After shooting, the group spit, Alex and I came back, finished shooting some of his solo stuff, and grabbed some sandwiches from Safeway at 1:00 am as we watched the dailies. It took us longer to shoot than expected, but all the footage came out great.

We're not shooting today, so I'm going to try and cut this all together. Tomorrow, we shoot the big pk chase at the end of the picture.
 
So the past couple days of shooting have gone pretty well. First, I stopped editing because we're taking a week off from shooting, so I wanted to have something to do. We shot most of the chase scene on Friday, I'm going to cut it this week and we'll get some pickups sometime next week. Saturday we shot two parkour training scenes. The one where the group learns vaults, and the one where they learn wall runs and flow. Yesterday we shot the scenes where Michael first sees Shane doing PK, the scene where he introduces the group to Shane, and the scene after their first pk lesson where Shane is invited to the college group at their church.

After shooting those scenes yesterday, we were driving to a church to shoot one last scene for the day when suddenly I couldn't stop. My brakes weren't working. I managed to pull into a gas station and induce a drift, using the friction of the tires to stop me. My actor and I get out and find that the brake cylinder is leaking fluid. I called up the other actors and told them what happened and that we'd shoot the scene another time. My producer gave me a ride home and today we're going to try to dry out the cylinder so I can at least use the e-brake and get the car back to my place. So yeah, fun times. I have the next week off from shooting, so hopefully I can get the car taken care of before we shoot again next Tuesday.
 
Well, for those of you who were worried, I managed to get my car home from downtown Spokane to the Valley where I live. I know nothing about cars (except how to drive them really well) so it was kinda funny watching my producer and I trying to figure out how to take the brake apart in a parking lot, clean it up, and put it back together. We managed to get it together, and even figured out how to adjust the friction. I had it way cranked up since I was going to be using the hand brake as a stopping brake. Since every time I'd hit the brake pedal fluid would spew out in the brake drum, I had no brake lights and had to use hand signals. So I was signaling with my left, while ripping the hand brake with my right and having to do some steering with my knees. FUN TIMES!

Anyway, I've now captured all the footage we've shot so far-four and a half tapes after one week-and the rough cut is coming along wonderfully! My actors love that I was editing as we go because the really liked seeing the footage cut together from the day before. I think they've finally grasped the concept that I'm not using any of the original sound. My entire sound track (dialogue included) is created in post. What's great is that when there's church bells or planes flying overhead, we keep shooting. Plus the film will actually sound like a Hollywood flick and not like the hoards of indie films that don't know how to do sound.

I've started working on the storyline for the next film in the series (I want to do three). Before I mention the project, please understand that I'm not trying to attack anyone. My goal with these films is to present what I feel and believe to be the truth. I want to encourage people to actually read their bibles and not just believe what they've been taught. That said, if Leap reveals that Left Behind is wrong, then Leap 2 is about truth behind the papacy. I also want to tie in the 10 commandments and how we as Christians should be living according to God's law.

My producer and I shot the background plate for the greenscreen driving the other day. I just sat in the back of his Swift with the tripod and it looks amazing. We shot at the "Magic Hour" as well, which really lends itself well to the nature of the scene. I'll try to get a photo of my GS setup so you can see how low budget it was...

Well, I should get back to editing. Peace!
 
Oh, almost forgot-I was able to find the unreleased XP theme called "Royale Noir" and since it's been signed by MS, it installed flawlessly. I actually had to download and install the Zune theme (black startbar with orange start button, then used the Royale Noir color scheme to turn everything black. I now have a black color scheme, which I love, and it's even affected Vegas! I use Vegas 7, as my box is six years old and can't handle the newer, darker Vegas 9. Like many other Vegas users, I didn't like the color scheme they had. With this new XP theme, I have a Vegas 7 that looks almost just like Vegas 9. Love it!
 
Nice to have a fan! =)

I've uploaded some more grabs onto my site. You can tell the new ones because I was experimenting with a desaturated look. If I go with it, I need to bring up the levels, but right now, just experimenting. Also figured out why so many are blurry- this is a very dynamic film-either the camera, or actors, or both are almost always moving so it's hard to find a "clear" frame. Anyway, here ya be:

http://starspictures.ning.com/photo/albums/2094877:Album:621?id=2094877%3AAlbum%3A621&page=2

Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top