FEATURE: Rise of the Beast-the new feature from STARS Pictures

Hey brother Chris everything is looking really good. I love that DVD cover, that is really sharp looking. So many independent films come up short on their DVD art work and such. Nice to see you spent some time and effort making it look professional, many people will pass on a film simply because of the front cover of the DVD. Keep us up to date with the Canon hack, I didn't do mine since it is still beta. We aren't shooting anything right now since we are in the editing phase, so I found no need to rush it. I was hoping to see how it was working for everybody else first, then try updating down the road. Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
 
Thank you for the kind words! And yes, I'll definitely be posting about my experiences with the Rebel ML. Another update came out yesterday that allows you to set your WB by Kelvin, so that's cool. The one thing I'm not happy with is that I can't reformat the card anymore to clear all the footage. I have to go through and delete the footage either on my computer or on the camera. As a safety measure I'll probably format the card once a week during periods of heavy filming, I'll just have to reinstall ML when I do. Fortunately the process is simple and only takes two minutes.

As for Leap 2, by the time I went to bed last night we had presales on both coasts so that's pretty cool. Thank you everyone who has already purchased theirs! Your support means a lot!
 
Good news! I was finally able to secure the location for our final two days of shooting =) I'll be renting a conference room at a local Super 8 Motel. I checked it out and it really looks good. Can't wait to get the flick in the can!
 
El can you explain the story to me as I am somewhat confused haha Maybe its because I just dropped two sleeping pills but after going through the first 52 pages I still don't really "get" it. A longer, more in-depth synopsis would be helpful.

Also I just watched the teaser got confused by the part " They're accepting of everyone. They're even allowing gays and women to preach to the congregations". Erm is this going against homosexuality ?
 
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The story is set two years after the first film. A world leader had emerged whom most Christians thought was the antichrist. In a surprise move however, this leader turns over all his power and authority to the Vatican. The Leap crew is stunned by this and starts researching who/what the antichrist really is, according to the Bible. They soon realize that the "beast of the sea" is really the Vatican and start to share this with others by video taping themselves preaching to crowds and uploading the vids to the net for all to see. Around this time, cryptic radio broadcasts begin that are revealed to be Bible passages about the Sabbath. The Vatican then institutes a global Blue Law-meaning that everyone must attend church on Sunday. To enforce this, The Congregation for the Defense of the Faith (CDF) is enlisted to silence any deemed heretic, including the Leap crew (who is believed to be behind the broadcasts, even though they're not). After the passing of the new laws the crew again turns to the Bible and realizes that they need to be keeping Saturday, not Sunday, and start preaching this message as well. Their message inspires other Christians to speak out as well. The CDF recruits a young parkour practitioner (a traceur) and has him infiltrate the Leap crew. After being led to their hideout, the traceur gives the location to the CDF, who then try to eliminate him. The CDF then sends a SWAT-like team to the location, but the Leap crew just barely escapes in a car chase. Having triangulated the position of the broadcasts themselves, the crew heads to that location, believing that whoever is behind the messages might know more than they do.

As for the women and gay comment, that is the only comment about it in the film, but yes, that comment is going against homosexuality. But hey, the majority of the film is anti-catholic ;) Also, if anyone wants to discuss the religious aspects of the film, I'd be more than happy to do so on the message board on our facebook page in my sig. Let's keep this thread about the film itself.
 
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I decided that I'm going to do a test scene from Leap: Revelation (the next Leap film) to see how difficult it'll be to do myself. It includes a shot of some F-16's doing a streak run on the city where the Leap crew is. I'll be shooting the live action portion in a few weeks, but I started on the CG part today:

Testing Blender 2.5 beta
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Did a video shoot for a client today and was able to test out Magic Lantern a bit more. The AGC worked beautifully, as did the audio levels adjustments. Switching from my cinemascope crops to an HD title-safe took seconds. Manually adjusting white balance with the Rebel ML is so much easier than using Canon's firmware. Press the "Q" button and it manually sets it. If you're not happy, you can adjust it up or down until it's perfect. I shot with the intermediate ISOs in some low light settings and loved how clean the dark areas are. We're filming again on Leap 2 this weekend, so I'll really be able to put it through some paces then.
 
Production Journal


Friday, January 21, 2011
So tomorrow starts the big weekend of finishing filming. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today to prepare, but I can’t wait to get the film in the can. On a side note, the film was featured on ChristianFilmmaker.com Hopefully that lets more people know about the film =) You can read the full article here:
http://christianfilmmaker.com/?p=1335
 
Production Journal

Saturday, January 22, 2011
Day 29
We shot all of the CDF HUB scenes today! 14 pages of script in six and half hours! I think that’s a new record for me. It helped though that all the scenes were in the same room. Walt Leathers came did great playing the part of Kidd, and Jon Jordan was a pleasure as always to work with too (He plays West). For extras (techs), my buddy Matt Clark showed up first, followed shortly after by Kevin Lonam. Yes, the same Kevin who plays like three different characters already. We shot him from behind all day. In keeping with the spirit of one actor as multiple characters, Kimberly Cruz was kind enough to show up as well (she also plays the news anchor). She also invited her friend Nick Moore, who also did a great job.
Today also marks the first time I’ve used Magic Lantern on a film shoot. We had no problems with it. Also, since I knew it’d be a busy and long day, I brought my editing computer with harddrives and used it as a DIT station, allowing me to dump footage during breaks. I also was able to convert it all to offlines while we were shooting. That part was nice. I would totally do the same again on my next film if I’m able to. So much nicer than coming home and waiting three hours.
Tomorrow, if I can get ahold of Ben, we’ll be shooting all of the interrogation room scenes. If I can’t, we’ll have to come up with another plan when I do hear from him. So yeah, great day!
 
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Tonight we wrapped principle photography! The movie that wouldn't end does have an end. Production Journal and grabs coming soon
 
Production Journal

Sunday, January 23, 2011
Day 30
After 30 days over six months, we finally wrapped principle photography! We shot all of the interrogation room scenes in the same room as the HUB scenes. We just used one white wall and shot as if we were shooting greenscreen, where the actors and set moves to change angles, rather than the camera. The hotel was also kind enough to let us use one of their rooms for a half hour, which gave us an extra level of production value.
After cutting the previous day's footage, I started to realize that my 90 page script was turning into a 75 minute film (the joys of action movies I guess). Knowing this, we improvised a few extra scenes to help pad the film out and add to the character development of our bad guys. On the plus side, the film moves at a good pace. Not too fast, not too slow.
 
Had a couple screenings of the rough cut this week. I wanted to make sure the story made sense and the acting is good. They went really well, and the response was so much better than even the final cut of the previous film. We were all able to identify one scene that will be reshot, so I'm doing that next week. ADR is coming along, I've done two of the actors, with another one scheduled for Saturday and another one next week. Progress is being made!

Not really a ROTB update, but since I haven't started a thread yet for the next flick, I'm sticking it here.
Finally ordered an LCD viewfinder on ebay today! My homemade one was good, but it wasn't perfect (still better than a black cloth over the head like I did for a while). Also, since I'm starting to do more paid work, I figured I should at least do a bit of a pony show. I got a really good deal on it and I'll post my review when it arrives.
 
I finally got around to posting some BTS vids. Here's a few:


"It Has Arrived"-Unboxing our Rebel

The El Director Roller Dolly

Shooting at Night

Starting to Score
 
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