"The Rooster" - by J. Van Auken

Hans Moleman

Hans Moleman

Carbonite Member
I'm personally challenged myself, and I made it happen.





CAST

Ray Ghering: Mike O'Brien
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Dr. Meinel: Megan Merrill
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Young Ray Ghering: Samuel Krump-Johnson
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CREW

Director: Joe Price

DP: J. Van Auken

Sound: Clayton Hansen

Score: Jeremy Wolfe

Gaffer: Tom Kenyon

Grips:
Chris Hernandez
Paul Nawrocke

Makeup artist:
Bryttannee Eaton

Documentary: Andy Berlin
 
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PRODUCTION UPDATE
Picture is locked, and uploaded.

PRODUCTION UPDATE 5/31/08
Got back yesterday from two full weekends spent on location in Morris, MN.
All the photography is done. I'm fully spent, and the director is looking over the cut remotely.
98% edited as of right now, and It's almost ready to be sent for scoring.
We did it.


PRODUCTION UPDATE 4/21/08
It's the day after our shoot day, and I've finally decompressed. I have to say that I've put more of myself into this film than any other I've made.

The shoot was on the edge of failing the day before, because our audio guy bailed, and I had to find another one quick. Ended up shelling out good money for Clay to come in, but it was well worth it. I made a good contact and hope to work with him in the future (under less strained conditions.

The actors surprised me ALL DAY. it was one incredible take after another. I found myself stopping camera moves because I started just watching a movie through the monitor. Mike and Megan really made this whole story, and I can neevr thank them enough for it.

Joe Price is probably the best director I've ever worked with. He is one of the first (outside of theater) to not care about lights, or equipment, and kept his eye on the actors alone. Every time I had a note about the performances, Price leapt in before I could say anything, leaving me completely free to run the camera. It was heaven.

Tom and Paul were a fantastic grip team. Tom knew just where to put lights to get the look, and we were able to work together flawlessly.

After everything, it was easily the most rewarding shoot I've ever been on. Absolutely incredible to be part of a team who were all moving in the same direction, and there's nothing like hearing someone say words you've written, and seeing it evoke real emotions in other people. I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life.


PRODUCTION UPDATE 4/9/08
Did the prelight tonight with the gaffer. We got the ratio's we wanted and will have to do very little tweaking later. Here are the two grabs we spent longest on. Lemme know if you want diagrams too. Many thanks to Gaffer Tom for standing in.

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PRODUCTION UPDATE 4/5/08
Held auditions today and yesterday. The very last guy we had come in just Nailed it, and we've come to our decision on the lead.
Here are some shots from the audition space.

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PRODUCTION UPDATE 3/19/08

Got my make up person locked today. Also, did some dolly and color tests. Here are some grabs.

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PRODUCTION UPDATE - 3/14/08

The script is locked, the location is secured, the audition day and space has been confirmed. The Shoot date is tentatively set. The director and I had a great little jam session and improv at the set, and I'm digging it a lot. prop list and costumes are nailed. We're ready to set this mother off.


Production Update - 3/1/08

The rough draft of the film is finished and ready for polishing.

Both units are crewing up quickly, and dates are starting to get nailed down.

I'm in contact with the guys to do the score, which is pivotal with this piece.

Production Update - 2/28/08

Found a writer to iron out the script with. He's a good (nonunion) guy named Andrew Rasley, and he seems really in tune with the theme of the piece.

Also, pegging down crew for the Chicago Unit, which is looking very, very good.
 
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If you can get Alice in Chains "Rooster" you have my vote now.

Good luck buddy.
 
alice rules. it was inspired by the song, in fact, and by the early passing of Layne. Though, I really don't think I can afford the rights to rooster.
 
He was a great singer and they were a great band. The Jerry Cantrell album Boggey Depot is pretty good to if you haven't heard it. For some reason Layne always reminded my of Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), anyone else?

I think a sniper's a good character to tackle too.
 
damn! so i was RIGHT! score one for me. pity about the rights though... you can;t even have one of your actors hum it or quote it, cuz even that is a violation...

woulda been an swesome song to go with it though... bummer
 
Breaking, urgent, vital news:

Made the first purchase for this (or any DVXfest) today.

A whip. 12". Redrock.

That's all.
 
Met with the screenwriter tonight, and over three hours learned quite a bit about the short genre, which I will now share snippets of with everyone in this fest's round of hard life lessons from Hans.

LESSON 1:

"Smoking a cigarette and thinking does not constitute a story"

So you want to write a story about X, because X is sweet, and you already have a poster. Great.

the first step, after you have your situation, or premise, or character, is to have an immediate problem for them to address. It isn't enough for them to be flawed and 'internally conflicted.'

This goes along with what I said last thread with raising the stakes. Don't just have a character with memory problems, have a character who has memory problems, and if he doesn't remember this one thing, he dies. Not just that, but he'll die in the next 6 minutes (including credits).
 
thanks a lot guys. I hope to continuously offer those little lessons I pick up like last fest and maybe garner more attention to the thread. If there are any topics anyone would like covered, drop me a PM
 
Epic poster man! I was also thinking of doing a war short that was based around a rooster, but yours looks really impressive so I'm glad I didn't! haha. Good Luck!
 
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