This weekend the HateCity Pictures crew was lucky enough to be invited to participate in Kansas City Renaissance Festival's Media and VIP Ticket Holder preview party. And let me tell you, Kansas City really knows how to put out a warm welcome!
When we woke up at 5:00am Friday morning to drive to Kansas City, none of us really knew what to expect for this preview as we were also scheduled to film rehearsals the next day. We thought there might be a show or two and opportunities to interview cast. When we arrived at the Faire Grounds, we were pleasantly surprised that this preview was less dress rehearsal and more social party complete with complimentary drinks and food. We had a great time talking with people there at the preview event. Glenn met several of the Faire workers over beers at the pub and was able to set up interviews for when we return for the actual Faire. And we all got to enjoy a couple of the stage acts performing.
The sunset over the faire grounds was simply spectacular.
Saturday morning we were up at 5:00am again so we could head out to Captain Sin's home and document her transformation process. We shot a lot of great footage of Captain Sin as well as the people around her at the faire grounds.
Once we had to leave Captain Sin, we found several other groups rehearsing.
This was an interesting choral group comprised of various cast members. We only heard a couple of their songs, but I'm anxious to hear the whole set as they were quite good.
And this was the Yeoman Bodyguard of the Yeoman Warders. They are a military reenactment group comprised of ex-military, police, and firefighters. They were a lot of fun to watch practice. Later we caught them doing their pole arm drills. This group is particularly unique to this faire. They will be joining the Muskogee Faire next year, but until now have only participated in the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.
So far we are very pleased with the footage we were able to put together at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. We were also very thankful for the warm welcome we received. We are all very excited to get back out to this faire sometime in September so we can film the cast in action with patrons. Until then, we'll be busy cataloging footage.
Kansas City Renaissance Festival Preview
Three Nos
Saturday afternoon was spent on the set of a new project. This time we filmed a Viral Video piece called Three Nos written by Glenn Bailey and Elizabeth Owens. The piece was directed by Glenn Bailey and lensed by Chris Durham as Director of Photography. Cafe Rembrandt in Dallas graciously opened their doors for us so we could film in their bar area. And I really do mean Graciously because the owner who opened the bar for us Saturday morning also closed the bar the night before. So when you all see this final product, please do us a favor and comment to the fine folks at Cafe Rembrandt on how beautiful their bar is. They have fantastic food there. Really.
The usual suspects were in attendance for our crew plus we added a few more folk whom I had previously not worked with. It was nice to meet some new faces and I must say that we all worked rather well together. I, for one, look forward to collaborating more with these crew members.
Below is a snapshot sneak peek at our two actors in Three Nos, Marty & Jae. They look like they were having a good time before we started actually filming.
For this particular location, we had the luxury of having overhead balconies so we were allowed to get a little creative with our lighting arrangements.
We also had a small amount of Sound FX for this production. I think about half of us on crew had laptops of some form or fashion out doing various work for the shoot. I used mine to keep track of scenes; Glenn's was used for Sound FX; and various other people had theirs ready for backups and we were almost All loading production photos and video to share with the world. I honestly don't know what people did on set before laptops. They really are just about a necessity these days.
Three Nos was shot with a new camera for our crew. Previously, we had been shooting actual film on Chris Durham's Canon XL2. And while the Canon has been great, who can resist a bigger, better, shinier piece of equipment? Below is what Chris had to say about this new camera set up we borrowed for Three Nos.
"Originally we intended to use Chris Owen's Sony HVR-Z5U. It's a great camera and I'm shooting his upcoming short "The Purse" on it. I've been doing everything I can to use it and kick the tires on it. We did tests a few weeks ago and it looked great. Then I came across an opportunity to use a Letus 35mm lens adapter, provided by Michael Owens. We intend to use one on "The Purse" so of course I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, when we got on set we found that we didn't have everything we needed to connect the Z5U and Letus correctly. Michael came prepared though and had one of his Panasonic AG-HVX200s with him that was already set up for the adapter. We lost resolution going to the HVX, but didn't see that as a big deal because the final delivery for this project is web, and possibly some standard def DVD for promotional purposes. Of greater concern was the fact that the Z5U has much better low-light performance than the HVX; so where our original tests only required two light in addition to the practicals, we ended up having to throw a lot more light at it. Our total light on the shoot, originally planned at 750-850 watts, ended up being 4,250 watts. We really wouldn't have been able to pull this off without Michael and his gear."
And here is a sneak peek at what the camera captured. These are actual screen grabs from the footage shot on Saturday.
I think the entire crew was rather pleased with how everything turned out on Saturday. The planets must have aligned in or favor or something.
Currently, Three Nos is in editing. Keep watching this blog and www.hatecitypictures.com for its release.
New player in town
This weekend was dedicated to a new character, Tommy. I don't wanna give anything away about the character or the plot, so I'll just make with a quick cut to the photo teaser:
This weekend also made use of interesting props. Props which we had searched high and low for and found only one. Props which used to be in such abundance we took for granted that we'd find one. And thus a bit of a script change was necessary. Below is a photo of said endangered prop.
Even as my cell phone sits next to my keyboard, I am still shocked at the absence of the payphones in a city. Where once fathers made sure their daughters kept a quarter in their shoe for emergency calls home, now cell phones exist even in the hands of the middle school set. Where once was a haven for untraceable nefarious calls, is now a necessity to re-write the goings on of criminal activity for the low budget filmmakers - us. The result actually did turn out pretty cool, though. It's funny how boundaries will turn out a better alternative than you would have ever thought about prior to said boundary.
More of Archie's place
Qelsi focuses on her scene...
as our director, Chris Durham focuses on the shot.
Meredith and Eric run through their lines before we begin shooting.
And just so we're sure, What day is it Glenn???
It's Cowboys Game Day!!!!!!!Archie's House
As you all know we're getting the ball rolling again on "The Betty". We got back to work last month and we're hoping to keep the momentum going throughout this month of September.
Today we assembled a small version of the crew and shot some footage of scenes taking place in Archie's house. We had a good day and by the time we wrapped we were very satisfied with what we accomplished.
I made sure to get a few production stills of the day, so here's a sneek peek at how we put things together.
Meet our new toy. We were fortunate to score this wheeling base for our camera tripod and it was beyond wonderful for the shoot today.
Two shots of Archie and Oatmeal thinking about their problem the best way they know how - with a case of beer.
Meet today's Set Supervisor. Maizy was gracious enough to let us take over her home for the shoot.
That's all I have for now. We'll continue to keep the sneek peeks going while we're shooting, so stay tuned for more.
Back to the Yard
Our return to the location we started "The Betty" on was somewhat less grandiose, but nonetheless a rewarding shoot. This time we had a crew of three and knocked out a single scene. It was an exercise in flexibility for sure. I scrapped the shot list as soon as we got into the converted container "office" because there was no way to make the lighting work the way I had visualized it in my head. It was narrower than I'd imagined and more run-down than I would have liked.
Working to a schedule though, we shot till about noon and we'll have to make another trip out there. two more scenes (one very short) in the container/office and one outside it, with a few pickups and we can scratch that location off the list.
I started cutting together a rough cut to see how the shots played together and I'm pretty pleased with it. We shot entirely with available light, setting a desk next to one of the windows, and the results, particularly on Greg's face, look great. I'll post some grabs soon.