Enjoy and happy filmmaking!
Jessica Cunningham and Kourtny Leia
Every filmmaker has a story to tell, that's obvious, they're making a friggen movie! But what YOU miss out on are the the jokes, the bonding, the problems, the heartaches, the moments of brilliance and and "oh crap" moments that are ever so common on a film set. But here I'll be sure to write down as many of those moments as possible. So you can not only follow the story, but come behind the scenes with me and my cast and crew and see what it's really like to be an indie filmmaker, from the conception of a story to waiting for the finished video to render onto youtube.
So Kourtyard Films and I (Providential Starlight Productions) have a very important update about the feature film 'Daniel'. We, after much thought, prayer and consideration have decided that we are not ready to tackle the project. Though Rampage By Definition will, by far, be the best project we have ever done, it still has issues. Now the entire point is to learn how to be better filmmakers so that we can create large indie projects, but we also have to be prepared. And there is a lot of learning that we still need to do before we can successfully tackle a project the size and magnitude of 'Daniel'. So for this summer (2013) we are canceling the feature. HOWEVER we are still going to make films! Our new goal is to make tons of short films (20 minutes or less) until we are confident that our filmmaking skills are up to par. Issues that we have is learning to be planned and prepared at least two weeks in advance. Having locations and actors pinned down and ready to go awhile beforehand instead of a week or a day before we are supposed to shoot. Now you may be thinking "how does that fit into being flexible", well that's a balance we need to learn too. Where to be flexible and where to be rigid. We also want to give all our actors a chance to play different types of characters. And we want to learn how to make different genres of film. There is a multitude of things we can learn and do by doing shorts for the next year instead of a large project. It will overall make us and our team better. And you'll get to see a lot of projects from us! So it will be exciting all around!
Enjoy and happy filmmaking! Jessica Cunningham and Kourtny Leia
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So today is Sunday...and usually I'd be telling you about how filming for Rampage By definition went yesterday (Saturday)....but that's not what happened. The record that follows explains the very interesting day we had.
So we had a huge and important scene, one that kicks off the entire plot of Rampage By Definition and sets things in motion for both sides of the story. We had originally wanted to film this scene at a storage unit. But storage units were hard/impossible to get ahold of for filming permission. So we changed our minds and Kourtny knew a family friend that owned a farm/ranch and they had a large warehouse with tons of equipment and all sorts of obscurity that you can imagine inside. We decided it was the perfect place to film the scene. And it was indoors so we wouldn't have to do ADR. So the plan was to film from 10am-10pm. It wasn't a hard place to find but it was really obscure and difficult to get to, so most of our cast and crew was late for getting lost (including Kourtny and I and we had both been there before, it didn't help that there was at least 4 different ways to get there). We are finally all ready to go and people on the ranch are working...and we were told no one would be there. So the sound of a working ranch was ruining our audio (since in the film the place is supposed to be empty). So we decided, after about an hour of trying to film, that this was not going to work. I made the call that we would all go back home, take a nap and film all night instead. So we went back home and just relaxed. We went back to the ranch at 5pm. Again things didn't work and people were late due to miscommunication and getting lost. We finally get running when we get a call. Apparently the ranch is subsidized by the government and the government is putting the ranch under 24 surveillance starting at midnight. And if they catch us or find out we are filming we could be arrested, or the footage taken from us, or the ranch owners would be fined. We instantly shut down the shoot and packed up and left. We went back to my house and discussed options. Obviously not having a location we were unable to film the scenes yesterday, and luckily things worked out (in ways that seemed to be extremely annoying and seemingly unfortunate earlier) that setting up and getting ready took hours longer than normal and we only had about 30 seconds worth of usable footage. Since we are no longer filming there that footage will be tossed. It turns out that the ranch being used earlier in the day was a major blessing in disguise, because if we had been filming the entire time up until we were informed of this we would have been almost done filming the scenes and all the footage would have been scrapped and we would have been devastated. So it worked out that the most that happened was we wasted the day and only a few hours of our cast and crews time instead of having to do the scenes again and still be behind a day. So after all that crazy scrambling to leave the ranch and then coming up with some back up plan ideas we were hungry, so we all went to IHOP and had a fantastic time just hanging out, joking around and bonding. I think we all got a great ab workout. So we are currently looking for a new location to film the scenes, but we have two weeks. And since we have pushed back the starting date for 'Daniel' this set-back isn't devastating. We are just curious what the new set God has in store for us is, we thought the last one was perfect. But we have come to see that God definitely wants this project to happen because everytime something like this happens the "replacement" is always far better than the original. I am in no way worried, more curious. We have an appointment to look at another warehouse location on Thursday at 3pm. And I have other back-up plans for places to contact. Oh, news on 'Daniel'? Well we have a Daniel! We were going to have Tony Pugh-Ruiz play Devon but we decided he would make a perfect Daniel. We are still looking for many other parts to fill in 'Daniel', but I am excited to see who we will be working with. An entirely different cast (same crew), you'll see some familiar faces but also many new ones. We'll be having more auditions very soon, if you are a guy between the ages of 17 and 45 and would love to audition let me know, we have lots of male parts available, all of which have good screen time! Oh, and some behind the scenes news. Cullen Eason is officially engaged as of Friday night! We are very excited for him! The wedding is this July. So those are our interesting stories from set this week, very different from usual, but hey, makes a good story! And that's what we're here for. Enjoy and happy filmmaking! :) Jessica Cunningham Well Saturday was, as I'm sure you guessed, another filming day for Rampage By Definition! And things went extremely well! Not as we had "planned" but better! Originally we were going to have full day of three scenes that was we needed lots of extras. And we did our best to spread the word but when Friday rolled around we realized we were not ready to film one of our three scenes because we weren't going to have enough extras. So Kourtny and I were freaking out, pacing, sweating and not sure what to do. So we sat down and prayed for about five or ten minutes. After that I made the call to postpone the scene we wouldn't have enough extras for and we came up with an alternate scene to film. Luckily we had an extra who was willing to bump up and become our mass shooter and we were able to use my parents camper as a location. So we get to the police precinct location at 9:45 (with special thanks to Foster!) and start setting up (Kourtny, my brother Regis, and I) and we get everything moved in by 11:09, pretty much on schedule. We were going to film one scene at about 12 or 12:30 and then our extras would arrive at 1 and we could be ready to shoot with our extras by 1:30....then some problems happened. One of our actors didn't arrive on time...and they ended up being two hours late, at first we freaked but as time went on we realized it worked out for the best as when they arrived more extras happened to arrive as well. We filled the police precinct with cops and civilians. It was perfect, the set looked amazing! Then we came to my house and filmed the mass shooter scene in the camper. We had the problem of the freezer fan and the battery fan killing audio, so we had to wait whenever those fans would come on and as soon as they turned off we would jump into action and film the next segment. Luckily they never turned on during a shot. Obviously those fans slowed things down a bit, but it happens. So we filmed from 2pm-2am...a twelve hour day, but this time for Cullen. But longer for Kourtny and I. A seventeen hour day for us, but it was so worth it! Time literally flies when you are having fun. :) On Friday we sent Two Below to Jonathan Zuniga to be scored, we are very excited to see what he does! Oh...more incentive to be excited about Two Below (but you were already, right?) We have a surprise hidden away for when Two Below is released...so be ready and excited! ;D Right now Kourtny and I are working on the BLOOPERS for Two Below! As well as a host of other things haha. Oh, Jonathan has also done the music for the Film Riot Challenge, and all we have left to do is color and then that will be done too! That seems to be all for now. Oooh, auditions for Daniel! They went really well! We had 5 people come, and auditioning is way harder than it seems. Trying to figure out who you like as who and not only can they play the part but do they LOOK the part. We have a few more people left to audition and some check backs to do on parts that we offered to specific people, but otherwise we are doing pretty well on casting 'Daniel'. And we are getting practice at online auditions as we have a few people auditioning that way. So that's the update for now. Enjoy and Happy Filmmaking! Jessica Cunningham Well Saturday was the fourth day of filming Rampage, and things went well, not as we planned but really, very nicely!
We had another short day of filming, only seven hours total time on set, but only like 4 or 5 of those hours was actual filming. The Irish's were very nice and let us use their house as location for Robert's house. Then we jumped over to my house to film an Elizabeth and Angie scene. And we would like to welcome Cody Hill as a new member of our crew! We "trained" him on sound for the Robert scene, and he was great! Speaking of sound, with the settings fixed on our recorder we now have beautiful sound quality! YAY! Originally we were going to film the precinct scenes as well buuuut extras were out of town (randomly) and hard to come by. So we are working on shooting those scenes this Saturday instead. We have like 5 scenes to film this Saturday, but it will be the first day that we will get to switch the boys (that's what we call the Eason's) out halfway through the day. We'll have Cullen in the afternoon and Brendan in the evening. It's what we had been wanting to do all along (so they didn't have such long film days) but it has never worked out until now. And it will be good practice for 'Daniel' as that will be how a lot of days will go. Our crew (unless we have enough to be able to switch them out halfway through the day) will be on set all day, but most of our cast will switch out per location, some in the morning, some in the afternoon or evening. So this should be interesting, hopefully we'll feel as professional as it sounds, lol. And we are hoping for a BOATLOAD of extras this Saturday, we certainly need them! We are having a huge party scene and a police precinct scene. So, if YOU are available this Saturday (the 16th) and would like to be an extra contact me via the Contact Us page here on this site, on Facebook, or at [email protected]. We would LOVE to have you! Speaking of 'Daniel' (yes, I do realize that was a few sentences ago) we are still getting ready for auditions! Kourtny and I went through the script and figured out what scenes to use for auditions and started going through our auditioners and making a list of who we wanted them to audition for. Kourtny and I also started figuring out the characters costume styles. And Kourtny, Melanie and I went through the script and decided on what changes needed to be made to the script, and it's pretty darn good. There were a few minor things we found that needed to be altered or added, but otherwise we are just a step away from a completed script! So, that seems to be all the newness going on here. I'll write a blog post about what we learn from Trai on Tuesday and how auditions go on Wednesday! Enjoy and Happy Filmmaking! Jessica Cunningham So, for all of you awesome peeps who have been reading this site and checking back for updates and secretly wishing you could be a part of this filming world...this is the blog post for you! We are finally having open auditions for the feature film Daniel! And we would like YOU as an actor or actress. All but one or two roles are available and we are having open auditions for YOU to have a chance to be in a feature length film. Feature length means 105 pages, thus around one hour and five minutes long. It IS a subtly Christian film. What does this mean? It doesn't scream "OMGosh this is godly" it's much more subtle. The goal is to reach people who would never watch a purely "Christian" film, but the story and morals will hopefully make people think. It's very real and serious, a definite drama. But very different from anything else you've seen Kourtyard and Providential Starlight release before. It's a high school drama. Now before you go "Aw man another high school indie drama" and walk away let me assure you we are NOT letting that happen, this is not that story, trust me. :) What is this story? Top secret...for now. ;)
So, hopefully by now I have you so interested in doing this you are practically leaping out of your seat wanting to audition, so for those of you who are. We'll meet on Wednesday, March 13th at 3pm. Where we will go over the story in more detail and the characters and have auditions! Now if you are crying on the inside (or the outside, no shame in that) because you can't make that day we will have another set of auditions Friday, March 15th at 4pm. And if you really can't make that but uber want to audition contact me or Kourtny and we can make arrangements for you. What's the commitment? Well filming is due to start May 11th and will take a few months, filming 2 or 3 days a week. However that would be worked out with you personally if you were in consideration for a larger part. But basically, you need to have some summer-time availability. For more information or ANY questions you might have feel free to message me on facebook at facebook.com/ProvidentialStarlightProductions or go to our Contact Us page on this site (providentialstarlightproductions.weebly.com/contactus) or email me at [email protected] or tweet me on twitter @Yasecca. Enjoy and happy filmmaking! Jessica Cunningham |
AuthorI've always known I wanted to do something with film since I was at least 14 years old. And now I have my own production company and the best cast and crew I could ask for, and it's still getting better everyday! Archives
August 2017
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