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