Standing Firm : Blog

Today was the last day of shooting, thank goodness. We all were ready to get this day done. We had very little to do but it took a while to get going. I myself was feeling really bad and had some wicked coughs and junk going on in my throat so that made the day interesting. We got a few shots off after a while but things slowed down towards the center. I could feel myself burning out as the day continued. We lost our gaffer about half way through the day and had to move on and finish the last scene without him. He pre-lit as best he could then had to leave. We got along fine though, the location we chose to shoot in gave plenty of natural light that looks great. Not having our gaffer also meant no sound-man. Shaun (gaffer) has been doubling as the boom operator for over 9 months now with only a few people filling in when needed. We didn’t have anybody to do it. Luckily Kevin Bish, a friend at church was working there and jumped in to help. He did a great job after a really short explanation of what to do. Kevin Michael (Co-Producer) had his cameo today in the film. I knew he would be perfect when we decided to have him do it. Everything came across so natural and real from him, he just talked as he normally would. It was awesome getting such a good performance out of him so easily, I loved it. Great job Kevin! When it came time to wrap we all came in for a big hug and screamed as loud as we could, what a release. I was exhausted afterwards. I’m still drained as I type this. I don’t want to celebrate tonight, I just want my pillow. It was a great last day, no matter how tired we all are…it’s worth it!

2 Years, 60 Shooting Days, 600 hours on set with people you care about, a church with volunteers, a new company, time away from families and jobs, miracles on set, miracles off the set, a cast/crew growing stronger in Christ, 8+ deaths in relation to local church families and people involved, a local community and internet fan-base in prayer, and a little story called Standing Firm.

It was 2 years ago that myself and Kevin Michael sat down to begin writing the screenplay and one year later in the summer of 2008 we began production not having a clue what we’d gotten ourselves into. It was a long and grueling road for everyone but here we are, done shooting. What a process, what a Blessing.

God has been so good to us during this production, more than I could ever explain. We’ve had our really nasty days on this film, and he was there the whole way through pushing us along. Everyone at one point (or many) was exhausted and discouraged but he kept moving us downfield towards the goal. We all marched on with a determination to finish and refusal to quit. When you set your sights on the prize, nothing can stop you. There is still much work to be done to finish the film, now we are in full blown Post-production. The edit is very well along, and the recently shot scenes will go together soon. I’m moving to Los Angeles in 5 days, and will be taking the film with me to complete. My goal is to have a full cut of the film together by the end of June. A lot of scenes within the film are in their 3rd, 4th, or even 9th cut so it’s just a manner of tuning them and transition the scenes, analyzing the pace and making adjustments. It will take me a little while to get settled in and get all my equipment setup again to begin working again but to have the stuff in the bag that ties the film to NY really is a Blessing. I have a little bit of ADR to do with the rest of the cast (very few lines), and three interviews with cast/crew to do which will take place tomorrow morning and friday.

Thank you to all of you out there who have supported this production in the last year and even before that. Our website went live in December 2007 and we’ve gathered quite a bit of attention since then. The internet is a wildly powerful tool to spread the word if you know how to use it and it’s been invaluable to us in letting you all know how we’re doing. Thanks for the prayer as well, which is what really kept this film alive. Continue to pray and support us as we try and get this film further towards completion. We need to find an official composer, we need to finish post sound and the edit, color correction and all the other promo edits and odd things…then the wonderful and long process of distribution and finding an interested party. Keep on telling others!

Buddies for Life

Today was our last day at Kevin’s home to shoot, and it was bittersweet at best.  We had two small things to do but they were very important to the story.  The last scene Eric and Rob did together was up in the bedroom and it went off without a hitch.  They work so well together now.  Eric is a talented guy, and he shows it more everyday.  Today he did something he’d done in the past but because it was a harder scene it surprised me a little.  He didn’t have Rob to look at for his lines.  Rob was preparing for one of the hardest scenes he has downstairs while Eric did his side of their first scene upstairs alone with nobody to play off of.  That really shows Eric’s talent as an actor, able to do scenes without someone to bounce off of, he just creates the moment himself.  It’s great to watch.  When we got downstairs we had some trouble as the speech Rob had to give was serious in tone and rich in meaning.  We eventually got through it and wrapped the day.  It was odd as we started packing up.  I felt very strange, I couldn’t believe we were done at the house.  So many days spent there busy, angry at times, upset, happy, overwhelmed by the power of God, etc.  So much had happened in that home in the past year.  On our way out we got some pictures of myself, Shaun Smith (Gaffer), Rob Reisman (Dave Corwin), and Eric Stevenson (Steven Corwin).  I’m glad we got those photos, I’ll cherish them forever.  Even when I went to lock the door, Shaun and Eric were talking in the parking lot and I walked into the house to stand in the kitchen one last time just to soak in the moment.  I won’t shoot here again, it’s over.  We have one more day left, and it ends at the church.

Eric followed me home to finish his ADR.  We did really well and burned through things like mad.  As soon as we got a process going things moved quickly, and we got everything we needed in 5 hours.  That isn’t half bad considering the amount there was to do.  Not much by Hollywood standards but in this case some scenes had difficult lines that were needed…not just “yea” or “yes” or “no.”  One of the scenes is a COMPLETE dub which means the entire production track will be replaced.  That means not just the lines need to be perfect, but the background noise, clothes rustling, footsteps (synced obviously), etc. all need to be placed and mixed properly to sound coherent and real.  Eric did a fine job and when it was over we had a nice hug, haha.  I’m excited but sad to see him go…it’s bittersweet at best.  He is going to Korea for a year to teach English so regardless of him being done with the film, odds are he’ll miss any premiere or anything of the sort.  I pray the Lord keeps him safe as he travels and works there.  When he pulled out I walked to the window to catch a glimpse of him one last time.  I’ll miss him.

We’re almost done folks, we have ADR to finish with Rob and other small piece lines with 3 other actors, a few BTS interviews to do, and one last shooting day.  I leave for LA to move in 10 days…things are coming to an end.

Today was Dave Gifford’s last day, and a short day.  It was a great time.  There was a lot of laughs on set, and it kept things light and happy.  I’m so glad that the days left to shoot are easy and very low stress.  We had two phone call conversations to do and something that I can’t mention (ruin the film lol).  Either way it was fun and Rob and Dave did a great job.  It’s awesome seeing how much better they are than when we started, there is some serious growth apparent from last year (as it should be).  I didn’t have Shaun there (my Gaffer) to help light so I was solo.  We did just fine and made sure we scheduled the day to be there when the sun was shining in the living room.  We shot natural light for 99% of what we shot.  I love what the Canon XHA1 and Letus can do with natural light, especially in an environment that handles it well.  The camera setup has really been a blessing to us, regardless of whatever problems it might have given.  We really have a top notch looking film here, and a huge thanks to Shaun Smith for helping make that happen.  Overall the day went well, and we got what we need.  I’m always nervous when I say we’re done, because I’m never 100% sure.  This time I have no shot to go back, it’s not possible.  I trust that we got it though!

Tomorrow Rob is coming over in the AM to start his ADR.  We’ll see how he does and how much we can get done in a few hours.  Hopefully we get a good start and only have one more day to do sometime next week.  Friday is Rob and Eric’s last day working together and Eric will be coming to my home to work on ADR till the night.  Whatever we don’t finish will be completed the next morning until we’re done.  Early next week should have us wrapping completely and having Rob’s ADR completed as well as whatever little is needed from others in the film.  We’re very close…very close.

Today was a long day, much longer than we’ve had in recent weeks.  We started in Pastor’s office and stayed there for the majority of the day.  It was fun because Pastor Billy is always a fun guy to be around, and getting him and Eric in the same room creates laughter immediately.  We had to back out of doing Pastors interview because looking at the clock we realized we just wouldn’t finish the day if we stopped to do it.  The other stuff we had to shoot was in the sanctuary and was done very quick and dirty.  I even used the stock Canon A1 on some shots to get them quickly.  Luckily I have matching presets and settings on both so the only thing missing is the DOF and slightly different look of the Letus Extreme on the camera.  Things cut in well though and with color-correction things go together just fine.  Eric couldn’t come over to the house to begin ADR unfortunately because of a scheduling issue (it’s always one of those lol).  It’s a bummer because it crunches time more but we didn’t have a choice.  In a way I was relieved because of how exhausted I was after shooting.  We started at 9 and ended at 5 or so.  That isn’t very long compared to big shoots on other films but for a big shooting day with 2 crew members it can get a big exhausting very quickly.  I emailed everyone to gather schedules for next week…we only have 2 weeks to complete things.  Time is tickin…

Today was a very short day.  We only shot two things, both of which had Rob by himself.  We know we need to come back to Kevin’s house one last time (scheduling this thing has been a nightmare), but we decided to shoot anyways to just knock out what we could.  That way the last day here will be short and easy like this one.  We had to reshoot a pickup actually, something that just didn’t turn out right.  We also reshot one shot from the ending of the film, something I can’t show you.  We matched the light and such to get it to look right, and you can’t tell at all it was shot on a different day.  Very nice job on my Gaffer’s part (thanks Shaun).  We finished the day in only about 2 hours and moved the equipment to the church for tomorrows big day.  We should be wrapping Pastor, Maggie, Deb, and Katy tomorrow.  They should be officially done with shooting.  That’ll be nice to give at least a few people the relief of being finished, with three left soon after that.  Pray we’re able to get the other things done soon.  I have only 20 Days left before I’m supposed to move to LA and I have 3 days of shooting left and ADR with the rest of my cast (small amount of ADR and short shooting days like today, but days none the less).  Please if you’ve supported us all along or you’re just finding us now…PRAY.  PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.  We need your prayers.  We’re so very close…

Today was a very short day.  I was shooting alone at my home with Aaron Slack who hasn’t shot anything in a while.  It was difficult to light but we got it working once we picked the proper place to do the scene.  We spent a long time on his dialog since it was very important and crucial to the friendship between Dave and Shawn in the film.  I think it came out good, and we’ll find out just how good when I shoot Rob’s side of the conversation at Dave Gifford’s house.  We were supposed to have that shot already but as you ready in Day 10’s blog entry, that didn’t happen.  Afterwards we went and started ADR with Aaron upstairs.  It was awkward but I think we pulled it off.  Mixing it will be the key, matching the sound of the other dialog, filling in things with foley, background, etc.  It gave me a good idea of just how long it will take to complete the entire list of ADR for the film, and luckily it’s small.  I hope the rest of this week goes off without a hitch, we really need a home run this week.

I’m pleased to report that the edit is moving along nicely.  Bill Ebel (editor of Fireproof, click here to read his story) sent in his second edit for the film yesterday evening.  It was one of the scenes I was worried about the most so I was very relieved to get an email from him.  Thank you Bill!  Kevin Michael (co-writer, producer) came over to take a look at the edit and we worked for an hour or two.  We got quite a bit done honestly, putting together two things we just shot the previous week.  There have been a few parts of the film that had been put off for a long time that we finally got to but I wasn’t sure how they would go together.  It’s funny when your writing, shooting, directing, etc. that you can still find yourself in the edit bay trying to figure out what you were thinking just a few days prior.  I was commentating my own editing as I reviewed takes while Kevin was sitting behind me watching it all go together.  “Ah tell me I have another take of that” or “walk out of the shot…come on tell me I had him walk out in this take please!” or “come on turn your head, turn your head, YES!” came out of my mouth often as I reviewed things trying to find the proper pieces.  It must be funny to watch. :)  Either way we filled in some very critical spaces in the film and I’m relieved.  After Kevin left I worked on the edit for another few hours.  I took chunks of the film that are complete (in terms of shooting) and started transitioning scenes together a little better.

Besides a small piece we are shooting this Wednesday the last 30minutes of the film is doing very well.  Aside from that, the first 20 minutes or so is almost complete with the first 10 minutes in its 3rd cut already.  Things are really coming together and I praise God for that!  It’s been a long time looking at the same edit being unsure how things will work, if they’ll work, what problems might be there and whether or not we can fix them (thankfully we had the rare opportunity to do that with the re-shoots we did), etc.  It’s fantastic to see things now much more complete with only a few small things missing.

Something else I’m hoping for but I’m not sure if it’ll be possible is to get a few establishing shots of some homes we shot in.  I have some of the main characters home but some of the others are a bit bland.  If the the leaves become fuller in the next few weeks that’ll be possible…if not it isn’t a tragedy.  We’ve had a lot of rare opportunity to fix things on this film, something many others wouldn’t have the chance to do.  God has been good to us.

We will begin tackling ADR this Tuesday as Aaron Slack (playing Shawn) will be over the house to shoot a scene alone and then come upstairs to begin the process of Dialog Replacement.  He only has a few lines but it’ll be a good testing period for us.  If we can successfully complete what he needs to do, it’ll give me a good indicator of how long everyone else will take and help me schedule.  Thursday will have Eric Stevenson (playing Steven) over my house in the evening to work on ADR into the night if need be.  We’ll see how we do!  Pray for our shooting as well this week.  Besides Tuesday, we will be at Kevin Michael’s house for a few hours, and on Thursday it will be a longer day at the church to finish things there for Pastor, Maggie, and Katy.  They will be 100% wrapped after that day!

Today was an unexpected delay.  We got rained out of shooting…something that hasn’t happened in a long time.  It really would’ve been ideal to finish what we needed at Dave Gifford’s home since we had all the equipment there, the schedules lined up, etc. but there was simply no daylight.  The room we are shooting in is on the 2nd floor and requires the sun to fill it with the proper ambience.  What we’re shooting needs to also match something previously shot.  What was shot is at the other end of the room but the overall ambience of the room is very clear in that scene and we need to match it.  There was also very little that needed to be done at the door and with it pouring and gloomy outside, it just wasn’t possible.  The day wasn’t a total waste though.  We sat down and did Dave Gifford’s Interview while we were there.  It went good and we got some great footage and comments from him.  We are getting fantastic interviews from everyone.  They are all fun, informative, and heart felt conversations that really couldn’t be gathered from a bulleted list of questions.  I really hope you all enjoy these in the future.  We’ll see when we’re able to shoot at this house again, we have very little time left to do it.  Only a few weeks of time left to squeeze it in.  Here’s hoping.

Today was a good day of shooting.  All the imagery came out beautiful.  The beginning of the day started off in frustration when a wardrobe issue forced us to bag one of the scenes planned for today.  I guess this WONT be the last day with our two leads on camera….*sigh*  That’s ok though, we figured out a way to possibly sneak it into a day we are in another location so no more days should be added to the schedule.  We’ll just shoot there in the morning then pack up and move down the street.

We started in the bedroom upstairs and prayed together.  We didn’t do that as soon as the day started and I wasn’t doing so well.  After we prayed I think everyone felt refreshed and ready to really start the day off right.  We moved on and completed the scene we didn’t get to on Friday because we ran out of time.  I was glad to get that out of the way.  Afterwards we moved downstairs to get a close-up a previous shot done months ago.  My gaffer did a great job matching the light properly and we bagged that shot quickly.  Afterwords we moved onto the major dialog scene of the day.  It came out fantastic and the imagery is superb.

Some people have voiced their attitude about the film and that its been shooting for so long.  Do you want to know why the film has been shooting so long?  There are MANY factors that answer that question but I’ll tell you what one of them is.  We’ve re-shot some scenes (like the dialog scene we shot today) that came out poor and looked like this, so they can come out out wonderful and look like this and this.  Get the point?  We’re making a better film here, and with everyone on board to finish, what are you complaining about?  Just a minor rant that is now over

Overall the day turned out great.  Lord willing we will have 3 days left but O I know how surprises come about  Lets say we have 3 planned days and then we SHOULD be finished.  Unless there is something that alludes us that we’ll find in the next week, we should be done shooting completely very soon.  Keep us in your prayers, we need them.

Today was a tough day of shooting.  We were at Kevin’s house for one of the last days there with Rob doing all his acting alone.  They are scenes that had been put off for a long time (complicated scenes) while we shot other things.  The day went OK, but not as great as I would’ve hoped.  We didn’t get absolutely everything we needed and had to leave the location.  Crew had to leave as well for other things so we ran out of time.  It’s very difficult shooting a film in a working home, I’ll never do it again unless there is more control over things.  Either way I like what we were able to capture, we’ll see how next week goes.  We will be shooting on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  Monday includes the most stuff, we really need to get that stuff done!  Tuesday I’ll be without my gaffer so I’m debating on whether or not to shoot that stuff alone, it will be difficult.  I’ll have to find a replacement person to boom things as well which will be hard in just a day or so.  We’ll see how things go.

The next 7 Days should be very prosperous for us on the film.  We only have a few days left and have things pretty well lined up.  One of our actors is sick so we hope he is better by next tuesday.  This friday will have us shooting with Rob in Kevin’s house to finish anything that requires him by himself.  It will be some intense stuff, so please pray for Rob that God would give him the ability to pull off a performance beyond what he is humanly capable.  Monday will reunite Eric and Rob for the first time in a long time as they finish the last scenes they have together.  That will also be a tough day, please keep that in prayer.  Sunday will have me shooting a few things I’m unsure about so I need prayers for that as well.  So much to be in prayer for.  We have very little time to get what we need.

We’ll be looking at the edit and getting a rough cut of the film together as we shoot things to make sure we have what we need.  There will be two shooting days (from what I can tell) in May to complete everything.  We hope there wont be an emergency shooting day to grab something we failed to see.  If that happens we will make due but our time will be short.  Our ADR should be setup by Saturday and ready to rock!  A friend of mine will be bringing over a box of goodies to help us properly set things up.

The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy, and time is critical.

“The board is set, the pieces are moving…we come to it at last.”

Today was an interesting day.  Eric was coming to my house to shoot his interview and give the ADR a shot.  It was to see how the whole process would go and to see what I might need to fix/change before we REALLY give it a go.  We shot the interview first and thankfully sound issues were at a minimum.  At one point the lawncare guys at my neighbors house turned on their blowers for a few minutes and we waited but beyond that the audio came in nice and clear.  Eric did a good job.  This was actually the second time we did his interview because last time we rushed and barely got any footage to use and missed talking about a lot of valuable things.  I was glad to have another shot at it, and it’s always fun to remember things from the shoot.  Even bad things can be brought up but now laughed about because they are long gone.  I think you will all enjoy what Eric has to say.

We went upstairs and I walked him through how the process would go for the ADR.  Just to at least have him give it a shot we tried some very simple lines and he found out quickly that it’s much more difficult than it seems.  Placing your lines perfectly in sync is one thing, matching and delivering performance is another altogether.  It will be a challenge for everyone I suspect that has ADR.  God will bring us through though.  He has so far

I must say it was nice to wake up and work on the film while still being at my own home.  It will be nice to stay at home and work on this thing.  I’ve done it all along with the edit but in terms of actually having lots to do, I’ll be able to do it at my house.  Today when Eric arrived I was unashamed greeting him in a t-shirt and pajama pants.  It was the most relaxing shooting time ever!

The amount of ADR to do is minimal considering how much could’ve been done.  I think God really had his hand on us since the scenes we’ve been reshooting have been some of our problem scenes in the audio arena.  We still have one or two that will be a very big challenge for us (and are outside so reshooting is impossible), but with some time and elbow grease you’ll never even know there was changes.  Sound rarely gets the attention it should in films, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure the audio is the best it possibly can be.

Later on I rushed to the church to quickly try and grab some inserts I need for the film.  There is a scene that takes place in the sanctuary and a conversation that happens in the back of the sanctuary while a play practice is going on.  This means I need the play practice environment recorded and the inserts to sync with the audio track I lay under everything.  Even the conversation needs the environment track laid under it and mixed so the practice going on is still in motion while the talk takes place.  I don’t have lav mics, so doing things wirelessly wasn’t possible.  Also, Maggie wasn’t there (something I didn’t know) so I was only able to get the shots that didn’t include her.  I’ll have to grab those on a random Sunday when she and I have time.  I hooked up a Hyper-cardioid mic to the other Canon XHA1 we have at our disposal to record the audio of the room.  The Rode NT3 was used for all of our indoor recording and has a very rich studio sound to it.  It also picks up more signature of the room (unlike a shotgun) and that came in handy in some instances (like this one).  I was running around with the other Canon XHA1 (without an adapter so I could move quickly and run all over the place) and grabbing my shots quickly.  How I will sync the shots is I pointed Cam B (the one I was running around with) at someone I know before everyone began, ran both cameras, and had him clap 3 times in a row so I could sync the audio later.  Crude but it works!  Welcome to low-budget filmmaking folks!  Everyone who was there besides Katy (playing Maggies mom) had no idea they were going to end up in the film.  Up until about an hour before I didn’t even think things were going to work out!  I’m glad I was able to get my shots no matter how crazy and nutty things really were.

That’s all for now.  Everyone have a Happy Easter!  Never forget our Savior and what He did!

Today was a solo show.  I didn’t have my Gaffer available so it was a pretty nutty pickup day.  I didn’t have much to shoot but it’s hard doing so much yourself.  Luckily a friend (thanks Ben) was able to come and help me unpack, pack up, hold the boom for me (little audio today), etc.  I held off on one thing planned for the day because after setting up camera and lights I just really wasn’t confident in what it looked like.  I really needed more time to get it right and it wasn’t worth wasting the time.  Luckily we have an opportunity to grab it again in a different location.  The specifics of todays shoot story wise I can’t really tell you as it will ruin the film, regardless it went well.  It was awkward for the two actors to do what they needed, but they pulled it off well.  I also did some handheld today, something I haven’t done more than twice in the film, gave what we were shooting a more “in the moment” feeling.  We also did the interview for Aaron Slack today who plays Shawn in the film.  It went well and we got some great footage of him.  Getting really close to wrapping, only a few days left.

Today was a very short day.  We were at a local cafe (Ashkers in Youngstown, NY) shooting a scene I can’t really explain or I’ll blow the surprise lol.  What pictures I have posted are simply for a tease.  Either way the time went by quickly and we had to shoot fast.  By the time we setup I only had 30 minutes to complete our shots and get whatever angles I thought I might need.  It was run and gun style.  Luckily the footage looked great from any angle so I could move around quickly without changing lighting.  Either way we pulled it off and got out of there quickly.  I was glad to be shooting in a totally fresh location, it was a breath of fresh air.  I really loved the cafe.  It had all sorts of knick knacks, pictures, wooden finish on everything…it was great.  Really added lots of color to the shots.  Thursday we will be shooting another piece of the film that I can’t tell you about or show you pictures of…lol.  It seems like some of these days are just plain top secret.  I don’t want to ruin parts of the story for all of you!  A lot of them involve the ending so after Thursday our ending should be completed.  I’ve been looking at the last 15 minutes of the film for months with everything there but a few small things.  I’m glad that we’ve started getting that completed.  Enough talk before I blurt out the ending of the film! lol.

Woo!  What a day of shooting!  I started at about 8am and didn’t finish until around 6pm.  We had lots of stuff to do today and ended up shooting about 160 minutes of footage.  We also completed a sequence today that was more complex than anything we have attempted before.  It was added to the script in the San Antonio airport months back in January.  We had 4 characters all with 2 positions so we needed lots of angles, lots of coverage, it took a long time.  I also went “indie” style and grabbed a naked Canon A1 without an adapter to get a few shots outside.  They are quick enough that nobody can tell (whooops…cats out of the bag…lol).

It was great, and we had a new actor start today, he did fantastic.  The conversations he had to do I wrote for him because ironically I had the same conversation with him at one point.  I wont tell you the details of the conversation because it’ll ruin the film but he did great.  Very few takes to get what we needed.  Probably some of the most natural acting we’ve captured.  I was moving quickly today as well, really moving along.  We had so much to do I never stopped really the whole day.  Even if I sat for a small moment to break, my brain never takes a break.  It’s almost pumping a million miles an hour when I’m on set, I go into my own little world and it doesn’t let up until I’m done.  Then I crash, like a freight train, lol.

This was our last BIG day of shooting, it’s all downhill from here with VERY LITTLE left.  Everyone is getting very excited.  Thanks for keeping us in your prayers, we are really close to bagging this thing!