Standing Firm : Blog

We gathered small little pieces of things today to tie some loose ends in some scenes. Things we might have ran out of time to shoot previously when we we’re at the church. It took a bit of time to shoot another angle of a scene shot 3 months ago and match the light and continuity of everything around it. In the end we got it though and came up with some good footage. We also turned something that should’ve been simple into something a bit more complicated and a lot more interesting to look at. There is something about having close objects to camera crossing frame as you dolly that really ads some excellent depth. We have tried our hardest to up the production value of the shots in this film whether it be light or style, tilts and handheld, dolly and push in/outs…etc. Whatever we could do we did it and I think we have an example of almost anything you can try at least once in the film. All besides crane shots, (something we even cheated at one point but its still not exactly the same). We had placed a dolly in the back of a pickup to give us the height as we added tilt to the shot and moved the dolly forward. I’m very excited to see the reaction of people after they see the film. Regardless of what is thought of the film itself, I hope someone finds the way in which it’s shot to be inspiring to others who work at this budget range and with the lack of resources we have and are dealing with. We have roughly 4% to go of filming, but it seems it will be the hardest to accomplish due to schedules.

Pray we keep on moving and get to the finish line with something special in our hands. What a long journey, but I have a good feeling it will be worth it.

Today was an interesting day, we only had one scene to shoot. We could have shot more but because of one important but stupid sounding problem, we couldn’t. Ready for this?….BEARD CONTINUITY. Yea you heard me, a beard. The scene that was top priority was our last outdoor scene (thank goodness, weather is becoming an issue) and the beard needed to be a certain length, but the other planned scenes indoors required a longer beard. So we stuck to the one priority scene outside and go that done. It took a while longer than I would’ve liked, but all the equipment was at the church down the road and in the confusion we forgot a few things, was making a few mistakes along the way during shooting, etc. But we ended up getting it done. Very few days left to shoot. I’m looking forward to getting things wrapped up.

Today was a long and tough day for everyone. It was Eric Stevenson’s (playing Steven) last day on set minus any last minute re-shoots that may or may not take place. It was also a tough day emotionally for the actors because of the performance needed without any dialog. Much needed to be said without anything being said, and the fact that it involved a funeral made it all that much more real. We were lucky enough to have a real casket and a real hearse donated for a few hours graciously by Hardison Funeral Home of Lewiston, NY. The light outside was perfect for the shots we needed, not a single light was brought out or bounce card or flag or anything of the sort. The footage turned out amazing, I’m very happy with what we got.

From there we moved inside, we had just enough extras to pull off what we needed. A third of the people who had signed up to arrive did not show but just enough showed up that were not on our list to fill in the gaps. Everyone was very patient with us and had lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who came out if your reading this, none of this is possible without all of you.
We are about 95% of the way done with shooting, the remaining 5% will be the hardest to get in terms of scheduling. Thats just the way things “worked out” I guess, and by that I mean “thats the way God ordained it to be.” We’ll see what happens, we are close, very…very…close. I can’t wait to see what God does during the next and last 5%.

Today went well considering we had (as you could probably guess by the title of the entry…) two crew members. Myself and my Gaffer Shaun Smith. We had a few reshoots to do as well as some bits and pieces needed for previously shot scenes. We also tried out a new lens we haven’t used yet. It provides a 1:1 image, meaning if you were to have a lens like this on a film camera with this kind of ratio…a frame of 35mm of a dime would be exactly the size of that dime. This allows some serious depth of field on close up objects whether it be papers, coins, phones, eyes, or pretty much anything you would need to get extremely close to. We made good use of the lens today, I’m thrilled with what we were able to get. We have a handful of days left, we’re not out of the woods yet but we are close. I’m excited to see this thing get wrapped up. Lots of post work coming down the pike.

Because of scheduling complications (as previously stated), we will have a short break from shooting. Sept. will mark the end of shooting, but the remaining things to shoot will be relatively spread out. Also the things we wished to shoot today became impossible when once again the adapter we have failed to turn on. Thats ok though Before when it happened it would’ve been a disaster if it stayed that way, right now since we all have a break and knew it…we have plenty of time to send it in for repairs as well as the backup one we have that also failed on us during shooting.

On a lighter note I found a pleasant suprise on the FIREPROOF website today in the pressroom! In their list of press releases you can find a link to one of our STANDING FIRM newsletters under the link called “Praise Pictures.” It was very cool to see that link sitting there amongst major Christian new sites, interview links, etc. In case you didn’t know, FIREPROOF will be coming out on Sept. 26th in theaters all across the country! To find out where its playing near you and buy your tickets early (half of the opening tickets have been sold out already)…visit http://fireproofthemovie.com/theaters/ to search for a theater near you.

Also I have setup a page on Facebook where you can RSVP to an opening day screening and invite everyone your friends list to come! Let them know about the film! Almost 1000 people have been invited to the film, lets get some more. Visit the event page here: . Don’t forget to search and join the FIREPROOF Facebook group as well.

Another Christian film coming soon is Bringing Up Bobby, a comedy by the Award Winning Staron Brothers. Check out their site http://www.bringingupbobby.com. Another film by them released in 2006, Between The Walls, can be found for purchase at countless places online.

Today was a rough day for everyone. We were down a crucial crew member so things were a bit harder than usual. We also had quite a few scenes to complete and lots to go right for the day to be a success. Overall it went well, the last shot was filmed just as exposure with the camera became impossible lol. The sun was going down. The day was perfect though in terms of weather, not a drop of rain, cloudy so all the light outside was nice and soft and really gave everything a nice color and look without having to do much of anything. It was tough on the actors however because it was nothing but arguments, apologies, spreading the gospel, you know the usual Everyone was shot by the end of the day and it became hard to get lines out. One of the most intense and “loud” scenes in the film was shot today so that didn’t help. Lots of sweat, tears, and anger shed today, everyone go through it though. Overall a good day of shooting. The next month (sept.) will be finishing up all sorts of bits and pieces of things we need with the beginning of the film and ending of the film being shot within 2 days. So plan on the blog being a bit spotty in terms of there being normal shooting weeks with regular posts like this. You wont see that after the next few. Keep praying for us, pressure is high, everyone is fried and tired, but we’ll get through it. You don’t come this far to give up.

Today closes our most hectic shooting week to date. We shot 4 days and totaled about 50hrs worth of shooting time. Thats a lot considering our previous week schedules, some of the earlier weeks in production hitting the 24hr mark in 4 days…very little shooting for a feature. Either way this was our second day with church extras and we concentrated mostly on scenes based in the hallways and foyer of the church. It went well, last time we shot with extras we got 5 shots, and today we got 15 shots, much improved on our last amount. Everyone was cooperative and it was pretty intense. We had lots to shoot, and little time to get it shot. On top of that we had many, many angles to get for one of the scenes and having extras makes that complicated when you consider continuity. I had to change my planned shots there on set as everyone waited around and it made me a little nervous. Almost every day of shooting is a guess unless its a straight dialog scene with reverses. You go in with storyboards and shotlists saying “yea that’ll cut together great,” but your rarely 100% on that. It’s a little scary but we pulled through. Unfortunately we’ll have to plan another day to do some scenes but in terms of full shooting days like this with lots of people and chaos, nope. We have very few scenes left to shoot, we are VERY close.Also on a side note I wanted to throw a heads up that I’ll have 2 radio interviews in Sept. that I will post on the website to download/listen to when they are available. Dates to be announced in the future. Thanks to all for support! WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!

Today was a day that felt longer than it was. We had a few scenes to shoot and 2 to reshoot on one front yard today. It’s weird shooting so much in a space that small and with the variety of stuff we needed to catch but it was great getting it done. We also added a small change to the story the night before that makes everything tie together better. I got one word for you…”froglegs?” Yuck, anyways I wont explain that (don’t want to ruin something in the film now do we?). The day went well and we shot quite a bit for the amount of time we were there. The pages we needed to shoot that day was many and by the end of the day we got through most of it. Schedules are tight and we are getting a bit stressed about having to come back and get extra things before leaves change, before peoples time runs out, etc. We’ll get through it though. After what happened on Tuesday (read the Aug. 19th post called “A Miracle of God”) we know we’ll be ok. Lots has happened to let us know that we are ok and will get this thing done. Tomorrow is a big day…lots to shoot, little time, few helpers, what’s new?

Today was a normal day of shooting, we got lots done…the last of Robby and Eric’s scenes at this home. The day was full of fun, this included re-shoots for scenes with problems from the first few weeks of shooting. Later on in the day before everyone left we were getting poster shots that I might need for later. The light looked amazing so I brought the camera down where we were and it looks solid to me….I even nudged it to see if it would fall (or I was going to move it)…and it was fine. I walked over to where everyone else was and I hear someone yell. Turning around I find the camera laying on its side, having just crashed to the ground. For those of you who don’t know…we have an adapter on our camera that allows us to attach Nikon lenses to the Canon Video Camera for nice DOF. It has a motor in it that vibrates. We had serious issues with the last one and had to buy another immediately and we’ve been using it for quite some time. Instead of freaking out like last time, I brought the camera inside to inspect it.

The motor inside the adapter wouldn’t work…it was dead. Change of batteries did nothing. Everyone was standing around thinking the film was officially over because there was no way we could wait for another to show up or wait for repairs. Schedules are completely full and it wouldn’t have been possible. Everyone had a numb look on their face. I closed the battery compartment and said “you know what, we’re all going to go into the other room and we’re going to pray.” Everyone said that was the right thing to do and we all went in the living room to pray. We gave the problem up to the Lord praying that something would happen to fix it. After praying everyone stayed in the room and started talking about some spiritual things and I left because I wanted to see if the thing would turn on. I didn’t want anyone around me no matter what happened. Nervously I put my finger on the button on the side and hit it. The motor started and I began to laugh and left the room to go to a bedroom. I couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. I was so happy. Everyone else didn’t know it turned on and my mother came into the room with me to say she was sorry. As she was rubbing my shoulder I mumbled “It turned on.” It was funny because her hand suddenly stopped rubbing my shoulder as if it hit her…and she began to laugh and cry with me. The film was saved, God has performed a miracle in front of our eyes. We are supposed to be here, we are supposed to be making this film, and WE WILL FINISH IT. God is going to do something special, if anything…he already has.

I just wanted to share that with all of you out there, God is good, he is real, and HE IS FAITHFUL.

Amen.

What a great day of shooting. The last night shoot was to put it simply…a disaster. This night shoot however turned out wonderful. We got some excellent footage and even though the number of things we got was minimal, its some of our best. Special thanks to Kevin Campbell for coming out on this cold night (because it IS getting cold around here already….brrr) and standing in front of hot lights (lucky) for a little while It went great, we also had shot a full day prior to that so it was a good 18hr day or so.We were all exhausted in the end and I slept on set because we had an 8am calltime the next morning. Tomorrow is the last day involving Robby Reisman and Eric Steven (playing the leads) in scenes together at the main home in the film. The only other scenes with both of them are off this property, thank goodness. Everything went well, Praise God.

This upcoming week is #11 on the Standing Firm movie shoot. It’s been a long process and the number of shooting days left is extremely small. Tensions are high, patience is growing thin, and the amount to be completed in this upcoming week from the 19th-22nd of Aug. is MONUMENTAL! We have more to shoot this upcoming week than has ever been shot in a combined 2 week of average shooting. We need some SERIOUS PRAYER FROM ALL OF YOU! Pray that God would Bless the shooting days, that all that is needed would be acquired, and that all scenes would end up as planned and not require any reshooting later. Pray that the weather would be adequate for shooting (something that hasn’t given us favor in the past 3 weeks), and that all other things included in the shooting of the film runs smoothly. This is a very scary time in the shoot of this film and we will need nothing less than God’s overwhelming providence over the shoot for it to succeed, so pray for that.

Psalm 55:22 - Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you: He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

Habakkuk 2:2-4 - Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision, And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.

Also if you haven’t signed up for the email updates….WHY NOT? Sign up here and if you just want to see the newsletter now without signing up, click here.

Today was an INCREDIBLE day of shooting. We started off the day at 7am out in the back woods to reshoot a previously shot scene because of audio problems. Because I have been so overloaded with things to do for the film…I hadn’t had a chance to rewrite the scene the previous night. The scene didn’t play exactly how I wanted the last time regardless of the audio quality so it was a great opportunity to figure it out. Eric, Maggie, and myself sat at the table figuring out how to create the dialog between the two characters. We needed to make the scene fit more with the character arc that had been created in the later bits of the film and currently the scene didn’t fit. After just a short half hour we had a great scene that I believe is of the Lord and it came out wonderful! Everyone is getting so much better and faster when we shoot, its great to see and now is the time for it to be happening besides.

Then we shot our first scene that included my mother Deb playing the role of Jen Corwin. I can’t explain the context of the scene but let me tell you it came out very special. Some improv was added into the scene that we decided to keep and overall the scene came about 10x better than I expected or had written down on the page. Kudos to everyone for putting up with my fast pace today, we got the last bit of that scene shot as rain started to drizzle down on us. We then went inside and gathered bits and pieces from previously shot scenes that we had either forgotten, or didn’t realize that we needed. Along with that lots of ideas arose on the spot that came out great as well as me adding an entirely new scene to the film! It was short but I think it will add another slice of flavor to one of the characters. By that time it was about 6:30pm and we all decided it was time to pack up to move onto location #2 for the day.Forestview Church of God, a local church near ours is the home church of our gaffer Shaun Smith. They were gracious enough to let us shoot there for a scene of the film and gave permission only 2 days before we had to shoot there. Everyone was excited, interested, supportive, and patient with us as we came in and took over part of the building for a few hours. Mike Cooper, a friend of mine and youth leader at my local church Niagara Frontier Bible, came out to film his scene of the film and man was it great! He had to give a message to the youth sitting around him on chairs in a circular shape and repeat the message many times over. The extras that came were all friends of mine besides one exchange student from Germany who was visiting here. The scene went very well and the shooting went relatively smooth. I’ve never needed to get so many angles before, especially in the circular pattern. It can get very complex and the edit will be no less complex I’m sure. But it went well and the footage is gorgeous. Thanks to all for this awesome long but productive day of shooting!

After getting rained out the first time it was scheduled, we finally got around to getting the exteriors at the church shot. The rain was moving in slowly during the day, with a huge storm passing just north of us the entire time. The clouds became an issue because we had some sunny hard light on a lot of the shots we did right away then soft ones when we needed to do other things. That became an issue when the shots from afternoon and morning would have to be cut together. So when we were inside trying to make a decision the sun blasted through the clouds for about an hour and we ran outside to get things shot as fast as possible. To make an understatement….I got a little intense. Either way we got what we need shot (I hope), and moved it indoors to get some other things shot before the day was over. We have been moving very quickly lately. Everyday this week just before we leave everyone asks “Now there isn’t anything else we can do right?” Then when I mention there is I get “WELL LETS SHOOT IT THEN!” So we’ve been getting quite a bit done. I’m a bit nervous because I’m behind on getting the footage into the computer to view so its got me a little on edge about the footage itself and whether or not we’re getting things right. We’ll find out soon enough…

Something else that was cool was a lady pulled into the parking lot while we were shooting with a flat tire and we were able to help her out. We also gave her a DVD from our Churches Media Ministry and invited her to church this sunday. What a cool little Blessing added to the day. Was it by chance she had a flat…I think not!

We also did our first handheld shooting today using our new shoulder mount setup. Its been very useful this week with its grip handles and solid base. Even when not in use as a shoulder setup it has the ability to be hooked to the tripod and it makes our overall setup much more sturdy and solid. We had it sent with 2 day shipping because a friend of mine had gotten it in the mail and realized he didn’t need it. This thing has a 60 day wait on shipping for those who order and we got ours in 2 days. THANKS JOHN!!! Another small snippet of how God is working out little problems with our production.

Today we continued to shoot at the church and ended up shooting an entire day there again. It was a long day and we got all sorts of things shot. A few complete scenes and other pieces of other scenes that we’ve already started. It was a great day as well because we shot two conversations today that will be I think some of the best of the film. I had an ear-to-ear smile on my face the entire time. It was incredible to see it all turn out the way it did. Tomorrow is the parking lot shoot, we’ve been planning this for quite a while, pray for good weather.

Well today the weather was pretty bad so we came up with the idea to move to the church down the road. Niagara Frontier Bible Church (home church of a lot of the people involved with the film) is the church we are using for our church scenes indoors and out. We without having prep, shot a few scenes that take place there indoors that we had planned for a little later. It took a while to get the boulder moving not being prepared and all, but eventually we got going. The footage came out great and we got to do a few scenes that really start to tie the story together. Its exciting to finally see some select scenes working and becoming what I’ve been hoping for. Special thanks to Maggie Whitton who is playing Maggie Harper in the film, for being woken up at home and rushing to set because of our sudden change of plans. Thanks Maggie! Tomorrow we have decided to shoot more of the church scenes and just get a bunch of them done. Schedules for people are getting tight so we had a production meeting to try and come up with something that worked a little better for everyone. Keep praying for Sat. that we can get done what we need.

OTHER NEWS: A childhood friend of mine and a special part of our church family, Karen Ortman, passed away on the 5th of Aug. She was 25, and a wonderful woman of God. May God comfort the Ortman family and Karen’s fiance Chris, as they go through this tough time. Pray for comfort and healing, especially for unsaved friends and family of Karen. Her smile and joyful personality is what I will remember most. We love you Karen!