Standing Firm : Blog

Today was an interesting day.  There was a scheduling conflict that forced us to dump anything we planned on shooting today and we had to fill the day somehow.  The day itself and every other day this week and next will be short except Saturday.  So we couldn’t figure out what we could do and just decided to do one of the Behind the Scenes interviews we were going to need.  We shot Rob Reismans interview today and it went very well.  I ended up with over an hour and a half of footage to sort through of really excellent content.  It will be very useful for promotion of the film and the documentary of making the film.  I was really excited to watch Rob talk about stuff he remembers, the hardships on set, the support of his family and church during the whole process, and overall what the film really means to him.

I’ll work on a small 3 minute overview of the interview and release it soon.  Keep an eye out!

I wrote in the last blog post about eating the elephant bit by bit. Now is the time for us to take a big whopping chomp out of this thing. There is STILL content left to shoot on the film. Yes we know its been 10 months, if anyone has been counting…it’s us. Some opportunities have possibly come up, and no I can’t tell you what they are yet as they aren’t for sure. However it does put us in a bit of a bind. Schedules are starting to get extremely tight for everyone and we are getting forced into corners. We really need all of you out there to pray for everyone involved in the project. Pray for schedules to open and become available, pray for babysitters for cast/crew members so they can arrive on the days required, pray for safe travels to and from the set, pray for guidance in the creation of the prep lists (we can’t afford mistakes any longer), and pray that the film would COMPLETELY wrap up in the next few weeks.

We also have the issue of ADR/Looping to take care of. This is re-recording of actors for specific lines that may have been ruined by bumps in the background, car horns, audio noise, or anything of the sort. All of this must be completed swiftly and with quality. None of us have done this before and we are going to be scrambling to get everything setup properly. I’m revamping my bedroom, removing my closet door, cleaning out the closet (it’s an old house so the closet is larger) and turning it into a location adequate for quality sound recording. This is one of our last major technical hurdles to jump. Pray that this is setup and completed properly. It will require funding…so pray that any funds that are needed would arrive promptly as time is short. (not like God doesn’t know that but I figured I would mention it lol).

Time to get a move-on…keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Bill Ebel (center) on set of Fireproof (2008)

Making a film is like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.  We’ve turned that into an artform on this movie.  So much time is squeezed inbetween things like normal jobs everyone has, families, other business projects, school for some, etc.  Don’t worry, we aren’t leaving all of you hanging.  You’ve stuck with us this long, perhaps your willing to go even farther?

I’m happy to announce the edit it looking better and better.  It seems that God is never done surprising us on this production.  Last year before shooting began I had been in contact with Bill Ebel, on-site editor for Fireproof.  He was a great guy, and was very busy with his current job.  We talked about Sherwood, how much fun he had, and how we were prepping for our film.  We joked “gee wouldn’t it be great if you could be on another set like that?”  We laughed as we both knew he was busy and could never help us out, and on life went.  I kept in contact with Bill on and off telling him about what was going on, sharing a clip or two of footage.  Well wonders never cease, guess whos gonna be working on the edit for Standing Firm?  Yep…Bill Ebel. 

I laugh at how God works sometimes, almost a whole year later since that conversation online Bill has a hard drive in the mail on its way to him and he’ll be looking at what we have so far.  I’m very honored to have him working on the film, and I know he’ll be a major benefit.  Having to do so much on a film makes it rough keeping your stamina, confidence, etc. alive and kicking.  I need to show the film to someone else and go “here, that’s what we got…”  We’re confident that the film will be undoubtably better because of Bills participation.  Pray that all goes well in the next few weeks as we dive into the edit farther.

We will also be getting ready to finish the last few bits (again) of the film.  Like I said, eating the elephant.  I gotta say, it’s nervewracking being the only one steering a story and not only that….over almost a year.  You get very worried and with all the support you get it amplifies your worrying because you now have people to satisfy, not just yourself.  I think God will Bless though, and the story will impact many.  More than anything I’m just thrilled everyone has stuck to their guns to finish it, especially Shaun (gaffer), Rob (dave), Eric (steven), and Kevin (co writer/producer).  It’s been a long road and we aren’t done yet.

Please pray that the rest of this month would see us getting a lot of work done, especially wrapping up shooting.  We have 3 months to get this puppy completed, that is our goal.  Not released to all of you (yet), but to have it in a presentable form to an interested distributor.  Also please pray against attacks from the enemy, as we all normally get hit with something right as we rev back up again.  Satan isn’t stupid, he’s had a couple thousand years of practice.  We need protection.

We need you now more than ever.

OFFTOPIC: Also in case you didn’t know, we’ve also been working hard on two other projects.  Not films (yet…more of that to come later), but websites.  We want to make useful resources for the Christian Filmmaker and for the Christian Film consumer.

PraisePictures.com - Newly designed, this site has been exploding with content in the last 2 months since the 2009 SAICFF.  We are adding articles, interviews, film and dvd reviews, and everything inbetween!  We want our site to be a useful resource for filmmakers who have questions and to read articles on different filmmaking topics written by those who are in the industry doing it!  Please check out our site, the blog, and let us know what you think.  We also have a newsletter, be sure to get on that.

ChristianFilmTrailers.com - We hope to make this website the “Apple Trailers” of the Christian Film world by next year.  There is so much potential for this site to explode.  We are also tying in publicity opportunities for those who sign up to submit their films.  We want this site to be not just a good resource for bigger films, but for the little guy and our prices are set accordingly.  More and more will be added to this site as time goes on.  If your a filmmaker, this site is for you…so take advantage of it!

Today was an excellent shooting day.  We accomplished more than we ever have in one day as far as I know.  The first scenes of the day were intense having both our leads yelling and arguing with each other.  Both went off without a hitch.  This week seems to have both Eric and Rob pulling out some of their best work, at critical points in the film.  God has really had his hand on these past 2 days of shooting, especially today.  The other scenes were completed without problems, one of them having a LONG setup time.  I can’t/won’t tell you why because it’ll spoil the film.  Either way it was difficult but we pulled it off.  Thank you to everyone for praying for this week of shooting.  The next days shoot had to be cancelled for a scheduling problem out of our control.  It’s unknown when our next day of shooting will be to continue completing the rest of the needed portions of the film.  Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.  Just the past two days has accounted for the majority of what is left, and the most difficult.  It’s all downhill from here, and we’re already rolling along quickly.

The edit will continue to be pulled together and the movie is still moving along.  We look forward to the end of the month where we will hopefully be employing a name you might not be familiar with but you absolutely have seen his work.  More information on that will come in the future.

Praise God for these past two days, and thank you to all who were in prayer.

We started reshoots and pickups today.  We were in Dave Giffords house today (Dave is playing John Corwin, Dave Corwins father).  The room we were in all day was the living room.  It had lots of texture and things on the walls, lots of wood furniture and other things.  We shot a conversation between Dave and his father first.  It was really good.  Rob (playing Dave) did a fantastic job.  In a very emotional moment in their 

conversation we stopped to pray over Rob and make sure God’s anointing was on the performance.  It was awesome, Rob did his best work to date.  Dave Gifford did a great job as well, his unique voice really packs a punch.  We were also in the unique situation of recycling lighting setups.  If we needed to point in one direction of the room for different pieces of the film that might be spread out by a half hour or more.  We just put on a different lens, had actors change shirts, and move some furniture.  Then off we went.

Eric Stevenson (playing Steven), drove up from Houghton, NY for just one shot.  The shot was a good one.  It might be one of my favorites of the film.  Nothing like beautiful color and a nice camera movement to brighten my mood!  Unfortunately in the end we did run out of time and had a few small things to get.  We even got down to just me on crew in the end because my Gaffer had to leave.  But that’s ok, me and 

Dave Gifford did just fine for that last hour.  Nothing like flying solo

We’ll be back sometimes later in the month to get the last stuff in this house, and it’ll be fine.  Our Gaffer will be out of town the majority of the month so we’ll be shooting by ourselves that time.  It’ll be my first all day solo experience, definitely need prayer for that.

We have a break in-between today and Fridays shoot.  Friday will be the longest and arguably toughest day of the entire shoot.  We’ll be very economical in our shooting order, including the amount of lighting setups we are required to do.  We will be starting an hour earlier too to make sure we are ready to go over the days plans and pray around sunrise.  This will be interesting.

Reshoots/Pickups have started as of this morning.  Be in prayer that all goes well and we are productive and in the spirit.  Pray that God would move through out cast/crew today as we work and for the rest of the week.  It’s all for him…God Bless.

Kyle Prohaska

Writer/Director

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It has been a while since our last update.  I appologize, much has transpired lately that has kept me busy.  I’m happy to report it is a good busy, a busy that is prosperous. 

So what is the status of Standing Firm?  We are currently doing preparation and scheduling for the reshoots and pickups we need.  They will be filmed in the beginning of Feb. with others being forced until early March (my Gaffer is taking a well deserved vacation, bon voyage).  We will be prepping a lot more accurately and with more care than was present last year, something that hurt us in the long run.  However, we now know things we couldn’t have known last year since it was a new experience for everyone.  How long does it take to shoot something based on its length?  What is the best order to shoot things in?  What is realistic, what isn’t?  Much needed to be learned and I’m glad to say we wont be making those mistakes a second time around. *knock on wood*

There have been adjustments to the film and other changes that require some of these reshoots and pickups.  Some of the shots are also inserts that we have put off for a long time knowing we would come back to them, so here we are.  There is snow on the ground and its freezing outside so obviously there wont be any reshoots going on outside, luckily we are confident of what we have from last year and scrambled to get what we needed then knowing we couldn’t get it now.

So your probably wondering what was going on when we hadn’t started prepping yet.  Well technically we WERE prepping things, but not in the traditional Pre-Production sense.  We took some time to continue editing the film and getting it together so we could get a better handle on where we were and what we would need.  The best part about this project that God really Blessed us with are local volunteers, one of them technically being myself.  We knew we could come back and get what we needed, something traditional shoots would deny and without these advantages we would dead in the water (so thank you God).

I’m happy to report myself and Kevin Michael (President of Praise Pictures & Co Writer/Producer on the film) had a long meeting last Sunday and hammered out the finishing details on what is needed to get the film to a level we are happy with.  I was very excited to see things from A-Z, left to right on the timeline in a more complete way.  I have been nervously editing from the very start of shooting slowly working towards that goal and that night I’m happy to say we met it.  The film isn’t complete, not by any means…but for the first time you could start from the beginning and go all the way through till the end explaining the story within the edit and see the result that God has Blessed us with.  Praise God for that accomplishment!  It was truly an excited moment.  I had a hard time sleeping that night.

There was also a development that night that I wont share big details of for now.  I know I’m known for giving you things to pray about that you don’t necessarily know all the details for, but I’m going to do it again.  We will be having a man working with us at the end of February (Lord Willing) that you all might find familiar.  He worked on a film most of you have seen and we are glad to have him on board.  Pray that all goes well, and we are able to venture into that with hickups.

What is going on with Praise Pictures?  As you may have read, I recently attended the 2009 San Antonio International Film Festival and networked like a crazy person giving out a Praise Pictures business card to anyone who would take one, and gave out Promo Discs to choice folks explained here.  The new trailer I talked about a few months ago is on hold, sorry.  I wont go into why but you’ll just have to wait.  Hopefully all these updates and new content will keep you at bay. Here is one comment I received recently from Bob Christian (more famously known as Bro Bob, the first reviewer of our script last year, thanks Bob!):

 “Wow!  This time I was the one “blown away”!  The clips you had on the DVD you gifted me with at SAICFF, were outstanding.  You have Hollywood beat by a country mile.  The cinematography and production quality was awesome!  Even the acting was superb!  Great editing too!  You are a gifted and artistic individual.  I am getting so anxious to see the finished product.  If the rest of the film is as good as the clips you had on this demo disk, this film is going to be a successful blockbuster!” - Bob Christian

As soon as I got home I started revamping the Praise Pictures website for a new future.  I uploaded reviews to the most popular films of the festival, and discovered I was the first to do so.  This flooded the website with traffic and has continued to do so in the hundreds per day since the beginning of the month.  It is great to see people coming back to read the new things posted.  There will be Film Reviews, Interviews, Articles, etc. on all sorts of topics and with all sorts of people about all sorts of films.  We also have started a blog which will include the same information and such on the site but it’s a better way for you to be able to comment on our content.  Don’t be surprised if you see a special little snippet of info there every once in a while that you wont see anywhere else From now on any information about new Christian Films, Christian Film News, etc. will be pumped through that blog.  Please be sure to check there just as you do here.  Our hope is that the site will become a good resource and will be useful to other filmmakers.  We are excited to see not just what God does with Standing Firm and our company as a Production Company, but as an internet resource as well.

So as we near February in just over a week I ask all of you out there to pray for us, just as you did so faithfully last year.  Pray that the changes in planning would be beneficial and make things more efficient.  Pray that the actors would stay true to the quality they have shown during this whole process.  Pray for the camera work and lighting that it would also stay true to our current quality level.  Pray for humble attitudes and servants hearts of all that might help.  Above all pray for the souls of those who may see this movie and be impacted by it.  Just like the boy with five loaves and two fish, we want to see God take our film and use it for his Glory on a massive scale.

Hands to the plow…once again,
Kyle Prohaska
CEO, Praise Pictures
http://www.praisepictures.com
kyle@praisepictures.com

To call the week spent at the San Antonio International Christian Film Festival, “the greatest week of my life,” would truly be an understatement.  Why was it so amazing?  Well then, let me articulate it a bit for you.  If you’ve ever seen someone’s dreams come true, it’s an incredible sight.  If you’ve ever seen someone who has worked for something so hard finally get it, it’s an incredible sight.  Things like High School Graduation, getting your drivers license, shooting your first shot on your first movie, the list goes on.  This past week has seen many things I’ve been waiting for since 2007 come to pass, as well as other things I’ve waited for since I was a kid.  I got to rub elbows, and have meaningful film related and spiritual conversations with MANY people young and old who have a passion for the Lord.  The place was dripping with talent and enthusiasm.  Even in the obvious inexperienced folks or much younger guests, their willingness to learn and their attentive ears brought a smile to my face when the seminars at the Academy and Guest Speakers got up to the podium.

Being in a place with thousands of people of like mind and interest is something I have NEVER had the opportunity to experience.  I live in a one stop light town next to a bunch of bigger towns…but nobody does film here.  It’s void of film interest, movies on opening day unless its 8pm on a Friday Night are practically empty.  I’ve always felt a bit alone in terms of my own interests, which is why the internet has been an escape in recent years, especially on forums.  90% of the folks I met I have talked to online or on the phone.  It was a thrill to have countless people say “Hey!  Your that Standing Firm guy right?”  Apparently the internet advertising (or what little I”m able to do) is working, that was a big encouragement.

I also walked around with my laptop showing pieces of Standing Firm to whoever would lend an ear and eyeball.  The overall consensus was very favorable.  People especially loved the look of it and the stack of business cards I received is very thick.  I also brought Promo DVD’s to give out to choice people.  Out of the 20 I brought, 19 were given away.  Stephen Kendrick (Producer/Writer of Facing The Giants & Fireproof) received his disc on Monday Jan 5th.  Myself and Justin Tolley (Unit Production Manager on Fireproof) talked on Tuesday for about an hour and a half about all sorts of things, it was a great conversation.  He was a great guy, had a lot of passion and was open to chatting.  I gave him a disc as well and that night himself and Stephen sat down to view the disc.  It included the first 6 minutes of the film (in its current form), the unreleased trailer, and scene 38 which acts as a centerpiece in the film.  Their comments the next day were great, they both loved how it looked and were very impressed that it was film #1 for me.  Hearing that from Stephen was like an electric bolt, I was floored that he had even taken the time to watch it after he had received so many discs already that first day (thanks Justin…*smile*).

I can’t talk about EVERYTHING but here is a list of the other wonderful people I had the pleasure of either meeting or hanging around: 

John Moore, Doug Phillips, Geoffrey Botkin, Kirk Cameron (I was 3ft away, what an awesome guy he is), Chris Staron, James Burgess, Rich Christiano, Jimmy Broyden, Jon Erwin, George Escobar, Chad Burns, and many more.

The awards night was a very emotional night.  Seeing people I know go up and get recognized for their obedience to Christ was a sight that moved me to tears.  I couldn’t help it, I was so overwhelmed with the Blessing.  Such God Honoring, selfless young and older men being Blessed for their work, it was incredible.  Stephen Kendrick when Fireproof received the Best Feature Film award help the trophy up in the air and looked upwards.  That is EXACTLY the kind of attitude needed.  That is what was so incredible, that nobody looked at their awards as “theirs.”  Where else does that happen?  It’s GOD’s award, He gets the Glory, He is lifted up and Magnified.  Christ 1st, all else 2nd…that includes ourselves.  It was amazing to see that displayed.  This past week was a Blessing that this blog post even at its current length can’t articulate.  Congratulations to ALL the winners, and ALL the people who were involved in making them.  Congratulations to ALL the entries submitted, even those that weren’t accepted.  We all have a common goal here, to Glorify Christ with our work.  Some of us are better filmmakers than others, but we all have a common goal, and should be encouraging and helping each other with a passion and a drive to see others succeed regardless of where we may fail.  God is so good to each of us, and the best part is…he doesn’t have to be.  He saved me from what I was…isn’t that enough?  Let that sink in and reveal just how much Blessing he really gives us on a regular basis.

I hope to enter Standing Firm into next years competition to see what God does with the project, regardless of its possible release by that time.  Who knows…

I’m ready to get back to work!  Time to create something Honorable and Glorifying to Christ AMEN!?  I’ve never felt so uplifted.

What a year. Those three words include so much. There is so much that the year 2008 has involved. So many bad and hurtful circumstances. Arguments and yelling, discord between fellow believers, physical and mental anguish, and all things in-between. Many people that have either been close to me or people I know have passed away, more than I’ve ever experienced. I’ve gotten the suit coat and nice pants out of the closet enough times for another decade. This film is going to hit home when its watched by people locally for more than one reason. There being so much death to deal with before and during the shooting of this film only showed us even more that God wanted us to make a movie about death. Hard times on-set of the movie, and stupid piddley things that mean nothing but at that time seemed to mean everything. Yet, through all of it, so much good has come. So many Blessings, so much to be thankful for, and so much happiness and memories, none of which will leave me anytime soon.

There is so much to this past year besides the film, but the film seemed to overtake the rest. The last 6 months especially, mid-summer being the worst of it all. So many things gone wrong, lots of different jobs to do, uncertainty of success and everyone around me asking “what’s next,” when at times I honestly didn’t know. All I had was a story idea, a good idea of what needed to be done to make that idea a reality, and my Lord. The last of those three being the key element and the one that made everything else work.

Why am I writing this anyways? I found myself sitting here at my computer late at night, thinking over this past year and all the things that have happened. I began to cry, sob being the better term. I mean how could you not? I wasn’t crying because of all the bad that had happened or how hard the year was. I was crying because in spite of all of it, here I was, with a film in Post-Production and all sorts of Blessing surrounding it, with a family and a home, a job and a paycheck, and friends and people that care for me. I deserve nothing, I am complete and utter garbage when measured up to the one who deserves it all. I have salvation through Jesus but honestly I never deserved that even, it was free. So on top of something like that I get all this? Good is a sick understatement to the God we serve. Here are all these things I shouldn’t have, and it made me weep. How GOOD is our Lord? How WORTHY is He? How MERCIFUL and FAITHFUL! I feel like all I did was put my seatbelt on and Jesus hit the gas pedal.

What an amazing feeling. That’s just the film, I’m not even talking about the personal things he has done. I’ve learned many things this year. No matter how bad things get, He’s right here where He’s always been…waiting for His children to come to Him so He can give them comfort. How can that not move you to tears? When you really get it, you really understand how much you DON’T DESERVE what you have, and the eternal damnation that SHOULD await you, and yet that’s the very thing that DOESN’T when your God’s child…phew. That motivates me to give God all I have and leave the results in His hands.

Do I know what will happen with this film? Nope. Do I know God does? Yep. His hand has been faithfully pushing my often lazy, unfaithful, wretched excuse for a life down the track, herding me towards the finish line. That sounds harsh but I really hope I never loose sight of what I am now and what I would probably be without Jesus. I need to constantly remind myself what I am in His sight without His Sons forgiveness. I hope regardless of whatever the film does for all of you out there who watch it (assuming God finds us distribution, and if not I’ll Praise Him anyways), that the story behind the making of this film would motivate and move you to do whatever God has called you to do. I don’t care what it is, find out and run with it. God has a purpose for each and every one of you. Find it, and go.

I hope this has message has been a Blessing to you all, and that it gives you a new perspective for 2009.

Ephesians 3:20-2: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

God Bless & Happy New Year to all of you,
Kyle Prohaska

P.S. - Something I forgot to tell everyone, you don’t need to create a username to comment on our Blog.  At the top of each post to the right of the title it says “No Comments.”  Clicking that will show you a box below the post where you can leave one.  We ALWAYS love hearing from all of you out there, and its a great encouragement to know people are reading and being affected by what we’re doing.

Keeping Christ in Christmas means daily revealing the character, love and spirit of Christ that dwells in you, by allowing these traits to shine through your actions. Here are simple ways to keep Christ the central focus of your life this Christmas season.

1) Give God one very special gift just from you to him:

Let this gift be something personal that no one else needs to know about, and let it be a sacrifice. David said in 2 Samuel 24 that he would not offer a sacrifice to God that cost him nothing.
Maybe your gift to God will be to forgive someone you’ve needed to forgive for a long time. You may discover that you’ve given a gift back to yourself.

Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian who survived extreme brutality in a German concentration camp after rescuing many Jews from certain death during the Nazi Holocaust, was later able to say, “Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the prisoner was you.”

Perhaps your gift will be to commit to spending time with God daily. Or maybe there is something God has asked you to give up, like last New Year’s resolution. Make this your most important gift of the season.

2) Set aside a special time to read the Christmas story in Luke 1:5-56 through 2:1-20:

3) Set up a Nativity scene in your home:

4) Plan a project of good will this Christmas:

5) Take a group Christmas caroling in a nursing home or a children’s hospital:

6) Give a surprise gift of service to each member of your family:

Jesus taught us to serve by washing the disciples feet. He also taught us that it is “more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 (NIV) The idea of giving an unexpected gift of service to members of your family is to demonstrate Christ-like love and service. You might consider giving a back rub to your spouse, running an errand for your brother, or cleaning out a closet for your mother. Make it personal and meaningful and watch the blessings multiply.

7) Set aside a time of family devotions on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning:

Attend a Christmas church service together with your family:

If you are alone this Christmas or don’t have family living near you, invite a friend or a neighbor to join you.
9) Send Christmas cards that convey a spiritual message:

10) Write a Christmas letter to a missionary.

God Bless & Merry Christmas from the entire Standing Firm team and Praise Pictures!

Since we started shooting, the edit has been in constant development. We logged the footage as we shot the film to catch mistakes early. Also we wanted to see how we were doing, and really just for overall comfort so we wouldn’t find out months later we made a mistake we can’t fix. (weather being one of those things).

So here we are, with the edit in a form I wouldn’t call “done,” but not in a form I would call “busted.” There is some tightening to do on scenes edited months ago that haven’t gotten much review since then. What I mean by tightening is removing unneeded shots, and pushing the pace of each scene (as needed) to a faster pace. Dead space is something that can make a film really boring if there is a poorly edited scene or a lot of them. In a film with lots of dialog, there is a need to keep the pace (unless the story calls for a slowdown) so we are trying to find those scenes and adjusting them as needed.

Things are moving along. There is some pretty big possibilities that could be coming our way. Regardless of what happened in LA there is (oddly enough) an even bigger opportunity that presented itself just a day ago. I can’t tell you what exactly but lets just say you can’t shoot much higher before you have to start coming back down and settling somewhere less ideal.

If you all out there want to know what you can do for us the simple answer is pray. Pray that we get the films edit moving along quickly towards a form more worthy of a first time viewing by myself and Kevin. We want to at least get the edit in a form that it can be watched beginning to end (besides sound issues or temporary music tracks, or small inserts needed). I am more excited for that moment than I am any other, even a premiere. I want to be there (and I’m Blessed enough to be that person) when for the first time we get to see what God did, and where he REALLY has been steering this film and its story in the last 6 months of shooting. Very exciting!

The last seven days have been a combination of things. Exhausting and exciting, but above all Blessed. We can’t give all the hairy details because nothing is set in stone (yet). But we hopefully have some big things to share with all of you soon involving post-production and the completion of the film as a whole.Last weekend, myself (Kyle), Rob Reisman (playing Dave), and Kevin Michael (Co Writer/Producer), set out to LA to meet some folks who had seen a Promo DVD we sent. To make a long story short, things look good I know that isn’t a lot of information and as stated nothing is for sure, but I do want everyone to be rest assured we are moving along and God is moving big time. Once the time comes and things are more solidified I can share more information, but for now I’m asking everyone to pray. Pray that whatever is going on (I’m driving you nuts aren’t I?), that it would be the Hand of God and nothing more, that the decisions being made are of the Lord and of no other influence, and that leading up to when we can make a full announcement, everything would go smoothly.



”Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - (Philippians 4:6-7)

On a different note as you noticed by the title of the Blog, THAT’S A WRAP. Yea you heard me, we are done with principle photography. 25 Weeks, 44 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. My o my has God brought us a long way, and we have a ways to travel still! Weighing out all the pain and frustration, the headaches and pitfalls, nothing can compare to what is without a doubt the greatest year of my life. Praise God for his Faithfulness in answering his children’s prayers, and may He continue to be lifted up as we move along. He gets bigger, we get smaller…what a beautiful thing.

The stage we are at now is getting the edit together as best we can before we evaluate what needs to be included in pick ups, or reshot. The nature of this project allows reshoots in a way that no other project would allow. Having full access to all locations (as long as we are indoors, it is about 20 degrees here right now), and having everyone on board is obviously a great Blessing to the project and insures the best product possible. Could God have given us a more Blessed situation?

This means we will all be taking a bit of a break while we begin to iron out this “big thing” going on (I can feel it, you hate that I can’t tell you), and also do what is stated above. This also means its time to move the blog to another location. Where will be specified soon and you can move yourself there. It will be setup a lot better than this blog and allow more functionality for those of you out there who enjoy keeping up with our updates!

We are so grateful that all of you out there have continued supporting us after such a long time. This is a great hurdle for all of us to be jumping, in more ways than one. We are extremely grateful for the encouragement we have received from all of you, especially your prayers as each problem presented has been solved in God’s timing. This is something that requires you, all of you.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.” - (1 John 5:14-15)

God Bless & MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Kyle Prohaska

Today was another day where we needed to get remaining pieces of scenes previously shot. Some of the more complicated scenes in the film involve scenes at church, with different angles and cutaways needed. Most church days we ran out of time to get everything needed, and we were forced to wait a long time down the road to come back. This involves matching lighting from previously shot footage. Luckily we have a laptop on set with the entire film on it. It has come in handy for a number of things, including continuity checks. There is very little left to film, and the current first cut is at about 90%. Things are coming along nicely.

OK here is the deal. We have a new trailer cut together for all of you out there. Excited? So are we. The trailer has been shown to many select people for feedback and tweaks and we have something we are really happy with. One slight hang up though. The music used towards the end of the trailer that practically carries its emotional tone will cost us a little bit of money. Problem being, that money doesn’t exist. I wont give you the quote because that isn’t important and is confidential information between us and the licensing company.

What can you do about it? Well there is always the option of donating. We don’t want to push that agenda as much as the next one. We want you to PRAY. PRAY PRAY PRAY. Pray that the amount needed would show up in some way. We don’t have the amount needed and need God to bring it for us to use the song.

After a certain point if nothing happens we will recut the trailer to something we can use. That’ll just prolong the trailer release as we are really trying to concentrate on getting the actual film put together. Trailers are a whole new ball-game in terms of their complexity and making them effective. We also have a big press opportunity coming up I wont shed details of now but it will be big for us, the biggest we will probably get until many many months from now. We can recut the trailer, but God can do anything right? If this is the trailer he wants us to use, the money will show up. If not…then we recut it.

Either way ask God to bring us the answer and quickly, ideally before the big press opportunity. Having the new trailer debut along with it would be extremely beneficial.

Lets see what God does, he could have something up his sleeve.

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UPDATES:

12/05/08 - We currently have 26% of the needed funds!
12/07/08 - We currently have 45% of the needed funds!!