Wrapping up Locations & Casting

Today I meet with one of the producers, Bobby, to make sure we have all of the locations locked down. So far I know we will be shooting all of the interior and exterior Villa/Vineyard locations at The Duchman Vineyard, Tuscan Hall, and The Reuter House. For Blake's restaurant we will be using Justine's located in East Austin. We be shooting in New Braunfels at the Comal Spring and in Luling at the Watermelon Thump Festival. For some of the bar/hotel scenes that open the movie I am sure we will be in downtown Austin but I am not sure where yet. The big question mark right now is a wine cellar. We need something here in Austin that looks like a personal wine cellar.... the owner of the vineyard's personal stash. Every place we have looked at does not fit what I want.

I will be in LA for casting at the beginning of May. There are 4 leads and 4 supporting. So far we have one supporting role cast. Patrick Bauchau will be playing Alexander, the worldly and magnetizing bachelor who owns the vineyard. I have 3 actors in mind for other roles but we have yet to iron out contracts. We will most likely just be casting for the roles of Blake, Michelle and Catherine (the 3 leads)... we have an actor lined up for Samuel (the main character) but he wants to meet me in person before committing. I will say this about him, he is a talented, young and up-and-coming actor with a lot of experience as a lead in several major feature films. We will also be holding closed auditions here in Austin. Possibly before I go to LA. It has been difficult to get to this point as we had over 5000 submissions and I have narrowed the field to about 20 actors for the role of Blake, 10 actresses for Catherine and 10 for Michelle.

BABY ON BOARD

Our DP is expecting a new edition to the family soon so we have pushed the shoot to June. This will give Reuben's family some extra time before traveling to Texas for a month.  

Locations are just about wrapped up and I am very happy the majority of production will take place in Austin. I think the furthest we'll travel is to New Braunfels.  

We have also extended the shoot from 2 to 3 weeks. The more I thought about a 2 week shoot, the more I realized the limited number of days would require more hours resulting in burned out actors and a burned out crew. I don't want to run the production into the ground and I think the added days will give us some time to be more creative instead of just blow through a shot list. 

We started the process of casting this past week. The response was a little overwhelming. 5000+ submissions in a couple days. My goal is to hold an audition here in Austin in the next couple weeks and another audition in LA, mid April.  I would like to have the film completely cast by the the first week of May so I have at least 1 month to work with the actors. 

More to come

Satellite of Love

Satellite of Love

The Pier

The opening scene of the film takes place on the Santa Monica Pier. Jonathan and I (along with Mike Lutz) lived on 3rd and Ocean Park about 10 years ago. This was right after college.
And it should be noted that JC, Mike and I had three things in common. We were broke. We knew everything. And now armed with a college degree, world domination was only a few years away. 
For the first time there was nothing but clear, unwritten future ahead of us. No professors, no coaches, no parents, no girlfriends… nothing. Looking back on that time in my life I realize how naive I was about a lot of things. But one thing I did get right was to dream big. Short story long, there were many crazy nights we found ourselves down at the pier. If you have spent any time in Santa Monica outside of being a tourist you’ll understand when I say the pier is a magical place. So when JC and I decided to open the film with a snapshot of the relationship between the three main characters just after college, the pier was a no brainer.
The problem with this idea… to legally shoot on the pier, with insurance and the whole nine, it would require a lot of things and all those things cost money. More money than is budgeted for the entire film. So I have been working on alternative scenes but nothing seems to work. I mean the pier is it. There is nothing else.
Last night... I came to terms with the only option. Stealing shots. I have been stealing shots or shooting at locatons without prior consent or permits for the past 10 years as an indie filmmaker. There are very few films, indie and studio alike, that do not practice this. I have no problem doing it. I was hesitant because when you steal shots at a location like the pier you cannot record sound.  This would mean we would need to do a voice over for the pier scene. I am not a fan of VO, especially when it is used to solve a problem. I do however like the idea of hearing the main character, Samuel’s thoughts over the scene. This opening scene is a flashback. This moment in time will initiate Sam’s quest. So a stream of consciousness might work well.
My whole point in writing this was because late, late last night after coming up with this idea I decided to dig through old notebooks for inspiration. I came across a poem I wrote just after meeting my wife. I am not sure it works for the scene but it does sum up the feelings between the two main characters… in four lines no less.

Secretly she cries
She burns like the sun
Make no mistake
I cannot look away

ps. Do yourself a favor and check out Angus and Julia Stone

Crewing Up

I have decided to go with two producers.

Bobby McDonald showed up to our first meeting with a locations breakdown and notes, prepared like he was already producing the film. Bobby will be working with Scott Honea. Scott just returned from Park City, Utah where the last film he produced, The Oregonian premiered at Sundance. 

There are two more additions to the SOL crew. Jessica Anisman has agreed to be our Production Designer. You can see Jessica’s work in The Freebie, a film staring Dax Sheppard, which is currently out on video. Reuben Steinberg will be our Director of Photography. Reuben was the DP for my last short Funky Pickles. He is very talented, easy to work with and most importantly, I trust him.

Tuscan Hall

Producer Hunt

Over the past few weeks I have been meeting with local producers trying to find someone to pair up with for the duration of preproduction, production, and post-production. Taking a film from concept through completion is a long and difficult task. The process is stressful and I want to make sure I choose someone I can depend on. A producer that gets the script and understands our goals. I have met with many talented and more than capable candidates and think part of the problem with making a decision is I like many of the people I've met with. I decided earlier in the week that I was done meeting with people. Now I am sitting and reviewing my notes from the dozen or so meetings. Wish me luck.