We're In!

Hey guys!  Tons of stuff is happening now!

We've moved into the location and we're starting to set up the art design to make the house look lived-in.

Tim and E.J. are down at Equipment checkout right now getting all of our gear and last nigh, E.J. and his 1st AC, Evan Ho, were testing out the RED and a couple of lenses.

Tonight is a mini-shoot night to get a couple of small scenes out of the way before full start tomorrow night.

~Catherine

Happy Post-Thanksgiving!

So, the Thanksgiving holiday is past.  I hope everyone had a great time and ate lots of great food.

I'm finally updating the blog but don't think that nothing's happened in this time.  

Some stuff we've done over the past few weeks:

• Photo shoot with "Young Agnes" (Stephanie BoWell).  A full day and then some but lots of fun with tons of different costumes and hairstyles.  Tons of credit goes to Stephanie and Liz, our Hair & Makeup Designer.
• A grueling, three-hour blocking rehearsal at the location.  We had a lot of fun with the cast and E.J. getting photos for the story boards and going through the blocking of the film.
• Several rehearsals.  Having actors working with Tim to set the right tone for the film and get to know their characters.
• Scheduling the film.  Just tonight, Tim, E.J, Ying, and I planned out the timing of all the shots and scheduled the shoot.

What's coming up, you might ask?  Well, starting Tuesday we're moving into our location, getting all of the production design pieces in place, and doing the final preparation for the film.  Thursday we get all of our equipment and start a first, abbreviated day of shooting with a skeleton crew.  Friday is our first full day of shooting!

I'll see about posting a few photos each day so that you can see what we're up too but don't think we're going to be giving much away!

Costume Fittings!

Hey all! We have some fun shots of some of the possible costumes we'll be using for the photos in Teddy's Cigar box.  Timothy, Yao, Stephanie, and I met on Sunday to play dress up and see how the period clothing from UT's stock would do for our needs.  We found a bunch of stuff that wouldn't work but we found some really great possibilities, too.  So, here you are:

A nice daytime/casual type dress.

Flowy cocktail dress with a subtle pattern.

Fancy evening dress, a bit long but really pretty.

So, that's just a hint of some of the costumes we've been looking at for the film!  Who knows if they'll be in or not and there's tons of other stuff we've not even shown you yet!

Update!

So, don't think that, just because we haven't posted anything that nothing's been happening.  Here's what we've been doing over the last few days.

Tim and I spent most of the day Tuesday driving around Austin.  We started off at Lucy in Disguise to see if we could find any interesting costumes for our upcoming photo shoot.  They were still pretty depleted from Halloween but we got an idea of what they have and took some photos to show to Yao, our costume designer.   

The rest of the day was spent driving all over Austin trying to find stores and restaurants and coffee shops that were willing to donate to our cause.  It was quite tiring.  I can honestly say that I've never been in so many food-type places in the same day.  Hopefully some great donations will come of it and we'll get some food to keep the cast and crew happy during the shoot.  If not, it's beans and cabbage stew for everyone... it will be a very... fragrant... set.

Then, Wednesday Tim, E.J. and I spent over an hour at the shooting location planning out shots, seeing what was possible in the location, and some general drooling.  It really is an amazing location and we're lucky to be able to call it the Atwater family home.

Immediately following the location visit, we headed back to my house to meet most of the cast for our first read-through of the script.  I made peanut butter cookies and we all had a great time looking over costumes and getting to know each other and the characters in the film.  Much fun was had.

Thursday I found out that Universal Music, owners of the publishing rights to the song Cinnamon as performed by the group Derek, don't need us to contact them about licensing until after we have the film practically finished.  YAY!  Something that doesn't need to be done now.

Today I went to a few more restaurants to see if they'd give us some lovely food and Tim met up with Yao to go through the costumes available through the theater department.

And, I think that was about it...  So, now you're up to date!

Oh, and we're up to  $130 on the Kickstarter fund!

Kickstarter is LIVE!!!

If you're here from the Kickstarter site, welcome!  We're happy to have you here.

I'm happy to announce that our Kickstarter project is now live on the Kickstarter site!  It's time to raise some funds.  Be sure to check it out even if you're not able to help fund the film as we have a nice little video featuring Jerry Turman, our Teddy.  He was super sweet to come in at late notice at a very late hour to film it and he was amazingly patient with us.  You'll get to see Tim and me and the work of our amazing cinematographer, E.J. Enriquez.  

We've also found out that E.J. is up for recognition by some large group of cinematographers and we hope he gets selected for the award, even if he doesn't get any cash out of it.

In other news, we've added all of the cast to the Our Cast page for your perusal.  I've not gotten all of their bios yet but I'll put them up as soon as I get them.  Feel free to look them over.  They're a lovely bunch of people.

I think that's it for now!  I'm off to a meeting with Tim, Yao (costume design), and Lindsay (production design).

Camera System

We've secured a camera for the shoot.  We'll be shooting on RED in 4K using Arri/Zeiss T1.3 35mm prime lenses .  This is going to be a good looking picture.

Costume Design!

Not much to say today, we've almost got the film cast, which is exciting but what I want to do here is introduce you to Yao, our costume designer extraordinaire!  I can't possibly post her entire portfolio here but, trust me, it's amazing.  I'll just give you a hint of one of the pieces she's done in the past.  Here's the design for it, and the actual finished piece.  We're really happy to have found someone so talented!  I'll be posting her bio in the "Our Crew" section soon.

 

Also looks like, after weeks of looking, we've found a person to head up our production design team.  I'll keep you updated on that, as soon as I have more info.

Also, on Sunday, Tim and I had some fun driving around town looking for homes that were decorated with Halloween stuff.  We were surprised by how little we found but we were able to spot a couple of really nice places and left them a letter explaining the film and how we'd love to borrow their decorations if they're willing.  Hopefully, we'll hear from them soon.

We're filming our Kickstarter video on Thursday.  Just a quick intro to the film so people can see that we're serious and have a chance to see that we are real people.  Hopefully that should go smoothly so we can upload it and start the project as scheduled, on Halloween!

Oh, keen-eyed visitors may have noticed the added "Our Art" section... if you don't have the keenest eyes, check it out!  We'll be posting some images of production design, costume design, and actual art by local artists that will be showcased in the film.

I think that's all for now!  Until next time!