Last Day of Filming

He's THE DOG!

Today was our last day of filming.  *tears*  The last day of shooting a project is bitter-sweet.  Sweet because we can now get proper rest.  Bitter because it marks the end of summer, the end of seeing friends every day, the end of fun work....yeah, there are a lot of reasons to be sad.  But, it is now onto the real work, AKA editing.

Shooting at CUMC

We had a short day of filming, which, for the most part, stayed on schedule.  We started early, though, so that must have had something to do with it.  

Thanks again to Central United Methodist Church for letting us film at their facility.  

The lighting today was nice.  Car sounds were frustrating, but we can fix those in post-production.  We worked with Mack, as you can tell from our photos.  He had one of his best days.  He must be tired.

The movie is expected to be released next spring.  Keep checking the blog and FB page to stay updated on editing and to get exciting sneak-peeks and insider info!

Going over lines

Shooting

Kitchen Scenes

Setting up a shot

Today we filmed our last three scenes in the kitchen.  They all went well!  We had some excitement between herb chopping, bread kneading, and staged slaps.  The shots looked good, except when the sun was shining.  Never thought I would ask the sun to go away on a filming day.  Tomorrow is our last day of filming!   I'm looking forward to sleeping in on Thursday, although I'm going to miss filming.

STARE

Awwww

Our filming companion

The "sisters"

One of our scenes

An exhausted actor

Staged slaps can look so real!  Funny thing is the Slapper hated the scene and the Slapee loved it... go figure.

Castle Day 1

Aibhlinn

Setting up a

Today we filmed in the "castle".  Central United Methodist Church (in Lansing, MI) kindly let us film at their gorgeous facility.  THANKS!!! It made a nice castle interior - exterior too, minus the car sounds ;) - and was fun to film in.

My wonderful daddy acted today.  He did a very good job as his role of being mean.  Our actor that plays Aibhlinn and him have a very nice father-daughter connection...LOL!  Very "natural".

We also worked with the dog again.  He did - um - well?  Anyway, we are learning the difficulty of working with dogs, but we got a good shot.

Only two more film days for this year and then...on to POST-PRODUCTION!!!  Pray that the weather is cool and un-rainy tomorrow.

*Insert epic music*

Chug chug chug!!!

Last Day of Week 2!

Our pyramid of a portion of the cast/crew - they are so talented!

Our kitchen set

Today was the last day of our second week of filming.  Only three more days of filming left next week!  Obviously my actors are rather tired, as we made it to over 60 takes today.  We filmed a scene with 6 girls under the age of 15 today and they all did great!  We got a face shot of each of them so we could see their emotions.  We also filmed an argument scene between our two leads.  They both did really well and gave some nice emotion.  It was entertaining to watch even if it took a lot of takes.  Well, I'm off the blog for the weekend (what's left of it).  Be sure to check out our FB page to see the winner of the Cover Photo contest:

MoCharaTheMovie on FaceBook 

On break

*Add in awesome music*

Booyah!

Ooooh!

Brawl Scene

Hmmm!

Ucena & Naomi

Some of our brawl

We filmed our most complicated scene today.  And you know what???  We were only a smidge behind schedule!!!  Today we had a scene that included over 30 people brawling, two horses and some wedding vows.  All in 90 degree weather. 

Ouch!

Rose & Heather

Rose, Doug, & Doug

Tobin, Scott, & Scott

We received great feeling from our actors today.  The crowd at the wedding definitely had wonderful energy and emotion.

We are full of thanks today...

...to Naomi, Jessica, and Tara Hubble for bringing their beautiful horses Buck & Ucena twice now for filming.

...to Scott Schultz, our head choreographer, as well as Scott Crandall and Tobin Bates, his assistants, who orchestrated a fantastic fight sequence.  We found this great trio through artofcombat.org.  Scott Schultz also choreographed Tuesday's sword fight.

...to Polaris Fellowship that provided us with experienced fighters for today's brawl and Tuesday's sword fight.

I'm not being biased when I say they look amazing!  We had a safe day, so we definitely felt your prayers!  One more day until week two of filming is done!

Cool photo of "the damsel" taken by Rose Massey

Holy Day

On set

 We filmed two of our scenes with the priest in them today.  We had a slow start, due to the lack of a location. 

Getting set up to shoot

 The English Inn, though, kindly let us film there again.  The scenery looks really cool!  The gardens around the B&B are wonderfully kept and full of gorgeous flowers.  Such a fun place to shoot.

Our cam

We, amazingly, completed the actual shooting in a matter of a few hours.  I'm sure tomorrow won't be so short.  But, another day done.  Pray for us tomorrow as we will be shooting our most complicated scene yet.

The sound board

Exciting day!

Blocking the sword fight

Shooting a stab

 We had an very intense day today, with a shot that included dying, sword fighting, fake blood and a horse.  God kept all of the actors safe through the many different takes of the fighting.  I must say, I think this scene is going to look awesome!  Besides the planned excitement, we also had the added adrenalin rush of filming in a poison ivy haven, and having our horse actually run off (without anyone on it).  I think our neighbor was a bit surprised when a riderless horse showed up at his fence.  And I, the director, learned a lesson.  When chasing a large animal in a bur-infested area, wear socks.  But, at least we caught him. 

Ouch!

Wedding Scene

 We filmed a marriage scene today.  It contained the most amount of actors we worked with yet.  They all did great!  The day actually ran on schedule... a momentous occasion!!!  We had a bit of trouble with  sound, but I think it worked out fine in the end.  The pond was a wonderful place to film and provided a perfect "romantic" background.  The wedding party were all beautiful and the sun looked cool when it outlined them.  Thank God for the great weather!

The happy "couple"

Some of the crowd

A beautiful "bride"

The "bride" with her "cousin" and "sisters"

Long Day...

Crazy eyes...

A slate

Setting up for a take

We had a long day.  Two scenes that were pretty complicated back-to-back made for a lengthy shoot.  We made up for our missed time at The Ledges, and besides the many takes it was nice.  The scenery down there is awesome!  I've really fallen in love with that place.  We had a pretty action-packed shot, which looks cool.  We also worked with some of the younger kids, who did great!  It's really wonderful the level of acting they give us.  Pray for us tomorrow, as we are filming a scene with the most amount of people so far.  On that thought, I had better bid you all ado for the night, as a half-awake and bleary-eyed director is probably not the best idea for a shoot that contains about thirty actors.

Two actors (out of costume ;) )

First Week Done!

Friends!

*Opera Music*

Woohhoooo!!!

Workin' on set building

We will take Sunday off and start back up on Monday.  The break is going to be thoroughly enjoyed! On another note, our filming was amusing today.  Besides getting some cool shots with cool scenery, we captured a whole bunch of giggly bloopers (I guess that's what you get when two friends do three scenes in a row).  Well, signing off for now.  As replacement entertainment for there being no blog post tomorrow (I know all of you reading this just barely make it between the posts)

we are having a Cover Photo contest on our FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/MoCharaTheMovie

Be sure to check it out.. and don't forget to LIKE our FB page too!

Shooting a shoot