So, now it’s time to get into these one thousand shots, as well as starting to prepare folly recording and editing, ADR, music, marketing and all the other fun parts of making a movie.

It is also our hope to have a trailer out soon. Keep a look out for it.

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Director’s Blog

That said, looking back on everything we did, it certainly was a time of fun, friendship, hardship and sleep deprivation; which only enhanced the fun, friendship…and so on.

So now that we are refreshed it’s time to press on…there are still things to be done. Effects, sound editing, ADR won’t happen on their own, but wait…before we do that…we still have to finish shooting. Completing a rough cut of the movie has revealed that there are still some pieces missing to the puzzle of Elindil’s Secret. One scene never got shot and there are a lot of insert shots that we simply didn’t have the time to get…and of course why get them then, they’re insert shots…we can pick them up anytime. AND SO WE WILL!!!

Pick Up shoots have been planned from the end of March through till the start of May. That should complete all of the shooting required. However, before we can shoot, there are some script changes that need to be made, permits to be obtained, lines to be learned…and yes post production will continue. So, just letting you know that ‘Elindil’s Secret – The madness that is’ continues to be made and we haven’t all dropped off the planet…although we have made reservations.

Well, it is over for this stage of the project. Its now time for some well earned rest for all between now and the new year. After which we will be moving into the next stage of the project, Post-Production.

For cast and crew there will be a few pickups to do sometime in the 1st half of next year, when, where and what scenes are not 100% known as yet.

Pre-Production tasks will be announced in the near future in more detail, for example;

Audio: This includes the soundtrack, sound effects and ADR.
VFX: You could consider this a visual effects movie, after all over half of it is on blue screen.
Website: yes, this blog will become just one component of a redesigned website.
Marketing: Its one thing to make this film, we also need to distribute it.

For further details on the blue screen shoot, have a read of the following posts on maxfactormama’s blog.

Clapped Out
Best Boy is now wardrobe assistant
Strung Out or How long is a piece of string
I guess that’s why they call it the Blues
Blake’s Meltdown
How much are you prepared to sacrifice

The 1st weekend was a challenge, anything and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. In essence it was a logistical failure. With that said, there was still a huge amount of footage shot which was apparent since we ran out of room on the disk drives. Looks like we need to purchase another 4 500GB drives.

During the week we called a special Production Meeting with the executive crew plus several actors. The agenda for this meeting was to discuss the issues with the 1st Blue Screen weekend and hash out a modified plan.

The 2nd weekend ran 100% smoother, I’m sure we will all know what we are doing with this Blue Screen shoot by the time we get to the final weekend. There are several changes that we made that assisted in this. Possibly the most significant ones are;

1. To setup the area on Friday evenings, leaving only the Blue Screen and lights to be done 1st thing on Saturday morning.
2. Alter the order of shooting to minimise setups.
3. Appointing Andy Strempel as 2nd AD (Assistant Director).
4. Define an absolute end time for each shoot day, this may need some minor tweaking.

For most of the cast and crew, the last scheduled location shoot was another early morning start. Today was all about capturing the final footage at “the old mans” cabin, located near Healsville and then “Allan Scott’s estate”, located in Kilsyth. There are several pickup shoots that will see some cast and crew revisit some of the locations, however for most the remaining travel is all local.

Commencing next week we move into the final stage of the production phase of the project. Shooting all the Blue Screen scenes. At the start of the project we had intended to build two sets, however two weeks before shooting started we reassessed and decided to shoot blue screen. This decision has directly resulted in just over half the film requiring some type of effects.

We would also like to acknowledge Lorraine and Tony (left and centre) for allowing us to user their home as the backdrop for Allan Scott’s estate.

The filming at Trentham was always going to be one of those locations that would be special for all involved. Firstly the location is a fantastic backdrop for filming and secondly thanks to Spectrum Camera Cranes we had the opportunity to capture footage that would have only been a dream. So thanks Graeme for helping support this project in this way, you can see several pictures of the crane below.

There is now only one more shoot day before we go into the Blue Screen shoots. While this is disappointing from the perspective of not travelling to more amazing natural places within Victoria. It is exciting to know that we have just under half the footage for the film. In saying that, there are several pickups that will see us return to some of those locations as well as one that we deferred due to higher than average snow falls.

See maxfactormama’s blog for a summary of the day.

A few images of the crane

Today the Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Pro Expansion library was delivered. We now have all the software tools required to complete the post production phase of the project.

On Sunday evening we held our 5th production planning meeting.
These meetings are held for the specific purpose of reviewing and planning the shooting schedule.

Footage review
We recently upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2, this is a significant upgrade and introduces colour. So to get things going we looked at the rendered footage from yesterdays shoot.

The reviewing of footage for cast and crew is only available in person, we will not be cutting any further DVD’s for people to view.

Advanced planning – future shoot days
We discussed the next two shoot days in detail, these are the final location shoots before we get into blue screen. Shoot day 16 is expected to be a long day with several hours of traveling. From start to finish its estimated to be a 15 hour day. Shoot day 17 on the other hand is much lighter, we may even get in a few pickups.

Pickups
Yes, some advanced warning for cast and crew, there are a number of pickups required. Over the coming weeks we will begin to identify what shots require pickups. There are several components that we look for when identifying if a pickup is required, these are;

1. Dropped/deferred shoots.
2. Continuity.
3. Overall look, colour, exposure etc.

Today we returned to the Macclesfield location to film the scenes that we could not complete back on the 25th August. Since today was also the AFL Grand Final we also decided to limit the shoot to the morning, allowing the cast and crew to have the afternoon and the rest of the weekend off.

As you can see from both images, the main aspect of this shoot was to film several car shots. For this reason safety was a major component and everything ran smoothly. There were several minor delays caused by passing cars, plus the Sun held us up a few times when it decided to show its self from behind the clouds.

Synopsis of the days events
07:00 – Makeup and Wardrobe call for cast.
08:45 – Travel to Macclesfield.
09:15 – Shooting at Macclesfield for 2.5 hours.
11:45 – Wrap.