A dvinfo.net Production
 

Well... Not entirely, but close to it!

Yesterday, we shot my feature, "One Last Kill" in a warehouse in Johnstown, NY.

I thought it was worth mentioning here, as the creative team behind the movie is comprised of dvinfo.net regulars: Mike Cavanaugh, Marco Leavitt and his partner, Karen and I somehow miraculously squeezed the entire shoot into one day. Michael Kazlo, II also helped out, and while he hasn't found his way here yet, now that he knows of it, I'm sure he'll be here soon.

I Just wanted to say what a GREAT, unselfish, supportive group we had for the shoot. Mike and Marco worked on the production basically for free, and they had more focus, drive and enthusiasm for the project than what you would expect to see from a staff being paid top dollar at a studio.

Add to that, the fact that they are brilliant at blocking, lighting, shooting, capturing sound and overall setting up and you have the potential for a really top-rate finished product!

We met to start the shoot at 7AM... We called the final cut at 11 PM. Through it all, these folks were absolutley focused, professional and turned my dream of making a movie into a reality.

This board is populated by easily the most unselfish, fun group of people you'll find on the Internet or anywhere else.

I just wanted to stop here and thank the two Mikes, Marco and Karen again! - I'll be posting links to clips, etc. from the movie here as the editing comes along.

Thanks, guys... And thanks, dvinfonet for providing a forum to bring all of us working and struggling in this business together!

Really nice to hear that, really curious about clips and pictures.

We could all make a big studio, named DV INFO PICTURES :-D
Wouldn't that be cool :-p
We already have a little 10.000 people to pick from.

Did I read that right?
You shot your entire feature in one day?

Wow.
Keep us updated on the progress.
Can't wait to see some of it, Rusty.

63 script pages in a day - you heard that right. It was, to say the least, an interesting experience!

We were helped by a number of factors:

1) the entire premise of the script was that it was from the perspective of a live, low-budget, public access type, 3-person talk show that take a dramatic and catastrophic turn. (Don't want to give away too much of Rusty's script!) Therefore, some of the technical glitches could be very real, as the camera operator reacted to unfolding events. Actors could walk out of frame, cameras could be shakey etc.

2) We shot using 3 cameras running ISO plus a switching panel and recording a mix to dv tape as well. Since I could see what all three cameras were seeing, I could be sure we had shots in the can and give Rusty some editing options. The mix from the switcher could be used as master tape, but will most likely just give Rusty some editing guidance .

3) Marco & Karen were top notch in the audio department and we only had to stop down a couple of times due to audio glitches. SInce this was a thriller type production with lots of yelling and screaming, managing the audio was a major task and overblown audio was to be expected - they kept it to an incredibley small number of occurances!

4) Rusty is a good actor and once he was on set, the other characters were able to play off him very well making it a more believable story line.

All in all, an incredible day and great learning experience.

Mike

Really cool
 

I can't believe that you did the whole thing in one day... maybe there could be a volunteer pool for areas like upstate NY and others, who would help out on an events like this... As for me... I would have loved to been there... Send me an e-mail if you do it again... Also what cameras did you use? thanks

Mike modestly left out one of the biggest factors: He is a TREMENDOUS asset to have around, not only due to his technical expertise, but because of his unfailing honesty and keen eye.

Mike is the kind of guy who will tell you exactly what he thinks, and he has a real sharp eye for what works. -- Too many times, people want to stroke you and say, "that was good" when you know it sucked. Or, you have those who will try and find fault where there really was none.

Mike does neither of these. After a scene, I could ask him how it went. If he said that it sucked, we did it over; no questions. If he said it looked good, we moved ahead. This is huge, because I never had to stop and look at what we just shot, other than out of curiosity or because Mike called my attention to something.

I remember when I used to do stand-up. Sometimes, you would just stink the joint out! Invariably, some tool would say, "Nice job." or "You were funny." -- Immediately I knew that - although this person may be well-intentioned - I couldn't trust their judgement.

It was a fun, memorable day!

I've posted some pics from the shoot. They're at http://www.onelastkill.com/pics.htm

Re: Really cool
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Craig Bellaire : I can't believe that you did the whole thing in one day... maybe there could be a volunteer pool for areas like upstate NY and others, who would help out on an events like this... As for me... I would have loved to been there... Send me an e-mail if you do it again... Also what cameras did you use? thanks -->>>

No doubt, all in a day? That would have been worth working the grip, etc., just to see. I would like to see (and work with) something like that in our area. What a great way to learn and meet like minded people.

Can't wait to see the clips.

Sorry, Craig, I didn't mean to ignore your question in my earlier post... We used two GL-2s and an XL-1S.

Mike did a great job of synching up the video, which is going to save me a ton of time in editing.

I should add, I knew that we were coming along nicely from a technical standpoint, because by my count we only said the line "we can take care of that in post" two times in 16 hours.

:-)

Thanks for the experience Rusty. It was amazing. To tell you the truth, when I signed up for the project I didn't actually believe we were going to pull it off in one day. But no, Rusty has an amazing force of will. He never looked discouraged, and I think it was his positivity and determination alone that kept things going all the way through. I think the cast would have revolted under anybody else. Congrats Rusty. It was quite an achievement. Thanks too Mike, you're a good man in the pocket.

I've been following up on this project from the beginning and it's great to hear how it's coming along. What plans do you have with the movie now Rusty? Are you going to find a distributor? Film festivals? I wonder how I'll be able to see it? Good work, I look forward to hearing/seeing more.

Hey, Mitchell...

The marketing plan is to submit it to my contacts made through years of screenwriting. Between my Entertainment Attorney and I, we have some decent contacts.

Of course, a few festivals may also be an option.

I'll keep everybody here posted with clips, trailer, etc., as well as the path to trying to find the movie a home.

A week after the marathon shooting session--- couple more thoughts for people foolish enough to try this.

You can't be a one man band on something like this - having dedicated sound folks was critical, having a skilled camera operator and an interested and helpful extra saved a lot of effort.

We should have had a little more time for the complicated scenes that came at the end. We spent a lot of time on shooting the simple conversation in the early part of the day. By the time we got to the complicated action scenes, people were tired and anxious to get home. Luckily the cast were good troopers and hung in there. In retrospect, we should have shot some of the action scenes not involving SFX Makeup early in the day, then the talk show, then the SFX scenes. Live and learn...

That's all for now - all in all a great experience.

That is frikkin' amazing. You guys rock!

Since this thread has resurfaced, and the summer rush is waning and I finally have time to get back to work on the movie, I thought I'd post a few clips from "One Last Kill."

CURTIS DISCUSSES HIS WIFE - http://www.onelastkill.com/ikilledher.wmv

CAMERAMAN BILLY GETS CALLED OUT - http://www.onelastkill.com/billy1.wmv

BILLY, WHILE PLAYING CURTIS' GAME, DECIDES TO STAND UP -
http://www.onelastkill.com/billyTorD.wmv

CURTIS THE PROP COMIC - http://www.onelastkill.com/propcomic.wmv

Let us know what you think... I'll post some more clips as I can.