Okay people - call me a sell out if you want, but I am posting a Google AdSense ad here on this blog in the hope that those who read it -- that means you! might click it and thereby generate a bit of revenue for me. I need to pay off the debt from making this film. So please, click away:

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It's been over a month now that we have finished shooting. Exactly one month and one day ago we were at the Silver Dollar - and I was feeling exhilirated, yet tired. My film -- though in digital format -- was "in the can". I liked the feeling.

Now is the time of "post". I have seen the dailies and by and large they look good. I know too that the editor, Luca Furgiuele, has transferred everything onto his harddrive but has been very very busy with other projects and hasn't had much time to do editing. Last time I asked him, he said that the fall was a good deadline for a first edit. I can live with that. In the meantime, I am experiencing something weird: I don't know whether to pick up on one of my other projects, do some writing, or just kick back and relax. In some ways, I would like to do all three! But, sadly, in other ways, I have little energy to do any of it. So, for those of you on the audience.withoutabox.com pages, what did you do after you finished shooting your first (or most recent) film???

Enquiring minds would like to know.

We started shooting at just after 9:00 a.m. on Friday July 6th. The day was beautiful - absolutely gorgeous!  We started off with David Campbell, playing John the Bible Guy and Mihajlo Kos, as Mike the male lead character in the film.  The scene was a moment of confrontation when Mike and John run into each other on a road.  With the exception of some good neighbours in the community  -  who were most curious as to what we were doing (and wanted to shake my hand in the event I became famous ) and airplanes taking off from MacDonald-Cartier Airport, that first part of the shoot went well.  I think we did about three or four takes.

In the latter part of the morning, we started doing the scenes when "John" interrupts Mike and Julie, played by Ottawa-based actor Ella Rose Swinimer.  We did several set-ups:  in the process we discovered that Mihajlo wears "kelly green" underwear available exclusively at American Apparel. I am sure we will get some pics up on this website (our own exclusive preview).  

After David Campbell wrapped, we did the beginning slash intro shots of the film:  Julie walking in for the first time, Mike and Julie coming in, etc...

Day Two began at 9:00 a.m.  We did some of the critical shots in the script.  The first shot of the day was scene 10 - one of the longest in the script.  It took several tries, but I think we got things right.  At the end of the day we were bang on in terms of the shooting schedule (yay!).  I wear sandals and sockettes today - which apparently is a bad fashion faux pas.  (Ella Rose has a shot of it on her Facebook photo album which you can see here.

Day Three begins at 8:30 a.m.  We got the "guerilla style" shots at Tim Hortons.  I am actually surprised at how much we get done today.  We broke for lunch and had Chinese Food -- yummy!  As Mihajlo pointed out to us though, in China, it's just called "Food". 

Day Four begins at 10:00 a.m.  It was supposed to begin an hour before, but my back and neck are just killing me.  It's a slow moving morning.  We cross the street to do scene 13 - the "let's go for a walk and get some air" scene.  Ella Rose and Mihajlo play the scene perfectly.  What I admire most is Luca Furgiuele's (our DP's) ability to walk backward for a long time...  for that matter, sound guy Igor Ivanov can also do well at the backward walk.  We decide to film the bathroom scenes at my house;  our bathroom is much bigger (and cleaner  );  so the shoot will continue on Tuesday.  After Igor helped me clean out the rooms, I returned the keys.  The guy at the motel asked me if we were shooting a movie similar (i.e. "just like") the Dr. Phil Show.  How does one answer that?

Day Five:  This day was originally added on to shoot scene 30, a scene set in a strip club.  Ken Mole at the Silver Dollar was extremely accommodating to us.  Ella Rose - as Julie - did very well at dancing.  Our stills photographer, Ryan McAwesome and Samantha Everts played the roles of extras at the bar -- so did I...  I figured I might as well appear in the film somewhere, and since I cannot act, this seemed like a good place to start.  In the afternoon, Barb Stopa got our bathroom set up to look like a motel bathroom - only problem is that the bathroom looks better than the motel room did.  In the evening, after a round of burgers, we shot the "let's pretend Julie and Mike get married" sequence/montage as well as the bathroom scenes.  I am again, in awe of the ability of cast and crew to get things done so well!

Now comes the harder part - we were able to shoot in 5 days and on a budget of roughly $4,000.00.  Luca Furgiuele will be editing the scenes -- he says he will be ready by the fall.  Having a rough cut by then would be good (no pressure intended Luca).  We also have to do ADR.  And if I can afford it, and if I can convince Ella Rose and one of my piano playing friends, I would like to include a cover of Madonna's "Substitute for Love/Drowned World".  What then?  Festivals maybe.  I look forward to sharing the resultant film with all the world.

So - I had this really sleepless night last week. What kept me awake was the decision NOT to use an HD Camera to film. It struck me that I would regret this in the long run. For the length of time I needed it, it was worth shelling out the $bucks to do it right. So, I was back on MSN with Luca and told him to call the rental place again and rebook the equipment, which he's done.

So, I am now in the proverbial calm before the proverbial "storm" of production. I remember a professor of mine - who taught Judaism but who also ran a production company called LRS Trimark [his name was Eugene Rothman] - anyway, he told us students that as a producer, every dollar spent in pre-production saved 10 in production. His reason for telling us this was that we should spend a lot of time getting ready to write the essay, and thus spend less time writing. Anyway, I ramble... I hope I have spent enough in pre-production to at least get things right.

I am a little concerned that I have not heard back from one of my actors in a while... more on this as it unfolds. I hope he is getting his e-mails, plans to be on set, and is just really busy right now with other stuff and therefore hard to reach. Worries, worries, worries...

Happy CANADA Day to my Canadian friends, and Happy 4th of July to you folks in the US. May the days of celebration be happy and safe ones... well, at least make sure the cops don't get called.

A la prochaine...

Hello all: Just a note to all budding cinematographers and actors, here's a chance to win $3,000.00 which is no chump change. Bytecasters is looking for submissions; read on at http://bytecaster.com/contests/presentation.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, and so if this is a repeat of info, please forgive me; but, Luca and I have decided to stick with the Canon GL2 camera for our shoot. It's versatile enough and we have access to two of them - for free! Yay! Luca, Igor and I met last week to talk about specifics re: cinematography and sound. I have a lot of confidence in these two men. I think they are really capable. Luca, for one, has been putting a lot of thought into how the shots will look and what he will need for proper lighting, etc. Igor has also given thought as to how he will capture the sounds (ambient as well as direct).

Lastly, found out that the motel has changed its name to New Highway Inn Motel.

SO - it looks like we will be filming at a motel called the King Slumber Motel at 2279 Hwy 16, Nepean, ON . Luca and I met up with Ali who works there a few weeks ago. He was outside trying to rid the front yard of all the dandellions. I liked it that he was reluctant to use any herbicides and chemicals in his own personal war on weeds. There he was with a small trowel taking care of business. I tried to convince him that dandelions will eventually go away - if memory serves they don't tolerate the heat of a July and August summer's day. I also told him some people make dandelion wine, at which point, without missing a beat, Ali invited me to help myself to as many of the flowers as I might need to make some of the wine... I respectfully declined the offer. Luca went back to see him last week and was told there was no problem about renting to us. Yay!!!

The room that we were shown was very basic; nothing fancy about it at all. It seems like the kind of place that Mike and Julie might meet up. The walls are bare and are made out of cinder block. The bathroom is at the end of the room. The centre of the room is the bed; which is also the centre of focus for the film. Luca will probably face some challenges around the issue of lighting, especially for the bathroom area. I am sure we can work something out. I think the blue/grey tinge of the room will add something to the atmosphere of the film. This is not about a happy romance after all. The emptiness of the room, the lack of decor, further serves aesthetic and practical purposes: we don't have to go through the rigamarole of getting clearances for any work that is copyrighted and we can allow the room to reflect the emptiness that both Julie and Mike feel in their personal searches for the "big one".

The other strong point about the Slumber King Motel is that right next door to it is a Tim Horton's. For those who don't know about it, Tim Horton's is a mainstay of Canadian culture - though it is now American owned. The best coffee and donuts come from Tim's, and there's a Tim Horton's at nearly every other block. "You've always got time for Tim Horton's!" Well, I know we do. The beginning of the film calls for both Julie and Mike to go in separately to Tim's on their way to the motel where they will meet up. The drive way to the Slumber King (or is that King Slumber?) motel is shared alongside with the Tim Horton's restaurant on Prince of Wales/Old Highway 16. Perfect! Now, all we need to do is get permission from Tim Horton's to film on their premises. I wonder if we can go in overnight and shoot that, when there is less people around. Fingers are crossed... be nice to us Tim Horton!

On a concluding note, Luca has his own webpage which can be found at www.lucafurgiuele.com. Why not check it out? With his creative abilities, Luca is going to go very far in the world - why not be one of the people who can honestly say I remember when he just started out...?

Both from Movie Maker magazine:

http://www.moviemaker.com/hop/editorial.php?id=464

http://www.moviemaker.com/hop/editorial.php?id=467

both focus on things learned by/from cinematographers...

Well - the search for a motel room continues on. Luca and I have seen several places, all more or less perfect for the shoot. We speak with employees. Explain what we are doing... Assure them it's not porn... Check out the room to see its dimensions... Leave a card... and wait to hear back from them.

and nothing happens... No one has called us back yet to say sure, we'd love to let you use our facilities.

I am starting to wonder if we should go really "guerilla style" and just book two rooms somewhere at a motel, and say absolutely nothing about why we plan to use the space. Oy vey! Must it be that difficult to find a place to shoot?????

On another note, have you checked out our Yahoo group and tried the two polls we got going? Check the last blog posting here for a link...

First off, we've started another blog -- yes another one -- on MySpace.com. Our blog here on WithoutABox serves to record production note information and other technical stuff. This newer blog will have more general information as well as reflections on some of the themes we look at in the movie Searching for the Big One .

Ella Rose, Mihajlo and I met up last Friday to do a read through of the main parts of the script. Most of it is pretty good. There are a few sections that need to be spruced up. A poem called The Stripper will be edited out, and Ella Rose has offered to create a poem in its place. A funny moment in the read through was when we came to a part in the script where the principal characters sing a parody refrain to the tune of Go Down Moses (aka Let my People Go). Mihajlo sang it to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm: very creative e.i.e.i,o.

One of these days I will finalize the main location. I have a motel in mind -- the issue is do a make a reservation and say nothing to the manager/owner about wanting to shoot a movie on their premises... that is, do it real guerilla style... OR do I go above board and make my pitch about wanting to use the property for a micro budget feature being shot over an extended weekend. Any suggestions, folks?

After the read through, we also noted a need to find a strip joint we can use - during off hours of course - for a brief time. Both Ella and Mihajlo had some suggestions which we can hopefully build upon.

Well that's about it for now... onward and upward we go.

Well, for the second or third day in a row, it has been absolutely beautiful here in town. This is quite the contrast to earlier in the week when there was snow on the ground in some parts of eastern Canada and the United States. Glad to see the sun -- and the warm weather here with us!

A few things to update on the pre-production front. A website has been set up for the movie: it can be found at www.searchingforthebigone.com . Right now there is not much to it. But that will change as production gears up -- and certainly in post production.

On Monday, the 23rd, Luca and I will be going to meet the folks at SAW Video. We hope to rent some camera equipment from them, and hope too to have a great working relationship with them. SAW's reputation is a good one here in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. Luca and I will also be doing some location scouting.

Lastly, I have been listening to the book-on-CD version of Robert McKee's work about script writing Story. In listening to it, I felt inspired to re-watch the movie Chinatown, a flick I haven't seen in over a decade. Talk about a well crafted movie!!! I also an reading the script by Robert Towne; a great site to check out is Simply Scripts . It's worth checking out --

Well, I guess that is it for now

Ottawa, Ontario Canada based actor Mihajlo Kos has been cast in the role of Mike, the male lead character searching for the big answer in Searching for the Big One. This is Mihajlo's first lead role.

We have also had to set the shoot date back from the Victoria Day weekend (May 18-21) to the first weekend in July (July 6 to 9) because of some scheduling conflicts. It's a bit of a drag since we were pumped and primed to shoot in May, but the extra time gives us more time for pre-production... and as a producer once wisely told me: "A dollar in pre-production saves ten in production".

Lastly, we are happy to announce that Igor Ivanov will be looking after sound. Igor is a film buff and has directed movies of his own -- we are glad to have him as part of the team.

Nest step in pre-production: one of the most important now that casting and crew have been taken care of: LOCATION. We need to find a motel that will accomodate us -- though we are a small crew as far as productions go. One clincher will be that the price has to be right- we are, after all, on a microbudget. Wish us luck folks...

Okay... for some reason it is impossible -- or seems impossible -- to go back in to a blog entry to add a photograph. So, with apologies to Carolynn and to set the record right, above you will find a picture of Carolynn Roberts-Barnes, who has been cast to play the role of Beth.

The role of John, a member of a fictional group called The Bible People has been cast. David Campbell of Ottawa will be playing the part. We had a lot of good auditions for the part and it was a difficult decision to narrow down the actors to one. We are happy to have Dave as part of the production. He brings a real creativity to the part, and it was that aspect of his style that really caught our attention in the audition.

We will be in Toronto next Monday and Tuesday to conduct auditions for the parf of Mike. We've received very good response from a variety of actors -- not only for the part of Mike, the male lead, but also for the supporting roles of John - a member of a group called the "Bible People" -- and his cousin Beth - who owns the motel where the lead characters meet for their tryst. As Director and Producer, and here, I add the qualifier of being a real first timer, I am humbled by the talent and interest received. To you who are actors out there reading this - all I can say is I am so grateful and in awe of the ability shows in the craft of acting. I used to take actors for granted - but the process of casting has seriously opened my eyes to the life of an actor, especially of an actor in Canada. CANADIAN ACTORS: YOU ROCK!!!

On another note, we have managed to procure an M2 Lens Adapter by Redrock and will be trying it out this weekend. The use of this equipment comes at the suggestion of Luca Furgiuele, our cinematographer. The M2 uses a film lens and gives the video a film look. I so hope it works out well.

Hi -- I came across a write up about WAB in the fall issue of Filmmaker. This seems to be the type of website I have been looking for, and am delighted to be here.

I live in Canada, and like to think of myself as an aspiring filmmaker. To date, I do not have any completed projects that I can put online. But I am working on a few. I have done some photographic work, which interestingly enough has taught me a lot about how the image tells a story. I enjoy writing as well, and am exploring creative possibilities in that vein too.

This is also my first time ever doing a blog... so bear with me. I guess a newbie all around :-).