After an incredibly intense filming shoot - nine days of almost round-the-clock filming - we wrapped at midnight on Saturday, then partied until dawn. Most of the cast lived and slept in the Derry House (our location) the entire time, and our schedule consisted of make-up call at 5pm, beginning filming around 6pm, filming until dinner at 10pm, then filming until anywhere between 3am and 5am. Then we'd cool off (aka "horse around") for a couple hours, until the light of dawn chased us to our coffins, sleep for a few hours, then wake up to start the whole process over again.

Somehow, we managed to shoot around seven scenes a night, and still have them coming out well-acted, dynamic and looking beautiful!

Nicholas Carroll, our Technical Director and Lighting Designer, never stopped amazing me. He stayed focused the entire time, despite the party atmosphere that frequently tried to take over the house. He learned the ins and outs of the Derry House electrical wiring and managed to give me any lighting effects I wanted, despite the very close quarters we had to work in. And he operated the crane and steadicam, making the look of this film much more dynamic than anything we've done previously.

We were also aided by a great crew, consisting of Greg Murphy as Audio Engineer and First Boom Operator (with Dina Baker, James Tyrrell and Janelle Matrow operating the boom, when Greg was in front of the camera); James Tyrrell as Best Boy Grip; Cory Reed Smith as Lead Gaffer; and Oz Skinner, Jake Lucas and Liz Saunders as Production Assistants.

We also had Michael Fontana doing a fantastic job on make-up, and Claire Curtis handling our catering with wonderful homemade meals every night. (Claire also fed my cats on shooting days, for which I am extremely grateful.)

To top it off, the acting was excellent, despite the long hours and lack of sleep. There were times when some of the takes with Billy Baraw, Rob Kersey and Greg Murphy almost brought tears to my eyes (not an easy accomplishment, considering how many times I've heard the dialog), and Dina Baker and Stephanie Aurora Crianca Long balanced them wonderfully. Xebic Smith and Ashley Caron provided some of the films best comic moments, along with a host of other actors too numerous to name here. (I might also point out that all three ladies looked stunning on camera.)

Editing will take a while, but I anticipate having a rough cut by the end of the month. I still have every intention of finishing "The Resurrection", but for a short time, I'm just basking in the sense of achievement this past week has given me.

"The Resurrection" has been put on hold temporarily - just about five weeks, until "Boundaries of Attraction" is in the can. For those of you not into film-speak, that means, filmed - not in the trash. :-p The term comes from the idea of taking a reel of film out of the camera and putting it back into the metal cannister. Of course, we're not using film stock, but "in the plastic case" doesn't sound as dramatic.

I did take David Snyder and Rob Kersey out into the woods by the side of the house to film one of the "Resurrection" dream sequences recently - complete with malfunctioning fog machine, for that cheesy old horror movie look - but we probably won't get much else done on it until mid-August. There's simply too much to do before the August 2nd shooting date for "Boundaries".

We have a fixed date for filming (August 2nd through the 9th), due to scheduling issues with the Derry House - our location. So we have to be ready by then. This means a ton of pre-production work, such as storyboarding, set dressing, lighting tests, etc.

And, of course, rehearsals.

We have our cast now, with the exception of Donna, a lesbian character in her early twenties with a few lines. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in reading for the part, please contact casting@dunkirkstudios.com

We had a major glitch the weekend of the read-through, when the person we'd cast as Josh dropped out, due to personal reasons. I appreciate that he dropped out before we'd really begun, rather than wait until half-way through the rehearsal stage, but it put us in a very bad spot, only a few weeks before filming. Fortunately, Xebic Smith, who'd been cast in a minor role, stepped up and has been doing a great job in the part!

Apart from Donna, our cast is:

Robert Kersey, playing Ty/Sean
Billy Baraw, playing Forrest
Dina Baker, playing Lindsay
Stephanie Aurora Long, playing Cara
Xebic Joseph Smith, playing Josh
Ashley Caron, playing Caitlin
Greg Murphy, playing Billy
Rebecca Howland, playing Christy
Michael Fontana, playing Frank and doing make-up

In addition to Donna, we are looking for people to play several minor roles (with one or two lines) and as many people as we can round up to play extras at the party the film takes place during.

We had our first full rehearsals this weekend, and they went really well. Since this is our first drama, as opposed to a genre piece - horror or sci-fi - I've been constantly trying to impress upon the cast how essential it is for the writing and acting to be top-notch, if we want to pull it off. The writing and acting in a horror film should be good, as I've ranted about many times, but the audience is willing to let a certain amount of cheesiness slide, as long as they're having a good time. But in a drama, if the writing is cornball, and the acting wooden, the audience will be bored to tears. This has been one of my main sources of stress since beginning this project.

After this weekend, I'm extremely upbeat and positive about how things are going. (As opposed to the pit of despair I was in a couple weeks ago - "Who WROTE this crap?!") We've got a fantastic cast (not to malign the cast in our other projects, in any way!) and I think they're going to do a terrific job!

In addition to continuing filming on "The Resurrection" (we just filmed a night scene with Rob and Cory, plus some additional footage of Claire and our friend, Howard Stith), we have begun casting for a new short film project!

The working title of the film is "Boundaries of Attraction", and we expect it to be about 45 minutes long.

It is a gay romance about a heterosexual man who is dared to kiss another man at a party. When it turns out that the other man used to be his best friend in High School, their past conflicts begin to resurface. The entire film takes place in one evening.

We are currently looking for people in the range of 18-30 years old to fill several roles, including leads (see below) and extras for the party.

Auditions will be held in late June. We will be filming from August 2nd through August 9th, in Derry, NH.

If you are interested, please send an e-mail to casting@dunkirkstudios.com

Principals:

FORREST -- 23 years old. Male. Tall -- at least over 5'10". Attractive and fairly muscular. Characters comment about how good he looks with his shirt off. Tattoos and/or piercings might be good. He's tough and broody. He is straight, but ends up kissing and having sex with our other male lead. The part has some brief nudity and simulated homosexual sex. Has scenes involving smoking cigarettes and "pot".

JOSH -- 22 years old. Male. Average height. Forrest's only real friend, at the beginning of the film, and the younger cousin of his dealer. The character must act drunk throughout most of the film. He is basically a good guy, but his head is full of ignorant stereotypes, and he frequently puts his foot in his mouth. He's not very sharp, and talks like he's stoned, even when he's sober. The character smokes pot, as well as drinks. The part involves some brief nudity, including possible frontal, and he spends much of the film wearing a bath towel. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

LINDSAY -- Early twenties. Female. Ty's girlfriend and the owner of the house where the party takes place. She often has a somewhat motherly attitude towards her boyfriend, and has a tendency to protect him. Intelligent, but a bit high-strung.

CARA -- Early twenties. Female. Lindsay's best friend and Forrest's girlfriend. Generally easy-going and acts a bit more mature than her age. She disapproves of Forrest's pot-smoking. She tends to be good-humored, although the revelations she gets at the party put this to the test.

CAITLIN -- Early twenties. Female. An intelligent young woman at the party who gets hit on by Josh. Initially, his ignorant attitudes put her off, and she's not afraid to challenge him. But eventually she begins to find his naivete charming.

BILLY -- 18 - 21 years old. Male. He's a bit younger than the kids he hangs out with, and he's the type of kid who's desperate for heroes. He will do almost anything for them. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

Featured:

DONNA -- Early twenties. Female. Tough, lesbian character who is the defacto "leader" of the group of pot-smokers. She and her friends tend to stay on the fringe of the party, rather than really mix. She bristles at homophobic or sexist comments, but is generally good-natured. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

CHRISTY -- Early twenties. Female. Donna's girlfriend. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

LORI -- Early twenties. Female. A young woman who keeps following people around the party with her camcorder.

In addition to continuing filming on "The Resurrection" (we just filmed a night scene with Rob and Cory, plus some additional footage of Claire and our friend, Howard Stith), we have begun casting for a new short film project!

The working title of the film is "Boundaries of Affection", and we expect it to be about 45 minutes long.

It is a gay romance about a heterosexual man who is dared to kiss another man at a party. When it turns out that the other man used to be his best friend in High School, their past conflicts begin to resurface. The entire film takes place in one evening.

We are currently looking for people in the range of 18-30 years old to fill several roles, including leads (see below) and extras for the party. Auditions will be held in late June.

If you are interested, please send an e-mail to casting@dunkirkstudios.com

Principals:

FORREST -- 23 years old. Male. Tall -- at least over 5'10". Attractive and fairly muscular. Characters comment about how good he looks with his shirt off. Tattoos and/or piercings might be good. He's tough and broody. He is straight, but ends up kissing and having sex with our other male lead. The part has some brief nudity and simulated homosexual sex. Has scenes involving smoking cigarettes and "pot".

JOSH -- 22 years old. Male. Average height. Forrest's only real friend, at the beginning of the film, and the younger cousin of his dealer. The character must act drunk throughout most of the film. He is basically a good guy, but his head is full of ignorant stereotypes, and he frequently puts his foot in his mouth. He's not very sharp, and talks like he's stoned, even when he's sober. The character smokes pot, as well as drinks. The part involves some brief nudity, including possible frontal, and he spends much of the film wearing a bath towel. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

LINDSAY -- Early twenties. Female. Ty's girlfriend and the owner of the house where the party takes place. She often has a somewhat motherly attitude towards her boyfriend, and has a tendency to protect him. Intelligent, but a bit high-strung.

CARA -- Early twenties. Female. Lindsay's best friend and Forrest's girlfriend. Generally easy-going and acts a bit more mature than her age. She disapproves of Forrest's pot-smoking. She tends to be good-humored, although the revelations she gets at the party put this to the test.

CAITLIN -- Early twenties. Female. An intelligent young woman at the party who gets hit on by Josh. Initially, his ignorant attitudes put her off, and she's not afraid to challenge him. But eventually she begins to find his naivete charming.

BILLY -- 18 - 21 years old. Male. He's a bit younger than the kids he hangs out with, and he's the type of kid who's desperate for heroes. He will do almost anything for them. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

Featured:

DONNA -- Early twenties. Female. Tough, lesbian character who is the defacto "leader" of the group of pot-smokers. She and her friends tend to stay on the fringe of the party, rather than really mix. She bristles at homophobic or sexist comments, but is generally good-natured. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

CHRISTY -- Early twenties. Female. Donna's girlfriend. Has scenes involving smoking "pot".

LORI -- Early twenties. Female. A young woman who keeps following people around the party with her camcorder.

I haven't time to update the blog in a couple weeks, but we've been busy finishing up the first two-thirds of "Resurrection". There are a few scenes yet to go, while we plan to film the final scenes.

On the last Sunday in April, Kymra and Rob and I got together to film a critical scene in the Derry House kitchen. There isn't much going on, action-wise, but we finally get some of the exposition we've been hinting at earlier in the film. One of the problems with "The Sacrifice" was that it was extremely heavy on exposition, and ran slow, as a result (up until the end). We've been trying to avoid that in "Resurrection", keeping all the scenes short and just dropping bits and pieces of exposition in, as needed. (There is still a scene in which Jonathan reads from a book, but we've tried some different techniques to hopefully spice things up, during that scene.)

The kitchen scene also gives Kymra a chance to expand a bit on Laura's character, and make her seem a bit more knowledgeable than she seemed in the first film. She's a librarian, after all!

We also managed to finally film the scene in which Laura is psychically attacked by David. That scene is one of our most fragmented -- we've shot bits and pieces of it over the course of a year (a brief bit appeared in the trailer) and now I finally get to splice it together. (At that, there's still one critical shot missing.)

The first weekend in May started out disastrously, from our point of view. We'd spent a month making arrangements to film a baby goat (otherwise known as a "kid", but talking about sacrificing kids upsets people) at a farm in Hubbardston, MA. ("Cauldron Farm" -- http://www.cauldronfarm.com/ ) for a mock-Satanic sacrifice scene. In addition to assuring our friends at Cauldron Farm that the goat was not going to be harmed in any way, we had to make arrangements to get several of our cast members down there. (The location was a bit remote.)

So, we get there on Saturday, to participate in a Beltane ritual at the farm and meet the star of the scene (the goat), and...it's pouring rain. And cold. Plus, the weather report indicated it would only get worse on Sunday, when we were planning on filming.

The goat, for his part, was adorable. He had huge floppy ears and immediately jumped up to start licking my face, the moment I was introduced to him. He also, we discovered later, made a tragic, bleating sound when he was distressed that could melt the coldest heart. Perfect. (Technically, the sacrifice scene should have had an adult goat in it -- it was supposed to take place in December, after all. But cute and tugging-at-the-heart-strings trumps logic, in this situation.)

I made the decision to plow ahead, unless it was absolutely pouring on us by Sunday afternoon. There were too many factors to easily re-schedule the scene.

Sunday morning, I woke from a nightmare in which I arrived at the farm with my cast to discover that the rain was coming down in buckets, and found that yes, it was raining. But I checked the weather report and there was a glimmer of hope for the afternoon. So I kept putting off canceling. By the time we left for the farm (a two-hour drive from Derry), it had stopped raining, and by the time we arrived, the sun was actually starting to show itself. We filmed the scene in a moderately dry, sunlit field.

With the rain gone, the biggest problem became bugs. They were suddenly everywhere, including crawling on the camera lens, looking like giant monsters from a 1950s B-horror movie. But overall, things went off without a hitch -- the goat was adorable on cue, Rob remembered his hastily-improvised Latin, and the shots looked good. No deaths, no injuries.

It was a good day.

With the theoretical coming of Spring over a week ago (it's snowing outside, as I'm writing this), we've had to scramble to finish every shot that might need snow on the ground.

A couple weekends ago, we got Ximon, Darin, Cory and Mark together at Brookwood Pet Resort ( http://www.brookwoodpetresort.com/ ) to film a couple scenes outside the clinic. It was a little problematic, because it was bright and sunny. There was still snow around the parking lot, at least, but the sunlight was a bit too much of a contrast with the scene we filmed in Barrington a while ago, which is supposed to take place in between these two scenes. So, even though each scene came out great, the transition isn't terrific. I'm working on grabbing some shots that I can insert between them, which will hopefully smooth it out a bit.

This past weekend, we went down to Jamie Picon's in Methuen and filmed the scene in which Jonathan, Larry and Kelton discover the corpse of Jake Dunlap in the basement. Unfortunately, our corpse (Grant Garvin) was sick with the flu, and even I'm not cruel enough to make a sick man lay on a cold, damp cement floor. But Jamie happened to be hosting a gaming event upstairs, so his friend, Ben, stepped in to be our dead body for a couple hours. This worked out fine - we'll just have to do a couple close-ups of Grant in the burn make-up, when he recuperates.

Basically, we're done with outdoor Winter shots. We managed to get a quick couple shots of Jonathan being dropped off by the side of the road this weekend - I'd just about given up on that, so I was psyched that we got some snow this weekend, and were able to grab it. There are a couple scenes that are still technically "outdoor Winter scenes", but they are both at night, and both in cars, so I'm not terribly concerned about the snow melting, before we can film them. Besides, my cast is convinced I have some strange ability to make it snow, when I need it for a scene, so they made me promise to stop wishing for it.

This puts us at two-thirds done, and even though this may seem like a lot left, the last third was really the toughest part - waiting around for it to snow, but not so much that we couldn't make it to the locations, then freezing to death, while trying to keep the camera from being waterlogged. Except for the two mentioned above, all of the remaining scenes are either indoors, or written to be filmed on warm, sunny Spring or Summer days.

Well...with the possible exception of a brief scene involving a goat...

It was brought to my attention just a few days ago that, Paul Jack, at DoorQ.com, posted a review of "The Sacrifice" in November, called "The Sacrifice (2005) - The Whipped Cream on your Microbudget Sundae".

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but, um...I think it's good...

At any rate, despite criticisms of the sound and other technical aspects of the film, the review is overall terrific! Paul seems to really "get" what we're trying to accomplish with this film and others we've been working on.

Go here to read it: http://www.doorq.com/blog.aspx?b=62

It's been a busy few weeks. After the crowd scene on the 18th, we went back and did some pick-up shots at the same location, since we'd run out of daylight the first time and I decided there needed to be a couple more shots from within the car, and shots of Jonathan looking at the forest. Jeff Delano also allowed himself to be chained to the wrought-iron fence again (as seen in our trailer), to re-do a shot that didn't come out very well last Winter.

We also did some shooting on a dramatic scene with Mrs. Henniker (Claire Curtis). It isn't done, because we could only shoot the parts that didn't involve a truck. She's working on getting the truck out there, so we can finish that up. It's really only three extremely brief shots.

On the 9th, we got permission from the Manchester police to do a scene in the pavilion at Derry Field Park. Erich and I couldn't actually make it to the location until the afternoon we were going to shoot the scene, so I was pleased to find that it was perfect, in terms of the way it looked, and even had lights , which made our night-time shoot infinitely easier.

Less appealling, was the freezing wind that whipped through the pavillion that afternoon. It was dangerously cold, and blew powdered snow everywhere. Even if we could do the scene without getting frostbite, it was likely we wouldn't have any useable sound.

I came close to canceling, but Rob pushed to do the scene, so we met there after dark. Fortunately, the wind had nearly disappeared. It was cold, but not at all as bad as it had been earlier, and we had no trouble with the sound. The footage from the scene looks really nice, although a bit surreal in the light from the pavilion. At one point, Jonathan is supposed to show Nathan a supernatural ball of fire, sitting in his hand. This effect will be done digitally, but we had to illuminate Rob's hand and Cory's face with an orange light. This ended up being accomplished by using a super-bright LED, wrapped in an orange Easter-egg-shaped gel, meant to stick to a window as a decoration.

This past weekend, we returned to the Dover Middle School - now an office building - to shoot a scene in which Laura drops Jonathan off at school, then the police show up. Since this is directly across the street from the Dover police station, and Kevin was wearing a real police uniform that we ordered online, we again got permission, to avoid any accusations of impersonating police officers. By now, unfortunately, our police car magnetic details are looking a bit shabby, and tend to barely hang on the side of the car. Few people would be fooled. But one by-stander was last year, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

The footage looks good, but again we had problems with wind. This may be the only scene we've filmed so far that needs dialog replacement. Ugh.

We're nearly done with all of the outdoor Winter shots. There are some night shots left and a few brief scenes in the parking lot at the clinic, which can hopefully be framed so we don't see the fact that the snow is melting rapidly. If we're lucky, we'll get one more good storm, before the Spring really sets in. Everyone else in New Hampshire will hate us for wishing it, but, hey - this is art!

After the location for the roadblock scene fell through last week, for various reasons, we were starting to get a little worried. This is a major, if not very long, scene in the film, and involves a lot of people. Rob had rounded up a good number of extras, so canceling would have been a major problem. Fortunately, Claire was able to do some scouting around for us, and eventually negotiated the use of a long drive through the woods, leading to the house of her friend, Lydia.

The new location was even better than where we'd originally planned on filming. The only catch was, I'd never been there (although, I had a ROUGH idea where it was), and Claire had to be in Northern Maine for the day. People started showing up in Dover around 9:30am, so it looked, at first, as if we had a chance of launching on time. (I'd planned on caravaning over around 11am and beginning filming shortly after that.)

It didn't work out that way, of course. By the time we had everyone together, including some stragglers, it was past noon. The first attempt at a caravan ended up with me and about half of the cars pulled over on the side of Henry Law Ave., waiting for the second half, which had been stopped by a light. Unfortunately, when the light turned, those cars proceeded to go forward and miss the turn onto Henry Law. Eventually, I took the half I was leading forward, while Erich went back to find the others.

I blew right past the entrance to the drive on Back Road, and had to call Claire on her cell to figure out where I'd missed the turn. That wasn't too complicated, and we found it fairly quickly, after that.

However, the others, having eventually found their way back to my apartment, and met up with Erich, were having problems of their own. They set out, but managed to get split up yet again - I think at the same light that foiled us the first time. Some found their way back to my apartment, but Rob's brother, Chris, and his friend, Sammi, were off in the Outback for a while.

In the meantime, Mark Landry showed up. We already knew he'd be late, due to work, but his arrival at this point just added to the confusion. By the time everyone was finally rounded up and at the location, it was close to 2pm.

In this area, at this time of year, the sun sets around 5:30pm, and really, the lighting starts to look dramatically different about an hour before that. So we had about two hours to get the scene shot. As it was, we went a bit longer than that, so the final shots have the sun a bit low in the sky.

Apart from getting lost, things went relatively smoothly, although the drive was so slick with ice, several of us fell down. Not me, personally, although I had a few close calls (while carrying the camera, no less!), but Kevin Barrett gave us a very dramatic and, I have to say, very funny pratfall while getting out of the "police cruiser". It's all on tape, so viewers will be able to enjoy his suffering in the outtakes. (No, he wasn't actually hurt.)

Rob also brought along his friend, Mike, who's been studying film at school. He ended up being my impromptu Production Assistant for the day, and he was immensely helpful. After the equipment he's been trained to use in his classes, our guerilla setup must have seemed crude, but hopefully he learned something from being on location with us. I certainly wouldn't mind if he joined us again on future filming days.

The footage came out great, although I was dismayed to see that the camera still introduces occasional digital artifacts. It will have to be serviced, if we can track down where to get that done. Fortunately, we still have the Canon XL2, as a backup.

After some juggling of schedules, we finally got Cory, Darin, Lily and Ken's jeep together in Rollinsford on Sunday, to film the Tollend Road scene.

When we'd first scouted out this road, it looked ideal - out of the way, no traffic. But we soon discovered a problem we hadn't anticipated: dogs. More specifically, people walking their dogs. Apparently, everyone for miles around considers this road to be a dog park. We couldn't believe how many cars started pulling into the area under the railroad trestle. They never let up, the entire time we were there.

Fortunately, the cars weren't actually driving down the road, because it would have been impossible to work around that. The road was only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. Once I'd gotten over my initial despair at the amount of people milling around, we were able to go ahead and film, anyway. The biggest concern was not flying around the corner with the jeep and running some poor dog over, but we managed without any mishaps.

Technically, we ran into some snags. The jeep had been in a collision a couple weeks earlier, so the passenger side door couldn't be opened, which made it difficult for me to get in and out. Also, the back seat couldn't be pushed all the way down, so laying Lily down flat was impossible. And in general, the space was just very cramped to film in, with a lot of background noise from the vehicle.

Lastly, it started snowing pretty heavily at times, so the camera lens kept getting streaked with melting snowflakes (otherwise known as "water").

But despite these minor problems, filming went relatively smoothly, and we got some great footage. When I edited it together on Monday, I was really happy with it. The acting is good, and dramatically I think it works really well. My half-assed attempt at digital effects didn't work out brilliantly, but hopefully that can be remedied.