We here at Daros are fully into post-production on Greyscale, which means there are far fewer fun photos to post, and far less exciting status updates. We have an image lock and are now working on sound design and visual effects via Andy Gilliam and Daniel Lipats respectively. Honestly, it’s a relief to know that if I take a short breather, then the film is getting closer to completion without me. That hasn’t been the case since February of 2008.
Back in April we wrapped on Greyscale and shot a short film called Leave Me (posted on this blog recently), which has gone on to get over 80,000 views over its various venues, and will soon be popping up on Hulu.com! It was a nice break from the behemoth project, and something of a nice reprieve to remind ourselves that what we’re working on isn’t worthless as we received many stories of people who were dealing with the death of a family member, a divorce, or any sort of traumatic separation. It was humbling and reinvigorating. Artists may make art for themselves, but it’s the opinion of the consumer that dictates whether the artist can continue (or sacks of money the artist has stashed away…).
With Greyscale reaching almost 2 years in the making, it was good to know that something we could produce within 36 hours could move people. The verdict is still out on the behemoth since it hasn’t been released, but I’m very pleased with how it’s shaping up.
It’s quite an amazing thing to spend months upon months crafting characters only to have them come alive for a few days (or for larger characters, months) and then forever be relegated to footage.
.:New Beginnings
In fact, the whole process is beginning again.
We still haven’t begun pre-production as the story has to be greenlit, but that isn’t stopping us from beginning to form together our next big story. Dustin Ballard (co-writer of Leave Me and storyline consultant on Greyscale), Gloria Roundtree (AD on Greyscale), and myself have been meeting on a weekly basis to hash out the framework of the story.
While I am very hesitant to give details on any story elements so early in the game (if you remember, Greyscale was originally a sci-fi concept…), I can tell you that it’s currently shaping up to be something quite different from Greyscale and a bit more like Leave Me. Since we had such a massive (and very primal) reaction to that, it’s becoming more apparent the healing power that a good story can have. It’s something we’re planning to explore further, and when we have some concrete news to share, we’ll post it here.
.:Done in 60 Seconds
The same organizers that put together the 36 hour film fest that we created Leave Me for is now at it again with a 12 hour festival on December 28th. This time the limit is 1 minute, and we are most definitely participating again. More updates on that as it nears.
If you’ve been noticing a distinct lack of news on Greyscale, it’s probably due to the new Greyscale Blog over at GreyscaleBlog.tumblr.com, which you can find on the official greyscale site: GreyscaleMovie.com!
Also, if you’re a Facebook user, you can find both pages for Daros Films and Greyscale as well! We keep up to date news there as well.
This was an entry Daros Films put out for ChristianFilmmakers.org’s 36 Hour Film Festival. We’re really pleased with how it has turned out, so if you have 3 minutes, please check it out!
RACHEL: You remind me of Michael.
OLIVER: That why you’re still here?
.:MLT
Wait, you mean we’re still making a movie? Weekly update 36 back in early January was our last major announcement, and so much has happened since then (I really ought to get someone to write these, shouldn’t I?) We are zeroing in the finish line. In fact, we’re so close, we’re officially WRAPPING on Friday, April 3rd. It will be a bittersweet end after 42 outings together, but there’s no rest for us as we’ll immediately move into pickups and a reshoot or two (we are classifying wrapping as completing at least most of every scene and we’ll be at officially 98% of what we need).
.:Chop-Shop
The rough assembly edit is 50% complete. As soon as we wrap, I’ll be devoting most of my free time into completing the assembly edit and picking out what we might be missing for inserts and reshoots. After that, we’ll be putting together a trailer and polish off a few key scenes to start shopping around to distributors. And then… well, we’ll just have to see what comes next, but we’re all very excited.
.:Credits
43 weeks ago… I mentioned a song I wanted. Without going into too much detail, the dream is now something of an obtainable goal with much thanks to the legwork of a few individuals. I’ll let you know more when I can.
.:Behind the Scenes
The blog needs some more pictures, and I’ll be putting some great production stills up soon.
Thanks for reading and supporting Greyscale! We’re incredibly close to finishing this leg of the game and it has been an absolute blast.
…the item being used was a plastic rod covered with dense foam to make it look like a lead pipe. While it did not hurt like a lead pipe (and thus make for a far shorter video… er… movie…), it did still hurt.
Thanks.
The Management.
Music: Modest Mouse “Float On” (which we wish we had rights to, but don’t)
February 7th, 2008 – The movie title Greyscale is imagined during a meeting at the Oklahoma Moviemakers group after it was pitched to have a local film festival.
A year has been invested in this project. 7.5 months of writing/pre-production, 3.5 months in production, 1 in post (thus far). 72 cast members, 20+ crew (on set and off), and a lot of people showing interest in the project… it’s come a long way and still has a ways to go… The last 15% of filming and 60% left to go on the assembly edit (and then the first actual edit, scoring, color treatment, sound sweetening, etc). But, as soon as the assembly is complete, the trailer will be put together and we’ll go to distributors and see who bites.
Whatever your level of involvement, I want to say a sincere thank you for being here with this project, no matter the level. Whether you’ve said a few encouraging words or been on set all 33 days of production thusfar, we wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for you.
While most people’s association with this project will be merely the finished product, I’m realizing the value that comes with a producing something like this. People are brought together, relationships are formed, stories and lives are shared, and win, lose, or draw, we have the memories and the experiences left behind. Yes, I am a very nostalgic person, and still can’t believe how so much has come together through the work of so many. Thank you for investing in this idea, this story, this chapter in my life that I will always look back fondly on. Yes, there is plenty more work left to be done as I’ve mentioned before, but we’ve hit a milestone, and too often they are forgotten.
.:Conway Banks
I want to thank everyone that helped out during the screenwriting process of this. As I recently began writing a short story for the next project during some downtime, I forgot how much fun writing was… and how awful first drafts look. Greyscale started off as a simple tale of evening the score, Ocean’s 11 style… and has since become much, much more thanks to the many who slogged through draft after draft, killing a few small forests in the process of offering their opinions. This story was written by Conway Banks, which started as an inside joke of a pen name but I now am realizing that Conway is a collective of everyone that has put their time into refining this story, questioning the ideas and pointing out the areas that needed work.
There are points in the story that I’m discovering how connected everything is. How this is a story of forgiveness, of redemptions past, present, and future. How Greyscale may refer to the world being in black and white, but moreso how it is Oliver’s story of how he could have wound up in the position of just about any of the rest of the characters if certain events had happened differently (or if forgiveness had been granted or received at different points in his life), and thus can look at each person in their own scale of good/badness and see where he falls in the mix and why. It’s something I don’t expect many people to walk away understanding, but I hope it’s at least transparent enough to be noticed.
.:Ian Hamilton
I want to thank the actors who have breathed life into these roles. It’s an interesting experience to wrestle with creating a fictional person for so long only to have their character live for a day or two and then be forever nothing but images on a screen from that point on. It’s a humbling and beautiful thing for a writer to experience, and in the editing bay, I have been so proud of our cast. For the bits that I have shown around, I have gotten far and away more praise than critiques on how the cast is working well together. They say 80% of directing is casting, and I believe it.
.:Color-Wheel
I want to thank the crew for all the blood, sweat, and… well, no tears have been shed yet, thankfully. I could not ask for a better crew to work with. Most people that have come on set for a weekend have done nothing but rave about how hard working, patient, and loyal this crew has been. I won’t drag this message on too much longer, but I can only hope that you all have enjoyed working on this movie as much as I have had the pleasure of getting to know you and work with you.
Year one is done, my friends. 2008 was strong, but 2009 is where it all pays off. Thank you for believing in this project.
“Hello little bird. Come to offer me fifty percent of nothing?”~Jamison
First of all, many thanks to all of you for sticking around with us. So much has happened since our last update. Both Tim Russ and Doug Jones have come, delivered brilliantly, and headed back to the West coast. For those of you following us on Facebook, these aren’t anything new, but here are some screengrabs from some of the rough CC footage: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038030&l=5f47a&id=26400254
While we’re working on the new Greyscale website, feel free to go out there and visit to see the new 3-minute behind the scenes short film put together by our own Joseph Hutson (www.greyscalemovie.com).
.:Professionals
I’ve heard that a good portion of directing is the casting process, and I can’t say enough about our cast. From our LA pros (who have been directed by the likes of Speilberg, Burton, del Toro, Whedon, Shyamalan, Brooks and more…) to our experienced homegrown cast, I am incredibly proud of our performers and have found them all incredibly easy to direct.
.:Hiatus We’re officially 85% finished with filming as of Dec 14th. Since then we’ve been on break for the holidays we’ve been regrouping to see what pickups/inserts/reshoots are necessary. Editing has begun, and we’re more excited than ever to get this thing wrapped.
Other than that, there isn’t much to report, but please check out the pictures and behind the scenes footage!
Gabe:There are just some things a person should know before they die.
Welcome back, race fans! It’s amazing how time flies when you’re in production and on limited sleep! I believe my last e-mail was back in Week 21, so apologies for not keeping you all up to date. We have some pretty big announcements to make, and some fun new ways to follow Greyscale through its production.
When we set out to create Greyscale, we were looking at putting some money aside to get one recognizable name/face attached to the project. Well, it is my incredibly pleasure to announce that we have THREE.
1) Anthony Tyler Quinn – Playing Jonathon Cole. We shot his scenes early on in October. You might remember him from his days on Boy Meets World.
2) Tim Russ – Playing Gavin Calhoun. He is flying in this Saturday to film all of his scenes on Sunday and Monday. You might remember him from Star Trek: Voyager or Samantha Who.
3) Doug Jones- Playing Jamison. He is coming in December. You might remember him from Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy 1 & 2, or playing the role of the Silver Surfer in the Fantastic 4 sequel.
We have been immensely blessed with a wealth of talent here, and I can’t wait to see what Tim and Doug will bring to Greyscale (Tony already knocked it out of the park). Also, many thanks to Calix Reneau and Brandon Rice for helping us out with getting these greatly talented actors!
.:Stats
Some statistics that might interest you:
-We are 57% finished with shooting the movie
-74 pages of the script has been shot, covering 97 scenes
-We have been on location for 166 hours, over 22 outings
We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are incredibly excited as a cast and crew to keep bringing this story to life. As a little bonus, we have an unofficial teaser trailer for you to take a peek at if you haven’t already: http://www.vimeo.com/2177494. It is just temp music, but it provides a little taste with the visual style we’re going after.
Day 1 was frought with nervousness and excitement as we were let in by security to use the main lecture hall I spent many an hour in during my time in the film studies program at my alma mater: The University of Tulsa. The first scene shown chronologically in the movie’s timeline was the scene where Oliver (our protagonist) meets his wife-to-be, Julia in a classroom.
After seven months of pre-production, gear acquisition, screenplay revisions, and logistic wrangling, we yelled “Camera’s up! Quiet on the set! Action!” for the first time. It was a surreal moment as I thought, “wait… this is actually going to be in the finished product…” Currently the first time we rolled is what’s sitting in the rough edit as the best of the takes, and I hope it stays in.
Scenes filmed:
-Oliver & Julia’s meetcute @ The University of Tulsa
Daros is a rough interpretation of a Hebrew word that means 'Reclaim.'
The purpose of Daros Films is to reclaim the Story that is being told by showing it in other stories. The purpose is to reclaim the quality of a beautiful artform that has become in some regards, a mindless pastime.
