Blake pours Oliver a glass of milk.
OLIVER: I was thinking something a bit stronger.
BLAKE: (looking at the carton) It’s almost expired…
.:156
There are one-hundred, fifty-six scenes in Greyscale. There are 38 locations and 21 speaking roles. 16 locations are locked down while 29 have a place in mind… and 11 speaking roles have been cast. While this may not seem horribly interesting, you must keep in mind that this is coming from a kid who used to spend days laying his baseball cards out on the living room floor and organizing them by team, position, and alphabetical by last name… obsessive compulsive? Perhaps. I am thankful for Microsoft Excel.
Although, all of these things are going to be of importance when we press the record button for the first time (well, 2nd time if you don’t count “The Oliver Chronicles”).
.:Colorscale
The filming schedule has been broken down into 5 categories: Dark Red, Red, Orange, Yellow, and Green (those were just in a row in Excel, if you’re curious). We begin in Dark Red, and film all of those scenes (specifically where the grass is green and Julia has red hair), and once we finish those, we move on to Red, and so on and so forth (they are based on logistics, location efficiency, and personal schedules). Once we hit green, we’re on the home stretch… that will be a nice day.
If you’re curious as to the Dark Red locations, they are:
-Old Warehouse -Oliver’s Old House -University Classroom/Lobby/Outside -University Library -Coffee Shop -Shooting Range -Julia’s Car -Jonathon Cole’s House -Graveyard
The only difficulties we foresee is shooting in a graveyard and talking to a coffee shop owner and getting extras… Thankfully everything else is just about locked down.
.:Facebook
If you are Facebook inclined, it would mean quite a lot if you could head over to the new Daros Films page: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/broken-arrow-OK/Daros-Films/21069809066. If you are already a member of the Daros Films or Greyscale Group, please join on the new page as the old Groups won’t be updated any longer. It will give me statistics and some other good information to see how interested people are in the project/discuss the projects/see videos/etc…
Sarah and I are getting on a plane tomorrow and heading off to NYC (well, technically Philly, then Princeton, NJ… but then we’ll spend some time in NYC) for a week. Sort of a last vacation before Greyscale hits, and it’ll be good practice for me to get used to the new Nikon lenses with a digital still camera. I’ll probably be shooting in black and white too for practice… So, week 12’s update won’t come in until at least next Friday… unless I decide to get bored and ambitious with my cell phone… So, until then!
GABE: Hey, do you still dream in color?
OLIVER: Yeah … starting to fade though.
GABE: So, everything else is black and white?
OLIVER: I wish.
.:Belated
You may have noticed I have been falling behind my regular Wednesday weekly deadline a bit… which means I have grown even busier. This last week though, had little to do with Greyscale. At our first pre-production meeting, Marisa (who plays Rachel) asked if I would be interested in helping out with a little music video project that she and a friend had in mind, and we thought it would be good practice to perhaps iron out some workflow kinks when it came time to start principle photography. I learned that I need at least one more battery and memory card…
I know the weekly updates and the Daros Blog readers aren’t necessarily the same group even though I crosspost the weekly updates there, so I’ll refer you to the finished product of the music video that resulted from Marisa’s request.
It’s Coldplay’s latest single, Viva La Vida. Marisa played Marie Antoinette (the one in the green dress), and I was a revolutionary (the one that walked a lot with a white X across his chest…).
.:Abstract Dates
August 1st is approaching, and we still are in pre-production. Next week Sarah and I are heading to NYC for a little vacation, so things will resume in August, where we will continue the casting process, as well as handing the legal, location, wardrobe, and any other issues that look like they will crop up.
I’m not to terribly sad to have missed the Aug 1 deadline since it was just a date that was tossed out to motivate everyone involved in the project to get things moving as quickly as possible.
I’m currently hoping to get things ready to start filming the 3rd or 4th week of August. I want to allow time for casting and rehearsals. Thanks for sticking with us, and as a little reward, here is the 2nd Oliver Session:
Hey everyone, just wanted to drop in and post the finished product of a video that a group of friends came together to create (myself included). Please take a few minutes to watch it, and if you enjoyed it, please let us know and pass it along!
Hey all, with Greyscale starting to rocket through pre-production, we figured we should do some more equipment tests to get more comfortable with the HVX and shooting on location. So this last weekend a group of dancers, moviemakers, and people with a vision got together to shoot a dance-themed unofficial music video to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. There were people decked out in costume, dancing in a fountain, and shooting in several locations we had never been granted access to before.
We’re currently in Day 3 of post on the music video, and I’ll post some of the better screengrabs after we hit color correction.
Oliver: “Have I ever told you the white train story?”
We round into Week 9 with big news! How big? Well, would you like to see an unofficial part of the movie? Well, I sure would, but until that point, I’ll give you the next best thing…
That’s right, we went viral! Mind you, the image and sound quality aren’t entirely up to where they will be in the movie (we used a different camera and a different microphone for the grief counselor), but we still tested out our lenses and 35mm adapter. Also, I didn’t know Mark Gullickson would be so adept at making me look like I just got the snot beat out of me…
.:Computers
Well, after 3.5 faithful years of service, my old standby of an editing machine is about to be put to pasture. Why? The editing card I bought didn’t like it… and that minute long clip you may have just watched took 30 minutes to render with all the effects I put on it. Yes, 30:1 ratio… now let’s pretend we’re rendering a 2 hour movie. In fact, let’s not.
This new fangled piece of equipment will be much, much, much faster, and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival.
.:Casting
Looks like we may delay casting just a bit. I’ll keep you all informed.
.:Screenshots
Lastly, there are 4 videos, but I will be releasing them one at a time over a period of time (can’t blow it all in one shot…) but I’ll post some screenshots of the future episodes so you can at least look at the other lenses we used.
KYLE DONNELLY: What, you become some kind of terrorist?
OLIVER: Me? No. I just go through my options thoroughly before I do something tremendously stupid.
.:Online
We hit a big step in the marketing area. While still in construction, we now have www.greyscalemovie.com. Go ahead and check it out! We’ve also started “The Oliver Chronicles,” which is a viral blog that several characters from the story ‘write’ in to give something of a precursor to the story. There are only a few posts currently, butit will develop as we get closer.
Also, check out Battlefield: Chapter One. It was the project that we started before Greyscale, and is currently in post-production. We are offering the first chapter free for streaming, HD download, or iPod resolution download. So, if you haven’t already, please check it out and spread the word. Hopefully its presence will help Greyscale as well.
.:July
We’ve hit a milestone, people. It is July, which is very important because… we are set to begin production next month! I’m incredibly excited, and I’m going to need more help than ever in coordinating things. We still have a few more pieces of equipment to purchase, but more importantly we are working on coordinating schedules.
On July 19th, I am hoping to have the first round of auditions. I am currently lacking a venue for people to come to, so if you know of a place that is public and has two rooms that we could easily hold auditions in, please let me know. Also, if you have an interest in acting in Greyscale (or know someone who might be interested), please let me know and I’ll keep you (or them) up to date on the audition schedule. Please e-mail me at DarosFilms@gmail.com.
.:Final Draft
It appears that for the most part, the screenplay is finally finished! I’m sure there will be touchups here and there, but for the most part, I’m ready to begin creating shotlists and shooting schedules, which is incredibly exciting. It’s nice to finally let this thing go after four and a half months.
.:Fin
There is much more, but I don’t want to bog this down. I’m getting very excited, but I know I’m going to need a lot of help getting this off the ground. To finish, I’ll leave you with a mockup of the trailer I expect to first release after we have certain scenes finished. Some of you may have already seen it. I hope you enjoy it
About
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.
