Shoot day #1

Whew! Whirlwind time. We got almost everything we started out to get today but it was a mad rush for most of the 12 hours we had. We got our first shot off at 7:50AM, less than 2 hours after starting, took a break for lunch between 12:15 and 1:00PM then shot until 5:20PM or so as the light was fading.







We had snow(!), bright sunshine, the girls called right at sunset, there were horses and cows, camera mounts and two crew members decided I should be making fairy princess movies for my girls, instead of scary bat filled army movies for SciFi.

I'm off tonight to have a chat with the actors, basically informing them that there will not be very many opportunities to fine tune and that I need them to be on and ready to move quickly. We'll see how that goes over.

All in all... I'm happy with my first day, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything cuts together properly and that I have the stamina to get through 19 more days like today!

Prep day #16

Well the end of preproduction is upon us and tomorrow at 6AM... photography.

Today was kind of a truck day. We had a big truck out at the dirt road set driving over and over to give a little additional wear. Back at the studio, all of the departments were loading up their gear to have handy out at the locations. Here's Dora of standby props fame.




There was some last minute set tweaking as well. Here's Bobi with a less fortunate member of the cast, preparing the floor of the bat roost. We will be shooting this sometime next week.

Finally today we did a read through of the entire script with most of the main actors. Here's Michael (Martinez), Marty (Downey), David (Russo) and Pollyanna (Katya) during some portion of that.

Our days, at least to start, are going to be from 6-6 to try and squeeze as much daylight out of the day as we can. We will probably be able to start shooting around 7:30 or 8AM and won't be able to go much past 5PM. Another factor is the weather. The forcast now calls for snow on Friday. Snow! Sheesh, that will be interesting. Half the shots will have a lovely blanket of white followed by cuts intermingled with the beautiful fall colors.

Wish me luck!

Sunday work

On to the next phase... the actors are here!


Here's Pollyanna McIntosh (unsucsesfully trying to be taller than me) who plays the Russian CIA agent Katya. She was born in Scotland, spent a few years in Columbia and as a result has a mixed up accent that hopefully can be bent into Russian.


And introducing self proclaimed city girl Melissa De Sousa who plays the medic O'Neil and Michael Jace (from "The Shield") who plays Martinez along with Ivo posing at a traditional Bulgarian dinner.

All arrived today and they did a good job of forcing themselves to stay up and shake off any signs of jet lag. I'm sure they'll all sleep until noon tomorrow but I can't really blame them... I did the same. I missed pix of David Chokachi and Marty Papazian but I'll grab them tomorrow at our read through.

Sunday play

Here's a fun project...

Copy and paste these into Google Earth's "fly to" window...

My apartment:
42°41'15.52"N, 23°18'44.63"E

BUFO studio:
42°42'19.00"N, 23°23'37.39"E

Chechen Village, Base Camp, Forest Road location:
42°46'41.09"N, 23°30'53.89"E

Doctor's Lab location:
42°40'38.76"N, 23°20'39.04"E

Bat Roost location:
42°39'50.50"N, 23°20'30.73"E

Forest location:
42°39'50.05"N, 23°20'1.49"E

Once you get there zoom in and enjoy.

Lazy Saturday

I spent the day doing absolutely nothing. Yeah!

I got up and made myself a great cup of Peets, watched TV, iChated with the girls for almost an hour, talked with Dan and my mom and now am looking forward to going to bed to read my "Comic News". I may even just relax a bit in the morning too.

Prep day #15

Well, this was to be the last day of prep but for various resons, we are pushing the start of photography until Tuesday of next week. It turns out that a lot of things that were forced now become relaxed and it should be alot easier.


Today I got my truck... the one that the Russian Spetnatz team is driving in the opening scene and the one that our heros use to escape from the doctor's lab. This is a general purpose Russian army truck and eventually we'll have two. This one that works and another "shell" that'll be blown to pieces!


I also found that only minutes after discussing the size of a combination meeting room / hospital / military tent set, up it went! When things are moving this fast, you have to be careful what you ask for! Make sure it's what you want. In this case, I am.


Finally, from around 5PM until 8:30PM we had our giant production meeting. Every department attended and we went through the schedule, scene by scene discussing what will be needed and answering lingering questions. A last couple days of rest, then off to the races!

Prep day #14

Today was a little bit of a catch up day for everyone that was out and about yesterday. I spent the morning at the former communist party headquarters (now abandoned) shooting a camera test of bats attacking. We were experimenting with different lenses, shutter angles and film speeds. I was also the test subject getting maulled over and over by viscious rubber bats. Shades of "The Monster Pit" I realize but someone with experience needed to take the risk!



Whew! Luckily I survived!

Prep day #13

Today was our giant tech scout day. We went to almost all the locations with all the keys. Here's the crowd at the "dirt road" at the edge of the forest. At each spot, I would roughly explain what was happening and where so that all the departments can go get things ready. Friday, we'll follow up with a massive production meeting where we go through the whole script and repeat it all again.


Ugh! The forest was beautiful! Which means the leaves were falling TODAY(!) not next week when we'll be shooting. It was around 25 deg C (high 70s). I'm really freaking out now. I'm guessing that when we get in there next week and by the end of around 2 weeks outside that well be getting less and less each day. At least that means there'll be more and more light so we can shoot a little longer. Small favors.


We also had a day of delays. We waited at least 25 minutes for this train that sat exactly in the middle of the crossing doing nothing on the way out of town to the first location. On the way back, another train was sitting in the same place so we chose to chance a little shortcut. Sheesh! Then, as if that wasn't enough... during lunch my line producer, John got "booted". Had to laugh and it helped slow down an otherwise busy, busy day.

Prep day #12

French Tortillas! I bought some eggs and whipped up a couple of an old favorite breakfast. I even got up a few minutes early to make them. I found cinnamon (hard to decipher until I found a packet with english as well) and the only weird thing was the sugar "crystals". They made the little devils a bit crunchy! Good none the less.

I had a mainly office day today, dealing with the ever increasing amount of issues, heading towards Mondays start. Here's Bobi with one of the bat puppets, a worker experimenting with making "guano" and my favorite church.





I also received a box in the mail filled with all kids of wonderful treats from home! Thanks girls!

Prep day #11

It was a busy day but I don't have a lot of pictures to share. I worked on script notes to try and get them incorporated before we get started. Then we took a whirlwind tour of the locations with the DP, producer, first AD, production designer. etc. Of course, my nifty computer has this handy PhotoBooth program built right in to snap a timely, beautiful shot of me at this exact moment. There.

Here's a pic of Ivo (DP), some guy I don't know and Tony (1st AD). I'm freaking out because the leaves are changing all of a sudden and we won't be back to this spot for at least 2 weeks. I hope there's still some leaves left. At least if they're gone, getting light into the deep forest won't be as much of a challenge.


Also, here's a photo from last nights dinner / VFX breakdown meeting with Spike of the VFX supervisor variety.

Sunday #2

OK... I've been here 2 full weeks now. It's these day offs that make me the most homesick. I did take another stroll, this time to the big shopping mall in town. I did finally manage to find a can opener, so now I can have my frijoles and eat them too!


On my walk, I saw something that Riquel would like:

And something that Siena wouldn't:


As well as an omen for the film on the side of a building near the forest we'll be shooting in.

Saturday #2

I'm happy to report feeling much better today. A good nights sleep and all is well.



Of course it's Saturday and most of my crew had the day off. Not me though. My first AD, the DP and my production designer were all chipping away. Here's the first Ivo (DP) picture with Bobi checking out the tunnels set along with me in the forest again, this time inspecting a cool little waterfall that I'll hopefully use as a hiding area from the Bats. This particular forest is also filled with wonderful giant "wood ears"!

Tonight (being Saturday after all) holds in store another dinner... Tonight with the local SciFi channel rep. Effectively, my production executive.

Prep day #10

Well I guess it had to happen. They say sooner or later it always does... I came back to my apartment early today, sick. Sniffling, sneezing and all the trimmings. It's certainly the cold, time change, new everything and hopefully it'll pass quickly. Better now than in a week.


Another view of the gold topped church, my locations "wall of fame" and the 1938 Opal that will serve as the tunnel entrance at the hearding camp.

Off to an early evening and back to work Saturday as we enter our final prep week!

Prep day #9

Another beautiful day at the local 1200 year old monastery, including drinking pure water from the ever flowing well, the interior of the original chapel and the outside of the new one.

Contrasted by the "red smoke" steel mill out in the valley.

I am coming close to finalizing a lot of locations and finally began talking in ernest about the visual effects. My on set supervisor, (Spike, no picture yet) seems to think he's met me. He did work at Pixel Magic on Red Planet with Jeff Okun, so maybe somewhere there in the mix I met him. I also read a couple more actors and am becomming increasingly curious as to who my main players will be. Hopefully we'll hear about progress from LA this evenng.