Category: From the set

The End is Nigh…

Shooting interiors for the Whitehaven Mental Hospital scenes.
Shooting interiors for the Whitehaven Mental Hospital scenes.

 

The final two days of shooting are this weekend. For some, this represents the conclusion of a long, busy run. For others, the beginning of the third phase of a four-phase process. First comes development and pre-production, then principal photography, then a long post-production period, and finally the involved task of getting the film out there for people to see.

Each phase brings with it is pleasures and challenges, though shooting this film has been a surprising smooth process. This is solely to the credit of the great people in the cast and crew who have labored so diligently to help make this film a reality. Some we won’t see again until the premiere in 2014, but I hope they all will stay connected. Filmmaking is truly a collaborative art form and everyone has left his/her fingerprints on this film, from Ed, our glorious cinematographer, to the volunteers who showed up to lend a hand on set.

I’ll be sad to say goodbye to everyone in the cast and crew, but I’m excited to get into the editing bay and start cutting the footage. As any filmmaker will tell you, the editing room is where you really find out what you have, and I’m anxious to see all our hard work take shape over the next several months.

Thanks too to all our friends on Facebook who have followed us this far and helped recruit others to follow us. We appreciate their support more than we can say and hope they’ll continue to advocate for the film as we move toward a final cut.

Here’s hoping the final two days go as well as the previous 16 and that post-production goes as smoothly as production.

We’ll try to come up with some fun giveaways between now and the premiere and I’ll continue to post here and on Facebook during the editing process.

Stay tuned.

 

Only Six More Shooting Days Left!

Ed and Kevin putting together a shot in Taneytown, MD.
Ed and Kevin putting together a shot in Taneytown, MD.

Week six is behind us. We have only six shooting days left, and a bitter-sweet moment looms on the horizon. I’m sure everyone is excited to wrap photography and start stitching the film together in post-production, but it is a mixed blessing. For every actor who completes his/her final scene for the film, there is an empty chair on set. The closer we get to the end of photography, the more empty chairs we face. Six more shooting days and everyone in the cast and crew will have moved on to other projects and this wonderful family of filmmakers will disperse. We are accomplishing amazing things on a shoe-string budget, and it is all to the credit of our talented, dedicated crew, our brilliant cast, and the kind hearts and generosity of all those who have opened their doors to us.

Filming Passes Halfway Point

Mike Mowen, Bex Etter, and Elizabeth Wyld filming on the streets of Taneytown, Maryland.
Mike Mowen, Bex Etter, and Elizabeth Wyld filming on the streets of Taneytown, Maryland.

This past weekend marked the halfway point in principal photography. Everything is still going extraordinarily well. The cast and crew are an amazing group of people. We started on Saturday at the Ragged Edge Coffee Shop in Gettysburg, PA, where we had 9 ½ pages to shoot. Quite an oppressive schedule for any crew, but this group made it easy. Sunday had us back in our beloved Taneytown, MD, shooting interiors and exteriors of the antique store and the church. Thanks (again!) to Linda Snyder and her wonderful family for use of the antique store and to Monsignor Martin E. Field for the use of St. Joseph Catholic Church. Beautiful locations – beautiful people.

If the final cut of Ghosting is half as entertaining as filming the movie has been so far, it is going to be quite a film.

 

Eight days down – ten more to go!

Ghosting – Day 8 in Taneytown, Maryland from Kevin Boon on Vimeo.

This weekend’s shoot had us on the streets of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Friday night and in Taneytown, Maryland on Sunday. Gettysburg was a blast and Taneytown left me astonished by how incredible everyone in the cast and crew are. Sunday was the busiest day on the shooting schedule. We capture over 120 shots (that’s setups, not takes!), running two cameras across fifteen hours in a hot, dusty attic and everyone stayed on task from early morning to late at night. We tormented our four stars (Mike Mowen, Elizabeth Wyld, Bex Etter, and Paul Fahrenkopf) with special effects makeup and physical demands that would have sent most actors running, and they just kept giving us great performances – take and take.

And the crew! There’s not a weak link in the bunch. Ed Koester (Director of Photography), Chad Dewing (Sound), Jill Colley (1st Assistant Director), Darren Olah (2nd Camera Operator), Joey Fenice (Key Grip), and Chris, and Jonathan, and Michael, and Ethan, and Hannah, and Becca, and Amy, and all the other volunteers, and Tripod (the three-legged cat), and Staci, and every one on set were the best anyone could hope for. I’m madly in love with every single one of them and I want to adopt them all so we can be together forever.

I mean it. I’ve already started the paperwork.

And special thanks to Linda Snyder, who is the production’s guardian angel, and Russell Sandlin, his lovely wife, and their beautiful newborn, all of whom graciously let us film on their property. There are no more generous souls on the planet. They opened their doors to this film and have already contributed more than could be expected of anyone. They are saints.

A Propitious Start!

Chronicling our shots.
Chronicling our shots.

The first two days of principal photography are behind us and everything went extraordinarily well. Extras were in short demand, but the crew was spectacular and the cast was extraordinary. The only problem we encountered all weekend was trying to get a local biker bar to accept a Swedish driver’s license as ID after we wrapped Sunday.