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The Turn of the Century Warehouse in Hannibal

One last long drive to Hannibal.

I don’t quite know why, but normally the drive to Hannibal seems to fly by, but this being the last time we’d have to make the trip, it felt like an eternity to get there.  None of the regular cast had to make this trip.  This was just crew and some extras.  Maybe it’s because the Fall shoot was such fun, and I’m sad to see it end.  Great cast, great location and just a general light hearted feel about things on set.  No major technical hurdles.  Even though it was cold, and long days, it was still a much easier shooting environment than  Summer.  We could control everything we were shooting and that meant far fewer headaches.

The big reason this Saturday was such a big deal was we were using a lot of the folks who have been working behind the scenes on the film.  None of them are actors by trade, but I really wanted to include them in the film.  They’ve earned their time in the spot light.  I can only assume that spending all the time around so much talent, that it’s rubbed off a bit, because we really did get some spectacular performances in the three brief scenes that we needed to wrap up Fall.

I know the crew folk were a bit worried.  If there’s one thing they’ve learned, it’s that I will shoot and shoot and shoot until I get the exact scene that I want.  So you can only imagine my surprise when the most takes we had for a shot was five.

So we arrived at a little after noon, and set up at a leisurely pace.  We had a lot of makeup to be done, which is always a time consuming process.  And after all the set up, three hours later we were ready to roll.

The first sequence is just gross.  No makeup, just a lot of nastiness.  There’s some moving around as we’re trying to get the best shots, and in thirty minutes we’re wrapping that up.  On to sequence two.  The makeup was done, and after a bit of directing,  moving some lighting around, doing a walk-through and a few test shots.  Everything looked good.  And we’re rolling again.  Five takes, and we got the one we wanted.  Next shot.  A bit more directing, finding marks, lighting adjustments and boom, we’re wrapping sequence  two up.  We are a run away freight train today.

There’s a bit of a pause as we wait for makeup. Sequence three goes just as fast (now that I have my second camera person back, cleaned up and out of makeup…)  Finally finished, this one took a bit more to get right, but still moving in a timely fashion.  We get it lit, and blocked out, and we’re ready to go.  We do two one take wonder shots back to back, and they’re brilliant, and the room is a bloody and disgusting mess, as are the extras. The behind the scenes pictures on the last one, look like crime scene photos…

Honestly, it took longer to get them cleaned up then it did to set up and shoot it.

And with that, we are officially wrapped on Fall.

The long drive home, and I’m immediately pulling footage and dropping it into the edit.  By Sunday evening, I have the rough cut of Fall ready for review.

So it’s been a long weekend, but a fun one.  Up next, we begin the final shooting for Winter.  We’re somewhere between third base and home plate now, so not much longer.  By my estimate, we have two shooting days left on winter, and then some pickup shots and we’re wrapped.  The main credit sequence is nearly finished as well, so it’s been a busy, busy week.  Very satisfying.

More to come as always!

Don’t forget to check out the teaser trailer! And we’re down to one small crew shirt left, and four mediums.