Movie Trailer - initial thoughts

We just wrapped principle photography on the trailer for Across the Divide. I couldn't be happier. The stunt riders and actors we superb. On Wednesday we filmed at Pace Bend Park; Thursday took us to Reimer's Ranch. The behind the scene's guys were great, too. We had several cameras going, pro DPs, and helicopter cams to catch the high-angle and sweeping shots. Today we're going to take a look at the raw footage. I've already seen some of it and it was spectacular. Wow! Good stuff.  

This is one of the helicopter cameras we used. It flew so fast the actors said they felt like they were being chased by angry hornets. Got some great shots of them fleeing. :)

Ah, Locations, you elusive B!tch

  So, we thought we had a place to shoot our trailer. We'd been in contact with this guy in Wimberly for over a month. Then, just when we get ready to film, he says he wants $10k per day. What? Does he not understand that we're making the trailer in order to raise money for the film? If we had that kind of cash just sitting about, we'd pay the cast and crew of the trailer before some random location owner. But, since we don't have that kind of money, we now have to look for a new place.
 Last week my co-producer, Michael, and I hit several state parks. We found some great places, now all we need is a little bit of cooperation, then we can get this thing moving again.
 We've got cast, crew, and stunt guys... plus, our cool helicopters! Now all we need is a place to put 'em. Come on, Texas, let's see what you've got.

Trailer Auditions

I thought I wouldn't post again until we had made the trailer. I was even sure I'd wait until it was edited and totally ready to go, but i can't I'm just too excited. We have auditions this Saturday for two of the leads in the trailer. We've already met with some fabulous mountain bikers, who also do a little BMXing on the side. Plus, one of my co-producers got us some cool helicopters. They're being donated for the trailer, and we hope for the final film shoot as well. Also, one of our riders is sponsored by a bicycle company, so we've got that going on. And, the helicopter people are trying to find us some free cameras. So far, I'm pretty excited about where this is going.

Now, if we could only find someone to sponsor the rest of the budget... :)

Locations?

Okay, I haven't blogged in quite a while, but a bunch have people have asked that I say something about indie film making. I am in the preproduction on a film that I co-wrote with one of my co-producers several years ago. We've gone through numerous drafts, updates, changes, and page one rewrites. Now we have something we're proud to call "ready."

So, what has preproduction involved? The first thing we did was find a director David Rimer, who is just as excited about the script as we are. Then, we looked for actors... turns out most Hollywood actors won't sign on until you're completely funded, fair enough.

And that should bring us to funding, and it does, but in a round about way. We're shooting a trailer, first, so that we can show potential investors and/or sponsors what we're going for with the film. This is a little tricky since we don't have our intended cast and won't be shooting with our full crew due to budget constraints. However, with our director and DP on board, I'm positive we can get something we can all be proud of.

All this, of course, means we need a location. Since we're trying to find something near Austin that looks like the drier part of the Pecos River Valley, we have a problem. But, we found a beautiful spot in Wimberly (honestly a little too beautiful and green) where there are a few places we could use for some scenes. We'll need a separate place for  bicycle jumps and fires (stupid burn ban), but if the handsome ranch man agrees to let us use his space in Wimberly, I think we've got a good shot of getting the trailer done fairly soon.

Once we get the okay on the location, and we find a time when our director can fly in from LA, we'll be ready to shoot. Once we do, I'll head back over to this blog thing to let you know how it went.