The group had been through several shifts and alterations but a core had tentatively formed with Mike Goruk writing, Clint Mattson and Sarah Christensen working as producers, Reilly Fenton took the responsibility of Director of Photography and assistant director and myself Brad Goruk as the director. We started to put together a film that had it's seeds of origin in an old story written by Mike that ended up being put through a major overhaul. As Mike wrote Reilly and I started working on transferring the script into visuals (even before an entire script was finished, as we put ourselves on quite the expedited deadline) and Sarah and Clint started to put together the nuts and bolts of the production such as a crew. With a first draft of the script finished we held auditions and a cast was chosen (and feelings hurt). Marian Godfrey would play Reagan, Charlie Christensen-Blake, Ashton Cull-Willis, Curtis Gallagher-Isaac, Marie Helen Lyle-Faith and later on in the pre-production Sarah was saddled with the character of Hope (much to her chagrin). A crew was put together as Spencer Hart signed on as a camera operator, Murray Nelson-Sound Recordist, Colin McCarthy-Field Sound Recorder, Brendan Browne-Special Makeup Effects, Jana Mackenzie-Costume Design and Katrina Kellner-Production Assistant. Everyone signed on for one week of filming during the first week of August out on a farm in Hays, Alberta (oops, but we will get to that in a bit).
Filming started with more of a whimper than a bang as a confusion spurred on by my inexperience as a film director and emphasized by a swarm of mosquitos took over and we ran into our first problem of being unable to complete the first scheduled scene due to the inability of the camera to see through a cloud of mosquitos. Yes we literally couldn't see the actors behind the black cloud of mosquitos that decided to swarm the camera lens. Unsure of what to do we moved on to the next scene as our schedule was beyond what you could call tight as filming a feature film in a week is something that is only done by Roger Corman. By four in the morning we called our first night with one scene yet to be filmed leaving us a scene and a half behind schedule but confident that we would be able to catch up tomorrow. Reilly confident that with the exteriors that were planned for the next day the process would pick up speed. After a late night (I guess it was technically early morning but I'm sure I was not the only one that lost track of night and day out in Hays that week) of planning Reilly and I turned in to be ready to go for the next morning call time that was already a hour away.
Our plan to make up time on the second day met with early opposition as technical difficulties held up the first shot of the day for hours. Once we were up and going things started to fall into place or at least they did for the busy crew as the confusion of the first night had smoothed out. Unfortunately things were still not moving quick enough for one of our actors who during one the camera setups found himself bored and looking to kill some time which concluded with him accidently putting a rock through the back window of our hosts vehicle (Charlie is never going to be able to live that one down). Reilly was correct and we were picking up the pace on the exteriors and although we were not going gaining time we were staying on pace and things were looking up. Unfortunately while we were looking up we saw a black cloud coming in. Our full day of exteriors came to a crashing end as a downpour overcame the farm for the rest of the time we were out there. After an emergency meeting between Reilly and myself during the dinner break plans had changed and our shooting schedule was turned on its head and juggling the costumes and effects became my major concern second only to the fact that the likelihood of being able to finish all the filming was seriously in doubt.
We stumbled through filming for the rest of the week as the rain poured down. Blood was spilt, car windows shattered (purposely this time) and scenes finished. Eventually we hit the inevitable point where we had to ask everyone if they would be interested in coming back as we were in no way going to be able to get everything done. The reception was good overall and for the most part people were up for spending their weekends back out in Hays. So Thursday night we finished our last shot of principle photography at the Hays Mini Mart and called an early night to celebrate what had been accomplished.
Back in Lethbridge we faced a new challenge. Although mostly everyone was receptive to coming back to finish being able to wrangle them all together for significant periods at a time proven difficult as the reality of returning to normal life settled in. People decided it was time to move on and left the project, Reilly postponed his moved to England for as long as he could and we filmed whenever we could trying to get the final shots as we started the editing process in the spare time. On the first day of October Reilly left for England and with an early snowfall that fields looked suspiciously different than they did at the beginning of August so production was put on hold, still a few scenes away from completion. We moved into post production with the hope that next year we would be able to finally complete what was now titled The Harvestman.
Over the winter nothing to exciting happened (other than a computer crash that was less exciting and more terrifying) just lots of time spent in front of a computer screen watching, cutting, debating every frame of the film. A list of needed footage including shots needed, new scenes and reworked scenes was made and we prepped for 2010 hoping that principles would be able to return to finish things off. Our eyes were set on July.
July had three weekends set for filming and The Harvestman returned to the farm in Hays. First up was Sarah and Marie filming two new scenes and redoing one from the previous year that just hadn't worked the first time around. At the end of the night Marie had wrapped eleven months after she had started. Next was another new scene that saw Darcy Logan join the cast. Then the final weekend that saw Charlie and Marian filming their final scenes and spending one last night out at the farm. After a year of ups and downs the last shot of the film was shot in my basement and Sarah became the last actor to finish up and with that The Harvestman wrapped.
So where are we now? Now while I said the last shot of The Harvestman was filmed I am stretching the truth. We are going to have a special effects day where we are going to film a few of the gore shots from the film that are still needed. Sarah has added a new job to extending list of responsibilities as she is going to help finish off the last couple of effect shots. The film is almost completely edited and the audio track needs to completed as well as a coloring process before a final copy is ready for dvd. The plan is to have a premiere at the end of October where we hope we can draw a large crowd, exactly where and when is still undecided but we will be sure to let everyone know before it happens. Then the final step is to start marketing the dvds with the hopes that the funds raised will be able to pay for the next project.
I'll try to keep you updated on the goings on of 5205 Studios so please check back for information on The Harvestman and future projects. Thanks for hanging in there with us and we hope to see you all at the premiere of The Harvestman.
Brad Goruk
1 comment:
Excellent recap.
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