Sisu Production Journal

Sisu - the Death of Tom Sukanen

2009-10-04T09:46:00.001-07:00

Please take a trip through the making of Sisu by clicking on the links to the right, under PRODUCTION ARCHIVE.

This production journal is missing a few things from post production -- I need to add posts about audio and visual post-production, as well as the World Premiere of the film at the Montreal World Film Festival in September 2009, and the broadcast premiere on Saskatchewan's SCN tv on October 3.

In the meantime, please visit the Sisu website!

And thanks for stopping by!

SISU!!!

Chrystene

Special Effects and San Francisco!

2008-11-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

I am back in Regina after a whirlwind week in San Francisco (and yes, I took the above mandatory Golden Gate Bridge shot on the trip).

It was a fantastic week! I got to work with Don Wood again (the actor playing Tom Sukanen), as well as David Cramer and Stephen Pocock (actors from the bar scene we shot last year in San Francisco). They're all good friends so it's always a treat. I also got to get back on set with Sisu DP Andrew Schlussel, which is always super fun, and audio engineer Brian Webb, which, as it turns out, is also always fun. I also got to work with Sisu Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Andrews in person for the first time; all of our collaboration so far has been through email and other internet technology. Brian's great too. The wonderful folks at Expression College for Digital Arts are helping on post production in many ways, from visual to audio.

an untextured render of the CG ship modeled by Nic Dunbeck and tricked out by texture artist Luke Graves

First, Brian Andrews, Andrew Schlussel and I met to go over the shots we needed to get. We spent about an hour in the Ray Harryhausen Lab at the Expression making sure we were all in agreement about what needed to be done on the green screen. Because our dolly shot was the mirror movement to the actual animation, it was kind of an abstract brain puzzle, and we had to talk it through a few times. Here's where my background in mime comes in handy...

l to r: Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Andrews, Director of Photography Andrew Schlussel, Writer/Director/Producer Chrystene Ells

It was a little complicated figuring out the dolly move...

...even with boards and the model we spent a lot of time in discussion before getting to the set.

Setting up the shoot was fun; I really love being on set and after all these months alone in front of the computer editing it was great to feel like part of a team again, even though we were just a tiny crew of three and Don was the only talent.

"Hang on, can we look at those plans just ONE MORE TIME?"

"I THINK I remember how to set up a light..."

"...or do I?"

"Done! Wait, there are three more??"

We were trying to match this shot of Don from the summer 2007 shoot in Saskatchewan, not only in how Don was posing, but also in terms of lighting and even the costume. We spent some time getting the asymmetrical suspender clips just right...

... while Brian measured out the green screen and made gaffer's tape marks for reference markers that will come in handy during the match move work later.

The scene is one where the CG ship banks to the left and then sails off with Tom on board, so we had a dolly move that went straight back from Don on the green screen, then veered camera left away from the action.

The DP always gets the cush jobs.

I cut the footage we shot into the rough edit and I think it's going to work. Of course ultimately the green will be removed and the footage of Don, as well as the animation of the ship, will be composited (superimposed) over an actual environment. Sneak peak of the raw footage below; check it out!

We also did a very nice pick-up shot that we never quite got satisfactorily on set, of Tom out on the prairie against a black evening sky, which we cheated by shooting against black duvateen (thanks, Roy).

Night sky, right? Right! It's movie magic!

Other friends dropped by as well, and is often the case on shoots, empty hands were given work, so Roy Miles, Cat Foster and Brandon Foster all carried gear and helped with shots. And those who stayed long enough got burritos! Sorry, no pictures of lunch. We were all too busy devouring Mexican food. But here's what they looked like (mmm...):

There's nothing in Regina like a Bay Area burrito.

The shoot went from 9 am to 3:30 p.m., and then Don and I relocated to the Sound Department to work on audio. We could only book the studio from 4pm until midnight, so we were only half done with our day by the time we got started on audio. David Cramer and Stephen Pocock joined us, while Brian and Andrew went home (after Andrew transferred all of the morning's footage to DVDs for me).

"If we nail it before midnight, will you let us out before our coach turns into a pumpkin?"

We needed to re-record the dialogue from the bar scene we shot last year in San Francisco, primarily because of the fire trucks that were doing drills on the half-hour down the block.

l to r: Stephen Pocock (bartender), David Cramer (old man), Don Wood (Tom Sukanen), Brian Webb (audio engineer extraordinaire)

It was great to see Brian Webb again, who ran the audio on location, and to meet Justin, who I hope will be continuing to help out with the audio over the next couple of months.

Justin Valerio is AWESOME.

"Now if you actors can stop being FUNNY for just ONE MINUTE we might get out of here in 8 hours!"

You can tell by the intense looks of concentration how tough this is.

But when you're just standing around watching yourself in the movies, how tough can it be?

Eventually the three goofballs in the booth settled down and then we got some serious work done.

The actors did a great job! ADR is not easy; you have to match your onscreen lip movement, as well as the timing and performance, as precisely as possible, but if anything I think we have some line interpretations that are even better than the originals. Justin and Brian W. are terrific to work with and even took over directing Don's ADR work when I went out with Stephen to get -- yes -- our second meal of the day of burritos.

It was a long day, and by midnight I was pretty exhausted. Don had to be twice as tired as I was; he was performing all day long.

In addition to the green screen shoot and the audio work, Brian A. and Andrew sponsored a pizza party for students at Expression, both to give those who are already working on the project an idea of what the whole film is about, and also to recruit a few new students for the final push on the visual effects side of things. I did a 30-minute talk on the film and screened a few scenes, which was a little painful for me because the sound is rough and none of the effects shots are plugged in yet, but we got a good response and a few new digital artists came on board, which is terrific.

The rest of the trip was great; even though this is a production journal and not a personal one I just want to mention that I also got to see many wonderful friends who I really miss a lot, including my old pals from those lucrative puppeteering days, Howie and Mark at ILM (George Lucas' effects house in San Francisco, Industrial Light and Magic), where I took a few obligatory photos...

the awesome Yoda fountain at the ILM main entrance

hanging out with Han

"Are you my mummy?"

Now it's back to Regina and full throttle back into post production. Audio and 2D animation, here I come! Meanwhile, the CG work is going full tilt at Expression College, Dave Lawlor and friends are working on the score here in Regina, and I am in the process of lining up some audio voice recordings of Russian and Finnish native speakers. The Toronto Finnish Theatre Company very generously prepared some voice-over auditions that could be heard online, and will be contributing airfare to the film to fly an actress to Regina for the recording session. Brian Webb and Justin Valerio have graciously offered to help with the surround sound audio mix, which is incredible news and a huge weight lifted, and Roy Miles has ideas about color correction when the time comes. This is also a big piece of the puzzle and something I know nothing about.

As usual, Team Sisu continues to grow and I can only be in awe of how Tom Sukanen's story has inspired so many people to contribute to this film. If anything it has become much bigger than my own personal project and is a true collaboration, as well as an interdisciplinary and international art project. It's a new way of looking at it for me and I feel ever more humbled by the amount of love and energy and money and time that has come from so many different people and places.

I just hope that in my final job of tying everything together I can produce a film that everyone will be proud to be part of.

Until next time, SISU!!!

Post Production, or, The Lost Summer

2008-11-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Since the last post, things have gotten very quiet, but I am busier than ever with work on the film. We have entered the phase known as post-production, and since I am now pretty much down to a team of one here in Regina, with the excitement of the big shoots over, I basically missed summer. And fall. And, maybe not as bad, it looks like winter might pass too with my barely noticing it. I have spent months losing track of time in the edit suite, cutting and recutting and tweaking and finessing the film. Of course, Gerald is always there, and Raul too, and my other supervisors Mary and Leesa are incredibly supportive, but still, post production is lonely. Editing itself is a bittersweet experience: the time that passes as long hours vanish in moving clips around and waiting for renders is marked primarily by shining gem-like moments of sheer exuberance and voids of black despair. Since May there have been five major edits and unnumerable tweaks on a scene-by-scene process that included tightening, cutting, some pick-up shots, and eventually, rewriting the first 12 minutes of the script with the footage that we had.

I have decided that there are only four kinds of footage in editing:

footage you got as planned
footage you planned for but turned out completely wrong and is unusable
footage you wish you got but didn't
footage you didn't even mean to get but ends up being crucial (like the gems from between takes, or when Andrew went leaping across a pitch black night field to catch a clear shot of the lemon-yellow full moon and the dwindling tangerine sunset lighting it up)

There aren't even any pictures to share of me sitting in my editing suite working away, so you'll have to use your imagination! Anyway, I finally have the live action sections of the film very close to how I want them, which took many months longer than I had anticipated. Getting to the end of the film is a rush, and each pass I have taken on the edit over the past six months has made it better and better. Now it's on to animation, effects, and post audio.

But first I did a little more shooting. At the end of the summer I actually got outside and for several evenings in a row I was out trying to capture just the right sunset for the end of the film. Every prairie sunset is completely unique and most of them are stunningly beautiful, but I never did get quite the one I wanted. Still, I have some pretty nice sunsets to choose from. This was a lonely series of shoots; sometimes it was just me and the dogs and sometimes Raul came along. Once Charlie was there, too. This is on a farm road just west of our house by 6 miles.

I'll watch for cars, Mama.

One, one beautiful sunset.

Two, two beautiful sunsets. How do you choose???

Shooting sunsets takes patience. There's just no rushing the actors.

Since I last posted I have also been doing some 2D animating. A lot of this is still in the experimenting stages, but I think I am getting closer all the time to what I want. The question is, will I have time to complete it? From completely digital processes to entirely traditional techniques, I have been searching for just the right 'look.' I don't know what it is, but I still think I'll know it when I see it. It had just better be sometime in the next three days, or I'll never get done. Here's a picture of my professor Gerald Saul and me trying out Flipbook with a sand animation test.

Pretty cool. If I have the time I really want to incorporate some sand animation in the film.

With the end of summer came the beginning of post audio. Before the first snowfall killed off the crickets and grasshoppers, I did some field recordings for the soundtrack, and I even got some audio of boat noises during an outing at Regina Lake with Kevin and Dauminique on their sailboat Kazumi. I have also spent quite a bit of time in the sound studio, and since I am lucky enough to be working with the amazing professor Charlie Fox in the New Media Studio Lab at the University of Regina this term, I will be there more frequently. Here are some pictures from some of the voice-over and foley work that has been done so far, and some of the awesome folks who have come down to help out.

"Whee! Audio is fun!"

"OK, quit smiling, Don. This is WORK, darn it!"

Don and I spent two days in the recording studio working on some voice-over and narration before he went back to San Francisco.

The lovely Megan Fries who plays Tom's mother came in to record some voice over as well. She has an incredible voice, but doesn't speak Finnish. As all of her lines were in Finnish, Megan got some coaching on Finnish pronunciation and gamely forged ahead with complicated Finnish poetry and narration. It'll be up to a real Finn now to tell us whether it'll work or not.

Other ADR and voice work that I have done so far includes elements of sound scapes that I'll need to create for the film, such as nurses talking and other sounds in the background to create the hospital soundscape, men and boys outside of the New York dockside bar, and the voices of people at the threshing party. Some of the folks who've already appeared in the film as actors came down to help out, including Wayne Slinn, Derek Finnick, Susan MacKay and Kelly Liberet.

Foley is fun, but as most things related to film are, it's also time-consuming. I am picky and detail-oriented so it ends up taking even longer. Basically, foley work is creating sound effects for the film that for whatever reason are not satisfactory on the initial live audio recording. In some cases the action was just too far away for the mic to pick it up, like someone walking away on a dirt road, and in others there were, oh, like FIVE fire trucks doing drills on the half-hour on the next block. In addition tiny sounds like rustling fabric, like when Tom turns his head on the pillow, must be added to give some scenes a sense of realism and immediacy. This will help to emphasize the difference between the dream scenes and the scenes where Tom is awake and aware. You'd never know all this work goes into audio when you're watching a film.

"Now, if the sound doesn't come in these two holes in the sides of my head, you have to be louder."

Kristine Dowler, Art Director (pictured), and Dauminique Napier, Line Producer, joined me for some foley work.

Believe it or not, Kristine's feet in a pair of Japanese tabe socks in coffee grounds sounds just like someone walking on a dirt road in their bare feet.

There are a significant number of scenes in the film that require 3D models, animation, compositing, particle effects and match moving. Brian Andrews of Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, California (where Raul and I used to teach) has taken on the role of Special Effects Supervisor, and students at the college are creating elements for the film as course work, or as additions for their reels. In a couple of weeks I will be going to San Francisco to do some Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR) with Don, Stephen and Dave from the November 2007 San Francisco shoot, as well as a greenscreen shoot with Don for the end of the film. I'll post pictures from that when I get back; it should be pretty cool.

We don't have any pictures of Dave Lawlor or Francis Marchildon (yet) but these two wonderful local musicians have joined Team Sisu to write and create the score for the entire film. As keeps happening with this project, the angels just drop down from the sky when we need them most. Dave is already working on some ideas for the various themes in the film and I can't wait to hear the first music!

In addition we are still trying to raise money. If there are any producers or executive producers out there who would like to come on board, please don't be shy! As we head down the homestretch with Sisu the next phase is rearing its head. Marketing and publicity are not cheap and we definitely need to start beating the bushes.

The film is scheduled for its premiere in April of 2009. There is a staggering amount of work to be done between now and then. Tom Sukanen continues to inspire me, and whenever I feel like I am so burned out I can't go on, I picture that image of him pulling the Sontiainen across the prairie with that one little horse...

So, until next time, SISU!!!

Winter shoot Day 01: Bridge

2008-03-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

Over the winter Raul and I went out on a couple of B-Roll shoots, getting footage of snow and ice, dead wheat waving in the snow, and the shoot of young Tom (Zach Ford) playing with his toy boat in the icy water. But we were all looking forward to the big winter shoot when the crew would be together again. It was scheduled for the first week of March.

Don and Andrew were flying back up from San Francisco, and everyone was excited that Clara and Trevor would be joining us on set again. Kevin and Kristine would be there one day and of course the intrepid Dauminique was not only Line Producing but this time also providing all of the food! Wonderful Paul from the Sukanen Museum would be back with some beautiful antique vehicles, and officer Richard and his police car from the summer shoot, now properly labeled R.C.M.P., was coming too.

"Honest, Andrew! You'll LOVE the Saskatchewan winter. And I promise: these are ALL light days."

The first day didn't start off looking like too much fun.

Our breath mingles with the car exhaust and I wonder, is a winter shoot
really necessary in these days of convincing CG? Shouldn't we just all
spend the day indoors drinking hot chocolate laced with good Scotch??

As soon as we got to location, however, and started scoping out this really cool old bridge south of Moose Jaw, our spirits rose with the mercury as the dawn miraculously brought the second day of above-freezing temperatures in the past five months.

Andrew and Trevor discuss shots while Chrystene and Paul head down to check out the cars.

It was starting to feel like a set. We had a motorhome to keep the cast and crew warm and give folks a place to crash between takes, not to mention a kitchen for Dauminique's fantastic snacks and hot coffee! And there were various characters wandering around, like Constable Fisk...

Rod says these boots take an hour to get on and lace up.
They're very stylish but one has to wonder:
how many bad guys got away while the RCMP officer got his boots on?

...as well as these tough guys ...

(L to R: Lorne Allen-Fries, Derek Finnik, Mike Staffen)

...and the make-up and hair department, Clara Edvi, along with this scruffy looking Tom Sukanen character (Don Wood)...

Clara knows exactly how to make Don look his worst. Perfect!

...as well as the director and Brian Dueck, playing an old Vic Markkula.

I think I might have squeezed Brian just a little too hard...

Andrew set up for the first shot down below the bridge, and got great footage of the old cars pulling into the shot.

The vintage cars were really co-operative (thanks to the mechanical genius of Paul, Lorne and Richard) and executed their cues perfectly time after time.

I admit I got a little nervous whenever the hoods went up and the guys carried out mysterious little boxes full of wires and got very serious for long periods, but in spite of the chilly weather everything is going just perfectly.

Lorne sweet-talks the old Ford

We were shooting the arrest scene, where old Tom is taken away. It was a pretty emotional scene for all of us and I think there were more than a couple of tears on set.

A few last minute notes...

... and here we see the actor preparing.

Tom looks back at the cabins he has built...

Rod McLeod as Constable Fisk

Then the constable tucks him into the RCMP car and takes him away.

Lunch was fantastic! Tuna and egg salad sandwiches and delicious homemade soup, and lots of chips and homemade cookies. Jim's motorhome was a godsend.

Andrew liked his sandwich, honest, Dauminique!

After using it to get their beautiful truck back to its garage, Paul and Lorne graciously brought this trailer back to the set when I got the idea on the spot that we could use it for the last shot of the day, which is of Tom in the passenger seat being driven away. I don't know how we would have done it otherwise; as always, things just seemed to work like magic.

We lashed the camera to the side of the car, then Raul and I got in the back seat with the monitor, directing Andrew who was clinging to the window and riding on the trailer outside the driver's door. Lorne got in the truck and pulled us along at about 3 miles an hour. The footage was fantastic, just what we were looking for!

Good bye, Tom.

Tomorrow we're back at the good old Sukanen Museum. It's supposed to be cold. Hopefully we all survive!

Until next time.... Sisu!

Winter Shoot: Day 02: Sukanen Museum

2008-03-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was a frigid dawn. With the sun up the mercury read -20 but with the windchill factored in the temperature hovered around -30. The Sukanen Museum is a summer attraction and none of the buildings are heated; in fact, there isn't really much power on location. We kept blowing fuses just trying to keep the heaters running, which we eventually had to give up on as we needed power for the lights for the shots. If Jim hadn't been there with his motorhome we would have had to scrap the shoot altogether. Not only did he keep us alive and save fingers and toes, he was even able to supply us with power to run one of the lights heater, which was a total bonus and not even something I'd been worrying about.

Something else I've never thought about before, but can now definitively attest, is that nothing looks quite as good as a warm motorhome when you can't feel your face.

Home sweet motorhome!

I wanted to be able to see breath in the shot, so we saved this scene for the winter. In retrospect I guess we could have shot it on a less insanely cold day (even in the summer) and composited frozen CG breath in later, but hey, where's the adventure in that? We shot in a homesteader's cabin at the museum that had gaps between every plank that made up the walls. These added some great whistling sounds to our audio when the wind picked up but I think by the end of the day we all had newfound respect for those families of 8 and 10 who spent long Saskatchewan winters cooped up in little shacks like these.

The photo does not do justice to how bloody cold this cabin actually was inside.

As with most of the buildings at the museum, this cabin is packed with artifacts, but in order to get us all in and make it look like a sparse Depression-era dwelling we there was quite a bit of art directing to do. Kristine and Kevin, as always, worked their magic and had it looking absolutely perfect in record time, and were back in the motorhome sipping hot drinks before I knew it.

Before: cluttered.

Trevor didn't have enough warm clothes with him for the really desperately cold temperature and we all felt pretty bad for him. He was a real trooper though, flirting with hypothermia all day, and, as we later found out, finally putting six packs of 'Hot Toes' shoe warmers in his boots, spending the next few hours feeling like he was walking on hot coals. I'd never used Hot Toes before but grabbed them on a whim at Home Depot and am I ever glad I did. Most of us used them, although Trevor outdid us all.

Trevor Derrick: Gaffer, Sound Technician, and Hot Toes King.

The little Sony we were using on this shoot was a trooper too; all of the shots looked great, even though the LCD screen froze up and quit working at one point.

Partway through the day batteries started dying. Raul's camera quit working, which explains why there aren't as many shots from this shoot, which is too bad because the actors looked awesome (Kelly Liberet as the cold Depression-era mother Sarah and Keenan Fafard as her son Robert). Clara did her usual magic and they looked cold, hungry, and tired. Of course, the rest of us kind of looked that way too, even without Clara's help!

I got the frozen breath I wanted (it's beautiful) and so I hope ultimately it was worth it.

What was kind of stupid was that we needed to cut Don's hair for this shot, as yesterday he was meant to look rather scruffy, but this shot needed to match his look from the hospital scenes we shot in the summer. The only time we could find was just before the shoot, so Don and I found a place in the sunshine (which I don't think helped at all) and I gave the coldest haircut I've ever done. After about two snips I couldn't feel my hands, and Don couldn't feel his ears. I think it is safe to say it is also the worst haircut I have ever done.

Tom's appearance in the scene is a kind of dream scene where he leaves his hospital bed and sort of 'astral travels' to this cabin, so he is supposed to just be wearing his gown.

Don: "Are you sure you can see my parka in the shot?"

For the close-up we gave Don a blanket for his lower half, but he was still freezing. He was a total champ, holding on those long shots were nothing was happening but it was looking great, and I couldn't help holding on his awesome expression, holding, holding, and then finally with "Cut!" there would be this mad scramble to get Don wrapped up in his coat and toque, with more blankets thrown around him between takes.

Don looks warm in this shot but it's just the lighting. Great work, Andrew and Trevor! I think Kevin helped on the lights too. Anyway it was terrific.

We had several angles to shoot from, each one requiring a new set up and some set dressing, and even though we were only shooting one scene, unlike the summer where we sometimes shot five or six in a day, with all of our warm-up breaks it really did take us all day. I think there were several times when Andrew could not feel his hands and was just relying on his eyes to make sure he was actually pressing the 'record' button as there was no sensation left in his fingers to feel it.

Here's where Raul's camera quit working, so you'll just have to imagine how we kept shooting until lunch time, when we devoured Dauminique's amazing chili (which really hit the spot), and then went back out to that cold cabin to finish shooting, then as the sun was dipping below the horizon got all the gear back in the van, reassembled the cabin, and headed back to Regina after saying good bye to wonderful Paul who made it possible, and Jim who saved the day.

We had a simple little wrap dinner at La Bodega, and said our goodbyes in the ice bar outside.

See you all at the world premiere!

Tomorrow is truly a light day, and it's all indoors in my studio at the University. The crew will just be Andrew, Raul and me, and the only talent is Don. Today was pretty extreme and I think we're all looking forward to a warm environment where we have control over the lights and the set. And where it will be warm. And it won't be cold.

Until next time...Sisu!

Winter shoot: Day 03: C's Studio

2008-03-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ah, shooting in a nice controlled WARM environment with three of my favorite people in the world. What better way to spend a winter Monday in Regina, Saskatchewan?

Today it is all dream scene stuff. While drifting in sleep Tom repeatedly visits this workbench in his mind, finding things a little different each time. Andrew did a great job of lighting and Kristine dropped by between classes to work her magic on the workbench.

terrific 'vintage' photos of Tom and his family by Kevin Dowler

Don was awesome, as always, but I got into a little directing anyway. And Raul as Assistant Director just quietly somehow made it all work, the way he's done for the whole shoot.

"OK, Don, so this is like, a photograph. Just act like you're holding a photograph and, you know, like, looking at a picture of something that you're holding in your hand."

It's great to watch it all unfold on the monitor. This is a tiny little screen; next time we shoot HD it would be great to have a huge 36 inch monitor! But this little guy was nice and portable, and VERY co-operative, even out in that painfully cold weather we were shooting in yesterday. Thanks, Kalyn and the NMSL lab!

I'm actually teaching a university class as a sessional this term, and had to take off for three hours at the end of the day to go run my class. When I got back, Don, Raul and Andrew had set up this terrific bedroom set for another dream sequence. Andrew lit it beautifully and it turned out to be a real magical ending to the winter shoot. You'll just have to wait and see the film to find out what we shot on this set, because Raul didn't take any pictures of it (his hands were kind of full).

After we wrapped this shoot it was time to get Andrew on the plane for his red-eye flight back to the Bay Area. This time the visit was too short and I don't want him to go back yet. But he's got lots of other big projects on his plate and can't linger, so it's goodbye again for the time being.

Off to the airport...

Bye, Andrew!

This marks the end of principle photography. It's kind of sad because it means that I am on my own with the project now. Other than a single B-roll shoot sometime during the summer, I am now entering post-production. Over the summer I will be editing the film, as well as creating animations for some of the sequences. I am hoping to get some help with the visual effects from students and alumni from Ex'pression, and will be looking for help with the score and the post audio.

Things will fall into place but once this term ends I think I will need a few days to recover before I really dig into post production.

So until next time...sisu!!!

November: San Francisco shoot

2007-11-30T20:59:00.000-08:00

After auditioning quite a few Saskatchewan actors, we decided that we weren't going to find non-union actors locally who could pull off an American accent, and we have lots of great friends in San Francisco who can. Plus there are amazing bars in the Bay Area that still look the way they did when they were built in the late 1800's, and I never turn down a chance to go home, so Don, Andrew and I began working on setting up a shoot for November in San Francisco. First, Don found this amazing bar, the Homestead, that had recently been restored to the way it would have looked in 1900, when it first opened. Luckily it's owned by Raub Shapiro, an independent filmmaker, who was sympathetic to our cause and agreed to let us use the bar on a Sunday until opening time at 4:00.

Andrew did a great job of producing the shoot, lining up a dream team and gathering an awesome collection of equipment, including a 36" HD monitor! What a luxury!

We got there early and had to wait for the caretaker, so started unloading on the sidewalk.

When we got into the Homestead it was clear it was a great set. It already looked awesome! Thank goodness, because we couldn't afford to fly the Art Director Kristine Dowler or her Assistant Art Director Kevin Dowler down with us.

"You all go ahead with the coffee and bagels. I'll be over here with the whiskey."

the Homestead ghost?

First things first: coffee and carbs! Andrew spends a few last moments with the camera manual -- we're using two Panasonics this time. We've only used Canon and Sony so far, so hopefully he's up to speed!

"Ohhhh, THAT's what the 'record' button is for...."

The crew did a great job of setting up the lights and sound. It was amazing and efficient. Working with Raul, Andrew (Director of Photography) and me was: Mike McCormick (Camera Operator), Brian Webb (Sound Technician), Dustin Boldt (Grip), Jacob Warren (Production Assistant), and Marisa Viramontes (Makeup and Hair).

Cool.

As it turns out, the bar is half a block from a fire station, which, on a Sunday morning might not be too big of a deal, unless that particular fire station is doing firetruck drills on the half-hour, which, as we soon discover, is the case. Every 30 minutes the sirens would scream and a fleet of firetrucks would pull out and go roaring past, then come rumbling back to sit outside with the engine running and the air brakes squeaking. Not exactly your 1899 street sounds. So we hung this sound blanket on the door. What else could we do?

In addition to all of the great gear and awesome crew, this was the first time I had ever had the luxury of having two cameras on set. I barely knew what to do with myself as the setup was so well planned out and everyone was so on top of everything.

"Ummm, can I hold that croissant for you, Mr. Webb?"

Marisa did a great job of making Don look 30 years younger, and making Dave look old and drunk, and Stephen look, well, like a bartender.

Don almost looks....pretty!

Welcome to Marisa's streetside makeup parlour!

Get ready for your mustache, Mr. Pocock.

'Frank' (David Cramer) and 'Bartender' (Stephen Pocock) in the New York bar

The scene was great. David and Stephen are old pros and Don of course is fantastic, so it was a real pleasure to work with them. We figured between the three of them they've got nearly a century's worth of acting experience, and it all added up to gold.

After the shoot we didn't have far to go to find our wrap party headquarters!

Whiskey, anyone??

Thanks, Homestead!

Raul and I are catching the red-eye. It never lasts long enough!

I was nervous about the footage. It's the first time on the shoot that we didn't use tapes; everything just went straight to an external hard drive. Luckily it all worked out and the footage came back on a MyBook 250GB drive on the red eye with us.

Back to the snow and Regina, Saskatchewan.

Until next time, sisu!!!

Raul's Take: Day 01: Fort Qu'Appelle

2007-10-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

It's finally here! The shoot has begun! We started out the day meeting everyone at the university to load up props, equipment and snacks. We'll have to stop by C's studio every morning to load up before heading out to the different locations, then come back afterwards to store everything again overnight.

C's studio packed full of filmmaking goodness.

We had to be packed up and in Fort Qu'Appelle (an hour drive east) by noon.

Careful with that camera, Andrew!

Kristine hauls her fake rock prop through the food court.

While we were loading up the car and trailer, we ran into Chris St. Amand in the woodshop working on the ship's wheel prop. This thing is going to be awesome!

Looks good so far.

Thank God (and Jackie) for this trailer. We don't know what we would've done without it!

Whoa! Andrew's on fire already!

Go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Sisu!

After an hour's drive east, we reached Fort Qu'Appelle and the home of The Hardings, who are friends of our previous art director, Brette, and who agreed to let us shoot on their property. Thanks The Hardings!

The weather was gusty and cold with a few sprinkles here and there. We were all willing the rain to stay away.

Let's do this thing!

The Hardings had a small cabin which we were allowed to use as a staging area for our equipment, costumes and food. The first order of business was getting Don into his costume and then having a little snack.

Then it was time to start shooting. The first shot of the production was a simple shot of Tom walking which will be part of a larger walking montage.

It may not look like Minnesota in the 1910's, but it'll work.

Like I mentioned, this is all supposed to be part of a montage of Tom walking from Minnesota to Saskatchewan, so C had to get a lot of shots of Don walking through different terrain and backdrops.

After a few shots of Don walking, it was time to head up the hill behind the Hardings house. There's a nice flat prairie-looking spread up there, plus a nice shot of the lake which we'll use as a Minnesota lake.

It may not look it, but that hill was tall and STEEP. It was quite a bit of huffing to get all the equipment and sandbags up there. The gusty winds didn't help much either.

"Push on to the summit!"

It was even colder and windier up on top of the hill. We managed to get a few shots off before a menacing-looking storm front started bearing down on us from across the lake. We had to scramble back down the hill and waited out the rain back in the cabin.

C and Kristine and Dauminique hang out while the camera is set up.

Don stands out in the grass so we can focus the camera on him.

D chats with Tom Sukanen between takes.

"Here comes the rain! Hurry up and get the shot!"

The storm front ended up being just a heavy sprinkle and it only lasted a few minutes, but it did give us a chance to regroup and enjoy more snacks.

Day 01 - Fort Qu'Appelle (Part 2)

After our short break we had a few more shots we needed to get before we could wrap this location. One of them involved the fake rock tower prop.

Kristine built and painted the rock tower with C's supervision. It looked great and we were all a little nervous to touch or move it. So it was up to Kristine to haul it up the hill herself. The crew will forever refer to the site of her carrying it up as "The Turtle," or Gammera as she likes to call it.

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

I know the rock tower prop looks really cheesy, even I was skeptical. But after seeing Don up there with his telescope prop through the video camera's viewfinder, it actually looked pretty darn believable.

We had a heck of a time trying to get it to stand. Not only were we trying to stand it up on a slope of a hill, the slope itself was uneven and full of gopher holes. We rectified the situation with a few apple boxes (industry term for those wooden crates) and lots of sandbags (industry term for bags filled with sand). Dauminique and I had to hold onto the ladder while Don was up there because the paper machier rocks acted like a huge sail in the gusty wind. Thank God no one got hurt.

Ed Wood would be proud.

Another shot we needed was of Tom Sukanen frantically climbing up a hill. Poor Don had to scramble up the side of the hill about a dozen times! He still had a big grin on his face even though he was winded.

It ain't easy bein' Tom Sukanen.

The happiest DP in all of Saskatchewan!

Django and Moxie got to come along with us. They were occasionally on the disruptive side, but all in all I think they behaved pretty well. They even actually helped out by delivering rolls of gaff tape to whoever needed it. It doesn't look like we'll be taking them along tomorrow though.

Even Django was helping with continuity.

Moxie looks on as C and Andrew discuss the next shot.

Finally we got all the shots we needed and packed everything up. It was a long first day but we were all pretty happy with the footage we got, considering the weather and the fact that we had never all worked together before.

We were all starving so before leaving Fort Qu'Appelle, we stopped off at The Bounty for some fish n' chips.

I hope 'soft & hard' is referring to the ice cream.

After a day hauling sandbags up and down hills and being buffeted by wind, a basket of greasy fish and salty fries sure hits the spot!

"Hmmm... let see... yes, give me one of each of everything you've got, please."

The family pack

Don't blink or --doh! They're already gone.

After dinner it was back on the road for the trip to Regina. Once back at the university, everything had to be unloaded and put back in C's studio.

The rocks are wrapped! Yay!

Once everything was stowed away, we snuck in one of the lecture rooms with a projector and watched the dailies (footage we shot earlier that day).

Where's the popcorn?

I can't tell you how gratifying it is to see the shots through the camera, especially knowing there are C-stands and sandbags and crew and parked cars just out of frame. It's so magical.

The image below is being displayed at a TV aspect ratio of 4:3 which is all the projector could do. The final movie will be 16:9 widescreen.

Walk Tom! Walk!

We were all beat by then and were looking forward to a good night's sleep. Tomorrow the location will be in Estlin, which is only about 12 miles south of Regina, so it's a relatively easier drive, and we don't have to be on set until 12:30. Bonus!

Until next time... adventure!

R-

Raul's Take: Day 02: Rural Municipality of Estlin

2007-10-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Wow, what an exhilarating first day! My feet and knees are sore though from having to walk around on all the sloped, uneven ground yesterday. This morning C and Andrew and I were up early getting ready for today's shoot. C still had to finish the copper toy boat prop that she and Kristine made. It still needed some canvas sails so C was working on that.

C making sails for the toy boat.

Meanwhile, I was finishing off the threshing machine drawing that we'll use on Friday night.

It looks kooky but hopefully it'll look cool in the movie.

Andrew made another kick-ass breakfast for us of scrambled eggs and bacon with bacon toast. Oh man was it good, and a great way to start a hectic day! Moxie and Django miss you, Andrew!

Then it was off to the university to pick up equipment and craft services-type snacks. Today we're going to have the caterer, Kali, on site to make us supper. Should be good!

Estlin is a short drive south. The site we're using is the grounds of an old school house. The old baseball field is nice and flat and doesn't have a lot of telephone lines and modern farms to spoil the shot. It's perfect.

Jackie and Kristine unpacking the equipment.

The first scene we were shooting was a surreal dreamlike vision Tom Sukanen has from his hospital bed. So first we had to set up a hospital bed out in the grass.

"Do you think anyone'll notice?"

You'll notice we didn't have a real mattress and box spring (which would've made things A LOT easier), but the antique metal head and foot boards and frame were an antique size C found out, so no modern mattress would fit it. C and Kristine came up with faking it with fence planks from our garage, apple boxes and an old futon mattress. It's movie magic!

Don't worry, the chainlink backstop won't be in the shot.

Way back in the background you can see the mobile home one of the little girl actor's mom let us use for costume changes and makeup. Everyone's been real generous! It made it feel like a real movie set!

Candace (right) of course was on hand at the set. She's an amazing costumer. She was responsible for gathering and organizing the over 100 costumes used in the film and she even custom made several of them! Her boyfriend Reynaldo (left) will also get executive producer credit for his generous donation to the movie. Thanks guys, you totally rock!

"Where's the bee suit? Who moved the bee suit! @$&#% RAUL!"

Once Don was in his hospital costume and makeup, it was time to shoot some footage.

Gee Don, you don't look so good --which is perfect!

Megan Fries plays Tom Sukanen's mama. She looked great in her white gown out there in the tall grass.

"Has anyone seen my enchanted castle?"

The shots of Don in bed out in the middle of nowhere looked AWESOME!

"Can I have a bedpan, please?"

Today was considerably easier on the crew compared to yesterday as the terrain was nice and flat and the weather wasn't so blustery and cold.

Don's such a talented actor, he actually looks like he's lying in bed in the middle of the prairie!

C goes over the scene with Don and Megan.

One of C's professors, Mark Wihak, stopped by on set to see how things were going. His film, River, made it into the Montreal Film Festival and he was on his way to the airport to fly out. He even helped out holding a couple flags for us. After a bit he had to go, but before he did he told C he was very impressed with her crew and how well organized and professional he thought everything was being run. He told her she can expect a good grade this term. Woo-hoo! Can we all go home now? Ha ha. Just kidding.

That's professor Wihak in the foreground.

We got some of the most eerie and beautiful and surreal shots of the movie today. The overcast sky was exactly what we ordered, and it helped make things even more surreal.

Looks like this could be some weird music video.

"Okay Don, now flap your arms and sing, I CAN FLY!"

Poor Don, mostly his feet weren't in the shot so he was able to keep his Converse sneakers on, but there were a couple shots where we could see his feet. Walking on all that pokey grass and thistly weeds wasn't easy. I got the idea of lining the bottoms of his feet with gaff tape. Genius!

Sorry Don, we're all out of the men's size 10 gaff tape.

C directs Megan on how to stand in a field of grass. Brilliant!

C had Megan stand on an equipment case which made her look like she were floating on top of the grass. So freakin' cool!

"What? Did you say action?"

Once we got all of the shots here, we had to quickly pack everything up and head a couple miles further south to a long dirt road where we were shooting a few more scenes.

As soon as we got there C and Andrew began planning where the best camera positions would be. I love this picture.

"The camera will be here and the invading space aliens will enter frame over there, by the missile launchers."

This scene is of Tom imagining his son's funeral. It's another eerie, surreal scene. Kristine took care of hauling the coffin in place.

She's the hardest working art director in town.

We got a little bit of rain when we got out there, but not much. Don't worry, we had the camera covered with a plastic trash bag while it sprinkled.

At least it ain't snowing.

The poor girls were freezing out there! As well as Don who only had his hospital gown on for warmth. As soon as C would call cut we'd jump in and give them all jackets and blankets. They were great though! Don was a trooper, it's a wonder he didn't get sick after this. Who'd have thought it'd be this cold in late August!? It reminded us of San Francisco in July.

"Try thinking warm thoughts. Okay, funeral scene take 37!"

After the funeral scene, we shot the arrival of the dust storm scene. Poor Don was still clad in nothing but his hospital gown and we turned a leaf blower on him to simulate the wind and blew dirt on him. We were all bustin' up and Don was a great sport. Jeez, what'd he ever do to deserve this? Think twice before you go into acting, kids.

"Can you please tell Raul to quit throwing dirt clods at my head!"

There were a couple more scenes we had to get out here. We had to race back to the schoolhouse so the actors could change, then grab a quick bite to eat (and I mean quick) before we raced back out to the crossroads. The supper Kali made was great, but I ate it so fast I barely tasted it.

That was a pretty hectic scramble, trying to get all of the shots in before the sun set. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of it, but the scene did look gorgeous. The sun poked out for a few minutes right before it set and we were able to get some awesome golden light for the Tom Says Goodbye to His Family scene.

Finally it was the wrap on another great day of shooting. It was even more fun than yesterday!

Ahhh, Saskatchewan film making.

Once the sun set, it got too dark to do anything else. So it was back to the schoolhouse to pack everything up and to clean out the mobile home we borrowed.

Thanks Estlin, we had a great time!

Then it was back to the university to unload everything into C's studio. The crew is really beginning to gel and get into the flow of things and we're looking forward to shooting the next four days at the Sukanen Museum. That should be cool!

Until next time... adventure!

R-

Raul's Take: Day 03: Sukanen Museum

2007-10-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

What a great day of shooting! Today was the first of four days we'll be at the Sukanen Ship & Pioneer Village Museum and everything went swimmingly, I must say.

We started the day as usual, up early to organize the shot lists and storyboards. Calltime at the museum isn't until 1pm, but there is a photo shoot C has to be at in her studio.

C coordinates with D on the phone while planning the day's shoot.

After breakfast, we got the car loaded up and we headed for university and started setting up for the photo shoot.

Django says, "Come on, let's go! We're late!"

Kevin, who's a professional photographer with the RCMP Training Depot here in town, took the photos for the photo shoot. These will be printed out and used as props for the movie in a later scene.. The photos will need to look sepia and old and faded.

C, Kevin and Don set up for the photo shoot.

While C was overseeing the photos, Andrew and I headed out to grab some b-roll of the prairie and skies. B-roll is a term used for extraneous shots you might cut away to between scenes or during a scene. They're also known as 'cut aways.'

Before we headed out though, we stopped off at Candace's studio at the university where she was getting the actor's costumes ready for the photo shoot. Lori, who plays Tom Sukanen's wife, Katja, was getting her hair and makeup done by our makeup artist, Clara.

I forget, does this scene call for corn rows or just a fro?

Andrew and I got some great shots of wheat fields and the clouds this morning were just spectacular. Soon, it was time to head back to the university to pack up for the trip out to the museum.

B-roll-A-Rama

When we got back C and Kevin were wrapping up the photo shoot. Everything looked great and C was really pleased with how it all went.

"We have just enough time for the swimsuit shots. What do you think?"

Then it was time to load up the equipment and props and head for the museum! Moose Jaw is about a 40 minute drive west on the Trans Canada highway, and the museum is another 12 kilometers south on highway 2.

Paul Johnson is the president of the Sukanen Ship & Pioneer Village Museum and as their website says is the "doer of many things."

Paul and Dauminique hash out set details.

The first order of business was the production meeting where C goes over what scenes we'll be shooting today and when and where. We go over everyone's duties and when certain things, like set dressing and makeup and costuming, have to be done so we're ready to shoot on schedule.

"And NO tractor races! This is my last warning!"

After an inspirational Go Sisu! speech from C, it was time for a quick lunch. Kali made delicious vegetarian sandwiches.

"AaaAAARRrr AaRRfffgrmmmn."

After we ate everyone went to work. The first scene we shot at the museum was Tom and Katja's wedding. Don got his makeup done by Clara and reported to Candace to get into his wedding duds.

Wait! Don't we shoot the bachelor party first?

Wayne Slinn, who plays the part of the minister, is also another valuable asset to C's production. He's well connected with actors in Regina and not only helped wrangle together extras for the party scene which we shoot in a couple days, but also has donated paint for props and big chunks of his time during casting.

Here Wayne is putting up a sign to the concessions building where we have costumes, makeup and meals set up.

Hey Wayne, shouldn't you be getting into costume?

While the actors were getting ready, Kristine and Kevin got to work on set dressing the church. Andrew and our sound guy, Trevor, were busy setting up lights in there too.

Here comes Kristine to inspect the church set. Everybody look busy!

Candace is so amazing. She made Katja's wedding dress herself, it wasn't borrowed from any of the local theaters. She's a stickler for authentic period styles and fashions so you know this dress is correct.

Sniff. Weddings always make me cry.

About this time the church was lighted, dressed and ready to go.

Wayne stands in to check lighting while Kevin tries to burn the church down.

The wedding scene went off just great. Dauminique and Kristine even got a small cameo in the film as Katja's mother and sister. Ha!

When C calls action, everyone forever hold their peace. Or until she calls cut.

Once we wrapped in the church, we had a few hours before the nighttime shots in the farmhouse. One of the museum's blacksmiths, Frank, came out to fire up the forge for us. We got to have Don stand in and work the forge, after a quick lesson from Frank, which turned out looking awesome! C wasn't sure if Frank would be able to come out today or not, so this was a total bonus scene for us! Thanks Frank!

Fun Fact: An HD video camera will melt if it gets too close to a working forge.

Work that metal, Tommy!

After we got enough shots of Tom pounding on red-hot metal, Kristine and Kevin headed for the farmhouse to prep it for the Tom/Taivo Bedtime Scene and the Tom/Katja Argument Scene. But before Frank put out the forge, I got to jump in and take a few swings with the hammer. All I got to do was curve then flatten a piece of steel but man was it fun!

We had a few minutes to run over to Tom's ship and his grave to grab some b-roll. But first C had to touch up his headstone a bit.

"Aren't there three O's in Sukanen?"

While the crew worked on the farmhouse set, Jonathan arrived and was ready to do some actin'. Jonathan is a very talented actor with great instincts for a scene, he totally blew us away last February during auditions. C knew right away he would be perfect for the role of Taivo, Tom's son.

But first, Jonathan needed a bit of a haircut.

Writer, producer, director and beautician.

Meanwhile, Lori changed out of her wedding dress and she and Don got ready for the farmhouse at night scenes.

You won't get your makeup done until you spit out your gum!

"No no, the BEE costume. It's black with yellow stripes and two big wings in the back."

Most of the buildings at the museum have no power, like the farmhouse. So we had to string a series of extension cords out the window of the bedroom and across to the barn a few yards away.

Andrew and Trevor get the farmhouse set ready.

One of Kevin's many titles is project documentarian. He got footage of us all working on set whenever he wasn't helping Kristine dress our next set or restore the one we just shot in.

I seeeee you!

The bedroom was just about ready and Jonathan was costumed and primed to go.

"Did someone call for an actor?"

As anyone in film knows, your time is made up of 80% lighting and 20% actual shooting. Geoff Yates, a veteran gaffer and director himself here in Regina, donated a couple nights of his time to help us out. He was on hand tonight to help Andrew and Trevor with lighting and they did a helluva job!

I think the framistan needs a Johnson gel.

The Tom/Taivo Bedtime scene turned out great. The workshops C had put on with the actors really paid off. Jonathan couldn't make it to any of them as he and his parents moved to Ottawa this past Spring. But they flew back just so he could star in C's film. Awesome! Anyway, Jonathan did an outstanding job nonetheless, and the room was beautifully lit. That's fake candle light and fake moonlight, FYI!

Tom gives his son a toy ship.

The copper toy ship prop. Great job C and Kristine!

It was about 11pm by the time we got the master shot and all of Jonathan's close-ups. He worked his butt off and was pretty tuckered out, so C wrapped him and sent him home with his dad. Great job, Jonathan!

"What'd you people do with my clothes?"

We weren't wrapped yet, we still had Don's close-ups to do, so to give him an eye-line while he delivers his lines, we had Dauminique stand in as Taivo. Ha!

"Aaaa! Who replaced my baby with this crazy woman!"

After Don's close-ups, we had to relight the scene for the Tom/Katja Argument scene.

Goeff moves some lights (foreground), while D (background) struggles with her allergies in the dusty room.

After a long hectic day, as the shoot goes into the wee hours of the night, folks tend to get a bit punchy. C and D kept everyone's spirits up by doing their best Charlie Chaplin impressions while the lights are being adjusted.

They're either Chaplin or Hitler, we're not really sure.

The Tom/Katja scene was a great way to wrap up the day. Again the performances by the actors were amazing. Lori's passionate, desperate performance blew everyone away and was the highlight of the day.

Don and Lori were so professional and on top of it that we wrapped the scene at about 1am. By the time we had broken everything down and loaded up the equipment in the trailer it was 2.

Andrew and C chat with Geoff before heading back to the university.

By the time we drove back to C's studio, unloaded most of the equipment, and got home it was almost 4am. We have to be back at the museum by 7:30am later this morning, so it means getting up at 5:30 so we can load up the day's equipment and props.

Man am I beat.

Until next time... sisu!

R-

Raul's Take: Day 03: Sukanen Museum

2007-10-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

href="http://www.sukanenmuseum.ca/">Sukanen Ship & Pioneer Village Museum and everything went swimmingly, I must say.

We started the day as usual, up early to organize the shot lists and storyboards. Calltime at the museum isn't until 1pm, but there is a photo shoot C has to be at in her studio.

C coordinates with D on the phone while planning the day's shoot.

After breakfast, we got the car loaded up and we headed for university and started setting up for the photo shoot.

Django says, "Come on, let's go! We're late!"

C, Kevin and Don set up for the photo shoot.

I forget, does this scene call for corn rows or just a fro?

Andrew and I got some great shots of wheat fields and the clouds this morning were just spectacular. Soon, it was time to head back to the university to pack up for the trip out to the museum.

B-roll-A-Rama

When we got back C and Kevin were wrapping up the photo shoot. Everything looked great and C was really pleased with how it all went.

"We have just enough time for the swimsuit shots. What do you think?"

Paul and Dauminique hash out set details.

"And NO tractor races! This is my last warning!"

After an inspirational Go Sisu! speech from C, it was time for a quick lunch. Kali made delicious vegetarian sandwiches.

"AaaAAARRrr AaRRfffgrmmmn."

After we ate everyone went to work. The first scene we shot at the museum was Tom and Katja's wedding. Don got his makeup done by Clara and reported to Candace to get into his wedding duds.

Wait! Don't we shoot the bachelor party first?

Hey Wayne, shouldn't you be getting into costume?

While the actors were getting ready, Kristine and Kevin got to work on set dressing the church. Andrew and our sound guy, Trevor, were busy setting up lights in there too.

Here comes Kristine to inspect the church set. Everybody look busy!

Sniff. Weddings always make me cry.

About this time the church was lighted, dressed and ready to go.

Wayne stands in to check lighting while Kevin tries to burn the church down.

The wedding scene went off just great. Dauminique and Kristine even got a small cameo in the film as Katja's mother and sister. Ha!

When C calls action, everyone forever hold their peace. Or until she calls cut.

Fun Fact: An HD video camera will melt if it gets too close to a working forge.

Work that metal, Tommy!

"Aren't there three O's in Sukanen?"

Writer, producer, director and beautician.

Meanwhile, Lori changed out of her wedding dress and she and Don got ready for the farmhouse at night scenes.

You won't get your makeup done until you spit out your gum!

"No no, the BEE costume. It's black with yellow stripes and two big wings in the back."

Most of the buildings at the museum have no power, like the farmhouse. So we had to string a series of extension cords out the window of the bedroom and across to the barn a few yards away.

Andrew and Trevor get the farmhouse set ready.

One of Kevin's many titles is project documentarian. He got footage of us all working on set whenever he wasn't helping Kristine dress our next set or restore the one we just shot in.

I seeeee you!

The bedroom was just about ready and Jonathan was costumed and primed to go.

"Did someone call for an actor?"

I think the framistan needs a Johnson gel.

Tom gives his son a toy ship.

The copper toy ship prop. Great job C and Kristine!

"What'd you people do with my clothes?"

We weren't wrapped yet, we still had Don's close-ups to do, so to give him an eye-line while he delivers his lines, we had Dauminique stand in as Taivo. Ha!

"Aaaa! Who replaced my baby with this crazy woman!"

After Don's close-ups, we had to relight the scene for the Tom/Katja Argument scene.

Goeff moves some lights (foreground), while D (background) struggles with her allergies in the dusty room.

They're either Chaplin or Hitler, we're not really sure.

Andrew and C chat with Geoff before heading back to the university.

Raul's Take: Day 04: Sukanen Museum

2007-10-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Sleepy. So sleeeeeeeeepy.

Yet, we feel somewhat mildly refreshed as we head out for Day 4 of the Sisu shoot. Yesterday was a lo-o-o-ong day that ended at around 3:30 in the morning. Luckily, C says today should be a "light day." So far she's said that about every day.

Weren't we just unloading the car a couple hours ago?

We all met up at the university and loaded up the equipment and props and were on the road to Moose Jaw by 6:30. Kali was already there and had breakfast waiting for us.

This must be the place.

We all had breakfast and traded stories about the shoot yesterday and about how much (or little) sleep we got this morning.

C can't sit still for a second, she's got too much to do!

These shoot days have been INCREDIBLY planned. Kudos to C and Dauminique on their wonderful organizational skills! Without them all of the shots would've taken 2 or 3 times the length it's taken.

"Okay, tell the Snowbirds they can fly over any time between
10:15 and 10:25 am and 4:05 and 4:20 pm."

Once the crew was done eating, Kevin and Kristine got to work on dressing the general store. We have two scenes we need to shoot in there today, one set in the 1910's and the other set in the 1930's.

Brian and Kevin having a terrible time during breakfast.

Jonathan and his dad, Sylvain, were on their way to the airport to fly back home to Ottawa when they dropped by to say goodbye. We got all of Jonathan's shots last night and on Day 2 at Estlin so he was cleared to go home. His spirit and enthusiasm was great to have on set and we're all sure he's going to be a famous movie actor some day. Thanks Jonathan, see you at Sundance!

We can all say we knew you when you were just a little guy.

Our crew is slowly growing from day to day. Today Lorne Fries (no relation to Megan Fries who plays Mama), who plays Marge's husband Troy, and Gerry Paul, who plays the threshing machine salesman later on in the film, volunteered to come out and help with set dressing and PA-ing. Kristine did a great job supervising the set dressing of the store.

"What are '15 barrels of Django Djuice?'"

Kevin, who took his 2 weeks of vacation time with the RCMP to help out on set, helped take down the old museum products and replace them with our fake products.

"Hey this 80-year old can of spinach still looks good."

Here are a couple of the fake products I designed. Moxie brand black pepper and Django Djangerson's extra-strenth baking soda. Dauminique and Don pasted the print outs onto long single pieces of foamcore for easy set up and removal. Genius.

With products like these, it's a wonder they survived the 30's and 40's.

Once all the products were in place, the set didn't look too bad! It actually looks like a functioning general store!

Do you have any 20-mule team Borax?

While the set dressers worked, Andrew and Trevor came in and started setting up lights. As the assistant director, they'd check with me for camera placement and camera angle and actor marks, then they'd light the scene based on that.

"You want me to stick this light where?"

While the general store was getting set up, the actors were getting ready for makeup and costumes. Brian Dueck, who plays Vic Markula -Tom's best and only friend in the movie, is another wonderfully talented actor. He's appeared several times with speaking roles in the locally made hit TV series Corner Gas as well as Moccasin Flats. He also blew us away during auditions and we all had fun having him on set.

Brian and Don go over their lines.

Clara does her best to make Brian look good.

When everything was just about ready in the general store, we called for the director and on-screen talent.

Let's do this thing!

C first had to shore up Brian's haircut. There's no detail overlooked on one of C's films.

"Your haircutting skills come highly recommended by Jonathan."

Mark Claxton, who plays Lloyd the storekeeper, had two different mustaches he had to sport. But the mustaches were cheap stage mustaches and were quite a handful to make look real.

"Your mustache trimming skills come highly recommended by Jonathan."

This scene is set in the 1910's and is when Tom and Vic meet for the first time. Again, C's work with the actors during the workshops paid off immensely.

C studies the scene one last time as the actors run through their lines.

"Weren't there space aliens in this scene? I cut it? Oh okay."

The scene went great and Don and Mark and Brian were excellent. After we wrapped that scene, it was time for lunch. Kristine and the set dressers were eating lunch while we were shooting so they could be setting up for the 1930's version of Lloyd's store while we ate.

Kali kickin' it with D and Mark.

Don and Andrew taking a minute to enjoy some lunch.

While everyone was eating, I snuck over to the grandstand field and saw the guys setting up the threshing machine which we'll hopefully be shooting on Monday. Next week the museum is having their annual Threshing Bee so Paul had arranged to have the thresher up and running a week early so C could use it in her film. Sweet! Hopefully it doesn't rain or they won't be able to operate it.

How fast does that thing do the quarter mile you think?

Meanwhile the crew is busy setting up the store for the next scene.

Trojan condoms... hmmm... did they have Trojans in the 40's?

While the set was being prepped, the actors were getting into their costumes and made up to look 20 years older.

Clara works her magic!

In this scene, Tom isn't actually present but is astral traveling from his hospital bed listening in on their conversation. So C wanted Don in his hospital gown and looking like old Tom. I boarded the shot to have Tom standing in front of the window to give him an eerie silhouetted look.

C and Don talk about the scene while Andrew gets the camera ready.

Mark's mustache was an ongoing challenge to keep under control!

Lili's thinking, "God, I'm glad I'm not a director."

This day, especially this scene, was one of our favorites to shoot. As well as being talented actors, Mark is an improv comedian and Brian had done some stand up comedy too, add to that Lili's great personality and her infectious laugh on top of the crew's lack of sleep, and you've got one hilarious movie set!

Simply hilarious!

They even brought a smile to Old Tom's face!

C and I still fanatsize about starting up a sitcom show staring these three and Don. The thought of going to work with these fun, talented people every day would be awesome!

"You call this work?"

Alas, we finally wrapped the scene and the general store. What a great set! Mark, Lili and Brian were wrapped for the day, but Don had a couple more scenes to shoot, so he was off to wardrobe and makeup yet again!

The next scene was in a small prairie house around the corner from the store and next to the church. While we were shooting the general store scene, Kristine and Kevin were here dressing this set.

Andrew focuses the camera on Lori, who plays Katja in Tom's imagination.

Once we started shooting here, Kristine and Kevin headed back over to the store to clean up and put everything back the way it was. Such a great process!

We were a bit behind schedule and lighting this scene presented its own challenges which put us further behind. We eventually lost our sunlight and Geoff, who came to join us again after he got off work, had to simulate late evening light in the house.

Ahhh, movie magic.

That scene finally wrapped and Lori was free to head home. But not us! We still had one more scene to shoot, the threshing machine drawing scene. This scene is supposed to take place at night, but the room was pretty cramped and lighting it believably took some finessing.

Don stands by as Trevor, Andrew and Geoff light the scene.

This scene was one of those strokes of inspiration I had while C and I were cooking dinner many months ago. C liked it and wrote it into the script and I boarded it. It was exciting to see it finally come to life. I hope it turns out.

C and Don discuss the blocking of the scene.

When we finished that scene the day was a wrap! Whew, another long one. It was 12:30am by the time we wrapped and it'd be 2 or 3am by the time we all got home to our beds.

You know the routine, pack it up and haul it home!

After a quick production meeting where we talked about what will happen tomorrow --another 7am calltime, uuuugh!-- we all piled our tired butts into our vehicles and headed back to Regina and C's studio.

C assures us, however, that tomorrow will be a light day.

Until next time... adventure!

R-

Raul's Take: Day 05: Sukanen Museum

2007-10-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Uuuh. Another 7am calltime. Another couple hours sleep. And only 6 more days of this. After today that is.

Same routine. Up early, arrange storyboards in the order we want to get the shots, collect all camera batteries that have been recharging for the last few hours since we got home, eat some breakfast and then out the door.

Today C found the completed ships' wheel that Chris St. Amand has been working on sitting in her studio. The prop is finished even though the wheel is unfinished, in the movie Tom never really finishes it. We strapped it to the car and took it with us.

Not a great shot of the wheel but it is way cool.

Today was another "light" day of shooting. For the past week Paul, the president of the museum, had been trying to get a horse and buggy team for one of C's shots. Good ol' Paul came through again! He managed to secure two Percheron horses and a buggy for the end of the Tom Meets Vic scene we shot yesterday. Was that yesterday?

So far the horses have been the most uncooperative actors we've had on set.

Brian, who plays Vic, is supposed to ride off with Tom, but first Brian needed a quick lesson on how to drive a horse team.

"Remember to let the clutch out slowly."

The horse team was awesome. It was another one of C's dream shots that she wanted in her movie but wasn't sure if she'd get a chance. The crew always says this is the highest production value of any movie with a budget of $7500 (Canadian!).

The only problem was, when we'd want to do another take, the horses had to circle around the buildings and then have to be finagled back onto their marks. What was supposed to be a half hour shot ended up taking 2-1/2 hours! Doh! The first scene of the day and suddenly we were WAY behind schedule.

C rides along as the buggy circles around for another take.

Check it out! I finally got my cameo (somewhat) in the movie. Part of this shot is Old Tom in his hospital gown is supposed to step into frame and watch himself and Vic ride away. So after getting a few takes of Don climbing into the buggy, he changed into his hospital gown and I got to stand in as his double. Ha ha ha!

Is a Filipino Tom Sukanen so hard to believe? Come on!

Once we wrapped the riding away shot, it was off to the big red barn for the Pork Packing Scene. C got to drive the horse team over there, something she said she'd never done before. Cool!

Andrew seems pretty excited about it too.

C said to me, "You got to play in the blacksmith forge, so I get to drive the horse team." Sounds fair to me.

She even got them up to a pretty brisk trot too!

These things are hard to parallel park though.

In this scene Tom and Vic have just butchered a whole pig. We don't actually show the pig, but there's supposed to be a lot of blood. At first C thought the table we were going to use was going to be bare wood, so she was afraid stage blood wouldn't look real enough. So she got a local butcher shop to give her almost 2 pints of pigs blood, which sat in our freezer at home for a week. Blech!

Yes that's real pig's blood! And man did it ever stink!

Luckily Don didn't have to cover his hands with the real blood. C had Clara bring over some stage blood.

C helps Don put on fake blood.

"Hey Vic, you see where I put Soft Scrub?"

It was around this time when C's film professor, Gerald Saul, and his wife, Margarette, and their son, William, stopped by to see how things were going. Gerald and William had also come by the set when we were in Estlin.

No need to see your access passes, you're welcomed guests!

The horse and buggy scene had put us so far behind, we were still shooting the Pork scene when the extras started showing up for the Post-Threshing Party scene.

Extras, or 'background talent,' wait patiently in the breakroom.

One problem we faced often at the museum, besides the intermittent sun and clouds and lack of electrical power and planes flying over and cars and trucks driving by on the nearby highway, was not shooting buildings in the background that we've already seen in other scenes.

We used a lot of up shots and down shots to exclude any buildings or modern tractors from the background.

R: "I'm so sleepy. Can I please take a nap!"

Once we got all of the shots with horses in them, C let the nice people go home. Thanks horse people! But we still had some close-ups of the actors. Professor Saul lended a hand by nudging the buggy every once in a while to make it seem like there were horses still hitched to it.

What do we put in the credits? 'Gerald Saul - Horse stand in'?

We finally wrapped the Pork Scene and still had the Finnish Boss scene to shoot in the blacksmith shop. We were falling further and further behind. We need to get to the Party scene right before sunset to get that golden hour lighting. If we don't, the sun will set and we simply don't have enough lights or power to light the party sufficiently.

Back in the blacksmith shop, but this time, it's doubling as an 1898 Finnish shipyard!

Meanwhile, wardrobe and makeup were up to their eyeballs in background talent. They had to have everyone ready by the time C wrapped in the blacksmith shop. This was Clara and Candace's busiest day!

"We've run out of bee suits! What do we do!"

I took this time to go check on the dogs. We tried keeping them at the kennel at the Pet Cetera in Regina one of the days during the shoot but they seemed pretty freaked out and were shaking when I went to pick them up. Lili, the actor playing Marge, even offered to let us keep them at her house while we shot which worked out well for a few days. But we were getting home so late and leaving so early that it was just easier to bring them with us to Moose Jaw.

I know it doesn't seem very humane but we keep them on leashes with the car doors open and I move the car into shade whenever they get any sun. They did seem much happier.

"Hey when do we get to be in the movie!"

C and the crew were wrapping up the Finnish Boss scene while the extras, all dressed and ready to stand around in the background, got a quick lesson on the two-step and the polka. Yeeee haaaaaw!

Have any of you heard of the TV show, So You Think You Can Dance?

They were having such a good time that I had to run over from the blacksmith shop and ask them to keep it down while we were shooting! Hee hee.

The Finnish Boss scene was wrapped and it was finally time for the Post Threshing Party! Our crack crew of set dressers were already at work setting up the tables, plates, chairs and pies. Meanwhile C took a few minutes to talk to the two gentlemen who were going to play the fiddle and the guitar during the party scene.

"Have you guys played Fiddler Hero? You gotta try it! It's so much fun!"

While the set dressers were putting on the finishing touches, the crew and actors got a few minutes for a quick supper.

Paul, Don and Brian enjoying their chili.

Whenever there was a few minutes to move the camera or rearrange the set, some of us got to take short naps.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

We started with long shots of general party fun. Andrew and Trevor went up to the second floor window to get these shots. Reconize that porch? Kristine, Kevin, Dauminique and I painted that a couple weeks ago. Still looks good.

"I keep hearing someone yelling 'Freebird'."

C gives the talent some direction before we start rolling.

Lili and Kevin (foreground) trade pie recipes while Andrew shoots from the roof of the porch.

The party scene was a lot of fun to shoot. It was kind'a hectic and frantic as C just let the extras act like they were at a party and we ran around shooting different things.

Just before Andrew and Trevor were trampled by the mosh pit.

Everyone did a great job and the whole scene I think will turn out great. All the extras -er background talent- were very patient and professional and took C's direction very well. Thanks again to Wayne Slinn for rounding up these wonderful people.

"Okay here's where Tom stage dives off the porch, so everyone bunch closer together!"

When we got all of the shots of the party goers, C let them go home, but we still had reverse shots of Tom and Vic to shoot. Unfortunately we had lost a lot of our light.

Vic walking up to the porch to make a speech.

The sun finally went down but luckily we were able to get all the shots but one, a close up of Tom looking uncomfortable at the party. C's hoping we can get that on our make-up day on Saturday.

The other shot we missed was one from the second day out in Estlin. We ran out of light then and didn't get shots of Tom calling out to his son Taivo. While the rest of us packed up the equipment, C, Andrew, Trevor and Don tried to get that shot. C's not sure if it's going to look right though.

"Tom has lunch scene, take 53."

Once they were done, everthing was packed up and we headed back to Regina.

Today we wrapped at a more merciful hour, about 10:30. And we actually unloaded everything and got home by midnight. Sweet! AND calltime tomorrow isn't until 1pm when the guys fire up the threshing machine for us.

Enough! I'm going to bed.

Until next time... zzzzzzz.

R-

Raul's Take: Day 06: Sukanen Museum

2007-10-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

What a difference 10 hours of sleep makes! How refreshing.

Today will be our last of four days shooting at the Sukanen Museum. It's been great shooting there despite the plane and traffic noise and having to run hundreds of feet of extension cords to where ever we're shooting. Paul's been wonderful, the sets are looking great and really giving C high production value.

As much fun as it's been though, I'm looking forward to the two days we'll be at the old university building in Regina. One set, indoors and no Snowbirds flying over. AND it's 5 minutes up Broad Street from C's studio, no more 45 minute drives home from Moose Jaw at 2am.

Today we started by meeting at C's studio as usual to load up equipment. We didn't have to be at the museum until 1 though so it was a little more relaxed than usual. Once we got in, Kali had lunch waiting for us.

Andrew and Trevor strategize about the shoot during lunch.

At the production meeting, C assures us that today will be a "light day." Only two scenes to shoot. Huh, maybe it will be a light day.

During the meeting, Paul pulled up to show off his jalopy.

"Any of you city slickers wanna drag for pinks?"

After the meeting, we headed over to the field in front of the grandstand where the threshing machine was set up. This is an authentic 100-year old threshing machine that the volunteers at the museum maintain. They fire it up once a year during their annual Threshing Bee which is next weekend. Paul arranged for them to run it for us so C could use it in her film. Awesome.

Some of the gentlemen who were background talent yesterday at the Post Threshing Party scene returned today for the Threshing Demo scene.

C directs the extras on what she wants them to do in this scene.

One of the coolest surprises we got was a visit from Helen Sukanen, who was married to the late Elmer Sukanen, the real Tom's nephew. C got to interview Elmer a few times and learned many stories and annecdotes about Tom, which she incorporated into the script. Elmer passed away this Spring and we weren't sure if Helen would make it out to see us. But she did and we were really glad to see her again. As you can imagine, it was a very emotional reunion for Helen and C. Helen was accompanied by Lloyd and Edith Redden and their friend, Marge Ingolls. Edith and Marge were the first people C met when she travelled from San Francisco to Macrorie back in 2003 to do research for the film. Lloyd drove C out to Tom's homestead the next day which was an amazing experience for C, as you can imagine.

Lloyd, Don, Helen, Marge and Edith.

A little Sisu trivia: Mark's character, Lloyd the store owner, is named after Lloyd Redden and Lili's character Marge Ingolls is named after... you guessed it, Marge Ingolls herself.

Soon the thresher was ready to go and it was time to start shooting. This was another one of C's dream shots that she hoped to get for her movie, so we were all really excited that we were going to get shots of the thresher working. There was a slight chance of showers today, which would've nixed the thresher altogether. Luckily the rain stayed away and we got some awesome shots!

Turn it up to 11!

Clara hard at work touching up the talent's mugs.

First we got wide, establishing shots of the farmers arriving at the threshing demonstration.

Step right up gentlemen, and take a gander at the future of farming!

Getting a lot of useable sounds of the machinery working was important. C will use a lot of it as background sound under the actor's voices during the editing phase.

Closer! Go ahead and get right under there Trevor!

One shot I boarded called for a camera angle from inside the thresher looking out at Tom. We weren't sure if it'd be possible but Paul assured us it was safe to crawl under there with the camera while the machine was going. Uh... okay Andrew, give it a shot!

Try as we might, we just couldn't get Andrew maimed or mangled.

"I wanna go home!"

The shots of the thresher working turned out great. It's going to be another wonderful scene in this whole amazing movie.

Will that thing also separate cans from plastics?

We then got tight shots of the tractor starting up for B-roll. It was tough getting it going however. According to the operators, once it gets going and gets hot, it's a bear to restart.

Isn't there a remote control you can use or something?

But they managed to do it and we got some usable footage. Even though we'd gotten all of the shots we needed, Paul and his crew of threshers had to go ahead and thresh the rest of the wheat. So Andrew and I got a couple shots of the farmers supposedly celebrating the threshing machine that Tom designed and built. It was a totally impromptu shot and wasn't boarded at all but it might turn out to be useful during editing.

I think Trevor may have taken this picture. That's why he's on sound.

The next thing we needed was reverse shots of the farmers' reactions to the thresher. But we couldn't shoot the modern corrigated buildings in the background so we had to swing them around so there was just an empty grass field behind them. Things were getting frantic again as the sun was setting fast and we were losing our light. Again.

"So what we have here is what is known as a threshing mach-- HEY! Where'd it go!"

Here's a shot of those annoying Snowbirds, Canada's equivalent to the Blue Angels. They're home base is located a few miles north of the museum and although they don't fly during the weekends, they were buzzing around all day today.

Drat you Snowbirds!

They stop flying at 6pm so from about 5:30 they come around to land at their base every 2 or 3 minutes. Errrr!

We got all of the shots we needed of the extras, but we still hadn't gotten close-ups of Gerry who plays the threshing machine salesman. Unfortunately, the sun went down and got too dark to shoot. Andrew and Trevor tried lighting the scene but it just wasn't working.

"Salesman gets a sunburn scene, take 66!"

After a few futile takes of the salesman in the dark, C determined we'd just have to get the shot another day. So we wrapped the threshing machine set and headed over to the old Diefenbaker homestead (or a replica of it as we found out later) for the Mama/Dami Bedtime scene.

Try not to trigger the pyrotechnics under the bed.

It took a little while to light the scene, and while Andrew and Trevor were working on that some of us grabbed a quick bite for dinner. Luckily Kristine and Kevin got the room set dressed while we were finishing up with the threshing machine.

Zach's character is Dami, Tom when he was a boy in Finland. This scene is when his mama, played by Megan Fries, sings him a Kalevala story before bed.

The later it got the better Zach was at acting sleepy.

We started shooting at about 9 and Zach didn't wrap until after 11pm. You could tell he was starting to get tired there toward the end. Once he was done, C wrapped him and let him go home. Good job, Zach!

Of course, we still had Megan's close-ups to shoot, so we threw Dauminique into the bed again as Zach's stand in.

"WAAAAAA! It's that crazy woman again! What'd you do with my baby!"

Megan wrapped at about 1am so we started loading everything up for the drive back. It had started raining while we were shooting so packing up was a bit on the soggy side.

Hey, I think we've got a tail light out.

It was sad to think our shoot at the museum is over. We had a great time and got a lot of really amazing shots. We'll all miss Paul too, who's been great at letting us pretty much have free reign of the place and getting us whatever we needed. Thanks so much, Paul!

Actually, we do still have to shoot the second half of the Finnish Boss scene. C's thinking about doing that on our emergency buffer day on Saturday. So we'll be back.

One of the hassles of shooting so late is the university is locked up by the time we get back. So C has to walk over to the security office and have them let us in to unload. But they're cool about it, they aren't like Nazi's about it or anything.

This is starting to get old.

All of this hectic running around along with the lack of sleep and going from hot, movie light-filled rooms to cold exteriors has been reeking havoc on our immune systems. So on our way home we stopped off at a 24-hour Shopper's Drug Mart to pick up some Airborne.

Sorry Andrew, I grabbed the last box of adult diapers.

Do you have anything that will treat Lack of Golden Hour Light Syndrome?

Here's a Fun Fact: They don't have Airborne in Canada! Bwuuuh? That totally sucks. So we went home empty handed.

Calltime is at 9am tomorrow. Good news is we'll be shooting in C's studio, no driving to Moose Jaw. Yay! Another "light" day of shooting!

Until next time... adventure!

R-

Raul's Take: Day 07: C's Studio and Museum

2007-10-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Today was supposed to be a light day. We're now past the halfway point of the shoot but also past the most hectic days. Part of the reason things were so tightly scheduled was for the actors' and extras' more convenient time. Folks are more available during the weekend (especially the actors from out of town) than on weekdays, plus the Snowbirds don't fly on weekends. As C says, if she had a real budget and could pay people for their time, she could just tell everyone they had to be at a certain place at a certain time and they'd have to wait however long she needed them. But of course, there is no real budget and C and Dauminique did a great job working around everyone's busy schedules. Kudos again.

Anyway, today was supposed to be a half day for us, with only a studio shoot happening in the morning and then getting the hospital set ready at the old university building in the afternoon. But as I mentioned yesterday (or was that two days ago? --really losing sense of time), we ran out of time to shoot the second half of the Finnish Boss scene. So instead of trying to shoot it on our buffer day (Saturday), we adjusted the schedule to shoot the opening workbench shot this morning, reschedule the Tom at His Workbench scenes for the Fall shoot in November, and then go back to the Sukanen Museum to shoot the Finnish Boss Office scene this afternoon.

So the plan was we'd all meet at C's studio to load up any lighting equipment and power cords we'd need at the museum, then Andrew and I would stay behind and shoot the opening workbench sequence while C and Dauminique and Kevin and Kristine would head to the museum to start set dressing and lighting the Finnish boss's office. Sounds like a plan.

C clears away some of the craft service snacks for the workbench sequence.

Oh the other thing too is that we aren't going to have Trevor with us today. Today was his day off which he needed to finish a proposal for a project that's due by the end of the month. He's a film maker too and is working on some cool sounding projects. Good luck with that, Trevor, you're definitely an important and valued member of our team and having you and your dry sense of humor around sure is fun. We'll miss having you on set today!

The good news is Bernie will be filling in for Trevor. Bernie's in his last year in getting his film degree at the U of R. He's pretty busy with his own projects but he's able to come aboard for a few days and help us out, which is a huge relief for Andrew.

"What's the difference between a reflector and a C-stand again? Ha ha - just kidding dude."

This sequence is going to be part of the opening sequence of C's movie, a slow dolly shot across a workbench. It's supposed to exist within an imaginary, ethereal space in Tom's mind, so C simply painted some of the walls of her studio for the backgrounds.

Workbench - before. That ain't pasta, that's sawdust.

Kristine gets to work dressing the workbench with various props she made as well as old woodworking tools borrowed from Chris, the carpenter who made the ship's wheel. Chris conveniently works in the woodshop just down the hall and has a collection of very old tools.

Remember to leave room for the Finnish water bong.

After some tweaking and a little sprinkle of sawdust, the workbench was ready for its close up. Cooool.

Hmm. It's kind'a messy in Tom's imagination.

C had borrowed a wheelchair from the university's theater department to use as a makeshift dolly. Andrew and I secured the camera and tripod to it with sandbags and clamps. Check it out.

Sure why not.

It was a bit of a challenge to get a nice smooth, even dolly across the workbench. Even though we swept it, the concrete floor still had dried up lumps of paint drops on it, and I'm not too sure the wheels on the wheelchair were completely smooth either. We tried a few different approaches.

I hear this is how James Cameron shot half of Titanic.

Not all of them were successful. Eventually however, we got a couple takes that we think C will like. So we packed everything up, locked up her studio and headed back to the Sukanen Museum.

When we arrived the set dressing team was still working on the set. We no longer had Jackie and the use of her trailer, but luckily Kevin still had his dad's big truck he borrowed to haul stuff around.

At least there aren't any parking meters out here.

We used the municipal records building at the museum for the Finnish boss's office.

"What we need is a big photo of the Skipper from Gilligan's Island."

As you can imagine, it's tough finding maritime themed props, pictures and knick-knacks out here in the prairie. Kristine had to come up with pictures of ships off of the internet to cover some of the prairie themed memorabilia in the office. I made that big blueprint of a Finnish steam/sailing ship in Illustrator and Kevin printed it out for us. The model ship we borrowed from one of the other buildings in the museum.

Voila! Instant Finnish shipyard office!

The powder blue walls look atrocious I know, but C will desaturate or sepia tone these scenes of Tom's memories, so the blue won't look blue at all. She did a couple quick tests in Photoshop and it actually looks pretty good!

Oh, and we brought the pups with us again. I think they rather enjoy film making.

They're rehearsing for our upcoming A Dingo's Got My Baby! movie.

The scene went off pretty well. At least we weren't chasing the sunset, although we did shoot right up until sundown again. Gerry Coulter, who plays young Tom's shipyard boss in Finland, did a good job once C was able to calm him down. And Don was amazing as usual. He's so good. When it was all over, I think we were all glad we shot this today and not on Saturday.

You can almost smell the barnacles!

Andrew says "It's a wrap!"

One relatively light scene and we were done. C, Andrew and Trevor tried to get some B-roll of the amazing moonrise, running across the highway and through a couple of ditches to get the shot. I'm not exactly sure how it went, I stayed behind to help pack up the equipment.

Loading up one last time at the Sukanen. For real this time!

The next two days will be interesting. We'll be at only one set on both days which will be easier, but we've got to shoot a crap load of shots within those two days. The room we're using at the old university building has a class scheduled the next morning after we finish, so we've gotta get everything shot or it might have to wait until the Fall shoot.

Raul's Take: Day 08: Hospital Room

2007-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Today was a great day of shooting. I admit when C showed Andrew and me the shot list for today when we got home last night, I was dubious at best. Maybe it was the exhaustion setting in, or this cold I'm fighting off --really wish we would've found some Airborne the other night-- but I didn't think we could shoot all of the scenes we needed to while chasing the sunlight. It's been our biggest nemesis so far.

Luckily Andrew suggested blocking out all the light from the large windows entirely and using our light kits to simulate sun and moonlight whenever we needed it. I was still dubious as setting up and tweaking lights usually took up big chunks of time which is what usually put us behind schedule, and now we've got twice as many different lighting setups as previous days. However, if we were going to accomplish it, blocking out the windows was our best shot at getting all of our shots.

It was another early morning. At C's studio at 6:30 to load up equipment so we could be on set by our 7am call time.

"Gimmee the dynamite first, we'll put the nitro on top of them."

Today and tomorrow we'll be shooting all of the hospital room scenes in the movie. The thing about hospital rooms in the 1940's is that they pretty much looked like plain white rooms, nothing like the high tech rooms you see in today's hospitals. So C found a conference room at the old university building on College Avenue that will be perfect. AND it's just a short drive from the U of R campus.

Say, not bad! You can almost picture polio patients in here.

After a Kali-supplied breakfast, the crew immediately got to work on blocking out the windows with sheets of tar paper.

Today Trevor was back with us AND we had Bernie on set too. We're totally going to rock this set with both of these guys with us!

Bye bye sunshine!

Meanwhile, I drove the dogs over to Lili's house and left them in her backyard. Thanks again Lili, we sure do appreciate it!

While the room was getting transformed Clara and Candace were busy transforming Don and Geri Hack, the woman playing one of the nurse roles. Candace by the way has a full-time job. She swung by on her way to work to get the actors squared away. You're so awesome, Candace!

Don't flinch, Geri, or you might get hurt.

Besides the conference room where we're shooting the scenes, we also got access to the larger break room right next door. That's were we had makeup, wardrobe and craft services set up. It made things so much easier not having to run across grass fields and dirt roads to get to the set!

There's a really modern looking thermostat throwing everything off on the wall just above the hospital bed. Kristine fired up the hot glue gun and got to work on a fake paper cup holder to cover it up. Genius!

Check to make sure it's not set to Full Auto when you're ready to use the glue gun.

Wayne Slinn was also on set today, playing another role as Mr. Nordgren, the mental patient who wets himself. Wayne also played the minister in the Tom/Katja Wedding scene back on our first day at the Sukanen Museum. Hopefully no movie goers will notice it's the same actor.

Wayne waits for his scene while D enjoys a nutrious length of Red Rope licorice.

Soon the windows were all blocked out and we were just about set to start lighting.

Andrew says, "In your face, sun! Go ahead and set, see if we care!"

Andrew and Trevor and Bernie did a great job lighting the room. When you look through the video camera, the room really looks like it's daytime!

Dauminique admiring the lighting scheme.

C works with the actors as the crew makes some adjustments to the lights.

Hey does that bed look familiar? It's the same one we used out at Estlin on Day 2, fence planks, sandbags, apple boxes, futon and all!

If your bed is uncomfortable, help yourself to a fake paper cup! Aaaa! It's the hospital from Hell!

Besides the thermostat on the wall, we had to cover up other modern fixtures that were showing up on screen, like the bright red exit sign out in the hallway.

I hope there ain't no fire, or we're all screwed!

Geri and Don did a great job on this scene. Again, C's work with the actors during the workshops this summer really paid off.

"You're having tapioca again, Mr. Sukanen. And you'll LIKE IT!"

It was time for Mr. Nordgren's scene. Clara did a great job making Wayne look terrible. Here's the before shot... HA! Just kidding.

The makeup is laced with ebola, HIV and a hint of leprosy.

I had the honor of putting on the finishing touches on Wayne's costume, Mr. Nordgren's pivotal pee stain. The first application wasn't quite right. "No no," I said, "That ain't no pee stain! Gimmee that!"

Luckily I bottle all my urine for just such an occasion.

All this artistry and preparation I think helped evoke a more genuine performance from our actor.

"Uuueeeeeyyyuuunh unh uunh."

By then it was time for lunch. Kali made a spicy pasta dish which was great. So far we were only slightly behind schedule. It helps when you don't have to break down equipment and haul it to another set in between scenes!

Andrew really enjoys the pasta! I mean REALLY enjoys it.

After lunch it was time to shoot the Old Vic Visits Tom scene with our friend, Brian Dueck. We had a bit of a scare when Brian thought we were shooting at the U of R campus instead of the old university building. When he was late for his call time C and D got real worried. I checked our home voicemail and Brian had left a message saying he was over at the U of R looking for us. Doh! So C sent Kevin over to find him. Oddly enough, while Kevin was heading out to his truck, he spotted Brian crossing the street. Apparently, Brian had driven up to the old university building and spotted our parked cars but didn't know exactly where to go. Hee hee. So Kevin brought him back and all was right in the world again.

"You know, they don't look it but these apple boxes are quite comfortable!"

After lunch Andrew got to work on the next camera set up.

Is that as high as it will go?

Most of the day Don spent lying in the hospital bed. Doesn't mean he wasn't working hard! But after freezing his butt off, having dirt thrown on him, walking barefoot in the prickly grass and having blood smeared on him, it was nice to give him a break for once. Don's a great sport, of course.

Don takes a peak at the last page to see how the movie ends.

This scene takes place when Tom and Vic are in their 60's so Clara had to age Brian quite a bit. This was another great scene. Both Brian and Don are wonderful, talented actors and they did an awesome job. I'm telling you, when this scene hits the big screen there won't be a dry eye in the house.

Vic breaks the bad news to Tom: "Your Field & Tractor subscription ran out."

Since we didn't have Jacquie on set with us anymore, some of us had to double up on duties. Kristine was on script duty for a while.

"The line is 'No, you're wrong Vic, Colonel Mustard did it in Conservatory with candlestick."

The next shots were a little tricky as Mama is supposed to appear to Tom as a ghost while Vic is still in the room. C works out the blocking.

"Once you say your line that's when Mama steps up and hits you with the folding chair, okay?"

Everything was working out great. Andrew's idea about blocking out the windows and creating our own light meant we weren't at the mercy of the daylight that was coming into the room. We got to work at our own pace which gave C a lot more freedom to get great performances from her actors.

It's the martini shot!

With that we were wrapped for the day! YAY! While we were shooting the last scenes, Kevin ran out and got a case of beer. Excellent! We all got to sit down, wind down and relax a bit.

Cheers!

Sadly, it was the first time during the shoot we got to all sit and have a beer together. We're usually packing up equipment by moonlight and headlights of our cars at this point.

It was a good day of shooting!

The best part of shooting here today and tomorrow is there's no packing up equipment and hauling it back to C's studio! All we have to do is leave everything where it is, lock the doors and we're done for the night! Aaah! It was only 10pm so we decided to all head over to the Cathedral Freehouse and get some dinner.

Unfortunately Brian couldn't go. He's got a couple kids who start school tomorrow so he's got to be up early and pack their lunches and send them off. He lives in Swift Current which is like a 3 hour drive. Yikes! So we had to say goodbye, he's wrapped until the Fall shoot. We had a blast having him on set.

See you in November, kiddo!

We all caravaned over to the Freehouse where it was HOPPIN'! Don't know what could be going on on a Wednesday night but the place was packed full of college kids like it was Friday. It's rare enough to find something open past 10pm in Regina, let alone a place jumpin'. We grabbed a table way in the back where it was kind'a quiet.

Dauminique, C and Trevor deciding on what to have for dinner.

Clara and Andrew listen carefully to the beer list.

We had a great time over dinner. We've all been going 100 mph (or 160 kph) every hour of the day so it was nice to be able to relax and chat with everyone. What a great bunch of people. I'm definitely going to miss everyone when this is all over.

Soon it was time to go. Besides, more and more people were coming in AND there was a huge crowd waiting to get in like it was Club 54 or something. Crazy!

We got to check out Trevor's bicycle which has got to be the coolest bike in Regina, if not in Saskatchewan. I wish I had a better picture of it.

Checkin' out Trevor's ride outside the Freehouse.

Today went off great! It'll be another busy day tomorrow, even though C assures us it'll be a light day, and I'm looking forward to it.

Raul's Take: Day 09: Hospital Room

2007-10-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Shooting at the old university building on College Ave. is such a blessing! This morning all we had to do was drive over and the equipment and props were already there waiting for us. Sweet!

Yesterday we had shot all of the day scenes of Tom in the hospital so today we're shooting all of the night scenes. C figured this would be more efficient setting up the room for day, then night rather than trying to bounce back and forth between the two set ups. And it worked out perfectly.

The first scene of the day was of Tom and the nurse, played by Ellie Pearce-Ell, who comes in to change his sheets.

"That was great, Ellie. But on this next take, don't be so rough with the enema bottle."

C is a hands on director. Here she mushes Don's face into the emotion she wants. Brilliant!

Ellie did wonderfully as the nurse even though she doesn't have a lot of experience with speaking roles. But C got a lot of great takes of Tom and the nurse's awkward conversation.

Then it was time to move the bed a bit and get some POV shots of Tom looking at his hands.

It took several takes but Don was finally able to count all ten fingers on his hands. Good job!

After getting some quick shots of that, the crew got set up for the Mama/Tom scene.

Bernie, Kristine and Kevin putting up a fake window shadow, called a cookie in the TV and film industry.

Megan Fries returned as Mama. C's professors, Gerald Saul and Leesa Streifler, came by the set to visit too.

Leesa listens in while C talks to Megan about the scene. Bernie is in the background about to set a fire.

We also were joined by Minna Harmaala, a Finnish reporter from the Finnish American Reporter, who will be hanging out with us on set for the next few days. She's writing an article on C and the making of her movie. Cool! Below is C and Minna chatting while the set is being set up for the next scene.

"And can you tell me again why you left San Francisco and moved to Regina?"

The Mama/Tom scene turned out great. Andrew, Trevor and Bernie did a great job lighting Mama to give her an ethereal glow while keeping Tom cold and bleak. These guys are pros. Here Tom's mama's ghost visits him in his room. Spooooky!

"Thanks for sewing my name into my hospital gowns, Mama. You're the best!"

Long hours, hectic pace and very little sleep can affect a crew in two ways, either we all start getting crabby and grumpy or we get silly and punchy. Luckily with this crew, we got silly and punchy. We'd better get Andrew some sleep fast though.

We hope he's as good with the camera as he is with that makeup brush.

Even our fearless director wasn't above going a little crazy now and then. Here she takes the wheelchair around for a little test drive.

"Where's my tapioca! I want my tapioca!"

After the mild spell of insanity, it was time for some lunch. Kali wasn't available for lunch today, so Dauminique had a couple sandwich platters flown in from Subway. Oh man were they good.

Everyone enjoying their 3-1/2 minutes of lunch before we got back to work.
"There will be time to chew when I'm dead."

The next scene we shot is a really cool one where Tom gets out of bed and wanders off into the hospital. The hallway outside of the room we were shooting in looked too modern and nothing like a 1940 mental hospital at all. But we had scouted a great looking hallway down in the basement of the building that looked perfect. But first, we had to figure out how to kill the lights down there. Bernie quickly found the breaker switches.

"Uh... hey Bernie, are you sure you want to turn all those switches off?"

Andrew and Trevor and Bernie did a great job again lighting the basement hallway. It looked great. We were also happy to have Jacquie back on set with us, this time though as an actor! Here she is playing the part of the night shift nurse who finds Tom out of his bed.

Not only does it look like a mental hospital, it feels like one too.

This is a very surreal scene that will edit together with a prairie shot of younger Tom on the deck of his ship.

"I'm not Mr. Sukanen, I'm an end table."

Don and Clara taking a break while we reset the camera. Someday we'll be able to afford chairs for everyone.

Soon we had all of the scenes shot and in the can, as they say. It was time to tear down the equipment and say goodbye to the hospital room set.

Thank you hospital set! We had a great time!

There was nothing left to do but pack everything up and take it all back to C's studio at the university. But it's a mere 5 minutes away, at least we didn't have to drive back from Moose Jaw.

Staging everything down on the first floor.

It was another puzzle trying to get everything to fit in the vehicles. This was when we were really missing Jacquie's trailer! Thanks to Kevin's dad who lent him his truck for a few weeks. We couldn't have done it without it.

We've got all the chips and juice boxes, the rest of the lights and camera equipment will have to stay.

After unloading everything at the university, we headed home. C and Andrew and I stayed up a for a couple more hours snacking on cheese and crackers while viewing the dailies, as well as some test footage of Sisu The Musical.

I've seen enough. Let's crank up Guitar Hero!

Tomorrow we head east of Regina to Avonhurst where Chris St. Amand has built a full scale mock up of the skeleton of Tom Sukanen's keel. C is very excited to see it. So stay tuned!

Until next time... adventure!
R-

C's Take: Day 10: Avonhurst

2007-10-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

Today feels like the last day of the shoot, although we do have some pickup shots tomorrow. This is the big day, the climax of the whole summer. We are headed out to Avonhurst to shoot Chris St. Amand's ship skeleton that he built on his acreage, which is actually an abandoned homestead. None of us have seen it yet and we are all really excited about the moment when we first see Tom's dream sitting out there on the prairie. It's become a spiritual thing for those of us who have been working so hard all summer and all we can do is pray it's not going to rain.

The day dawns beautifully! We head over to the University to get the gear out of my studio.

"I swear, Andrew, it really is going to be a light day."

After getting a little lost we eventually see the ship sitting out there on the rise and find the right dirt road to the homestead. As we walk up to the ship Don and I both lose it and get pretty choked up. Don put it best: "I've been raw all week and now to see this ship, I can barely take it."

Our Sontiainen

Don and Clara experiencing the ship

After we got our hearts back in our chests we started setting up. Kali and Dauminique got an awesome lunch spread going while Andrew and I scoped out the hayloft for a long shot of the ship, which turned out great.

Andrew: "Lunch looks pretty good from up here..."

C: "Keep on target....."

We got a number of different shots of Tom working on the ship throughout the day, using the changing light and a great number of costume changes supplied for us by Candace (thanks Candace!) and our stand-in wardrobe girl, our makeup and hair artist Clara (thanks Clara!) to get a variety of different shots that will hopefully read like different days and times.

Don did a great job using tools he'd never even seen before.

He was a great sport too about climbing rickety ladders in questionable situations, in spite of his fear of heights.

Since I am holding Don's ladder the boys have to get the shot without me. B-Unit!

We also shot the scene where Constable Fisk (Rod McLeod) drops by on an unofficial visit out of uniform.

Rod waits for his close-up while I play director...

Raul's boards showed Tom in the dark interior of the ship talking to the constable who is standing in the light. We rigged up a huge piece of black duvateen (thanks U of R Theatre Department!) and the Dowler family held it in place against the crazy prairie wind. Luckily we did not sail off with the ship although the whole structure was really creaking at times, especially with that big black sail hoisted.

"We didn't lose Dylan in that last big gust, did we?"

Our magic hour shot was coming up, where the nurse 'finds' Tom on the deck of the ship. For this shot Chris had built a section of deck on a trailer he had, which was great because we were able to hook the 'set' up to Kevin's truck and place it perfectly for the ideal lighting.

"How would Tom look in this pose?"

Too bad we can't use this in the film: Tom is supposed to be standing on the deck of the ship so it couldn't be in the background, but how cool does this look?

Although supper was ready we just couldn't get enough of the ship against the changing sky. I was waiting for the shot I'd been dreaming of for the past ten years: the bones of the ship's skeleton raised against the prairie sunset.

"Waaaait foooor iiiiit...."

Finally it happened. The sky bloomed an amazing purple/pink and the black ribs of the ship cut across it just like in my dreams and paintings.

Incredible.

Finally when it got too dark to shoot, the camera crew and Don came down to base camp for supper, just around the time Kevin got back with the wine! We sat around our make-shift 'campfire' (an emergency light aimed at one of our reflector boards) and toasted the whole project. Minna Harmala, the Finnish reporter from Vapa Saana who had joined us for the day, interviewed a few of us, and then we slowly packed up in the dark.

What a day.

I discovered later that I was not the only one who made a private pilgrimage to the ship in the dark under the full moon. Pretty much everyone in the cast and crew sneaked out for a few moments alone with the ghostly Sontiainen.

Ghost ship in the moonlight....

I had hoped to go back out in following weeks for more shots of the ship, but found out from Chris that the prairie winds took it down within three days.

Tomorrow's shoot should honestly be light!

Until next time... Sisu!!

C's Take: Day 11: Back to Estlin

2007-10-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is a very light day. We have a small mobile crew, and most of the day will consist of B-Roll. We have only one scene to shoot at the end of the day, but even that has no dialogue and is mostly long shots, so when the day dawns beautiful and clear we all relax and get ready to enjoy our final day of shooting this summer. We're all ready for the shoot to end; Raul has the flu and the rest of us are just barely hanging on after the past ten days of insanity.

The first shot is Constable Fisk's car on the road to visit Tom. The door should say "R.C.M.P." so we'll have to be careful not to shoot from the side.

Perfect angle. What a beauty!

This is really the shot I wanted. Richard, the officer who keeps the car in top shape for the Police department, was a great sport, driving back and forth on the gravel road for a few takes.

Constable Fisk on a nice Sunday drive...

The car got tired of it pretty quickly, though, and went into vapor lock.

What's 'vapor lock' mean? It means: lights, camera, PUSH!

After we finished the tenth take pushing the car 100 meters towards Andrew who never did quite get the shot he wanted, Richard started it up and drove it back to Regina. Ha ha, Richard! Funny! Dauminique, Kevin and Kristine had showed up in the meantime with lunch, so we took a little break and ate, then got some B-Roll of Tom's 600-mile walk from Minnesota to Saskatchewan.

"Take a step to your right. No, too far. A baby step back - hold it, ok now just a nudge to your right - there! There! Good. And....action."

"Hello, Mama? I find faster way to get to Canada."

"Walking, 600 miles. What was I thinking? Car much faster. More comfortable, too."

As the sun drew lower in the sky we wrapped up our B-Roll shoot and met the Wee Haul Trucking crew with their flatbed trailer and truck on a lonely stretch of dirt road behind the old school house in Estlin. This is the scene in the 1970's where the ship is raised up and taken to her new home south of Moose Jaw. I wanted -- yes, of course -- another magic hour shot. So we took our time setting up and were ready to go when we got our light. The ship will be composited into the shot as a CG element in post production; the red sandbags should help with lining it up with the truck.

In addition to the CG shot of the ship and the truck, I wanted some footage of Tom sliding along in front of the prairie sky, so the last shot of the whole summer was pretty surreal.

"You guys steady?"

"I've got Don... and... ACTION! Go truck!"

Awesome.

It was a very pretty ending to an amazing eleven days. We packed up our light gear and went back to Regina for a well-earned meal and some beer.

The cast and crew and friends of the film have been amazing. For me it was the experience of a lifetime. Thank you to everyone who made it all happen.

Now comes the unglamorous part: returning all the gear, costumes, props, and other equipment we borrowed, cleaning up my studio (my studio mate Barb was incredibly patient throughout the process) and recover enough to start post production.

School starts in four days.

Until next time, Sisu!

Production 2: Props, Costumes, and a Mad Dash

2007-09-09T11:18:00.001-07:00

Things got really hectic in the last three weeks before the shoot! There were a lot of props to finish up, as well as all kinds that still needed to be found or bought. Also, Candace Bank and her crew collected, bought, made, and/or altered at least 100 costumes. It was truly a mad dash to the start of filming.

Props

First, here are some more pictures of the props we made. Our props team grew from just Kristine Dowler (Art Director) and myself to include Don Wood (playing Tom Sukanen), Raul Viceral (Head of Story) and Dauminique Napier (Line Producer). Thanks, guys!

Last time I posted a picture of the little ship it looked like this:

With its copper paint and little handmade sails, it looked like this. I think it turned out beautifully!

It was used in a bedtime scene with Tom and his son Taivo:

"A fine little ship, all made of copper..."

Then there was the tower of rocks. I would have loved to have had a huge tower built out of real rocks, but we had limited resources, so I hoped that just building the top out of papier mache and shooting it from directly below with the prop mounted on a ladder on a steep little hill would work. Here's what it looked like at first: just a couple of boxes Dauminique and I found in a recycling bin in East Regina affixed to some crossbeams which line up precisely with the cross bars on an 8 foot tall ladder:

Next we began building 'rocks' with more of the cardboard from the boxes and duct tape (the prop maker's friend).

Dauminique and Kristine start layering strips of newspaper soaked in wood glue over the rocks. There are about four layers of this papier mache.

After letting it dry out for a couple of days, we coated it with a texturing layer of wall plaster.

After a grey base coat, Kristine begins mixing various colors and bringing out the highlights with lighter tints and pushing back the shadows with darker tones. Each rock is a slightly different color of grey, and dry brushing starts to bring out the rough texture created by the spackle.

The final touch was a variety of lichen or moss -- what's the difference, anyway? The rocks on Tom's actual homestead have a lot of orange, yellow, and red lichen on them so we thought we'd pay homage to the real tower.

It begins to be one of my favorite props!

Here it is on its way to its debut! Kristine 'the turtle' carries the prop up the hill.

This (below) is where I began to have second thoughts, but I kept them to myself. Everyone else seemed to think everything was normal, so I just went along with it too. Don was nervous as he climbed the ladder with his fake telescope, but determined!

I don't have a shot of Don on the tower but Raul climbed up afterwards to see what he could see, and I have given the photo a touch of the sort of treatment I might use on the actual footage, which is supposed to be a dreamy memory, fractured and partially obscured. You know what? I think it's gonna pass! Only those who worked behind the scenes on 'Sisu' or have seen this blog will know how ridiculous this really was.

We also needed some vintage-looking packages for the general store scenes, one of which takes place in 1910 (more cans) and the other in 1935 (more boxes). There is an amazing assortment already at the museum, but the sheer randomness of their collection took away believability that it could be a functioning store. So Kevin Dowler (Assistant Art Director, among other jobs), Raul and Kristine all got on the computer and came up with a few brands that no one has ever heard of. Since we had to start from scratch anyway, I figured we should have some fun and also avoid copyright problems. Don and Dauminique were the brains behind finishing the products off using cans, tape, foam core, and hot glue.

"They never told me acting would be like this."

"Hmmm, which one do I want?"

Moxie Brand Black Pepper and Django Djangerson's Extra Strength Baking Soda: products names after our dogs.

Geezer's tobacco, Green Griffin tangerines, and enough Bobert's Golden Syrup for at least a week.

The fabricated packages really brought the store to life. Here's how it looked on the monitor (without that big director in the foreground, of course):

There's also a scene where Tom designs a threshing machine, in a mad frenzy, on many little pieces of letter-writing paper at his kitchen table, which he then attaches to the wall in some kind of order. The drawing then begins to animate. Raul designed this cool prop. To make installing the drawing faster, he assembled it in advance on a large piece of card stock.

I think this turned out so cool.

On location in 'the pretty house' as we called it, at the Sukanen Museum.

Costumes

It's hard to know where to even start with talking about the incredible costuming that was done for this production, but to put it simply, the costumes made the film, and Candace Bank (Costume Designer) is a genius and a wonder, and a VERY hard worker and a perfectionist, not to mention a very sweet person. The thought and love and sheer effort she put into her work on 'Sisu' shows in every single moment of the film. And thanks to Reynaldo (one of our Executive Producers -- and Candace's boyfriend) who was her wingman throughout the whole process.

Reynaldo and Candace

Candace collected costumes from the Globe Theatre, the Regina Little Theatre, the University of Regina Theatre Department's costume collection, and the Motherwell Museum in Abernethy. She also bought many items and created several beautiful peices from scratch. She organized a bunch of us to pin different colored ribbon into each costume piece to indicate where it originated, and then she set up several racks, divided by actor (or, in the case of the Background performers, by scene). The sheer number of costumes was a bit overwhelming. I hadn't quite pictured how many we'd need or how we were going to pull it off. Thank God for Candace!

These are only two of the racks; there are more around the room....

...like these, for example!

Don gets measured.

Candace made these unique overalls for Tom...

...and designed this beautiful shirt, too. Don's starting to get plumb tuckered with all the attention. You ain't seen nothin' yet, Don! Wait 'til we're pulling 20 hour days on set!

Don had to look like a young man in Finland (left), a middle-aged man in Saskatchewan (middle) and an old guy in the hospital (right). Even without makeup or acting the costumes are already selling the illusion. And all designed by Candace Bank personally!

Here are some pictures of Don in Tom's costumes on location, just to give an idea of the variety Candace was able to create for the 50 year span of the film (1890 - 1940):

Finland, 1898 (minus the styrofoam cup of course!)

Minnesota, 1910

Saskatchewan, 1920

Saskatchewan, 1938

North Battleford Mental Hospital, Saskatchewan, 1943, with Geri Hack as the day shift nurse

Bravo, Candace!

Then there is beautiful Megan Fries in her many-layered costume as Tom's mother in 1890.

Megan says corsets aren't so very comfortable after a few hours...

Her hair is just quickly clipped for the picture so isn't quite right, but the dress fits like a glove.

In one scene, Mama appears to Tom in a dream. Megan looked absolutely ethereal under the moody prairie sky we were blessed with that day.

In another scene, Mama puts young Tom Sukanen to bed. This is a magical scene as well.

And lovely Lori, also in corsette and petticoats, needed at least six different costumes for her role as Tom's wife.

Candace designed and made the incredible bridal gown.

For one scene, I needed a selection of vintage photographs showing Tom's family growing. Kevin Dowler (Photographer, among other credits) took the pictures which turned out great. Here are a few of the set-ups (click on the image to see a bigger version):

Sweet little Gracelyn played Tom's young daughter. She was adorable in everything Candace put her in!

Gracelyn, Amanda, and Lori as Tom's family after the loss of Taivo, his son

There were fittings for over 40 people throughout one week, and in addition to the above selections, we had two costumes for Mark, the general store owner: one for 1910 (below) and one for 1935. The mustache is taped on with masking tape in the picture below; it looked slightly better when we were shooting!

"Canmph I helph youmph?"

Lili also had two costumes: one for a late summer party in 1925 or so, and one for her visit to Lloyd's store in 1935 (below). Minus the sandals and leggings, of course!

Then we had a lot of people come by to get fitted for their costumes for the post-threshing party (circa 1925):

Our awesome musicians at the party: Lorne on guitar (left) and Al on fiddle (right).

And Geri sneaked in as one of our party extras too, even though she is playing one of the nurses in a scene that takes place 20 years later. Yay, movie trivia! Here's some more: she's married to Al, the fiddler in the picture above.

And did the background performers ever look great once everyone got down to dancing and eating pie! This is the sweetest group of near strangers I have ever run into in my life. Within minutes of their all arriving on set I just loved them all. Each and every one of them was in character and working really hard to help bring the party to life, and their performances were honest and realistic. Thank you, everyone!

Click on the images below to enlarge them.

There were also quite a few farmers for the threshing machine demo scene, circa 1924. Here are a couple of pictures from the fittings:

Kevin Dowler, farmer, among other credits.

Again, once we got them on set, the farmers looked just great. And their performances were really stunning. One time I asked them all to take a step to their left, indicating their right, meaning screen left, and without hesitation they all moved to their right like they'd choreographed it. They made me want to work with every one of them again.

Try to imagine the scene sans the chick with the yellow radio...

Putting them in front of this 100-year-old threshing machine and having it start up was a living image right out of my dreams. I wanted to scream and do cartwheels.

Jerry as the threshing machine salesman, a city slicker trying to make a pitch to a bunch of smart farmers.

Ultimately these old memory scenes may be sepia, or at the very least somewhat desaturated. It sure sells it!

With limited time and practically no budget, Candace pulled off a miracle. But she didn't do it alone! This woman has an incredible network of other beautiful, hardworking, happy women who all put in an amazing amount of work on the costumes. Some needed hemming, some needed ribbon, some needed snaps, and pretty much all needed some little bit of attention. I was blown away when I went to visit Candace on her 'work day' and found every chair filled and every head bent to work. Several of these ladies came to the set to help too, when Candace couldn't (did I mention that Candace has a full-time job??)

I have been experiencing a strange blend of awe, wonder, and guilt as I have gone through this process. There are so many loving, giving people here, and without them this project could never have happened.

Thank you, wonderful women!

Makeup and Hair

Then there was Clara Edvi. Like many of the people on the show, she seemed to fall from heaven, just when I had resigned myself to doing all of the makeup and hair for the film. Clara is not only a highly skilled professional artist with both makeup and hairstyling, she is also one of the most pleasant and sweet people you could ever hope to meet. I don't have great documentation of her work but suffice it to say, she is incredible.

Our first meeting. I already think she's cool!

First, she had to take Brian, who is in his early thirties, and make him his actual age in one scene, in his 50's in one scene and in his 60's in another. Aging people realistically for the camera is not simple and she did a superb job.

What can be done with this handsome young man?

Clara gets to work. Not long after...

Before/after. Reverse botox!

Clara kept everyone in good spirits. I always felt a smile spread across my face just seeing her working and laughing with everyone.

An older Vic.

I also got in on the action. Whodathunk the beauty college I attended over 20 years ago would come in handy as a film director?

Mark both with his huge 1910 handlebar mustache and his more refined 1935 look had definite 'stache troubles. We couldn't afford the expensive theatrical mustaches, so did what we could with the $7 ones Candace had in her kit. There are a hilarious number of pictures of a very patient Mark having his mustache clipped and shaped by both Clara and me throughout the day.

Clara adds a few years to Mark's life.

Lori's hair always looked great, and so did all the different styles Clara came up with to put our actors and actresses squarely in the right periods.

Clara's work on Wayne, one of Tom's fellow patients at the North Battleford Mental Hospital, might not seem so remarkable -- until you realize that he also played the minister in the wedding scene! More movie trivia! Check him out (below). Awesome job on Clara's part.

Even Raul gets in on the action, giving Wayne a nice fresh pee stain for his role as the old man who has wet himself.

Craft Services

I joined CostCo and Dauminique and I spent quite a few hours strolling the aisles and filling our carts with stuff for snacking and drinking on set. The meals were handled separately, by Kali the caterer, but it was essential to have various types of munchies on hand to keep everyone happy and feeling fed.

Look at the length of that receipt!

Carpentry

Some of the most spectacular props on the show were made by the genius artist and woodworker Chris St. Amand. First, the ship's wheel, a very hero prop, which I don't have a picture of in its complete form, took shape EXACTLY as I had seen it in my mind, without a single deviation. Chris and I were totally seeing the same thing. It was crazy to see it manifest in the physical realm. Completed wheel pics coming soon!

Chris and I took a trip out to the ship, where he paced off the size of the actual boat. His plan was to build a skeleton of the hull on his prairie acreage, TO SCALE.

We met a few days later at a lumber yard where Chris showed me the difference between more period looking, rough-milled wood such as what Tom would probably have used, and more modern lumber.

This flexible lumber will be used as 'cladding' to skin a portion of the skeleton.

When we got out to Chris' land in Avonhurst and saw that skeleton rising up over the prairie into the sky my heart swelled until I thought my chest was going to burst. I have been painting this image for years, and here it was, come to life before my eyes. Don couldn't hold back the tears as we approached the ship. It was a truly beautiful way to spend our last day as a full crew.

Tom inspects his work.

Off for another day of working on a dream.

Tom sits with the Sontiainen.

Clearly this film is a labor of love from everyone involved, and I believe the final product will be imbued with sense of the care and sweetness that everyone brought to this summer shoot. Over 90% of the live action sections of the film is shot, with the remaining winter scenes scheduled for November and a scene in a bar in San Francisco scheduled for sometime this winter.

Next post: being on set!

Until next time, Sisu!

Production 1: Props (one)

2007-07-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

We're three weeks away from the shoot now, and I've never felt quite like this. It's surreal to be this close to a dream I've had for over 15 years. I live each day in an increasingly strange state of terror, excitement, anticipation, faith, and a resignation to the knowledge that in spite of the checking and rechecking, the planning and replanning, the scheduling and the rescheduling, that something is going to go wrong, which however co-exists with a sort of sureness that everything will somehow turn out. These past 3 months I've been busier than I've been at any point in perhaps the past ten years, constantly working on some aspect of production, and lately not sleeping more than about four hours per night. But in and around the pressure is the constant feeling of love and wonder that has always been part of Tom's story for me, and an awareness of the incredible great fortune that is mine to be able to be on this journey.

The aspect of the work that grounds me the most lately, in and around wondering who will be setting up our lights, whether we should have pretzels or nuts on the Craft Services table, what we'll do if it rains on the one day Jonathan Bragagnolo will be returning from Ottawa for his scenes, and being terrified that we won't get all of the camera equipment that we need, is the time that I spend in my studio at the university, working on the specialty props that we can't find anywhere else. There's just something about the smell of wood, the feeling of brushing paint, the magic of watching something real take shape between your hands, that makes me feel right. It is incredibly relaxing to spend a day with my head bent to my work, hands busy. In many ways I feel a bond with Tom across time in this regard.

Being in the studio building props is like coming home for me. I hadn't realized before how happy I am doing it.

The wonderful studio I share with Barbara Meneley in the Visual Arts Department at the U of R.

Various props we've collected, paint, wood scraps, etc.

The back wall, which will be our antique photo studio for the vintage photo shoot.

Kristine Dowler, a BFA candidate in the Film and Video program at the University, has a real talent and an interest in building props and art directing for films. She is apprenticing in the props department on this film (in other words, we hang out in the studio together and build stuff) and she is doing an amazing job, learning quickly and making really beautiful little props of all kinds, with all different types of materials. She's fun to work with and talented and conscientious, and after about a week I handed over the Art Direction to her, a job which falls under that of Production Design, which will be handled by me and Raul.

As Art Director, Kristine will be in charge of the look of the sets and making sure that everything is the right period and looks good. She has done a lot of research (check out her blog) and I am sure will do a wonderful job. It's nice to feel that someone is thinking about that aspect of the shoot.

So, among the many props we need to beg, borrow, buy, and fabricate, are a few that we won't be able to find, or that need to have a certain look. First, there is a homemade stuffed toy horse, which is an important prop in the life of Tom's young son, Timo. Kristine and I talked about what it should look like, and started working on a paper pattern, which was altered with scissors and retaping until it had the right shape.

This first attempt of mine is much too boxy.

After correcting the shape in paper, Kristine turns the paper horse into a pattern, cuts out corresponding cloth pieces and goes to work.

Taking it home over the weekend, she brings the little horse together.

He just needs his eyes, mane, and tail, and then a little distressing: he belongs to a little boy who lives on a farm and is well loved, so a little dirtying is definitely in order.

There is a little wooden toy horse in one scene, which is being held by a little boy in the crowd. When he sees the boy holding the horse, Tom is reminded of his own son. I wanted the toy horse to look worn and homemade. I built this little horse with scraps from the woodshop, hot glue and baling wire. I used a jigsaw, a belt sander, and a drill.

The green spots are masking tape, where I don't want paint to go.

Sponged-on latex paint is sanded off and brown paint is rubbed in by hand to simulate dirt.

The addition of the leather strap completes the horse.

There is a large, antique wooden tool chest that figures prominently in the memories that Tom revisits throughout the film. It's not a real tool chest but one that sits on a workbench in his mind, and holds various memories. I wanted it to look like a toolkit and be at the same time reminiscent of a worn old treasure chest. Memories are treasures.

I started with this cheap Asian knock-off from an import store -- thanks for spotting it, Dauminique! It was pretty cheap-looking, covered with strips of fake leather and a paper-thin veneer of shiny laminate.

After pulling off all of the bells and whistles, I started covering the chest with lath.

Consulting with Kristine, we agreed that it needed a lip around the base.

The first wash was a brown stain made of Burnt Umber gesso, a squirt of Burnt Sienna latex paint, and a bunch of water, which I rubbed into the wood while it was still wet.

The next coat was a dry-brushed irregular coat of various greens.

A little white-washing: touching cream-colored paint on here and there and rubbing it in.

Adding some black in the cracks and a couple of drips brings out the textures and begins to create the dirty, well-worn look I am trying for.

I sanded down the shiny new brass hinges we bought and rubbed black acrylic paint into the scratches in the metal.

I did the same to the front clasp. This picture is a little blurry but you get the idea.

The workbench, as I mentioned before, is a place in Tom's mind. It's kind of like my studio: a place where he feels 'at home.' The bench is littered with things you'd normally find on a workbench (tools, nails, wood scraps and shavings, bits of woodwork), but hiding in the clutter and dusted with sawdust are also elements of Tom's cultural history, represented by items from stories in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic poem which is scattered through the film. One of these is a harp made from the jawbone of a pike. I tried to find a salmon head locally but our fish store here only sells fillets, so we had to make our jawbone. I built the foundation, then handed it over to Kristine.

Wire and blue masking tape formed the structure.

Kristine added teeth made of plumber's epoxy putty, an awesome material that, once mixed, hardens in ten minutes. Work fast! Luckily, it's sandable, and after it set, K shaped the teeth with files and sand paper until she liked them.

This is a store-bought papier mache mix that I brought from the States. It's meant for little kids to use but I love it for props. Mix with water and start sculpting! It takes a day or so to thoroughly dry out but it sticks to almost anything and hardens to a sandable finish.

After the papier mache set, K sanded it and added a little more shape to it, then painted the whole thing with white Gesso to even it out.

The finishing touch is a subtle paint job that follows the rule of 'dark in the valleys and light on the hills,' a common technique in prop painting which helps to accentuate the 3-D quality of props to the 2-D eye of the camera. She also put a little Burnt Umber around the base of each tooth to distinguish it from the bone of the jaw. Now we just need to figure out how we want to string the harp strings across the teeth. What a gorgeous little prop this turned out to be!

A nautical telescope is an impossible thing to find on the prairies, even to rent. To buy they are astronomically expensive. There is a lot of variety in these telescopes, and Kristine found some lovely ones online. Here are a few from her research blog:

After giving up on finding our telescope, we went to a hardware store and bought a bunch of variously shaped brass and copper plumbing fittings for about $15, and I went to work with the hack saw.

I put the pieces together with plumber's epoxy putty and Crazy Glue.

Of course you won't really be able to see through it with the dowel down the middle, but it's a PROP. Here I am adding the leather to the main body of the telescope.

Et voila! It looks pretty good even close up, so will be fine for the camera. There's even a little lens in the end from an old video camera.

Another important prop is a small copper ship that Tom makes for his son, Timo. I bought this little toy boat at the Forum Marinum in Turku, Finland, thinking we might be able to start with it as a base. Again, maritime stuff isn't easy to find on the prairies so having a foundation helps cut down fabrication time.

After stripping off all of the masts and sails, Kristine thought the boat would look better with a keel, so I shaped a piece of wood and hotglued it to the base of the hull.

K starts building it up with paper and masking tape to give it some bulk.

K covers the keel with papier mache, this time made with strips of paper towel and wood glue.

The next layer is strips of paper that will simulate tiny plates of copper. This toy is probably too small to be actually built out of copper in this way, but it'll be pretty when it's done. Film is about suspension of disbelief, right??

Next K paints the little ship with an acrylic base loaded with copper powder.

This finish simulates metal, and in fact will interact with a patina wash to create the look of aged copper, like in the small test piece above. Although the picture is a little blurry, you can see the difference between the plain copper and the copper with the patina applied.

We're making good headway on the props but we're not done yet! There's still quite a bit to do and it's all I can to do keep from panicking when I look at the list. Watch this space for updates on new props and the finished versions of the ones that are incomplete as of this posting.

Until next time, Sisu!

Preproduction 9: Special Effects Considerations

2007-06-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well, ok, the special effects in Sisu don't feature anything quite as dynamic as this graphic - but it is cool, isn't it? Amazing what a girl can do with three minutes and a Photoshop smudge brush!

However, I have my own brand of challenges, as there will be a significant amount of CG (Computer Generated) imagery, most of which shouldn't be visible to the viewer, which in some ways makes it harder to pull off than big explosions and melting aliens. The old saying of course is 'fix it in post' but I once heard a very smart man say 'fix it in pre.' So I am doing everything I can to prepare for the special effects shots so that we get what we need while we are on location. Here are some of the shots I am working on this week.

First, there is a scene in the film where Tom watches the resurrection of his ship, which happened about 30 years after he died. The keel and hull were mounted on a couple of flatbed trucks and driven across the prairie, fulfilling a prophecy Tom made from his death bed. Here are a couple of boards Raul mocked up for me of this scene:

The question here is, as building the big pieces of the boat is pretty cost-prohibitive at this level of filmmaking, can we use CG to help create this scene? A cool friend of mine, Scott Hankel, a compositing genius currently living in Los Angeles, told me that we can create the keel and hull on the back of the flatbed trucks entirely in CG, and in fact, as long as the camera is locked off, we could use a still (a 2D Photoshop graphics rather than having to work in 3D), and animate its scale and position in a compositing program. This would make the shoot much easier and even the post simpler. The only thing we have to do is to make sure that there is some part of the truck, such as the edge of the flatbed, that is seen in the shot so that we are able to track the motion of it for this to work.

Here's the next problem: We have a scene with a big dust storm. Here is what an actual dust storm looks like. I'd love to have that wall of dust effect as the wind picks up.

Here are the boards for the scene, created by the awesome Raul Viceral, Head of Story and Production Designer.

Tom 'astral travels' from his hospital bed as he imagines the scene at his son's funeral, more than 10 years before, which in the script happens right as the Depression and dust storms hit, so the idea is to use no words but tell this sequence of events visually as Tom envisions it through the dream-state as he hovers between life and death on his final day.

Tom approaches the coffin. His estranged wife and daughters, almost in another time/space dimension, do not see him.

Shot of the coffin lying in the middle of the dirt road on the prairie.

Tom looks down at the coffin.

He looks up as the wind begins to pick up strength.

A dust storm gathers on the prairie.

Tom fights the wind.

Long shot of Tom and the coffin; the family has disappeared.

The dust and wind blow Tom and he staggers backwards.

Tom throws himself over the coffin.

Dust overtakes the scene.

Now from conversations with Scott and Andrew Britt, another cool friend of mine from the Bay Area who teaches particle effects at Ex'pression Digital College where he is the Department Head of the Animation and Visual Effects program, there are quite a few ways to go about making this series of shots work. First, it seems clear that we are going to need some practical dust on set, along with a generator and a huge fan, not only to create wind, but also to blow gallons of dust around in front of the character.

As for the effects, which I will be worrying about much later when I get into post production, we can use entirely digital CG particles or we can use something Scott was explaining called 'water tank' which is a practical effect, where you fill a tank, like a fish tank, full of clear water, then you shoot while you dump in some other liquid, like milk or paint, then you take that footage into After Effects or a compositing program, alter the color to match your shot, and place the swirling churning result into your footage. You should put black duvateen behind the tank so you are shooting against black, so that you can get, as Scott describes it, "dimensionality of the liquid as it unfolds in the water." You can also work with CG effects, completely fabricated particles that you program to behave in certain ways, with a certain weight and impetus.

Have your eyes glazed over yet?

Right now I am just worrying about trying to get as much useful stuff as we can during the live shoot so after talking to these guys I think that shooting the shot a few different ways will cover all bases. First a clean plate of the prairie scene with no actors, both the long shot and I guess the close up, then both of these again but with dust being blown around in front of the camera. We'll also take another version with the actor but no dust, and then finally the actor with the blowing dust all in one scene.

My professor, the brilliant Gerald Saul (link to his blog) who has been helping me all term with the storyboards and the shots, had the idea of blowing practical dust around too. So I guess the next step is to price generators and big fans and find some dust somewhere.

Another fun piece of CG work will be this shot of the keel and hull on the prairie. Hopefully this one will be relatively simple as the shot is planned as being somewhat in silhouette.

Here's another shot that Raul thinks will be more or less simple to do. In the final film this might actually be a barn, not a house, which every time we see it is coming down more and more as Tom dismantles his homestead for materials for the ship.

Other CG scenes include these three, which feature the 3D model of the ship that will hopefully be built by another one of my ultra-cool and talented friends from the Bay Area effects world, artist and digital modeler Howie Weed (Star Wars, Terminator 3, War of the Worlds, AI, etc. etc.). Here is a shot that we don't have boards for yet but I do have this early concept painting of, with the ship flying off into the prairie sunset. The background will be the actual prairie sky with one of those incredible Saskatchewan sunsets.

Here is the same ship, rocking on top of a hill, riding it as if it is riding the waves.

And here it is seen through the window, casting a golden glow on the face of the child Tom Sukanen:

For all of these CG compositing shots, we need to think about matching the lighting and the color on the imported CG elements. For this purpose, Scott Hankel says we should do a good job of recording the settings while on location. First, he says to take an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) photo of the set, meaning you take a normal picture and then bracket it 5 stops up and 5 stops down; in other words you take ten pictures of the same thing but with different exposures. He also says that for any shots where we might use 3D CG elements, we should take some video footage of a mirrored sphere (apparently you can get these at garden shops) and some also of a matte grey sphere (he says you can get plastic ones and spray them with an 18% grey paint). This footage will somehow be useful later to the CG artists or whoever is trying to match the lighting and the conditions from the day of the set in the color and levels of the imported CG element. Good to know!

Here's a picture showing how you use the mirrored sphere to document the lighting conditions for the 3D CG shots:

The above picture came from this cool tutorial link at Max Realms; check it out for more information about the coverage we'll need to get on set for the 3D CG shots. This stuff makes my head spin but it's a great link for geeks or anyone who wants to make sure their compositing will go smoothly! I guess I fit into both categories (sigh).

Another interesting dilemma is this shot of Tom's threshing machine that he is designing. Once he gets it on the wall, it begins to animate. Thinking through how to do this is interesting. Raul and I have talked about the animation being done in pencil, then scanned or shot frame-by-frame, and then brought into the footage using After Effects. The only thing we need to consider on set is getting a clean plate shot of the scene without the actor standing in front of the plans.

It's great to know people who know about these things so that we can get full coverage on set of what will be needed later to make the effects work. I had a sneaking suspicion that we should be thinking about these things now and it turns out that was a good suspicion to have.

And I really didn't believe it, but I guess people do buy ornamental mirrored spheres for their gardens. Below is a pic from an ornamental garden supplies website. This must the most amazing thing I have learned today!

Now I have, at times over the past year, heard some opinions expressed that all good films should end with a huge explosion, and I should try to work that into this film somehow. If I do decide to go with the explosive ending, armed with my new Special Effects knowledge it should be a snap!

Of course I am kidding.

Until next time... Sisu!