Excerpt from journal:
August 15, 2020 - Five days of shooting under our belt! As we started out the week, I had high hopes that we could complete 7 scenes. YES - we can do this! However, I quickly revised my expectations after the first night, as we realized that Jordan (age 5) is new to this whole acting thing! We had very many takes as we asked him to walk up the street and look into the window of the Golden Barrel Inn. He still needs to learn NOT to look at the camera and NOT to talk when the camera's rolling! When Joel called Jordan's name for him to start walking up the street, Jordan would stand there and reply, "Yes sir?" Or Joel would try to get Jordan to look up the street by asking, "Where's Tate?" Instead of turning to look, Jordan would answer, "Tate's standing next to you!" 😊
By the second day I was deciding maybe just one usable scene would be a good goal for our week! It's going to take a while to get back in the swing of things. Everyone is very rusty. And making silly mistakes – like moving props. Midweek some of us readjusted the placement of props, not realizing that Joel had put them there for a specific reason. Lesson learned: when we're shooting all week on the same scene – DON'T MOVE PROPS!
But despite our slowness and rustiness, it's great to be back at it. The fact that we're all out there, working as a team, everyone with their specific role, making this happen – it's exciting! By the middle of the week, the kids were quite familiar with their jobs: everyone has their light station they're responsible for, Tate's the mover of the waters (using a bucket to rough up the water in the canal so that it has movement), Nate's our clapboard guy and battery charger, and Allie runs the audio recorder.
We moved our travel trailer adjacent to the sets to be used for our dressing room and equipment storage.
Playing Zingo in the trailer...waiting for time to shoot!
Journal excerpt:
August 19, 2020
Day 7! 4 scenes done – give or take. Pretty good for our first round! Joel expected the initial 3 weeks to be rough, as we get up to speed with acting and the flow of things, so we're encouraged with the progress made.
Everyone gets into it once we're filming in the evening, but after late-night shoots, mornings are very slow and grumpy. 😊 But I'm trying to accept that that's just how it is right now. I'm not going to get as much done in a day – but that's OK, because our priority right now is filming! And yay for that!
Jordan is quite the little actor. He has no inhibitions, no cares, no concerns! He stays jolly, no matter the time of night, no matter how he's doing! Last night, Joel told Jordan his first take was no good. Jordan replied with a cheery, "OK!" He's not fazed by anything!
And he is so funny! Tonight as we were walking through the next scene, Joel asked him, "Do you think you could yell as you run up the street?" (being chased by the Reds) "Let's hear it!" Without missing a beat, Jordan began running, yelling as he went, "I – want -- my -- mommy!" 😊
In the midst of all the intensity and challenges, it's good to laugh!
Forming the Unnaturals Club
One of the kids told me today (I won't name names here) :) that Child #1 called Child #2 and Child #3 together last night and informed them that the three of them were forming an acting club, called the Unnaturals. (Some of our kids are less natural at acting than the others.) Child #1 challenged the other two to a pact for this movie to break out of the mold and do incredible acting to amaze us all. Child #2 protested, saying, "I don't want to be in this club! I didn't ask for this!" But Child #1 wouldn't let him out of it – he said Child #2 doesn't have a choice – he is in this acting club of Unnaturals, like it or not. 😊
August 28, 2020
This is a battle, for sure, and majorly draining – but how exciting to see progress! Each time we shoot, we learn and improve.
Joel is encouraged with the boys' capability and good attitudes. When we did the set walk-through Wednesday, he lined out what needed to happen for the next two nights' shoots. When Joel and I arrived down at the set Wednesday night to shoot, all was ready! The boys also had to build a stretcher for Carson...Tate and Harrison whipped one out in 45 minutes before supper. The boys built a wooden frame and stretched a piece of canvas over it, and it looks great!
Allie was SO excited, for last night was to be her debut!! The bounty hunter's as well – so it was to be a big night. But alas, we did not make it to the second half of our scene where the bounty hunter and Elsie showed up. All the lighting from Main Street had to be pulled and repositioned, which takes time – so we weren't ready to shoot until nearly 10. We got a good productive 1.5 hour in, but to start in on bounty hunter and Elsie would have pushed us very, very late, so we voted to call it for the night and start in again on Monday. Disappointing, especially since we have to wait over the weekend – but that's how it goes. Allie was SO sad! She was all in costume, and very excited for her part! But I told her it was good to have a trial run with her costume and hair anyway. 😊
The shoot went really well, even though it was short. We were especially encouraged with Jordan! He was so stiff and awkward in those first two scenes, but we're finding out the key is to have him with the other kids. When he's in the midst of his brothers, he totally relaxes and becomes himself again – it is a major transformation! He was cutting up and being a ham last night –had us all in stitches! Once he walked down the street singing, "Amen! Hallelujah!"
Jordan was wrestling with the boys for their crossbows – and that gave Joel the idea of using it as a crutch to give Jordan something to make him look more natural. Jordan got right into the line, and loved it! We were amused by his persistence: "Can I have a crossbow?" "May I PLEASE have a crossbow?" "I REALLY want a crossbow!" Yay - it worked!
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Our construction crew continued to make steady progress through the month of February (2020). As the rooms neared completion, it was time to begin wall treatments and set decorating - the fun stuff!
We were excited to find pre-stick wallpaper for the mayor's office that gave the antique look we wanted. (Above) However, it wasn't the easy fix for which we'd hoped, for after a day of happy paper hanging, we came back the next morning to find all the paper peeling off the wall! Lesson learned: the stick-on kind doesn't adhere to OSB! :( (Wallpaper adhesive finally did the trick - back to the old-fashioned way!)
(Above) The mayor's hidden room was actually built beneath the mayor's office, as it was portrayed in the movie. Since the room was inside our pole building without any daylight coming in, we placed LED lights with daylight gels beneath the windows to give a realistic outside/daytime feel.
(Above) Finishing up the construction of the hideout.
(Above) Decorating the Golden Barrel Inn! A collection of antiques from the family farm served as useful props for both Defense and Return.
(Above) And this brought us to the end of February, when the boys began the arduous task of clearing the pond. Since the weather was often inclement at this time of year, the boys spent rainy days in the pole building creating props and furniture. Harrison led the crew in rebuilding the CDF boat. [After Defense, we had torn the boat down to its original form, not knowing that we'd be using it again in Return! So the boys had to restore the boat to exactly as it looked in Defense. Learning how to bend wood and trim out the boat made it a very educational experience!]
As spring arrived, and the weather improved, we were able to work more outside on set construction. The walls of our town buildings went up quickly, which was fun to see!
We had saved all the faux stone paneling we used in Defense; we like it because it looks good and is easy to put up. However, the panels didn't go very far with our larger outdoor set, so we had to use them sparingly and spread them out throughout the town.
Old shingles and lumber repurposed from the old barn at the family farm were an economical way to cover our walls. However, when we surveyed the end result, we decided it wasn't the look we wanted - New Haven looked like an Old West town! So down went the wood (some of it). Plaster was our next try - we found it to be a decent solution that fit our budget.
With all hands on deck, the plaster went up quickly...
Sometimes I think more plaster ended up on the kids than the walls! :)
We liked the look of the plaster - until the rains came, and it started sloughing off the walls! We covered as much as possible with tarps to save what we could.
In July we enjoyed a fun visit from my parents, who were a huge help with construction, costume fittings, and even sewing patches on jackets and hats!
It was fun to hang Amelia's handpainted signs and see the town start to come together.
Construction crew chief!
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During the cold, damp winter months, we spent our days building interior sets in the pole building. (December, 2019)
By the end of December, the first floor was roughly finished and the Golden Barrel Inn, mayor's office, and CDF hideout on the second floor were framed and sheeted. (Below: CDF hideout to the left side of the stairs on the second story, mayor's office to the right)
We saved a back corner for a workout room. :)
Pictured below: The CDF hideout and Golden Barrel Inn shared the north side of our second story - the hideout is on the left. This arrangement gave us more room for wide shots; when we were shooting the scenes in the Golden Barrel Inn, we set up the camera in the hideout, and vice versa.
The Golden Barrel Inn
Below: Installing flooring...Tate is standing at approximately the dividing line between the hideout and the Golden Barrel Inn. (January 16, 2020)
The boys worked at making the Golden Barrel Inn look weathered and rough.
The CDF hideout - 47 and 49's "room"
Mayor's office - January 28, 2020
Below: The window on the far left looks into the Golden Barrel Inn.
Progress made -- end of January, 2020
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Blessings
Having two movies under our belt was a great advantage. What we learned through trial and error on Runner and Defense gave us more confidence to jump in this time without feeling quite so much like we were in the dark!
In addition, the six years between Defense and Return made a big difference in the maturity and skills of our kids. They had great ideas to contribute to the story and sets. The boys were much more capable in construction skills, which freed Joel to focus more on planning and story writing.
Amelia’s artistic abilities added new dimension and character to our sets as she took over the art department: painting signs for our streets, and handling the set decorating.
The kids’ opinions and help not only freed Joel and me to do more, but we felt that it also gave us the capability to make a better quality movie – and that was exciting!
We were also very grateful for the loving support and prayers and gifts of family and friends that kept us going. Literally, this movie would not have been made without them!
Challenges
As we mentioned before, the sale of the property turned our production of Return into a race against time, as we hurried to finish shooting before we had to move out...Limited funding was always an issue.. And COVID laid us flat for several weeks just as we began construction. In addition, the lock-downs and sheltering in place made it difficult for us to get needed building materials and to shop for costumes.
As a family, we laugh about the fact that as soon as we launch into construction or shooting, we can count on two things: our family getting sick and everything in our life breaking! It’s unreal – we’ve been through several washers, two ovens, a dishwasher, a broken dryer…not to mention video equipment and our film camera having to be replaced!
(and worn-out shoes!) :)
We look back over the months of working on the film and see the Lord's hand in all of it - the blessings and the challenges! We praise Him for His faithfulness in leading us and providing for every step of the way.
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Through the years of our family’s adventure in filmmaking, it has often seemed that our paths have ended up going the opposite way of what we expect. Later, it all makes sense. But in the midst of the journey, we don’t always understand the Lord’s leading. It’s learning to walk by faith, not by sight! Our experience with making Return to New Haven was no exception…
It was the summer of 2018 – two years after the release of Defense of New Haven. A script for our third movie was beginning to take shape. Our family still lived on the property where our first two movies were shot – but we had a problem: the pole building in which we built the sets for Defense was too small for the sets we were planning.
Long story short, a multitude of factors combined to bring us to the decision to put the property on the market and look for a place with a larger pole building. For a year we waited for our house and land to sell. A lot of interest was shown in the property – but the property didn't sell.
In the fall of 2019, we pulled the property off the market. Now what? Obviously the Lord did not want us to move yet. Could this mean He wanted us to shoot our next movie here – now? The year’s wait had given us time to refine our script and sketch out sets. We were ready! But how – where? In our mind, our pole building was too small for our set plans – but perhaps we could think out of the box – as in out of doors.
Midway down our hill was a small stock pond, overgrown with reeds. Joel saw potential there: we could dig out the pond to serve as our water canal for our boats. We could build our town around it, which would free up our pole barn for interior scenes.
Finances was another issue - a big issue. We took a walk one night and laid the matter before the Lord. We prayed that the Lord would clearly show us that we were supposed to make another film by bringing in money for sets.
The next day, we received a generous check - completely unexpectedly. No one else knew of our prayer or our need. Once again, God had faithfully provided and confirmed His direction to us. We wasted no time in getting construction underway!
Though at the time we couldn’t understand why our property didn’t sell, the Lord’s plan became clear over the next couple of years. Just as we began production, COVID-19 hit our country with its lock-downs and quarantines. 2020 proved to be the perfect year for our family to stay home and shoot! And as the economic repercussions of COVID became evident, we were so grateful we’d built sets when we did. Two years after our sets were built, lumber prices tripled – which would have made our construction project completely cost prohibitive. We finished production just in the nick of time! (But God knew all these things beforehand.)
The amazing thing was that after all this, God did bring a buyer for our place – in the middle of production! Near the end of our shoot, we received an offer on the property, though it wasn’t even on the market!
Our hope had been to leave our sets in place for any pick-up shots we needed, but now that was out of the question. It was a scramble just to finish filming before we had to move out. The rough cut became the final cut! We wrapped production with just a month to spare for packing up our belongings, crating our movie props, and tearing down sets. Whew!
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Just as we were ready to shoot the final Henry/Clyde scene, Add lost one of his top front teeth...needless to say, a very noticeable change. Of all times! In desperation, Joel stopped at the drugstore on the way out to shoot and bought some Fix-o-Dent to glue the tooth back in. At first we were hopeful it would do the trick… Joel was able to push the tooth back up into its spot and it looked pretty good. But as we worked our way through the scene, the tooth slowly began to slide down and push its way forward out over Add’s lip, an ooze of pink goo accompanying it. Well, maybe this wasn’t going to work so well…We finally gave up and pitched the tooth, deciding we’d have to make do without it. Our dilemma was solved in Clyde’s case by his beard, but Henry was a little more difficult. Nonetheless, we managed to eke by, figuring a toothless Henry was better than Henry with a protruding pink tooth!
Back to the rocket car scenes...
June 14, 2009
We just finished two very intensive, exhausting weeks on the rocket car scene – and we’re still alive (but barely!) to tell about it…We set a new record: 6 straight days of outdoor shooting. By the end, Joel and the kids were beyond maxed. (Although I have to say, kids are pretty resilient – they bounce back pretty fast!)
A challenge we faced during our shoot was the unusual weather. In Oregon, thunderstorms are rare. It’s the talk of the town when a clap of thunder is heard. Amazingly, while we were filming, we experienced TWO storms in a week – complete with driving winds and rain, lots of lightning, and even reports of a tornado nearby! It was bizarre, to say the least.
Journal excerpt
Yesterday Joel tried shooting for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, but finally called it quits because the sun was just too bright. He packed everyone up and headed for home, but on the way he realized that it was clouding up – the conditions were much more favorable for the camera. His dad called on his cell phone to confirm it was great light at the property. So Joel turned around and went back. The kids got in costume, Joel loaded the gear into the Kawasaki, and the crew headed back down to the shooting location (which is no small task). Joel had just yelled, “Action!” when a thunderstorm broke loose in all its fury… panic - scramble – it was a mad dash to get everyone out of the woods before someone got struck by lightning…!
It was indeed “one of those days.”
That morning, even before the weather disaster, nothing went right. The ever-changing lighting was frustrating to deal with - then one of the tripod feet came off. With the dense undergrowth and brush, Joel figured it was lost forever – but to his amazement, one of the boys found it! One small comfort in an otherwise trying day…
On Monday, Joel was able to piece the scene together for the first time – some holes still, but it was starting to tell a story. Yay for progress!
Another milestone today: we received the first completed music reel: the tribal scene! That was an awesome moment, realizing that this is original music composed just for our movie – wow! I had no idea the music would be such a time-intensive, challenging part of our production. All the hours of meetings, and the days upon days that the music guys have poured into composing and transcribing and hammering the scenes out…what an incredible amount of work! But we are thrilled to see how much the original music is adding to our movie. It is well worth every bit of sweat, blood, and tears!
Father's Day, 2009
As the kids spent hours excitedly preparing their little gifts for Joel this year (I finally had to tell them to stop), :) I was filled with joy and gratefulness in thinking of how much they love their daddy. It wasn’t this way a few years ago, when Joel was at his corporate job. Of course, the children have always loved their daddy, but their time with him on a daily basis was so brief, and his work was a big unknown to them. (In fact, one of the little guys called Joel’s place of work “Daddy’s hotel” – a rather apt description!)
Now they not only know what he does, they’re a major part of it. They spend all day, every day with him – they know they’re valued and special to him – and as a consequence, they are his loyal admirers. When it’s a choice of going shopping with Mommy or staying home with Daddy, there’s never a decision to be made – it’s Daddy every time! But I don’t mind – I’m delighted that things are this way. Even if this movie is a flop, I wouldn’t trade this past year and a half for anything!
June 30, 2009
If we had kept with our original plan, the recording in Prague would have been finished now (June 23-27)! But considering the fact that only 2 reels of music are complete and we still have to re-shoot the prison scene, it’s probably a good thing we postponed till August. The guys’ plane tickets have been purchased now, so there’s no turning back!
This week Joel spent most of his time editing – both the rocket car scene and the next reel to send to the music guys. The rocket car scene is essentially complete, although I think Joel would like to get a few more background plates for his green screen shots.
Now on to the prison scene, take #2…we have to start from scratch and build the set all over again! [Note: The prison scene, our very first to shoot, was the one we cringed at the most out of all our scenes. After a year of gaining valuable experience with the camera and acting, we decided we could “make a better one.”] :)
We still haven’t come up with a name for our movie…some of us like “Quest for Rest” – my favorite is “Henry and the Quest for Rest,” but because of Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins series, the Google search is glutted with that name. “City of Refuge” is already in use – besides, we’re not sure we want to give it away in the title. Joel suggested “One from Ravenshead”; the music guys had a similar idea: “Escape from Ravenshead.” I suppose one of these days we’re going to have to settle on something!
July 23, 2009
The edit of the rocket car is complete and on its way to the music guys! Whew! What a relief to have that grueling scene finished.
Time is short! Recording is less than a month away…Just received music reel #4. We’ve got to get the prison scene done soon so the composers can have that next without delay. Though it is a pressure, I think the recording deadline is good for us. We need to be pushed along.
We are definitely hitting burn-out stage – it’s been a long haul.
Today will be our third day of filming the prison scene. Unfortunately, because of the heat, we’ve had to wait until evenings to shoot. By the time we work two to three hours, clean up, and have a snack, it’s midnight – we’re not in bed until 1 or 1:30 a.m. A taxing schedule for young kids and a pregnant mommy!
July 30, 2009
IT’S A WRAP! Hooray – hooray – one thousand times hooray! Our last night of shooting was another late one because of the heat. We’ve been setting record temperatures: one day reached 106. [This is extremely rare for Oregon. Naturally, we have to experience all the record-setting, rare weather patterns during production!]
The kids and Joel drove out for the shoot about 9 p.m. Once they began, they got on a roll, and everybody voted to push through to the very end. The last take was finished at 3:30 a.m.!
I had stayed home with Tate, but I awoke often during the night, praying for the shoot and wondering how it was going. When I heard the garage door open at about 4 a.m., I popped out of bed and hurried downstairs to meet the crew. They were amazingly bright-eyed and cheery – exhilarated by the novelty of staying up all night! They did admit, though, that bed sounded pretty good. :)
It wasn’t until several days later that Joel waded through all the footage and decided he had enough to work with. We had been holding our breath until the announcement…but finally it came: we were officially finished shooting! Even then, we were numb for a few days until reality sank in. For over a year now, it’s been on to the next scene, push, push, push – happy to get a scene behind us, but no time for a break because the next scene must be planned, built and filmed. To be free from the pressure at last – we could hardly believe it!
We celebrated our momentous occasion with a family outing to let the kids each pick out a reward for their hard work. Practical Mommy suggested the kids pray about how to spend their money… I was slightly disappointed when they all chose LEGO sets, but they quickly assured me they had indeed prayed about it, and felt confident that they could honor the Lord by playing nicely and sharing their toys. :)
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October, 2008
…We have continued to see the Lord’s faithfulness to us over the past two weeks…It seems we go in “good week, bad week” cycles, but I guess we can’t expect smooth sailing all the time…
Two weeks ago, we filmed the City of Refuge ending scene. The weather was idyllic that day. As we were shooting Sam’s crossing the bridge, the sun began to set, casting a beautiful warm glow over the village. It was perfect!
We also recorded the scene with Ike and the crashed rocket car. Tate was a trooper – he really got into his part. He did a good job standing in his spot [he was 22 months old at this point]– in fact, then we couldn’t get him to go anywhere else! The piece of wreckage he was supposed to hold caused him great consternation at first – he didn’t like the feel of the board, and there were tears - but then he got used to it, and we had the opposite problem – we couldn’t get him to give it up!
Joel found the goggles for Ike among our collection of antique tools…They were extremely old. (Grandma showed us a picture of her brother wearing them at age 5, but they must have been his dad’s or grandpa’s before that.) We didn’t think we were going to be able to use them, for there was no strap, and the piece between the eyes was too big. But Joel’s dad worked them over for us and got them to fit just right, to our delight. A great addition to our scene!
After our good week of shooting the closing scenes, we had a not-so-good week trying to get started on the rocket car scene. We fought lighting problems, wind, cold, and the challenges of taking a 4-year-old and almost-2-year-old out on outdoor shoots. Grandma and Grandpa were gone, so we didn’t have their help…it felt as if we were working ourselves to the bone, but getting nowhere! It was one of those weeks where we wondered, “What in the world are we doing? We must be crazy to think we can make a living doing this!”
At times my faith feels very small, and I’m tempted to doubt that the movie will really go anywhere. But then I stop and reflect on all the answers to prayer over the past year, and I see the Lord’s faithfulness to us. And I know that aside from the success or failure of the movie, the experiences we've shared working together as a family make the whole endeavor worth it!
Although - yes, we had our moments....
October 15, 2008
This week, when one of our little guys got stuck on a dialogue line, our filming sessions were total frustration. It took us three entire days just to capture one usable line. We were at our wits’ end! At one point, when we stopped for a break, Grandma (who had been praying through the shoot) eagerly asked our little guy how it was going. He replied wearily, “It’s not a very good life, Grandma!” :)
October 26, 2008
Joel spent the first three days of the week moving the zip line out to the woods. He also invented a great system for raising and lowering the zip line to make it easier to load Tate into the rocket car.
Thursday we all trooped out there and spent the day filming the scene where Ike picks up Sam. [Tate’s first time in the rocket car on the zip line.] Overall, the shoot went well. The weather was perfect, and Tate did a good job enduring a long day out there. He was a bit insecure as he whizzed down the line the first time, but then he got used to it, growing quite placid in his pilot’s seat. The smooth high-end pulleys, combined with the back and forth of numerous takes, had an effect on Tate similar to a baby swing. At the end of the day, I looked up and noticed that his head was drooping and his eyes closed – he had actually been lulled to sleep in his rocket car!
We lost a bit of momentum in November, with holidays and family visits and birthdays. But despite the delays, by Christmas, production of the main body of our movie was complete. We had a few pick-up shots to capture, and loads of editing, but we were ecstatic to think the end was in sight.
Our Christmas trip to the Midwest included a meeting with our music producer in Dallas and a week in San Antonio for a Christian film festival and filmmakers’ academy. Stepping away from our movie for a while gave us a fresh perspective -- and a realization that we needed to seriously re-evaluate our work.
The first discouragement was the plain and simple fact that our movie was not long enough. When the first edit was complete, our movie was still twenty minutes under feature length. This was not just a minor problem – this was a big deal. At this point in the game, to come up with twenty minutes’ worth of “story helper”? Filler is never a good thing.
After watching the rough cut, the general consensus of our feedback committee was that the story lacked depth and clarity. The challenge of five kids’ playing multiple roles was revealing itself. We agreed with the criticism. Clarification was needed. Again, a rather daunting hurdle to face at this late date…
So…other than being way too short, and having a shallow and confusing storyline, the movie was great! :) We were reminded of a quote from our sound engineer: “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
We had no choice but to tackle the problems the best we could. Joel created twelve new scenes for the movie, to sprinkle throughout the storyline. To address the clarity issue, we set to work recording dialogue replacement and adding captions.
In March, Joel was off to Boston for an intensive three days of meetings with the music guys. Meanwhile, I was at home with the kiddos, in the throes of morning sickness, expecting Baby #6…[Little did we know that our new little one was destined to play a huge role in our second movie!]
Weekly Skype calls with our music guys, hammering through the rocket car scenes, lots of editing – and before we knew it, June was upon us. How could it be that the first half of the year was already gone? The busyness of daily life with five children and one on the way…the “tyranny of the urgent” seemed to keep us always busy, always working at maximum capacity, and always tired - yet with not much progress to show for it. We still had a long ways to go...
]]>We trudged through the summer, realizing with each new scene the enormity of our undertaking. Our limited budget, the fact that we were working with untrained actors (our own kids), and the reality that we had no idea what we were doing (!) discouraged us. It seemed like we were always dealing with one setback or another: our tripod broke (still usable but shaky)…one week we had to deal with forest fires in the vicinity, which gave the sky an eerie orange glow and made our outdoor shots unusable…the kids came down with colds and were out of commission for a couple of weeks…we were rear-ended for the second time in four months by an uninsured driver… Bartholomew (the dog) came down with a nasty infection in his ear, which made him almost completely deaf and very sluggish (therefore it was very difficult to capture the running shots of him that we needed)… the trap-door scene was like a mental block for us; we could not come up with the right lines for it (we must have tried the opening sequence fifty different ways!)…our new diffusing screen and stands (a generous gift from grandparents) arrived, but it took us three tries shipping back and forth to get the right set that we needed. A lot of time and hassle and postage!
But there were encouraging things too…and we were learning lots. A successful re-shoot on the log crossing scene (too bland, we decided), boosted our spirits (and we had the fun of discovering some weird unidentifiable worm in the process!)
Working with a dummy was a whole new area to explore...That seemed to be our best option for the scenes where Bartholomew dragged Henry through the fields and down the hillside. First there was the process of making the dummy...Joel wanted it to be precisely Addison's size, so we used Addison as our template. We stretched him out in the living room, dressed in old clothes, and began wrapping him in duct tape. Once we had him all wrapped up (with breathing room, of course!), we cut up the back to free Add, then stuffed the dummy with old rags and painted the "face" peach. We had to admit, "Fred" was rather realistic looking, especially when in costume. Several times when we had him propped up in the garage in between scenes, he gave Grandpa quite a scare. :)
"Fred" served us well for the blackberry scene and Henry's flight over the side of the hill behind Bart. But Joel discovered another option we liked even better for the milder scenes: pulling Addison behind the Kawasaki on a cardboard “sled." With Grandpa or me driving the Kawasaki, towing Joel and the camera perched on a big piece of cardboard, and Addison hanging on behind, I'm sure we were quite the sight! But it worked well, and of course Addison thought it was great fun. With this method we were able to pull off most of the "dog drag" shots without a dummy.
Late summer (2008) we sat down and took a serious look at our timeline. Was it truly possible to get our movie done within the year? That was our initial goal – but our progress had been a lot slower lately than we’d counted on. Either we needed to accept it wouldn’t happen, take our time, and try to refine and really do it right – or else kick it in gear, drop everything and make a big push to get the movie FINISHED! We decided on the latter, knowing how quickly the children were growing and changing (outgrowing costumes!), and knowing that we work best with a 100% all-out mentality.
Thus in determination mode, we sat down with a calendar to map out our plan. We gave ourselves 10 weeks, which took us to the end of October – allowing for the very latest possibility of good weather for outdoor shots. Then we filled in our 19 remaining scenes, which meant an average of one to three a week depending on their length and intensity. We were pleased with how our timeline looked on paper; just seeing the scenes lined out made us feel very motivated and excited to press on!
For our remaining outdoor scenes, we settled into a daily routine that worked well with the bright summer sun: Joel and the 3 older kids headed out for an early morning shoot from about 5:30 to 10, until the light grew too hot. The mid-day break afforded a chance for the kids to nap and Joel to look at footage. Then back out to the set for the evening shoot, from 4 to 9:00.
September 28, 2008
After two rough weeks, we had a much better one last week – it seemed like we finally settled into the swing of things again. This week we are looking at only two outdoor scenes left: the ending scene with the city of refuge, and the rocket car episode. And to consider our 10-week outdoor scene timeline that ends the second week of October, we’re doing pretty well! We’re encouraged, but a bit burned out too – and majorly sleep deprived! Rains are supposed to hit the end of this week, and we’re actually looking forward to them : the possibility of a break and some rest!
About the time we began our intensive shooting schedule, we were thrilled to sign on our music producer. Music was a big piece we had been concerned about – most everything else we were able to do ourselves, but the film score was way beyond our capabilities. We had a very small budget, but we also had very high hopes. (Just what every music producer wants to hear!) To us, knowing it was our first shot at a feature film, with a genre of an all-children cast, we felt that live orchestra could help tremendously in bringing up the quality level of our movie and helping audiences take us seriously.
After much prayer and lots of dead ends, we called an old friend who had played the organ for our wedding 10 years before… To our surprise and delight, J. Marty Cope, an accomplished composer/arranger/church musician, agreed to take on the job as our music producer. We are still amazed at his willingness to join in with such an unconventional, amateur film project…I’m sure it was obvious from the start that we had no idea what we were doing! Nor did we have near the budget we needed for the grand plans we had for our music score. We look back now at our beginner audacity and shake our heads!
When we initially talked to J. Marty, we mentioned a big-name Christian composer that J. Marty knew, asking if he might be a possibility for us. J. Marty asked what our ballpark budget would be for music. We told him we might be able to scrape together around $7000. (Would that be enough?) J. Marty very graciously replied that we could give it a try, but that his friend might be a little busy to take us on. :)
Because he was already working a full-time job, J. Marty brought on a fellow musician and film score composer, Dane Walker, to do the bulk of the scoring. Both guys did a phenomenal job to create an incredible sound track for The Runner. Even with our tiny budget (which did exceed $7000!), they were able to arrange a recording with the Filmharmonic Orchestra in Prague – something way beyond anything we could have hoped for! We still receive comments on the beauty of our live orchestra soundtrack – and we agree that it has been a huge asset to the sellability of our movie. We are thrilled for the quality composers and musicians the Lord brought together to make the music score a reality!
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The on-the-side thing wasn’t working. Something needed to change. It was all or nothing. So we took a deep breath, said goodbye to our house and Joel’s job, and moved to a spot close to our set.
[Just before our move, we added baby #5 to our family…Tate Ivan was born! We realize now that God’s timing is so much better than ours…If we would have succeeded in our “big push,” and finished shooting when we’d hoped, The Runner’s cast would have been missing little Ike – and Walter, for that matter, for Brendan was only a toddler!]
We launched into full-time film production with much enthusiasm. A revised storyline, our kids that were now older, and a new camera gave us more to work with. And so we began with practicing one of our first scenes with the kids around a little table in the living room. And it went … not so well.
Excerpt from our Little Crew journal:Our first practice shoot was a flop. The kids’ acting was terrible, our script was terrible, Joel was still trying to learn the camera – we realized we don’t have a clue what we’re doing! We learned that the storyline is one thing on paper – it’s a whole different ballgame on film. Our scenes looked cheesy and amateurish. We were slightly panicked, wondering what we had done in leaving Joel’s job – what were we thinking?! But, we learned from every shoot, and we improved with each try. Joel reminded us that we’re in this for the long haul, we’ll learn as we go, and we’ll keep trying until we get it right. We are certainly aware of our need for the Lord!
Two months after our move, we were growing weary of practice shoots in the living room. It was time to do this for real! We built our first indoor set, the prison scene, in a 36’ x 36’ pole building (graduating from the root cellar!).
Daily shoots, five days a week, for three months…and afterward, we had a two-minute rough edit to show for it. Whew. [Take two on Lesson #4: Movies take a lot of time!]
One more month and we called the prison scene a wrap. Time to move on to our most-dreaded shoot: the outdoor tribal scene.
This week launched the first of our outdoor shoots, a formidable scene: the tribal encounter. We faced it with much trepidation: the set, the costumes, the lighting, the camera work – everything felt big! Joel had spent 5 days just clearing brush for our trail adjacent to the river, a very jungle-looking spot. That looked great (after much back-breaking work), but now, how to pull costumes together and actually shoot the shots? Monday Joel did the final trail work, Tuesday we created our costumes: bead necklaces, arm bands with beads and feathers, sepia cosmetic foundation to darken the skin, hair matted with mud, face paint, ripped-up shorts, tank tops run through the mud and dried to a nice dingy brown, grass skirts, and flip flops. These costumes were the most daunting of our movie, and we worried about their looking cheesy – but once on the trail, we had to say, the kids looked pretty much like wild little natives!
Wednesday we took the kids out for a practice run, and Thursday we began the real thing in costume. Just the preparations for shooting took us all morning – it was 3:00 p.m. before we were in place and ready for “action.” The costumes were indeed quite an ordeal to put on, but the effects were good – and we hoped to get quicker as we went...
We were delighted at the end of the week when we had made it all the way through our scene. Maybe we were getting faster…better…?
Or maybe not. When we proudly showed our scene to the grandparents, they smiled politely – and suggested that maybe we should try again.
We scrapped the tribal scene after all. We realized it didn’t adequately portray the point we were trying to make. Too much chasing, not enough story. Grandma and Grandpa confirmed this: they agreed it was a “reject.” Back to square one! This movie is feeling BIG!
The next two months were spent revising the storyboard, battling it out on the hot, sandy trail...editing, revising, reshooting, editing, and revising some more.
We start shooting late afternoon once the sun is not so bright and go until the light is gone – around 9:30. With an hour for clean-up and baths (the ordeal of washing off the natives’ makeup!), we’re usually eating supper (which Grandma kindly provides for us) about 10:15 – home around 11 – in bed about 12:30 a.m.…
As we brought the tribal scene to a close after two long months, we were both encouraged and discouraged. We learned a lot on our outdoor shoot, and were fairly pleased with the end result. But going back, our first prison scene felt draggy and amateurish. This would be the first time we would face "the question" - one we would have to answer many times before the movie was finished - one that never had an easy answer: when do we call a scene "good enough" and move on, and when do we keep reshooting until we get it right?
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Our journey started on a rainy Sunday afternoon about thirteen years ago…Driving home from church, we were stunned to find our second car totaled in our driveway. A hit-and-run driver had lost control of his pickup, crashed through our front yard, into our car, and the side wall of our garage, wreaking havoc along the way. Thanks to our neighbors’ quickness to track the guy down, we received a generous insurance settlement to pay for the damages.
The timing of this unusual incident was interesting…Just the night before, we had prayed for the Lord to direct us and provide for us with regards to starting a home business. With the insurance money from our wrecked car and damaged house, we made do without a second car and instead purchased our first video camera. Thus Little Crew Studios was born!
Despite the warning: “Never make a feature film first,” and the cautions about the challenges of working with children and animals, we launched into the production of an action/adventure feature film, using an all-children cast (our own kids) and animals! At first we worked on the side while Joel maintained his full-time job, using his time off to write our script and build our set.
Two years of weekends and holidays later, we had our storyline and most of our outdoor set buildings finished. Finally we were ready to shoot. Joel took a week off so that we could make our “big push”…
Eager and ambitious, Joel and I (expecting baby #5 in 2.5 months), Amelia, Harrison, Addison, and two-year-old Brendan made the hour and a half trip down to the location of our set to begin filming. The night before, we had printed a map of the City of Refuge …our costumes had just arrived …we had our gear… we were ready to roll!
It required two days of work initially for our decorators and landscape team (comprised of Grandma, Auntie, Amelia, and me!) to clean up the outdoor buildings and set which had sat neglected for some months. Joel and the grandpas finished their creation: a rock-bed river flowing beneath the bridge leading to the City of Refuge.
[Side note: To our dismay, when we later shot the closing scene of the City of Refuge, we realized that the river hardly showed, much as we tried to work it in! All those weeks of work for a brief glimpse! That was to be the first of many lessons learned the hard way.]
The first day of production we were up early, happy to see a bright, sunny day awaiting us. By the time we had the kids dressed in costumes and our gear set up, it was mid-morning, and the sun was high and bright. And we had… shadows… and hotspots…we could not capture anything useable! Lesson #2...
While we waited for the late afternoon sun, we decided to work on some indoor shots. Our indoor set was constructed in a 5 x 14 stone root cellar ten feet under ground. We split it in two – making one half the City of Refuge office, and the other Walter’s workshop. With our kids’ short height, we thought it would make a perfect-sized set, but we soon found that it was a challenge maneuvering the camera around in the tight spaces - Joel could never pull back far enough to get a wide angle. It was total frustration. Lesson #3...
But our enthusiasm revived when we went back to the house to look at the few seconds we’d managed to capture. We liked the look our camera produced, and it was exciting to see even a little bit of raw footage. It gave us fresh energy to go out and try for more!
And so we set up a pattern: we got up early, did some outdoor shooting before the sun was fully up, moved to our indoor set once the sun was high, then during the afternoon let the kids nap while Joel looked at the footage and planned our evening shots. We were happy to be making progress – but by the end of the week we only had 3 useable minutes. Three. Minutes. At this rate it was going to be years, not weeks. The realization slowly started to sink in - making movies takes time – a lot of time.
To be continued...
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