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Our first day of filming: August 10, 2020! After a week of experimenting with lighting, we began with a night scene for our first official shoot.   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...

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...

A pictorial account of our set construction 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...

It's been said that blessings and trials often run on parallel tracks, and usually arrive about the same time. That pretty well sums up the filming of Return to New Haven... 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...

The adventure continues...The behind-the-scenes story of the Return to New Haven