After a second week full of more late nights and cold tempatures, the cast and crew on "The Penny" can rest well today knowing that all but two of our exterior scenes are behind us.  And none too soon either, as we woke up this morning to another fresh snowfall blanketing the Wisconsin landscape with sparkling whiteness. 

Shooting continues to go very well overall, with more great performances by our cast members, who continue to amaze me with the ways they are breathing life into the characters I've known only on paper for the past year.  The crew is becoming and even closer-knit, fine-tuned machine as well as time moves along.  Footage is looking fantastic, and I can hardly wait to start editing it together.  I've already rough cut a few scenes and the results have only fueled my desire to get to editing, but alas, I must quell those desires and focus on the task at hand of continuing to capture the great images and performances that will soon enough become "The Penny".

Here are a couple BTS stills from the past week of shooting:

Director, DP, and AD discuss the next shot.

 

Yet another long, cold night...

We are extremely excited to announce the DVD release of Pendragon: Sword of his father! Though this was not a Filmweaver's Production. Our crew was significantly involved in it's creation. This epic christian film is something you won't want to miss. Order it on DVD today for christmas!

And you can check out the new pendragon website! www.pendragonmovie.com

 

The first full week of filming on "The Penny" was wrapped this past Saturday, and the crew and cast enjoyed a much deserved day off yesterday.  All in all, the week went very well, with some amazing performances by our cast and incredible determination and endurance from our crew.  We are still right on schedule, but thanks only to a shooting day on Friday night that ended up carrying right over into Saturday's shoot, for a total of 28 hours straight of shooting for the crew (when I said incredible determination and endurance, I meant it!)

The entire week was exterior shooting with another four days of the same this week.  We were trying to get all the outside scenes done before the snow flew here in Wisconsin, but I woke up this morning to a glittering white surprise of over an inch.  Looks like we might have to move to interiors for a couple days while the snow melts off.  Prayers for God to hold off anymore snow until next week would be greatly appreciated.

Here are a few stills from the first week of shooting:

Seven days down, nineteen to go...

The lack of updates regarding "The Penny" has nothing to do with a lack of things to talk about, but quite the opposite actually.  Pre-production has been continuing at a feverish pace as we prepare to start shooting in ONE WEEK from today!

All 25 roles have now been cast from our selection of over 250 actor submissions.  It was a difficult process making all the casting decisions as we had a number of good options to choose from.  Thank you to all those who auditioned!

The shooting locations for the film are all set as well with one exception.  We are still in the process of trying to secure a convenience store/gas station to film in.  Our preference would be to find a vacant store that we could use whenever we needed it, but we're also open to shooting in an operational store if schedules could be worked out.  There are a few possibilities we're still waiting to hear back on, but if any of you knows of a convenience store/gas station in the area that we might be able to use, we would love to hear from you!  Please keep this location search in your prayers as well, that God would provide a suitable place for us to use.

On Monday the crew begins to come in from their various homes across the country and the final push of pre-production will begin.  Our first day of shooting is scheduled for November 15 and production will continue through December 20.  Stay tuned for more information during the coming weeks as various crew members blog about their experiences on the shoot.

Lastly, to follow up on something I mentioned in a previous post, the "new toy" we received in the mail was a Brevis 35mm adapter for our camera. 

This device will allow us to attach professional 35mm lenses to the DVCPRO HD camera we're shooting on, producing a much more "filmic" image from the video camera.  Over the coming weeks we'll be giving our thoughts on working with the Brevis, and why we ended up choosing this model.

It's an exciting time for Filmweavers, and we look forward to seeing what God has in store for us as we start production on "The Penny"!

Color correction and visual effects for Pendragon: Sword of his father are completed! The effects team which was predominantly Nick and I with the addition of Gabriel Everson who joined us for the last two weeks, with the Lord's help we're able to complete a total of 263 visual effects for the project in 53 days! Nearly 5 shots a day. The schedule was grueling but the team worked really hard!!! I do consider it to be a miracle that we made it just in time, so thank you for all of your prayers. There was NO way it would have been possible the Lord clearly facilitated it's finish! Also John-Clay did a fantastic job on color correction during the same period! The film is getting some final audio tweaks this week, and then it's off to the duplicators. The audio story has come together very nicely! When (not if ;) you decide to pick up your own copy of pendragon. Be sure to hook it up to your home stereo system or something to do the sound justice... you WON'T be disappointed! I don't wish to over hype the film... we've done our best with what we had. I will say I can hardly wait to see how people will react as it's released into the wild.