Today marked the end of the first week. The work performed by our cast and crew was nothing less than amazing. I could not be happier with our first week, which is always the hardest, and I know that we’ve taken yet another step in the right direction. I am tired but I cannot help but be excited - I know we are going to walk away with something that not only defines our talents and ambitions but reflects our dreams.

Production began today and I have to say it went off without a hitch. We had a few problems, as to be expected on the first day, but we managed to pull it together and make things happen. First off, one of our lead actors was flying in from New York and his flight was delayed… so he did not arrive to set until twenty minutes before call time. Literally, he was picked up in Houston at 3am, then drove directly to set and arrived around 6am. My hats off to the actor, Matt Johnston, because he had worked on his TV show all day on Friday, jumped on a plane and then worked another 15 hours. Next, our boom operator got heat exhaustion and had to be taken to the hospital - I told you kids it’s hot down here… I mean it’s Africa hot, Tarzan couldn’t stand this heat. Finally we had problems with the camera battery charger. Not good. Once again, I expected a few crises on the first day so I was not too shocked. All you can do is move on and solve the problem. We ended up getting everything shot, and beautifully I might add by Steve Acevedo and his talented camera crew… and only a few hours past the expected wrap time.

This morning I flew to Los Angeles for the screening of Quarter To Life. I will only be in LA for a day - but man, I sure could use that day.

Let’s see, last week Steve Acevedo (the DP), myself, and Fagan Patterson (exec producer) went on a location scouting trip. While on the visit Steve took notes as to what lights, equipment, and what not he will need to accomplish the look he will be attempting to achieve for the film. We also had a conference call with the post lab we’ll be working with in order to discuss our workflow options. The lab, CineLab, is based out of Maine and the guy we talked with, Rob Houllahan, was very helpful. I talked with several post labs but CineLab cut us the best deal on a package for the film, processing and transfer. We are going to transfer the footage to DVCam with a keycode burn, then use that footage to do an off-line edit, from there export the Edit Decision List and then go back to the original negative for a on-line edit to HD for the master. Confused? I know I was and have been for the past four months trying to figure all this out but it is starting to make sense. There are literally dozens of post workflow options and the trick is deciding on a workflow that fits your budget while not comprimising the look you are attempting to achieve.

What else? My biggest headache as of the last two weeks has been insurance. If we can’t get insurance then the whole production is shot because we would not be able to rent equipment. For the past month I have been hassling the insurance company for a qoute and their initial concern was that our film has a lot of action - case in point we were a liability. Well, they finally sent me a qoute yesterday, which means they will insure us. Thank you baby Jesus. Now I can go ahead and rent our equipment. We will (most likely) be renting a grip truck from gear-rental based out of Austin, a Zeis 11-110 zoom lense from Panavision based out of Dallas, and our camera equipment will be coming from a commercial production company our DP works for in San Antonio.

I spent my Labor day weekend rewriting the script… which will be the last rewrite, minus a few changes that will more than likely come as a result of rehersals. When I return from my trip tomorrow I will begin calling the actors to discuss wardrobe, rehersals, and character developement. Talk to you then!