This little short had a couple of big firsts for us at Moth to Flame. First science fiction piece, and because it’s science fiction it was the first time where the production design played a big role.
Two Roads was a fun movie to work on. First, I did an audition tape. I memorized two scenes—a funny one and a sad one. Then I got to meet Adam and Christine on Skype.
With a slim budget, tight schedule, uncooperative weather patterns and even less cooperative livestock, the making of Two Roads was not destined for smooth sailing. Yet challenging circumstances can sometimes bring out the best in people—especially talented, tenacious people with a shared vision and a passion for excellence.
It’s been crazy crunch time for Moth to Flame as we rush to the finish line with “Two Roads,” our new short for the Louisiana Film Prize. This year has been a bit more hectic in terms of post-production scheduling, because each team member has continued to take on bigger and better projects and we collectively have more projects to juggle on top of this one. In addition, we have two cuts of our film this year (instead of one, like last year’s A Bird’s Nest)… a 15-minute cut for the actual Louisiana Film Prize itself and also a much longer 20 minute version for other festivals.
Christine has been busy getting together the final cut of Funemployment. If you’ve been following our Instagram you may have seen this photo, of our cat helpers working on some inserts.
Last week we had a night shoot out at Dane’s Body Shop shooting some footage for Battle Bold. A group of friendly athletic folks of all shapes and sizes came out to share their techniques for the cameras and show off some of Battle Bold’s lineup. I almost felt bad for them as they had to basically do a workout in front of the camera repeatedly while Christine Chen and David Lackey both captured footage.
After we got through the first 3 days of production, the last 2 days became less stressful. This is the stage that I like to call “Meh.” Basically, after the initial shock factor of dealing with intense work schedules and a variety of temperamental problems, the entire team became so used to (and tired of) solving or accepting these problems that by the last two days any problem ceased to become a big deal. It is going to rain in 2 minutes? Cool. It is pouring outside? Cool. The data dump froze again right before an incredibly emotionally difficult scene to shoot? Okay.
Making “Two Roads” proved to be one of the more difficult projects I’ve undertaken, but it was also one where I learned a lot about myself as a director, an actor and an artist. I couldn’t be certain that the vision that Christine and I had formed in our heads would actually translate into a good film, but somewhere in the first day of shooting I realized that, yes! We were indeed, shooting something very good and I am proud of what we accomplished. With our dedicated skeleton crew and a handful of actors, we pushed ourselves to the limit because we love to create compelling films and I know we did just that.
This past weekend we did a little shoot with Jacob Rachniowsk and Taylor Davis(featured in the photo below) from Cloud9 Drones.
This one felt different. Lets get that out of the way right off the bat. I don’t think I’ve hit my professional “peak” when it comes to film. But from my small experience, I can tell you this one was different.