Episode 4 Shooting Day 4

Cris tells me that I shouldn't just share the good news in the blog. She's right. I suppose I just want to focus on the positive. We did have some setbacks this week though; challenges we had to face and overcome. The incredibly fancy tripod gifted to us by a producer literally broke in my hands. We have used it three times. I called three places, trying my best to replace it for under $200, and the only "helpful" comments I received were, "Oh yeah. That brand sometimes does that." Um... not actually helpful at all.

We managed some very basic split screen work in Episode 2 but we wanted to take it up a notch for Episode 4. More advanced split screen work requires a quality tripod with the proper head and stabilizer. So... that we really hard.

The same day, as I turned to close the safety gate at the top of the stairs, the light tree took the trip I was trying to make sure the kids didn't take -- down a flight of stairs with a phenomenal sprinkling of pure white, high voltage lamps and a squeal-snap of one can bending and giving up the ghost.

To top off the week, today (Friday) marked half way through Episode 4 so the KickStarter funds are done and we're back to square one in terms of funding. We were very thankful that KickStarter took us so far -- the second half of Episode 2, all of Episode 3 and the first half of Episode 4 -- but we'll continue fighting for this series. (As an aside, which Cris tells me is important, there is a great big donate button right on the first page of the website on the left hand side -- www.GhostSniffers.com.)

But enough of the challenges! Time to report on the unrelenting progress forward!

We woke this morning to brilliant golden sun. Faith changed into her alternate costume for the episode and we were out the door after a breakfast of eggless, wheat free French Toast for the kiddos and coffee for the grown ups.

Brianne stayed home to continue editing on Episode 3 which is coming in long (like Episode 2) because it was also written before I established the series formula and script format that would give us the perfect 27 to 30 minutes that we need.

Maxwell stayed home with Brianne to work on Maximilian's blog. Yep. The infamous blog that evil Maximilian writes for a living is actually online already with more than twenty entries. The link will be posted at the website when Episode 3 posts, but if you want to check out just how ridiculously asinine Maximilian is right now (because you're a blog reader and so you deserve sneak peeks), head on over to thegeatestforge.blogspot.com :)

Oh! That reminds me! Guess what? The website is about to be reorganized to include a wiki! We'll call it WikiSniff, I think :)

So Cris, Faith and I head out. Remember, shooting never happens on our schedule. We are slaves to daylight and we have to move swiftly. Plus, with two natural night owls in Maxwell and Faith, starting at the crack o' dawn is never an option.

When we three reached the slue, the tide was high, covering the rocky shore that had been visible the last time we shot here. Luckily, the scene we're shooting today is set on another day from the first one so the change won't be seen as an inconsistency.

After the slue, we hiked up into the woods to our final away shooting for the episode. Just before hiking up, a rancher stopped his big truck on the country road at the trail head. "Ladies, just so you know, we'll be slaughtering a cow shortly." Good thing he told us, too, because they echoing gun shots would have been a show stopper!