When disabilities become super abilities, young heroes prove what's real and what's ridiculous. Visit our website at tinyurl.com/ghostsniffers or join us on Facebook at tinyurl.com/ghostsniffersFB
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Episode 2 Shooting: Day 4
The buck stops here. And by here, I mean with the production manager. At 9:00am this morning ( it is almost midnight now) Brianne found out our location for today was unavailable. Her resulting fevered rush to reorganize giant bins of props, daylight scene shooting order, and other considerations barely touched us. It meant an extra hour or two of getting for me and some nice uninterrupted school for Faith and Maxwell with Cris.
In the end, there was no need to fret.
We starting shooting outdoors on the property (mostly in the woods) at 1:30. Shot until 4:00 while the light was still good but we were simply not done with everything outside! Then had lunch and regrouped. Shot again from 5:30 to 8:00 when Faith insisted on watching one of her favorite shows, Terra Nova. Finished up shooting from 10:30 to 11:00. In total we signed, sealed and delivered 16 script pages spread over five sets, 95 shots, and 115 takes. Ratio for the day? Oh gosh. My math brain has turned off LOL! (Edit: 1.21:1 scorecard.)
Funny event of the day was that Faith was scripted to hold twelve letters, five magazines, and open a letter, unfold it and read it while standing by a mailbox. She looked a me and said, "With what hands?" We all laughed as I revised :)
Incredible news of the day? *Three* backers at KickStarter! One has already done a phone interview with me and been cast in a speaking role -- whether or not we reach our KickStarter goal and she actually has to pay for her donation (remember, if we don't meet the goal, KickStarter does not charge the supporters for their promised donations and we earn no funds).
We also received the last funds needed for Episode 2 dirctly through our website. This secures our special talking animal footage! Yes!
Whew! Now for some much needed sleep... Until Day 5 starts at 7:00am tomorrow!
In the end, there was no need to fret.
We starting shooting outdoors on the property (mostly in the woods) at 1:30. Shot until 4:00 while the light was still good but we were simply not done with everything outside! Then had lunch and regrouped. Shot again from 5:30 to 8:00 when Faith insisted on watching one of her favorite shows, Terra Nova. Finished up shooting from 10:30 to 11:00. In total we signed, sealed and delivered 16 script pages spread over five sets, 95 shots, and 115 takes. Ratio for the day? Oh gosh. My math brain has turned off LOL! (Edit: 1.21:1 scorecard.)
Funny event of the day was that Faith was scripted to hold twelve letters, five magazines, and open a letter, unfold it and read it while standing by a mailbox. She looked a me and said, "With what hands?" We all laughed as I revised :)
Incredible news of the day? *Three* backers at KickStarter! One has already done a phone interview with me and been cast in a speaking role -- whether or not we reach our KickStarter goal and she actually has to pay for her donation (remember, if we don't meet the goal, KickStarter does not charge the supporters for their promised donations and we earn no funds).
We also received the last funds needed for Episode 2 dirctly through our website. This secures our special talking animal footage! Yes!
Whew! Now for some much needed sleep... Until Day 5 starts at 7:00am tomorrow!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Five Minute Rule
Within five minutes of posting today's blog, we received $105 in support! Our goal for Episode 2 is now only $60 away. Incredible!!
Episode 2 Shooting: Day 3
Breaking News: Without a single business or corporate sponsor, we are now only $165 shy of our goal for the entirety of Episode 2! Though none of the Episode 2 shareholders at this point are blood family, we have come to think of you as family. Thank you, producers, for making this episode possible.
Today didn't actually involve any filming or working with actors. Rather today was an organizational day filled with tasks that can easily get forgotten when your team is focused on shooting a new episode.
Brianne spent her day creating the call sheets (actors, props, locations, time and locations) for the rest of the shoot. Cris gathered and organized Faith and Maxwell's school work (with a Masters in Teaching, she handles 90% of the kids' education). I finished the eco-cases for the script and DVD of Episode 1 and got them to the printer. Extra time was spent packing sack lunches that Faith and Maxwell will actually squeal in delight over (you never want your little actors hungry but you also want them thrilled when they open their cloth lunch bags!).
Tomorrow, we're back to shooting. Mostly in "the Big City of Seattle." It will be a day that I anticipate will throw us some challenges because of what we can and cannot do in public spaces (such as talk/shout loudly or fire a giant Nerf gun). But we're a very tight team that functions without tension or hesitance. This is, after all, our second time through this ;)
Jennifer DiMarco
Director
Links of Importance:
Donate (An instant helping hand.)
http://www.ghostsniffers.com (scroll down, lefthand side)
KickStarter (Skip a latte and help fund the series.)
http://kck.st/sFWkbW
Final Cut of the Episode 1 Pilot (New music, new lines, recut scenes.)
http://youtu.be/TtlCFSt04Z8
Type 1 Diabetes PSA (Faith at her very best.)
http://youtu.be/Lv15NrqViV4
Episode 1 Trailer (Pure fun, a tiny teaser.)
http://youtu.be/np1tKpDniug
Today didn't actually involve any filming or working with actors. Rather today was an organizational day filled with tasks that can easily get forgotten when your team is focused on shooting a new episode.
Brianne spent her day creating the call sheets (actors, props, locations, time and locations) for the rest of the shoot. Cris gathered and organized Faith and Maxwell's school work (with a Masters in Teaching, she handles 90% of the kids' education). I finished the eco-cases for the script and DVD of Episode 1 and got them to the printer. Extra time was spent packing sack lunches that Faith and Maxwell will actually squeal in delight over (you never want your little actors hungry but you also want them thrilled when they open their cloth lunch bags!).
Tomorrow, we're back to shooting. Mostly in "the Big City of Seattle." It will be a day that I anticipate will throw us some challenges because of what we can and cannot do in public spaces (such as talk/shout loudly or fire a giant Nerf gun). But we're a very tight team that functions without tension or hesitance. This is, after all, our second time through this ;)
Jennifer DiMarco
Director
Links of Importance:
Donate (An instant helping hand.)
http://www.ghostsniffers.com (scroll down, lefthand side)
KickStarter (Skip a latte and help fund the series.)
http://kck.st/sFWkbW
Final Cut of the Episode 1 Pilot (New music, new lines, recut scenes.)
http://youtu.be/TtlCFSt04Z8
Type 1 Diabetes PSA (Faith at her very best.)
http://youtu.be/Lv15NrqViV4
Episode 1 Trailer (Pure fun, a tiny teaser.)
http://youtu.be/np1tKpDniug
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Episode 2 Shooting: Day 2
Today, the entire "core cast" for the episode was called -- Forge, the assistant and the client. In Episode 2, "Forge Goes Wild," Forge chooses Super Secret Agent Geneva Skully to assist her in the investigation of a haunted rock in the middle of a massive conservatory run by Dr. Angel Grace (Whew! What a run-on sentence!)
Faith Aoibhinn DiMarco (Forge), Cris K.A. DiMarco (Skully) and Brianne DiMarco (Dr. Grace) were through make up and wardrobe by 9:30am and we were out the door to Tacoma to hit our two locations before we lost the light (dark falls around 4:30pm right now). Maxwell Kier DiMarco (Maxo) was with us again today but this time he was looking forward to actually having a scene of his own -- though it wasn't as Maxo ;)
Of the 16 script pages (!!!) scheduled for today, all but two of them were dense, twisty dialogue packed with marks to hit, keywords that play into the episode in other scenes, and between-the-lines jokes for our more grown up viewers. The day required an enormous amount of focus for everyone, and with Brianne acting today, I played my own production manager for one scene... and that was one scene too many :) Everyone was floored with Cris' ability to fall in and out of character at the drop of an "Action!" and how convincing she was as a secret agent. The buttoned-down agent was an awesome foil for the hippie innocence that Brianne crafted for Dr. Grace; you'd never know that neither of them have ever really acted before.
It was certainly a day of extremes with the 80 degrees in the Tacoma Conservatory and the 45 degrees outside at the Native Plant Park! Faith, dressed as a bumble bee, looked so perfect for the two locales that strangers kept remarking how adorable she was.
At the end of the day, while Cris volunteered to take the kids homes and get them warmed up in front of the fire, bathed, and fed a huge pasta and herbs dinner, Brianne drove me to the local Goodwill. What was on the list? Knee pads. I will not sacrifice the angle I want for a shot but that means, without knee pads, I'm wearing through Levis at an alarming rate!
$1.99 later, I'm outfitted with black and neon green knee pads thanks to a hastily growing teenager who no longer needs them :) Our equipment budget for the episode is now gone. Of course, it was only $10 to begin with.
Our totals today:
2 locations
16 script pages
56 shots
118 takes
So our director's scorecard ratio for today is 2.1:1 marking our overall for our two days 1.63:1!
Jennifer DiMarco
Faith Aoibhinn DiMarco (Forge), Cris K.A. DiMarco (Skully) and Brianne DiMarco (Dr. Grace) were through make up and wardrobe by 9:30am and we were out the door to Tacoma to hit our two locations before we lost the light (dark falls around 4:30pm right now). Maxwell Kier DiMarco (Maxo) was with us again today but this time he was looking forward to actually having a scene of his own -- though it wasn't as Maxo ;)
Of the 16 script pages (!!!) scheduled for today, all but two of them were dense, twisty dialogue packed with marks to hit, keywords that play into the episode in other scenes, and between-the-lines jokes for our more grown up viewers. The day required an enormous amount of focus for everyone, and with Brianne acting today, I played my own production manager for one scene... and that was one scene too many :) Everyone was floored with Cris' ability to fall in and out of character at the drop of an "Action!" and how convincing she was as a secret agent. The buttoned-down agent was an awesome foil for the hippie innocence that Brianne crafted for Dr. Grace; you'd never know that neither of them have ever really acted before.
It was certainly a day of extremes with the 80 degrees in the Tacoma Conservatory and the 45 degrees outside at the Native Plant Park! Faith, dressed as a bumble bee, looked so perfect for the two locales that strangers kept remarking how adorable she was.
At the end of the day, while Cris volunteered to take the kids homes and get them warmed up in front of the fire, bathed, and fed a huge pasta and herbs dinner, Brianne drove me to the local Goodwill. What was on the list? Knee pads. I will not sacrifice the angle I want for a shot but that means, without knee pads, I'm wearing through Levis at an alarming rate!
$1.99 later, I'm outfitted with black and neon green knee pads thanks to a hastily growing teenager who no longer needs them :) Our equipment budget for the episode is now gone. Of course, it was only $10 to begin with.
Our totals today:
2 locations
16 script pages
56 shots
118 takes
So our director's scorecard ratio for today is 2.1:1 marking our overall for our two days 1.63:1!
Jennifer DiMarco
Friday, December 16, 2011
Episode 2 Shooting: Day 1
Today was our first day shooting Episode 2, "Forge Goes Wild." My production manager, Brianne DiMarco, works seven hour days prepping the props and script. She schedules what we shoot, in what order, and when. She organizes and packs all the props for that specific day and makes, alters or fixes any props as needed. It is a full-time job for which she volunteers.
Brianne was not my production manager for Episode 1, "Tom Tita, Come Home." I was my own production manager for Episode 1. How did I handle being the director, cinematographer, writer *and* the production manager for Episode 1? I just brought all the props with us to every location, every day. It took an hour to pack and unpack the weather-sensitive fifty pounds of props.
It should go without saying, I was more than willing to relinquish the position.
Today officially began at 1pm when we arrived at Banner Forest. There were ten locations in total today, in and around Port Orchard. The shots were fast and in public spaces and in front of local businesses. Not businesses supporting "Ghost Sniffers" but businesses that are known to be independently owned and operated. The focus today was efficiency and speed. With Brianne calling from the script and setting each shot, I was able to concentrate on directing Faith Aoibhinn DiMarco, my daughter, who plays the ever-serious Faith Forge. I could also set up and execute more complicated shots with more tracking and panning than I was able to wrap my mind around during Episode 1. The creative freedom of not trying to juggle the management was incredible.
One of the challenges we met today was that the town of Port Orchard was decked with Christmas fare and Episode 2 is not set at Christmas specifically. Shooting around the decorations was tricky but not impossible. The cold of the day was also an obstacle. Though we were blessed without rain, snow or wind, the air was brisk and more than two hours were spent on the waterfront itself at a remarkable play ground.
Some wonderful chance shots were a pan of the silver sky down into the inlet where a starfish was clinging to a rock, and a female seagull who decided to land a foot from us and pose for several minutes. Another rewarding moment was when Maxwell Kier DiMarco, my son, and the actor who plays Maxo Forge, discovered a fabulous momentum-powered play structure. Maxwell is autistic (as is Maxo) and it was incredible to film him playing on this sculpture that seemed to instantly relax and center him.
In the end, we reached all ten locations before we lost the light. We shot from 1pm to 5pm with about an hour of travel time. Divided across our ten locations were twenty-six shot captured in forty-four takes total. That puts my director's scorecard at 1.69:1. Pretty good ratio, I think, for Day 1.
Jennifer DiMarco
Brianne was not my production manager for Episode 1, "Tom Tita, Come Home." I was my own production manager for Episode 1. How did I handle being the director, cinematographer, writer *and* the production manager for Episode 1? I just brought all the props with us to every location, every day. It took an hour to pack and unpack the weather-sensitive fifty pounds of props.
It should go without saying, I was more than willing to relinquish the position.
Today officially began at 1pm when we arrived at Banner Forest. There were ten locations in total today, in and around Port Orchard. The shots were fast and in public spaces and in front of local businesses. Not businesses supporting "Ghost Sniffers" but businesses that are known to be independently owned and operated. The focus today was efficiency and speed. With Brianne calling from the script and setting each shot, I was able to concentrate on directing Faith Aoibhinn DiMarco, my daughter, who plays the ever-serious Faith Forge. I could also set up and execute more complicated shots with more tracking and panning than I was able to wrap my mind around during Episode 1. The creative freedom of not trying to juggle the management was incredible.
One of the challenges we met today was that the town of Port Orchard was decked with Christmas fare and Episode 2 is not set at Christmas specifically. Shooting around the decorations was tricky but not impossible. The cold of the day was also an obstacle. Though we were blessed without rain, snow or wind, the air was brisk and more than two hours were spent on the waterfront itself at a remarkable play ground.
Some wonderful chance shots were a pan of the silver sky down into the inlet where a starfish was clinging to a rock, and a female seagull who decided to land a foot from us and pose for several minutes. Another rewarding moment was when Maxwell Kier DiMarco, my son, and the actor who plays Maxo Forge, discovered a fabulous momentum-powered play structure. Maxwell is autistic (as is Maxo) and it was incredible to film him playing on this sculpture that seemed to instantly relax and center him.
In the end, we reached all ten locations before we lost the light. We shot from 1pm to 5pm with about an hour of travel time. Divided across our ten locations were twenty-six shot captured in forty-four takes total. That puts my director's scorecard at 1.69:1. Pretty good ratio, I think, for Day 1.
Jennifer DiMarco
Episode 2 Starts Shooting
"Ghost Sniffers" Episode 2, "Forge Goes Wild," begins to shoot throughout Port Orchard, Washington, today, December 16, 2012. The crew will be following Forge's long journey (by scooter, no less!) across the town, over the Narrows, and through the woods.
Dress warmly, cast and crew! And make sure to pack big sack lunches!
Not even winter can stop "Ghost Sniffers."
Dress warmly, cast and crew! And make sure to pack big sack lunches!
Not even winter can stop "Ghost Sniffers."
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