Nighty, Night Episode 5 Prop Shopping

Learning to write a script in the proper format that gives us a perfect 30-minute episode escaped me for Episode 2 (50 minutes) and Episode 3 (55 minutes), but I got it mastered with Episode 4 :) Limiting our prop needs to fit a no-prop-budget production (without limited quality or sight gags) has been even harder. But, once more, the goal of "better with every episode" has been reached.

As of this moment, we've secured all the props needed for Episode 5 -- all for under $50. And let me just share this one sneak peek: A giant sea monster is NOT cheap ;)

The only props remaining for the episode are eight standard size pillows. I've found them locally for just $2.50 each. Anyone know a better deal? Let me know! It's team shopping :)

Edit: Pillows purchased! All props secured.

Matching Funds Starts... Now!

For the next 24 hours, we have an incredible offer from one of our repeat supporters: Every donation made through the fundraising widget will be matched 100%! Donators will still receive the reward they choose for their original amount, but we'll be carried that much closer to our goal. Spread the word, sniffer friends :) Only donations made between 7am today (Monday) and 7am tomorrow (Tuesday) will be doubled. Have questions? Just email ghostsniffers@gmail.com

One Cause Helping Another

Black Wolf Paranormal is a Kitsap local ghost hunting and investigating organization that holds an annual fundraising event for the North Kitsap Fishline Food Bank. All the speakers volunteer their time and the event is open and free to the public for just a suggested donation of canned goods.

Come on out on April 14, to the Clear Creek Community Club in Silverdale, Washington, and guess who'll be speaking at 4:30? That's right -- Forge, Maxo and the crew :) Find out more at:

http://www.blackwolf-paranormal.com/haunting-for-hope.php

The Day Between

There is always a day between when we wrap or pause shooting an episode and when I start on a new script. Just *one* day, but that's often enough to recharge, refocus and slightly shift my view to include a new idea, new characters and new locations. Today is that day and I'm hustling around the house gathering props, altering props, trying to pay bills (insert chaotic laughter -- LOL!), and doing my best to play email catch up :) But I wanted to take a small pause to sip some coffee (yum, lunch) and say:

THANK YOU!

If you head over to the website (www.ghostsniffers.com) and click the "D" button on the fund raising widget on the left hand side of the page, you'll see why I'm so excited :)

Thank you so much Anthony, Bridget, and Roy for helping to keep "Ghost Sniffers" on the air (Err, on the web? On the disc? Just on!). I've learned (much to the worry of Erin Jennings who wrote the wonderful article about "Ghost Sniffers" and pretty much all the moms who asked about my schedule) to exist on four hours of sleep and to get seriously creative in home-schooling and in the kitchen in order to keep the show moving forward and to show my kiddos that dedication, hard work, and all-encompassing love for a cause can conquer any challenge. There's no whining here. And a math lesson that teaches fractions, ratios, and budgeting an episode simply cannot be a bad thing! As for that creativity in the kitchen? Well, it's amazing how far a bag of potatoes, eggs from Grandma's farm, and soynut butter can take a family. We're proud (and so blessed) to be one of the families keeping "work" part of "working class." *wide smile*

As little Forge would say, "For the sniff!"

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!

Episode 4 Shooting Day 3

Today we secured another ten pages of Forge, Maxo and Maximilian and Maxwell and Faith got to try something new -- spontaneous hugs! LOL! Neither of the kids have ever been real huggers; they would much rather very eloquently tell their grandma or their aunt why they're thrilled to see them than exchange embraces. Of course, they do put up with hugs but they have an unspoken agreement never to hug each other. Why? Probably because Faith doesn't want her hair messed up or the lace flower on her dress crushed, and Maxwell finds hugs difficult when mousing, drawing with a Sharpie or button-mashing in the old school N64.

Today involved shooting in the house from new and strange angles. Shooting longer, and longer single shot scenes with tons of volleying dialogue. And puppets. Yes, more puppet work today ;) Then we were off down the road to shoot on location at some picturesque spots that were so atmospherically sad that some stranger actually showed up and played Country music the whole time *sigh* We'll need to track down and purchase some soothing nature sounds to loop over the scene (which we've certainly had to do before).

Tomorrow? Our last day of shooting without the dancers. Wow. An entire episode shot in five days. Maybe we're becoming pros?

Episode 4 Shooting Day 2

Four pages? Not enough! Let's go for TEN! Today we shot in and around the house because of the threat of rain. Cris swore she spotted scattered rain showers... but I think she spotted them on the Weather Channel ;)

Today, Maxwell and Faith experienced a new approach to scenes as I strive to deliver new and better and different episodes. We tried longer exchanges in a single shot and also running scenes multiple times with different inflections to different lines. They loved it but I'm still undecided. I do enjoy the experience though.

The day was broken into nice parts by a break to give hair cuts to Cris and my mom, Carol, a producer and the actor who will play Captain Snakes in Episode 5. The next break came when Faith had to go to her dance class which really helps further deepen her attention span and discipline. Of course, we did continue to shoot scenes that Forge isn't in so I suppose that wasn't a full break :)

Funny, but you'd think I'd have learned by now that animals and puppets are had to work with... yet, I keep writing them into the scripts LOL! Tom Tita just wouldn't behave. I finally had to call in her mommy, Brianne, and then the scene came together quickly.

The yummy icy on this quite excellent cake of a day was when my fabulous little sister called and hinted that she just may have found us a wonderful theatre space that believes in our cause enough to allow us to shoot scenes for two episodes in their space for free -- wow! I think I will always think of these types of miracles as Debbie Effects, for Debbie at Sk8Town who was the first to really go out on a limb for us.