Updates, Real Dates, Teasers and Promises!

So - For everyone out there who's following us I think it's time for a little update. I have the privilege, and curse, of doing a lot of jobs on 'Willa' myself. I am learning a lot but also have to work hard to make sure our wonderful film doesn't just sit around while I do one small thing after another. That's sort of why I am doing a lot of things at once and slowly gathering everything. Sound editing on the film is almost done, I am now working with a couple of great composers who, like so many others, have loved the story so much that they actually will make original music for the film. I would have settled for tracks that were sitting around but I'll certainly take an original score any day!
Also, a fabulous designer is working on a poster for the film and I am very excited to show you some of the ideas for that very soon.
'Willa' has also already been submitted to its first festival. I'm not telling you which one just yet. I think it's more fun if they actually invite us. Though the plan always have been to wait until the film was 100 percent done I just couldn't wait with this one.
Sound design is also coming together slowly. And it's amazing to see - and hear - how things come so much more to life and how the entire mood and feel of a scene changes with the sound. I've definitely found a new respect for sound designers out there and how even little sounds can change a lot.
The biggest task at hand is the color correction and the visual effects. I have a deadline for this - February 15th these must be done! There! I wrote it here! This means that I now have to make that deadline. Very exciting.
And speaking of dates. March 1st 'Willa' will be done! All editing, designing, correcting etc will be finished by then. I am hoping to have the first screening even before that date. I did announce on Facebook that a screening date would be revealed soon but a venue has been harder for me to locate than I thought so I'm afraid I'll have to keep people hanging a bit on that one

First Clips From 'Willa'

So - the first clip from 'Willa' was released a few weeks ago and the response has been very positive. We now have about 50% of the picture locked and soon the challenge of sound, sound design, sound effects, visual effects and music will come. We have already been working on all areas since filming first started so many things are moving along quite nicely. As mentioned earlier we have the amazing CLINTON/JOHNSON band attached for a couple of songs and also DAVID HELPLING, a new age/electronic artist we contacted at the very beginning of the whole process to ask for permission to use one piece of music in particular. Which one, you'll have to wait and see (or hear). In the meantime, if you haven't already seen it, here is the first clip from the film:

What's Going On?

What's going on?

Maybe you're asking this when you look at our trailers, websites, dates and updates/news everywhere.

Well, what I can tell you is that we are still in post production. A part of the making of the film that can take a long time, and sometimes a VERY long time.

For us, it doesn't look like the post production will last that long. As much as I want a version of the film ready to show you as fast as possible I naturally will not settle for anything less than a wonderful film. It is all moving along very nicely and though the editing of the footage itself is happening fast, sound, effects, adjustments and correction of colors and other things takes more work. But this is a great time for me, where every shot we have is seen over and over again and I get closer to this film than I have ever been. Though I have now not seen the dear actors in over a month I feel I am with them all the time. It's quite wonderful and I am cherishing this part of the production just as much as I expected.

I have been proclaiming that we will release the first clip online when we have 150 'fans' of Willa on Facebook. That still stands so I certainly hope we will get all the 'likes' we need very soon.

In the meantime, more little teasers and promos just might be released and who knows, maybe there will soon be some more surprises installed for everyone.

Trailers

Seems like we actually forgot to put the 2 teaser trailers and the first promo on here. What a disgrace - so here they all are for everyone to enjoy!

Filters on 'Willa'

As you may or may not know we have used 'Day For Night' effects on the moviel. Here is a little video nicely illustrating that. The camera kept rolling while DP Nathaniel Kramer and 1st AC Lewis Smithingham was adjusting lenses and filters.

The Beginning (and creation) of WILLA - Part 2

Finding a cast was a wonderful thing. If I wasn't already sure this was going to be an amazing project I certainly knew it now. Within a few weeks after casting I had found almost all the actors. A few came later through video auditions and then we were all set.
  Very early on I set some dates. A date for the first day of shooting, readings of the screenplay and most importantly - the completion of the screenplay of course.
  The original date for the first day of filming did end up being moved a bit but not much - and only because it was things that were out of anyone's hands. So all in all I was very happy with that.
  Now though finding a cast took time, effort, auditions, looking through hours and hours of videos etc it sort of was the easy part. Now I just needed to find EVERYTHING and EVERYONE else!
  If you want something done you have to do it yourself! My parents always told me that and it's true. However - doing a project like this presented an interesting challenge for me: How much was I actually going to be able to do myself and how much did I have to put in the hands of others, weather I liked it or not?
  Well, things seemed to solve themselves before I even started to worry about them.
  While mailing around, 'shopping' for a DP I put an ad on good old Craigslist. Like you do - just for fun in a sense, because you never really expect much from that place and yet I'm sure many of us, looking back on what we have done, are astonished at how many valuable and important things, people and projects have come out of that place.
  I was contacted by what ended up being my DP, Nathaniel Kramer. Obviously not just by him, I got a lot of interesting responses to say the least. Once again, some were telling me just how much I was never going to able to do with my project and others had expectations that would have given me a lot of sleepless nights.
  As I mentioned earlier, I have been pretty honest, sometimes too honest, about my skills and my experience with filmmaking. I knew I wanted to make this film - and that's pretty much all I knew. Risky business going out there when you don't know any technical terms, have no idea what a RED camera does etc etc.
  Anyway, back to my DP - short for Director of Photography in case anyone out there know even less than I did.... I think I did know that one though but that's about the extend of my abbreviation knowledge in the film industry when I ventured into this.
  I met with him at his office, I had sent him the script and he seemed to like it a lot. And though I had been thinking about locations and looking around for suitable places to shoot this film, before I knew it we were on Google Earth, going along the train tracks in the Hamptons - an area he knew well - finding out what places close to tracks might be worth contacting to film some, or all of the film.
  When I left his office my brain, body and soul was buzzing with ideas, inspiration and visions. It was quite amazing.
  After what seemed to be just a few days I walked all over Southampton, looking for places along the tracks and checking out the places we had been looking at on Google.

The Beginning (and creation) of WILLA - Part I

When you have to do something you have to do something! I had to do 'Willa' - I knew that from the moment I read Stephen King's short story. As cliche and ridiculous as it may sound I really felt like the story chose me and not really the other way. I actually had no idea if anyone had ever done this story before and though that probably wouldn't have stopped me I certainly was very happy to discover that whatever I created would be the first time anyone had ever made a serious attempt to make it into a movie.
  Now there are probably a lot of ways to prepare when you want to do a movie. But which one is the right way? It seems that anyone who feel they have anything to say about it has the 'right' way and are happy to tell you that this is how you do it. I also ran into a lot of people who certainly told me all the things I couldn't do. A lot of 'don't', 'not', 'can't', and 'what makes you think' were said by some of the people I met. Others were more supportive and had more constructive ideas.
  In a way I think I did the very right thing (for me) when I made the decision that this movie was going to happen regardless of budget and size etc. I think that in a way propelled me forward with the belief that if worse came to worst I could always just dig up someone with a sort-of-good camera and shoot the thing over a long period of time so it wouldn't interfere with anyone's jobs etc.
  This is probably already where some of you reading this would pull out your hairs. That's certainly not the way to do a film! Isn't it? Why not? I really think that if you look at what you have and start from the point you know you can actually accomplish you can always work your way up. And if nothing it will be an experience and something that will prepare you for other things to come. Some people I spoke to talked a lot about 'wasting other people's time'. If you do something that you feel passionate about and that attracts others - as long as you're honest about your intentions I really don't see how you are wasting any time. You're learning, you're growing and you get to know some people who believe in it like you do. And then it's already a success! Because what does that really mean in this kind of industry? Are you only a success with a film if you make millions of dollars, get a sequel etc etc? Of course those things are signs of success but, once again, since this was my first project I really felt it was more important to make it a success in the sense that people involved would feel good about it, I would feel good about it and we would know we had accomplished something, learned something and found some new connections.
  So where do you start? I started with the casting! Was that right or wrong? I don't know - but I was sure that once I found my cast I would know if they were the perfect candidates for the roles. I hadn't even begun the screenplay yet when I did the auditions but I very quickly did after!
  What a pleasure the auditions were! What an amazing experience seeing people come in and spend a few minutes showing us their personalities and talent. Within a couple of weeks I had the perfect people for all the roles and, thanks to the auditions, I even added new characters to the story. That made me even more excited! That the auditions helped write the screenplay.
  Then I wrote! I was in contact with the actors, met up with them, had lots of coffees and wonderful conversation. Once again, the actors were excited as I was and eager to tell me about their characters and how they saw them. Once again this all helped me in the writing and before I knew it we started attracting the people behind the camera.