Cara Jean Wahlers to The Rescue

Posted by Storme

Cara Jean Wahler's and Guitar

Music is such a big part of a movie. For our favorite films, a few bars of a theme song is all it takes to conjure up fond memories. And so, when making a film of your own, choosing the right music is a huge deal. Add to that the limitations of a micro-budget and we were more than a little concerned when it came time to find the music for Paradise Recovered.

One day when I was deep in it. Surfing the web for music. Listening to song after song. Trying to figure out how, when and where we were going to get great music at a price we could afford. I got an email from Writer/Producer Andie Redwine. It was a link to an unassuming website featuring the music of Cara Jean Wahlers. Andie said that Cara was an old friend. Wanted to know what I thought of her music. I clicked on one of the songs. Guitar, Cello and a beautiful voice. Rootsy and singer songwritery in the best of all possible ways. It was perfect.

I’m so glad to have met Cara and Grover (Grover Parido is the cellist that composes and plays with Cara). I’m so thrilled to have their music in Paradise Recovered. And I’m so excited to be headed to Indianapolis this weekend for the CD release party for their new album, “Goodnight Charlotte.” I can’t wait for people to see our film and hear the tunes that help to make it as good as it is.

In the mean time, check out this cool article about Cara in Indy’s NUVO magazine: http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/cara-jean-wahlers-out-of-the-background/Content?oid=1481198

High Speed Storytelling, The Google Chrome Speed Tests

Posted by Storme

I love super high speed, slo-mo photography. But, for the most part, the really, really slow motion stuff seemed to me to be reserved for scientific and novelty projects. I mean, how can slowing something down enough to see a hummingbirds wings in flight be used to tell a good story? Enter the Google Chrome Speed Tests.

With slow motion, the faster a camera shoots, the slower the motion when the film or video is played back at normal frame rates. For example, if you shoot something at 60 frames a second and then play it on your tv or computer at 30 frames a second, you’ve slowed it by half. For this spot, they used the Phantom v640 High Speed Digital Camera. The v640 can shoot up to 2700 frames per second at full 1920×1080 HD and up to 5,850 fps at 1280×720 HD. Silly high speed. Do the math on playing something shot at 5,850 fps at 30 frames per second. That’s sslllllooooowwwwwww.

Check out what Google put together to demonstrate the speed of their Chrome browser. This is highly creative, highly entertaining, great storytelling done with high speed photography. First up is the spot and second up is the making of video:

Making of:

Paradise Recovered Trailer

Posted by Storme

The Paradise Recovered website and trailer are scheduled to launch in about 45 minutes. We’ve also created a YouTube channel for the film, where we’ll post scenes, trailers and making of videos. I’m really excited about the trailer and about the progress we’re making on the film. So I thought I would go ahead and leak the trailer here, you know, for the three people who might accidentally stop by in the next hour :).

Paradise Recovered, It’s Not that Kind of Movie

Posted by Storme

When we started Pre Production on Paradise Recovered, I hadn’t heard of the new en vogue term to describe films made with virtually no money, Micro-Budget. At the time, I was calling it a no-budget film. Truth is, it has a small budget. If my math skills don’t fail me, the budget for Paradise Recovered is about two tenths of one percent of the budget for Avatar. Or, as one friend so eloquently put it, most films have more money allotted for cocaine and hookers than we had for our entire film. But we got to shoot a film and that’s awesome. It’s just not that kind of movie.

We didn’t have much in the way of Craft Services, Transportation or Catering. We didn’t even have much in the way of Boom Operators, Grips or PAs. We had a small crew. The DP was often his own Gaffer and always his own Focus Puller. The AC was also a Grip as well as the Data Wrangler for the Red Camera. The Location Sound Mixer was also the Boom Operator. The Producer and Director also taped windows. Everyone pitched in. And it was fun. And we got great stuff. And hopefully, in the end, we’ll have a great film. One that everyone who worked so hard on it, few as we may have been, can be proud of.

So what kind of film is it? It’s a film with a lot of heart. Made with love. Made because it was a story that needed to be told. And these days, thanks to advances in the ways and means of filmmaking, you don’t need a lot of money to make that kind of a movie.