So…. We Made A Movie!

Season’s greetings to all of our friends and fans! We know this update is a little behind the holidays with Christmas day now past us, nonetheless, we hope you all had a wonderful December and that all of your holiday dreams came true!

To start with our headline, yes, we wrapped principal photography on our supernatural-thriller, “The Diner” (working title)! We wrapped in early July and since then, we’ve dived right into editing and have been scheduling reshoots along the way with occasional stops for family time, events, and, of course, San Diego Comic-Con 2018.

How Did It Turn Out?

The film has been shaping up in the edit with many of our practical effects looking phenomenal! We’re very thankful that our green screen sequences have been flawless as well which is important as they take up half the movie. We can see some areas that still require reshoots and pickups, mostly small technical things like a look or a missed take for a line or two and we plan to take a week out to film early in the new year. Our actors’ performances have been spot-on as well and we feel very blessed to have worked with such talented professionals that just clicked with us and the movie right away. The sound of the film has also been nice and clear which is a lifesaver as we were filming at a working restaurant in a well trafficked area with a good deal of car noise and, so far, not all that much ended up in the raw recordings.

The Unexpected

While we had hoped to have this update posted sooner than this, we faced an unfortunate series of events over the past couple months that has for the most part, literally stopped us in our tracks. In early October, our father woke up with severe back pain and had to have emergency surgery that left him partially paralyzed for the next several months. Then, the day after Halloween, our mother had to be put in the hospital after a cold turned into a severe case of pneumonia that the stress of which caused a stroke. Both parents now require constant care and help moving around in general so much of our schedule has, understandably, been put on hold. We are very thankful that both of our parents could be together with us for Christmas after being in the hospital and physical therapy stay up until last week. While it will take time, both of our parents will make full recoveries over the next several months in regards to mobility and overall strength. We want to thank everyone who sent prayers and well wishes during this unexpected and unfortunate time. We will of course have to factor these circumstances into our future plans so we ask that you understand if our next update takes a little longer to post as well.

What’s Next?

So, as stated already, we’re planning for another round of reshoots early in the new year and once we have those, we’ll be able to add our remaining prop inserts and stock footage elements to have a first cut of the film. From there we’ll tackle visual effects and sound design and begin looking at our music options for the film, including possibly hiring a composer. Once we have a final cut, we plan to do a small local premiere for our cast, crew, and family and friends to show what we’ve been working on all this time. Along the way we’ll also be looking at our festival and distribution options as well as putting together the movie’s website and premiering the true title of the film!

Our Next Project

Lastly, we wanted to mention that we have our next project planned to film, hopefully, next year. We’re keeping details short and under wraps for now but we have the story mapped out, we’re going to start writing the script next week, we’re currently planning to film in Stockton, California and Henderson, Nevada, and, it’s going to be a venture in comedy!

In Conclusion

We hope this update answers a few questions about where we’ve been and our lack of updates on the site and our social media. Despite everything, we are very excited about our first feature film and hope that the finished product lives up to expectations. It is a unique film made on a modest indie budget and, if it’s successful, we already have an idea for a slightly higher budget sequel! But, in the meantime, our comedy project is going to be our main focus while we still have all of our equipment and filmmaking senses at the ready. If this past year was a year for incredible progress, 2019 looks to be a year of adventure into the unknown. All in all, we hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this lengthy update and that you all have a wonderful New Year! As always, stay tuned for more!