Hot Days, Cool Pics
Sweet fancy Moses, it's hot! According to the weather forecast, it's "only" in the 90s, but the heat index has stayed well over the 100-degree mark for the past few days. The good news is we have all but one zombie shoot in the can, so we won't have to work with melting greasepaint too much longer. The bad news is we still have two major prosthetic shoots to go, and then a few nights of picking up scenes we weren't able to get to because of time constraints and rain delays.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.
Very, very dim light - but I can see the end, and a day when I once again have a clean car with no bodies in the back seat.
Now is when Thomas and I get to kick publicity into high gear. This week, I get to learn how to use the
fancy-schmancy professional digital camera to take reference photos for the poster artist, like this one here. This camera is way more advanced than my little point-and-shoot, and I have a hard enough time with that. Heck, I'm doing good not to have lost it, yet. My last one was stolen by a pirate while I was wearing it (but that's another story, featuring a very dedicated LARP-er), so the thought of using this monstrosity - with more buttons than any piece of plastic has any right to - terrifies me. If any of the pictures turn out, though, you'll be the first to know.
In case you're wondering, when this film is finished (hopefully, by year's end), it will be sent to any and all film festivals that we can possibly get it into. Should it be accepted by any, I'll be sure to post the locations on the Fighting Owl Films Facebook page. We'd love for you all to be able to see it and let us know what you think. This is a film for you guys, and we really hope you enjoy it.
Now, there's an elephant in the room, and I feel the need to address it. As you know, we're filming in Mobile, Alabama. That's about a 45-minute drive to the Gulf of Mexico, and our downtown area juts right up to Mobile Bay. The Gulf has already been affected by the oil spill, and the Bay is really only days away from contamination. This is not meant to be a social or political statement. I just wanted to let any concerned readers know that the movie has not been directly affected, yet. Some other groups in town have been, since the beaches have all been closed, and I won't even go into what it's doing for business, but so far, the only real challenge, film-wise, has been driving down my street to get to locations, since the BP executives are all meeting in the building across from my apartment (I kid you not), and their police escorts/bodyguards are kind of blocking the road just a bit. We also had a visit from the President a few Mondays back, but the motorcade didn't mess anything up.
I won't say we're OK, since this is a very scary time for the entire Gulf Coast area, but the movie is fine and we appreciate all the concern that people have shown for our city and the surrounding areas.
But hey, we're making a fun, escapist movie. Now might just be the time we need it most.
Next Week: More shambling shenanigans! Until then, you can follow Fighting Owl Films on Facebook (I just posted a ton of zombie pictures on there) or by going to the official movie site, www.thenightshiftmovie.com. You can keep up with the movie's progress on Twitter at @NightShiftMovie.