The Set of Our Added Scene- "Ashley Returns"

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to party as much as we deserved- as there were still four scenes to shoot! The first, an added scene for Chad and Fenix, was shot in the midst of the party. The guests not being used as extras got to sit down in front of the 55″ LCD and watch the scene unfold live.

Wrap Party Husband & Wife: Justin & Cindy (Jessica DiTomaso & Brannon Cross)

As the night progressed, we skipped to our main scheduled party sequence, which required all of our Party-goer-extras. Refreshing with a few beverages- we all moved to the outdoors to finish our last party scene in the parking lot of the main event.

Wrap Party: Hard Working Ladies of Project Zee (Grace, Christy & Nikki)

After reviewing the footage, I made a realization- drinking and making a movie don’t always mix as smoothly as  you think. With our judgement hindered and response rate diminished, we fell behind schedule very fast and when realizing the time, the crew decided to omit our final fourth scene (The Conclusion Scene) until we were better rested. Alas, with another two scenes left to shoot, our wrap party turned out to not be a wrap party, but just a really good party.

Wrap Party: The Real Reason We Went Behind Schedule

Stay tuned for information on our final shots.

-MK

We all got a chance to sleep-in and met up at noon for pictures. Sadly, another one of our members, Christy had a visit with the Walk-In Clinic and was diagnosed with Bronchitis. That didn’t stop her!

Kudos to Christy Stoddard- Assisting with Bronchitis!

Regardless, we ended up getting several great pictures of our actors. We also got a chance to shoot one of our most difficult setups.

Derrick Builds a Car Cast with Director

Oh yeah, how could I forget how we spent the rest of the evening:

Eon Sea Working Hard On Set: Theo Harris & Jay McGee

After three long days of shooting, we are officially behind 10 scenes and now have to leave the Jalopy parked in a car port of Frankie del Rosario’s house for a month. The next shooting days are scheduled for March 12th and March 13th.

We have a lot of work to do…

-MK

Preparing for a Scene: Chad Gall Shopping For His "Car."

After a long Friday night of shooting at USF, the Crew arrived on set by 6:30am to setup. Let’s just say that without coffee, we never would have gotten through the first scene.

By 8:30, we were ready to start shooting. Brannon Cross and Chad Gall tortured the hot sun through several takes but tragedy struck in the middle of shooting.

Due to the time it took to setup the set, our Car Crew had left our Jalopy sitting un-supervised in an overgrown nook of the neighborhood. After two hours of sitting there, someone had called the Tampa Police Department to inquire about the vehicle. By the time we had arrived back on the scene, there were three police vehicles surround the car to investigate. Another five minutes would have meant our Jalopy would have been impounded.

Apparently, the police had just recovered a separate vehicle two miles away from our shooting location that had been “stripped down and left on blocks.” The police had thought that this was just another vehicle that had undergone the same treatment. After about an hour of dealing with this, we finally got back to shooting (way over schedule).

Unfortunately, due to a sluggish start, the police-fiasco and several neighbors halting the production, we only got through 5 of the scheduled 8 scenes completed. With this harsh realization, the Project Zee crew took a vote and decided to reschedule our 3rd day of shooting. This decision, though difficult to make, was decided to preserve the quality of the movie. Now, our schedule would be shifted to allow our March 12th day for the re-shoots and the 13th would be used as our “catch-up” day.

Car Crew Setting Up for Day 2

Even with the disappointing news of the rescheduling, we still got some pretty impressive scenes completed. Sunday would now be used as PR day as we will be conducting a photo shoot for posters and press releases.

Stay tuned.

-MK

Day 1 of shooting is complete! We shot at an Ambulatory Op center on campus of USF. Derrick, played by Chad Gall and Emily, played by Amy Gray, were on set and did a phenomenal job.

Amy Gray & Chad Gall Readying for a Scene with Makeup, Christy Stoddard.

It was a long night and we went a bit over schedule (1.5 hours) but we got what we needed, and everything looked great.

Theo Harris Driving the Make-Shift Dolly for Scene 27.

First day of production: A Success.

-MK

First up: Lucas, Nikki & Christy worked out our Special Effects. With 5 special effects scenes planned on Friday and Saturday, those had to be completely ready in order to keep up the pace of our shooting schedule.

Christy, Lucas & Nikki working on Makeup/ Effects.

Nikki Demonstrating an Injury.

While the makeup was underway, a bomb was dropped on us: Frankie del Rosario, Project Zee’s Sound Technician, returned from the walk-in clinic with a 104-degree fever. This of course, made it impossible for Frankie to perform this weekend with the team. With this knowledge, Eddie Rivera, Project Zee’s Sound Mixer, had to re-design our audio workflow to allow easier manipulation of the boom while mixing.  Get better, Frankie.

Justin Working on the Glide Cam

At the same time, Justin Matchett spent his time on tweaking the Glide Cam for a perfect match with our Canon T2i. The Glide Cam, a very interesting and useful tool, can be a huge pain to tweak. Several hours were spent slightly adjusting the springs and adding weights to make sure the Glide Cam was 100% stable for our tracking shots.

After the Glide Cam and the Boom were ready, the ladies stayed in and worked on the wardrobe prep while the Car Crew conducted the last few setups for the Jalopy. This included: testing the cinder blocks, breaking a bit more trim, sanding down the rust (for a more natural look) and the removal of the driver’s-side door.

Car Crew Hard at Work

After a very long night, we all left with a feeling of accomplishment and the satisfaction with knowing that we are prepared for our first day of shooting.

Tomorrow’s the big day!

2 Layers of Rust on the Jalopy

After, we spent a good two more hours on finishing the remainder of our storyboards.

Storyboards with Stand-Ins: Frankie del Rosario & Christy Stoddard

That is one huge relief off of my shoulders, having all of the necessary storyboards. So now my agenda for the remainder of the night will be to focus on completing my shooting schedule and notes, which includes the integration of all storyboards.

There’s still so much to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in… Who knew making a movie would be this much work?

-MK

Meet "Gold Fish 1" (we are very creative with names)

And…judging by our last fish production, we thought we’d need a whole lot more than one fish to keep alive until the shoot.

Fish 1's Stand-ins: (From Left) Fish 2, Fish 3, Fish 4 & Paulie.

After our prop hunting and fish-wrangling, we did find time to go show our support to 3GK’s Mavel Vs. Capcom 3 Release Party at Hyde Park Cafe. Hosted by Zee’s own Frankie del Rosario.

Pictured with 3GK Admins, Frankie del Rosario and Daniel Scott.

That many video game geeks in the dark was a bit creepy, but a good time was had by all.

-MK

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love my fiancée very much!

-MK

1) Prop & Wardrobe Shopping

2) Sound Check.

Props ended up being easy to find. There’re still a few things left to locate, but that’s why they invented Amazon. The wardrobe was a bit of a pain, as our shoot schedule is spread out so far apart, I’m afraid I’ll change my mind before March 12th.

For the sound check, Christy and I hauled all of our new sound gear to Brandon to meet up with lead Sound Technician, Eddie Rivera as well as Set Manager, Nikki Cooper. The equipment seemed to work out perfectly, with a lot of great improvements I think we’ll be benefiting from. We tested out our new Digital Recorder, the Tascam HD-P2 (from our upgrade of the DA-P1), our new sound mixer and our new Shotgun microphone with blimp.

The one snag: Our boompole’s set screw snapped off! Very sad. Well, off to Lowe’s to figure out if they have a matching replica. After a long night’s sleep, of course.

-MK

Lucas Price, Christy Stoddard and I have been working all day on preparing our nice 2001 VW Passat into the POS that is the Jalopy! Removing exterior panels & lights. Tossing interior trim and the dashboard. Applying our rust solution to the car body. Painting over the original paint with a chalkboard primer. We had our work cut out for us.

At the end of the day, after going through several beers- now we just have to wait for the rust to grow…

The Jalopy- Undergoing Makeup

Christy Stoddard Painting

Lucas Price & Michael Kraus Declaring Victory