The Changeling Production Diary

The Changeling -- One Year Later

2008-05-14T10:19:00.009-04:00

Today is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the opening of The Changeling at the Pioneer Theater in NYC. It's been a busy year and I'd like to take this opportunity to let people know what we've been up to since then.

The Changeling continues to get some attention, mostly from the UK, where, luckily for me, the play is required reading in high school. We've also had some screenings at colleges across the US, most recently at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

I'm sure we'll get even more attention over the coming months because Clint Eastwood is releasing a movie starring Angelina Jolie called, you guessed it, The Changeling! (no relation to the Middleton and Rowley play or to my movie)

I've directed several shorts over the last year. One short, The Ring of Ultimate Power, which I made with many members of of the Changeling team, screened at the Dragon*Con Film Festival in Atlanta, where it was a finalist in the parody category. This fall I was hired to direct a pilot for an AMC webseries. I was also offered a job directing a $500,000 horror movie last summer, but unfortunately the project lost a major funder at the last minute and it didn't happen.

But mostly I've been producing. The (albeit limited) success of The Changeling, which was produced with such a small budget, has put me somewhat in demand as a producer.

Here are some of the projects I've been involved with:

Julie and the Clown, a short I produced, has played in several festivals, including the market at the Cannes Film Festival, and has recently acquired distribution.

I also served as Post-production Supervisor and Associate Producer on Elise Kermani's feature Jocasta, which is making the festival circuit and will be having its New York premiere at New Filmmakers this fall. Elise is an amazing artist and I'm very happy to announce that she has asked me to come on board as dramaturge/director on her next feature about the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe, which will be shooting in 2009-10.

And right now I'm very excited to be producing Roboto Supremo, a sci-fi comedy short written and directed by Changeling producer Victor Varnado which shoots next month. Like Julie and the Clown, Jocasta, and The Ring of Ultimate Power, this film is being shot by Changeling cinematographer Alan McIntrye Smith.

Also, I'm still producing First Sundays, the monthly short comedy film festival I started with Victor Varnado and Paul Zuckerman back in 2002. We celebrated our 6-year anniversary last month with a special retrospective of some of our favorite films we've shown.

News about other members of our team (selected-- it would take up way too much space to list all of everyone's achievements):

Producer MJ Sullivan is now a Doctor after successfully defending her dissertation.

Director of Photography Alan McIntyre Smith has been busy shooting more and more features with larger and larger budgets. I've had the privilege to work with Alan on The Ring of Ultimate Power, Julie and the Clown, Jocasta, and Roboto Supremo, among other projects. I'm very proud that The Changeling was his first feature as DP!

Our cast has been busy as well. Clyde Baldo was in one of the final episodes of The Sopranos. Wendy Herlich has been busy writing and is working on a new play. And many of the other cast members have been seen over the past year in commercials and indie films.

Sound Designer Greg Sextro has been busy working on animated films for Bill Plympton, Nina Paley, and others, having THREE films he worked on this year just play at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

I am so happy that I have continued to work with many of the Changeling cast and crew over the past year and look forward to future projects with them. We're developing a new feature project and I'll post information about that soon.

So one year on, the struggle to create real independent film continues. I thank you all for your continued support and will let you know as things develop.

Festival Wrap Up

2007-10-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

It is official-- as of today, "The Changeling" has been rejected from EVERY festival we applied to. That's a total of 90 festivals on five continents!

I have to say, this feels like a kind of honor. I don't know anyone who has been rejected from this many festivals.

What removes the sting is the fact that we got a nice NYC run of the movie and a review in the New York Times and Variety, which I would never have gotten out of a showing at a festival. So there.

In other festival news, a short I made this year played at the Dragon*Con film fest last month. That was lots of fun.

Onwards and upwards! My new feature, a ghost story set in an archive, tentatively titled "Archive Fever" is scheduled to shoot in 2008. Watch this space for info on that project as it develops.

How to Make a Feature for $25,000

2007-05-30T08:49:00.001-04:00

On Thursday, May 24, following the Changeling screening at the Pioneer, I gave a brief lecture on how we made the film with such little money. People seemed to enjoy it, so here it is for you, broken into 3 convenient parts:

The Changeling run, notes so far

2007-05-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

We're a week into the run at the Pioneer. I wasn't planning at being at all of the screenings, but so far I've dropped in at least before or after each of them. Response has been really positive, and people who may have seen the DVD are impressed seeing it on the big screen, most especially because you can't experience the audio on DVD like you can in a theater. And the projection is quite good at the theater. I shocked a few people (including one very experienced producer) when I told them we shot it on MiniDV.

What I am enjoying the most is hearing audience members comment on things I didn't think about. One person said that a certain exterior transition shot was the central shot of the movie because it captured the dark/light contrast in the story, and also highlighted how most of the actors' faces are in half light and half dark. I never really thought about that shot, nor did I really think about the light/dark contrast in such explicit terms, but of course that audience memeber was right.

I'm also enjoying how many people who don't know anything about this play or Middleton are able to completely understand what's going on. I had many people tell me how clear the dialogue is to them. I really enjoy hearing that. It's a credit to our wonderful cast (and Middleton and Rowley of course) that this archaic language is so fresh and clear.

We had a few staged readings of murder scenes from other plays from the same time period following a few screenings. Those were a lot of fun to do and the audience seemed to enjoy them as well. Tonight I'm giving a short presentation on how we pulled off the movie with so little money and with such a short shooting schedule. Those of you who have already been reading this production diary already know much of the story.

I'll post again once the run is over next week.

The Changeling reviewed in Variety!

2007-05-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well THIS was unexpected: a review in Variety!

Variety, as you all know, is THE industry paper. Our little opening of our little film noticed by the Times and Variety? I couldn't hope for anything better.

To read the review, click here!

The Changeling Cast on the Screen and Radio Waves

2007-05-17T11:37:00.000-04:00

In conjunction with our run in NYC, our friends at Radio Drama Revival are airing the Quicksliver Radio Theater's production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," available for podcast at www.radiodramarevival.com!

This production stars many of the cast of "The Changeling," and was adapted and directed by yours truly.

And for those of you who pay attention to credits-- the Quicksilver Radio Theater is credited with the fantastic foley work on "The Changeling."

So tune in, or pod up, or whatever it is one does with podcasts!

The New York Times review

2007-05-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

We made today's NY Times!

The review is OK, but what's most important is that we bagged this review. A review in the Times, for what it's worth, is probably the biggest movie review you can get in NYC.

You can read the review by clicking here.

Our First Review!

2007-05-15T15:30:00.000-04:00

Our first review was posted today. And it's really good. It's for "Slant" magazine.

To read it, click here!

I have to say, I am so happy that he "got" the movie and had such nice things to say about the performances, which are really great.

The Changeling in the NY Times!

2007-05-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

Our opening was listed in the Summer Movie Preview section of Sunday's NY Times. It's official: we're competing with Spider-Man 3. Here's the listing:

May 16
THE CHANGELING The director Jay Stern has designed his indie adaptation of the Jacobean revenge play by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley as “period-piece pulp fiction.”

(you can also see it with the other summer movies on the NY Times website here.)

We're the only movie listed to open on that date. I don't know where the Pulp Fiction quote comes from, but my guess is that it's from the Pioneer Theater's press release.

THE CHANGELING WORLD PREMIERE SET FOR MAY 16!

2007-04-08T10:50:00.000-04:00

Big news everybody-- the Pioneer Theater in NYC has offered to do a run of The Changeling from May 16-26!

You can find showtimes and information about the run here:
http://twoboots.com/pioneer/changeling.html

The Pioneer is a nice 99-seat theater in the East Village which shows a wide variety of new and old films from around the world. The Pioneer gets a fair amount of press for their films, and usually gets reviews from the New York Times, Time Out, the Village Voice, etc.

As some of you may remember, we had a private screening of The Changeling for cast, crew, and funders back in January, 2006. Ray Privett, the programmer there, saw that screening and was quite taken by the film and was waiting for me to get done with the festival circuit before asking the question.

So a few months ago, Ray asked how things were going with the film. He was shocked to hear we had not gotten into a single festival (he attends a lot of festivals to scout films and sees many movies he considers much worse than The Changeling) and told me he would LOVE to show it at his theater.

This run is a great vindication for us, since most filmmakers go to festivals for the sole purpose of getting their film released. And we achieved this without going the festival route. So there!

We're all very excited about this and can use everyone's help in spreading the word. I've said before that I have no idea if anyone reads this blog, but if you DO-- tell your friends about the run!

Festival Update

2007-02-02T17:57:00.000-05:00

As of February 2, 2007, these are the festivals which have rejected "The Changeling":

New Directors, New Films
Cannes
Mill Valley
Telluride
Locarno
Hamptons
Vancouver
Raindance
Venice
Woodstock
Athens
Dubrovnik
Cucalorous
AFI Fest
Starz Denver
Chicago
Williamstown
Northhampton
Barcelona
Pusan
Mannheim
Anchorage
Flanders
Sao Paulo
Madrid-Mostoles
Boulder
Brussels
Tallinn
Thessaloniki
Omaha
Sundance
Slamdance
Rome
South by Southwest
San Francisco Independent
Miami
Rotterdam
Washington DC Independent
Victoria
Syracuse
Beverly Hills
Bradford
Hof
Goteborg
Sedona
Cinequest

46 down, 36 left to go!

Unwanted by Festivals Around the World!

2006-10-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

Well, still nothing but rejections from film festivals. We applied to nearly 60 festivals and have so far been rejected by nearly 30 of them. We've been rejected from big festivals, little festivals, industry festivals, and so-called "indie" festivals on four continents.

I didn't expect it to be easy, but I expected to get into SOME kind of festival.

There are still many more to hear from. So we'll see.

Rejections Continue!

2006-07-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

Our latest rejections come courtesy of three European festivals, two of them powerhouses: Locarno, Venice, and Flanders. The headline film at Locarno this year, which has a reputation of being more filmmaker-friendly with a wider range of smaller films than other large European festivals, is "Miami Vice." And the selections at the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival which shows "indie" films by young filmmakers include new movies by Ethan Hawke and Spike Lee. So it's hard to believe how "The Changeling" could stand a chance there.

We still have some big long-shot festivals to hear from: The Hamptons, Sundance, Slamdance, and Raindance (all the dances), plus Vancouver and Rotterdam.

In other news, we recently received additional funding from a group of 28 funders in LA, organized by Marina Zusman, our new West Coast producer! This funding will allow me to submit the film to many more festivals.

The festival experience so far (or non-experience as it has been) has been both depressing and enlightening. I've commiserated with all kinds of filmmakers from many different countries about similar troubles getting into festivals. What is inspiring is that there a lot of amazing filmmakers out there who are finding nontraditional homes for their work. Some of them are even banding together and forming their own festivals, production companies, and distribution channels. I've been talking to people about doing this kind of thing. If anything comes of it, imaginary readers, you'll be the first to know!

For now, check out this link:
www.intruso.org

Festivals, Festivals, and More Festivals

2006-07-15T16:46:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've written anything here and that's due to the fact that I've been playing the festival waiting game. I've been waiting to hear back from festivals I applied to which require that the film has not been previously been screened at other festivals in the same region.

I've heard back from most of those festivals and I've been rejected from all of them (at least the ones I've heard from), so I've started widening the net. I've applied to about 30 festivals by this point and have another whopping 150 festivals I am considering applying to. It all takes time and money, so I'm trying to stagger the process.

I've been told by more than one person that The Changeling is at least as good, if not better, than a lot of what's out there at festivals, but so far festival programmers don't seem to think so. A lot of it is that the film doesn't fit into any simple categories. And it's certainly not trendy and has no name actors or flashy set pieces. And I don't have any high powered (or even low powered) agent out there trying to sell it for me. That said, I hope to get some bites from this next round. I'll report more as soon as I get any news.

Changeling Review on Microfilmmaker.com

2006-05-15T08:03:00.000-04:00

We got a review on Microfilmmaker.com.

Microfilmmaker is a monthly web magazine which reviews low budget filmmaking equipment, software, books about filmmaking, and super low budget shorts and features ($1 to $30,000).

I sent a DVD to them to get a review which might contribute to some "buzz" for the movie.

The review is OK. You can read it here.

The problem is not so much that this is a technical review (that's after all, the mission of the site), but that the reviewer doesn't really seem like she knows what she's talking about. She complements the gaffing (which means the lighting, done wonderfully on our film by Darren Froehlich) but doesn't credit the cinematographer, who, after all, oversaw and planned all of the lighting. Also, her comments about sound indicate that she didn't realize that she just needed to turn her TV up to a certain level for the audio to work (the low audio she mentions either comes from her TV set or is due to the DVD compression -- the sound of the movie is at broadcast standard). And she didn't seem to understand that our handheld camera work was supposed to look, well, handheld, not like a steadicam. Her comment about music is also more of an opinion than a critique.

That said, overall she's complimentary and I am mostly happy that she was able to follow the complicated plot and archaic language without a hitch.

Incidentally, we got a better review than the other feature Microfilmmaker reviewed this month, and that movie played at Cannes, which rejected The Changeling.

Festival Update - Rejection from Cannes

2006-03-31T14:57:00.000-05:00

I received a rejection email from the Cannes Film Festival today. Cannes was a super long shot but I would have been upset with myself if I didn't at least try.

By the way, rejections are quite pleasant in French.

I've applied to several big festivals so far. Many may not accept this kind of project (super low budget, no names, no connections etc.), but it's better to try than not to try. I've applied so far to the Mill Valley Festival (Northern California), the Hamptons Film Festival, Raindance (in London), Locarno (in Switzerland), Venice, and Vancouver. I'm also going to submit to Telluride.

These are the big ones which I'll try first. I should hear back from all of them by the end of the summer.

I'm also looking into film markets, where distributors, festival programmers, and sales agents come to see films. I was hoping to apply to the IFP Market in NYC, but they're inexplicably no longer accepting feature films, just screenplays, shorts, and documentaries.

I'll post again when I hear back from any more festivals.

Rejected!

2006-03-06T14:48:00.000-05:00

The Changeling was rejected from its first festival last week.

I had rushed to finish the film in time to qualify for New Directors / New Films, a festival here in NYC which is run by the Musuem of Modern Art and Lincoln Center.

The festival was a long shot; they only choose a few films and most of them are made outside of the U.S. And all of them have budgets, which while small, are huge compared to mine.

I found out that I didn't get in when I saw a full page ad in the New York Times on Friday listing the lineup for the festival, which does not include The Changeling.

New Directors said it would let each person who submitted to the festival know if their films were accepted or not. I expected a letter, not a full page ad in the Times (how did they know I'm a subscriber)?

Well now I feel like a real filmmaker! I'm in the fray now, dealing with rejection.

I've submitted to two other festivals so far. I have a good inside contact at one of them so hopefully that will help. This is all very much new to me. Figuring out the festival circuit is a lot more perplexing than figuring out how to make a movie. But I'm going to keep at it. Now that I have this movie, I really have to do everything I can to make sure it's seen.

Photos from Screening

2006-03-02T15:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from our screening at the Pioneer Theater on January 28th. The pictures were taken by Nadya Gurevich, our Production Designer, except of course the pictures she is in. I don't know who took those. But whoever it was used Nadya's camera.

Nadya Gurevich (production designer), Alan Smith (director of photography) and me

Nadya, Mickey Ryan (Tomazo), and Ramona Floyd (one of our producers)

Wendy Herlich (Beatrice) and Nadya

Clyde Baldo (De Flores) and Chris Brady (Alsemero)

THE CHANGELING IS COMPLETED!

2006-01-31T10:09:00.000-05:00

I haven't been able to publish for a while because I have had difficulties with the blogger site but now I've figured everything out.

We finished The Changeling on January 22nd and had our first screenings for cast and crew on the 27th. The screenings went really well, which was a huge relief for me, since I've completely lost perspective by now.

So now begins the slow process of applying for festivals. Most of the deadlines don't start rolling in for a month or two so it might be a while before I have any news to report. If any of you want to see the movie in the meantime, for a $20 contribution to the project I will mail you a DVD. For more information, check out our fundraising page or contact me jaystern@jaystern.com.

Finishing Up

2006-01-06T08:17:00.000-05:00

We're in the final stages of work now. We have one more mix of the audio to go and are dealing with video export issues now - compression, DVD authoring, etc. It's very exciting to think it will soon be done, but also somewhat strange. I'm been working on this film pretty intensively over the past 17 months and I'll feel a little lonely when it's done. I'll have to get started on another project really soon. As a matter of fact, I'm applying for a research grant next week to get another project underway.

I'm also entering The Changeling into the New Directors, New Films festival run by the Museum of Modern Art and the Lincoln Center Film Society. It's pretty prestigious and is a long shot, but it's always best to aim high.

Color Correction and Final Audio

2005-12-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

I have been working with Joel Spitalnik on color correction. Color correction is the stage of the filmmaking process where you look at every shot in the final movie and adjust levels of light and dark, as well as manipulate the colors to get the exact look you're working for. Because Alan and his lighting team were so amazing, there's very little color correcting that we have to do. But we're doing things that really take the images to the next level. Joel's small adjustments to color and light have made the intimate scenes more intimate, the creepy scenes more creepy.

We're also nearing the end of the sound process. Greg, the sound designer, has placed almost all the sound effects. It's been a big effort to make every sound (we had a three hour recording session to get the perfect stabbing sound for one scene in the movie, for example) but it's really paying off. We hope to start mixing the levels of the audio next week, which will be the final stage of post production.

We're so close to finishing. I'm really looking forward to this process being done, although I'm sure I'll go crazy with boredom once it is. That's why I'm already starting working on ideas for the next movie!

Music Recording and Sound Effects

2005-11-20T08:31:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been difficult. We've been working late hours to get all the sound effects recorded for the movie. Every time a charcter moves, we need an appropriate sounding clothes rustle (right sound for the material, appropriate speed and type of movement), and of course there are footsteps, floor creaks, and more exciting sound effects like stabbing. Yesterday we brought the actors into the studio and spent most of the day recording just breaths.

Why do all this, you may ask? Why not use pre-recorded sound effects from a CD somewhere? Although it's a huge amount of work for us to record every effect just right and then for Greg (the sound designer) to edit the sounds, equalize and place them properly, the result is that we have complete control over the soundscape of the film. And this will hopefully overall help the movie in hundred of subtle ways.

In other news, we recorded the music for the movie on Friday at Threshold Music. Zach Abramsom, the composer, brought in three great musicians (David Friend on piano, Jody Redage on cello, and Kevin Sims on percussion). The score turned out wonderfully - it was as good and effective as I could hope for.

Lots to get done by the end of the month - Greg moves to LA on the 30th so we need to get everything recorded so he can start the mixing out there. I'm applying to a film festival with a deadline of January 8th so we have to hurry to get everything done by then. But there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel!

Music, Sound, and Digital Magic

2005-10-21T10:38:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to announce that Zach Abramson has signed on as composer for "The Changeling." Zach is a graduate student at the Manhattan School of Music with an impressive body of work behind him. You can read more about him on the "cast and crew" page.

Zach is hard at work writing the score now and we plan to record the music in November.

Greg Sextro, the sound designer, and I have been recording additional dialogue with the actors (replacing lines where you can hear cars in the background, etc.) and plan to have all the dialogue in place in a matter of weeks. Greg has been putting in hours cleaning up all the dialogue, and so far, it sounds great. Although I'm sure Greg is becoming as sick of the movie as I am!

We'll spend November dealing with sound effects, music, and mixing.

Meanwhile, Ken Feinstein has been hard at work doing digital cleanup on several of the shots. There are some shots in the film where a person crosses in the background, there's a strange reflection in a window, or you can see a light switch on the wall during a candlelit scene, etc. Because we shot the film so quickly we had to let a lot of these things pass. So now Ken is working some digital wonders, going in and removing all of these problems, above and beyond what I expected was possible. I've seen some of the shots so far and am really impressed with just how much he has been able to do, and totally seamlessly.

Also, Jonathan Cousins is working on graphic design for the titles, DVD cover, etc.

So it looks like we're on track to be finished by the end of the year. But as you can imagine, something can always come up to slow us down. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Just one big push (or rather, series of pushes) left and we'll be done.

FINAL CUT COMPLETED

2005-10-01T13:12:00.000-04:00

It's official - I finished the edit on Thursday evening. I'm sure there will be small changes here and there as we work on the audio and music, but the editing process is officially over. The film runs 78 minutes without credits, so the total running time will be around 82 minutes.

Now on the the sound design and mix!

Edit Nearing Completion

2005-09-27T23:29:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, but I have have been very busy getting ever so close to a final cut of the movie. I have had a few screenings for friends and colleagues and gotten some great feedback. I plan to make one more pass on the film this week and then consider it locked.

Meanwhile, I have been planning the sound design with Greg Sextro, a really amazing sound designer who is working on the film. We'll be doing the bulk of the sound work in October and November, mixing the audio, re-recording some dialogue, adding sound effects, etc. It's reasonable to expect a finished film by the end of the year.

I'll write more soon once I have a completed edit. Not that anyone out there actually reads this. Does anyone ever read this?

Post Production Update

2005-07-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

LATEST NEWS:

EDITING
I'm working on a new edit of the film and am bit by bit approaching the fine cut. If we are able to shoot additional material as scheduled in August (see below), I should have a locked picture by the end of the summer.

ADDITIONAL SHOOTING
I've decided to add a series of scenes to the film so we'll be shooting more footage once Alan has some free time this August. Right now he's shooting his second feature (and this one can afford to pay him!). The film works as is, but this series of visuals will help widen the scope of the film and give some of the existing scenes a stronger impact. It will also help tell the story more visually and take the burden off of the dialogue.

FUNDING
We need to raise additional funds to cover sound editing and mixing, music and sound effects recording, color correction, and DVD mastering and copying. I am hoping to raise $7,000 - $10,000 to cover these costs. I am in the planning stages for fundraising events in NYC and other select cities.

YOU can help by visiting the fundraising page on this website -- all donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. All investors of $20 or more will receive a DVD of the completed film, and investors of $100 or more will receive Associate Producer credit. If you're a starving artist like many of us, please forward info on this film to any patrons you may know -- every little bit helps, and so far this film has been funded through the generosity of movie fans from across the country.

Rough Cut Finished

2005-06-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

I finished a rough cut of the film a little over a week ago and have been holding screenings for a few select people. Response has been quite good so far, which is a big relief. But I still have a lot of work to do and will probably make some radical changes in the coming weeks.

In other news, I've been talking to composers and will hopefully have one in place soon.

I will also need to have another fundraising drive to cover post costs. Stay tuned for more info and on how you can help!

EDITING UNDERWAY

2005-04-28T11:03:00.000-04:00

I've started the assembly of the film and am now 33 minutes in. I'll assemble the entire film (meaning, I'll decide which takes I like and put them in order) and then go back for fine tuning. I hope to have the entire film assembled by the end of May at the latest. If I didn't have to work to pay rent and buy food it would go a lot faster, but I'm actually ahead of where I thought I'd be by now.

Shooting Wrapped

2005-04-13T07:59:00.000-04:00

We officially wrapped after completing a marathon day of work shooting the exteriors in Pennsylvania on Sunday. We shot 20 pages of the script in one day which is a huge feat. You can see some stills below. Once I've recovered from exhaustion I'll begin editing.

Once More Unto the Breach!

2005-04-07T16:48:00.000-04:00

I'm heading down to PA tomorrow with a van full of equipment to set up for our final day of shooting this Sunday. It's a lot to get done in just one day, but the cast and crew are coming down the night before so we should be able to start bright and early. We're shooting all the exteriors for the film.

I'll report when I'm back in NYC next week. For now, here are some behind the scenes stills from our days of shooting in NJ taken by Nadya Gurevich, our Production Designer.

Stills from Week 2

2005-04-03T09:49:00.001-04:00

We wrapped shooting in Bloomfield, NJ last week. We're shooting our final scenes down in PA next weekend. Here are some stills from last week's shoot.

Stills from Shoot

2005-03-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

Here are some stills from scenes we shot March 22-24. Hats off to Alan Smith and his wonderful crew and the incredible art department (Nadya Gurevich and Jessica Watts). Their work created a great sense of mood and style.

Week One Wrapped

2005-03-26T11:25:00.001-05:00

We wrapped our first week of shooting on Thursday. It was an exhausting few days, but we shot a remarkable amount of footage -- we finished 24 pages of the script in just three days. Alan and I watched the footage yesterday and are very happy with how things came out. I'll post some stills soon, but for now here are two production shots taken by Victor Varnado, who ran the set for us on Thursday.

Ghost Makeup Test

2005-03-16T00:53:00.003-05:00

Just got back from a long costume and makeup session with the cast. One week from now we will have finished our first day of shooting which is very hard to believe. It still doesn't seem real to me.

Here is a still of a camera test we did of Craig Wichman in corpse makeup for when Alonzo appears as a ghost. I think it looks pretty spooky.

12 Days to Go!

2005-03-10T21:55:00.000-05:00

Things are getting wildly busy now that Alan, our DP, is back in town from India. He and I spent the day at the location in Bloomfield, NJ today along with Ramona Floyd, our Production Manager. We're finalizing our shots, making final decisions about equipment, and buying those last necessary items. And Alan and I had a few hours today to look at some clips from movies we're drawing on for inspiration. We followed all this a dinner meeting with Nadya, the Production Designer. All in all, a highly productive, highly inpsiring day.

I opened up a shop on Cafe Press which sells Changeling merchandise!
You can visit it here: www.cafepress.com/thechangeling

Jonathan Cousins, a wonderful designer (he designed the website) created the designs for the items on sale. Buy something and tell your friends! Purchases will help fund the film!

Speaking of funding, I'm working hard to reduce the budget since we're still a little short of making our total. In any case we've raised enough to shoot. For information on how to get involved with funding, please check out the "fundraising page" on the website.

Need to get some sleep. More news soon!

Fight Choreography

2005-03-06T18:41:00.001-05:00

We had our first fight choregraphy rehearsal tonight. Eric Brown, our choreographer, did a great job staging the brutal fight to the death between Alonzo (Craig Wichman) and De Flores (Clyde Baldo). As with all fight choreography, safety is an important concern, and Eric's work was safe, responsive to the actors' impulses, and expressive of the desperate, brutal type of fight I wanted. Really great stuff. You can see some stills below.

Costume Fittings

2005-03-06T13:26:00.001-05:00

COSTUMES
We had our first custime fitting yesterday. You can see two examples below; a dress-in-progress for Beatrice (Wendy Herlich) and some costume elements for Jasperino (Bruce Meakem).

FUNDRAISING
In other news, we started a big fundraising push last week. We're getting closer to raising the entire budget, but there's still a lot of work to do. To find out how to get involved, check out the Fundraising page of the website.

Rehearsal Update and Other News

2005-02-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

The Changeling website now accepts PayPal! Donations keep coming in and we're getting ever closer to our target.

Things are really in motion now; the design team is working on costumes and set dressing, the production team is dealing with transportation and catering issues, and we're still rehearsing reguarly. Here's a still from yesterday's rehearsal with Clyde Baldo (De Flores) and Wendy Herlich (Beatrice).

New Rehearsal Stills

2005-01-23T17:43:00.002-05:00

Here are stills from rehearsals last week.

I didn't have the benefit of my director of photography because he's still in India so I shot these myself. Alan's better at this kind of thing. But these shots give you a chance to see the cast in action.

Production Designer

2005-01-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

We have a Production Designer! I saw many experienced, motivated, and talented people who were interested in the position so there were a lot of really good people to choose from. I decided on Nadya Gurevich, who has worked with HD and also in theater. She has great instincts and ideas for this project and I look very forward to working with her.

Back in Rehearsal

2005-01-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

We had a full cast reading of the latest version of the script yesterday. It was great to have everyone together; Alan the DP and Lacee the Costumer were also there. After the reading I screened some of our scouting footage for the cast. We're starting back up with rehearsals this week, focusing on blocking out each scene to fit into the location.

Alan is off to India tonight to shoot a feature in the jungle. He'll be gone for 2 months and completely out of contact since most of the locations he's visiting don't have electricity, let alone internet access. Good luck Alan! Let's hope those malaria pills work!

Location Scouting

2004-12-22T10:35:00.002-05:00

I spent the day at Cabrini College outside Philly yesterday with Alan Smith, the DP, and Mickey Ryan, who plays Tomazo. We're using Cabrini for the exteriors, and besides being really cold we had a great time planning the shot list for the outside sequences. Cabrini is really beautiful. Here are some stills from my very cheap Canon MiniDV camera which gives you a sense of what it looks like. The man standing patiently in the stills is Mickey.

LOCATION STILLS: 11/20/04

2004-12-19T22:21:00.002-05:00

These are stills from Oakeside Mansion in Bloomsfield, New Jersey, where we will be shooting in March, 2005. I'm standing in the shots for scale.

REHEARSAL STILLS: 10/21/04

2004-12-19T21:53:00.006-05:00

These are stills from rehearsal. The cast is, from clockwise from top left, Clyde Baldo, Wendy Herlich and Chris Brady.