A double edged Axe and a smile…

Well, principal photography has wrapped on the film – we have a few pick up scenes and effects shots to do… mostly 2nd unity type of stuff. The last official night of shooting was this past weekend – we actually shot 3 days, sneaking in a WED night shoot with comedians AJ Finney and Dustin Kaufman. We also had a few extras in attendance and we added a really cool shot where a few of the girls try and escape the brothel slaughter, only to be caught before they could get off of the porch of Shadowview Manor. Turned out pretty amazing and the sets at The Beast, one of the largest Haunted Houses in the USA turned out simply stunning. It truly looks like we are outside.

The hard part is over, but instead of feeling a huge relief, I feel pretty down about it. The creative process on this one, the cast and crew, the late nights with this new group of friends who pulled together and became a family…. it’s all pretty much over. When we get together to shoot, the large cast sitting around together, the large crew working like busy creatures of the night – all pretty much gone. Now there are a few of us and maybe one or two actors showing up. Kind of hard. I really miss everyone. But the film looks amazing, and that helps a bunch. Everyone did a great job – and now I have started the editing process. This will be a pain in my ass, but it is worth it. We have the latest version of Premiere that JUST came out a couple of weeks ago, so I am at a small disadvantage, it’s a slight learning curve, but I’ll master it soon enough. I actually miss the older versions like 6.0 and 6.5 and wish that Premiere would offer a “classic” interface for those of us that like the older versions.

Anyway – I’ll write more soon, I have some very good things to write about the “big weekend” with the amazing brothel scenes and some pics to post as well. Stay tuned –

Todd

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House of Positive Vibes???

We are several weeks into filming and I must say, this has been an amazing work of art. When we watch a film in theaters and on television we do not take the time to think about what goes into the production. We just do not stop and think about all the little details,  the smallest things you can think of. What did it take to pull that scene off? Did the director film it on a set created from nothing or did they use a location? For this film, House of Forbidden Secrets, we have done both. Imagine while you are watching the next film what it would be like to create a set out of nothing and create it into a working environment for a world that did not even exist before. Imagine every take in that scene was the vision of someones mind. Imagine how many people behind the scenes it took to pull off that 30 seconds of greatness in your favorite film. I never knew! Now I do and I really think I am a better person for it. Yes I am going there!

Why would I be a better person having worked on the set of House of Forbidden Secrets? It is simple, I have for once in my life learned and watched the definition of teamwork.  With this film, we have a dozen people working on the same thing. I have never seen anything like it! The set is a very positive place to be. Everyone leaves the outside world behind them and immerses themselves in the project. No one has played the ego card or complained about anything at all. No one is trying to better than anyone else and the most amazing thing to me, everyone is getting along! It has really become a huge family. The thing I noticed, and I hope the readers and followers of this movie will notice as well, is the pictures we take of people laughing and having a good time are real. Everyone has become so close. In fact, when they are killed off they do not want to stay away from the set. Even when they know there is nothing for them to do, they come back and hang out. The crew members and the cast on this film are just amazing people. Everything I have heard about filming movies has been opposite. Everything I have ever done that involved more than three people has always turned out to be a very negative experience. Ego’s flying around and bad attitudes ruling the atmosphere. It has always been like a pissing contest. One person has an idea, another thinks they can do it better, then next thing you know you have 3 people running in circles accomplishing nothing while thinking they are the best.  Now back to the point at hand, why am I a better person? Because now that I have tasted of this positive infectious potion on the set of HOFS, I want to apply it to every project I work on. I strive to build these kinds of lasting relationships with everyone I work with. This project has given me new hope in people, in the human race. To allot of people in the world who have not experienced anything like this, I am sure they are saying, “Oh come on, this is just a stupid fun movie. What are you going on about?” It is not. It is something people from all over, every walk of life are working together on and believing in. People whom I would have never met. Good people that have enriched my life for the better. These people have put their hands on this film, their finger prints. They are the detailers, the planners, the think of every-thingers to make this film everything it can be. They laugh, they learn, they work and lose sleep, they freeze, and they love it. I love working on this film and I adore everyone who is part of it so far. It is my wish everyone in the world gets to experience something great like this at least once.

Holy Cripes! Hospitality!

A few years ago if you would have told me I would be making a movie with George Hardy or Allan Kayser, I would have said, “Yeah, on what planet?” I mean meeting people at a con is different….

I remember watching Troll a long long time ago. I think I was like 16? I would watch it over and over, in fact every time it was on and I even rented it a few times on VHS. I would go rent like 2 or 3 awesome cheesy movies on Wednesday nights and watch them all! I just loved it! Now, I didn’t watch Troll 2 until much much later. When I did watch it I was in awe. It was indeed the Best Worst Movie EVER! The scenes that did it for me what of course the now famous, “You can’t piss on hospitality!” being shouted while daddy Michael is taking off his belt. The kid never even got his butt beat for pissing on the table! I was like, “OH MY GOD! Did I just freaking hear that!” Such a great historic line! My other favorite scene was when Creedence was seducing that poor kid and the whole trailer filled up with popped popcorn.. Guest it was a bit too hot? (that was a joke, was it funny?). Anyways, back to what I was talking about, George Hardy. I knew George was a nice guy from having him on the show Nightwatch, but I had no idea what a great man he is. I have to say, if anyone reading this ever gets a chance to meet George Hardy, you MUST do it! His southern hospitality accent draws you in when you are speaking with him. His attitude is very positive and complimentary. He was so excited to be in Kansas City and see everything he could while he was here. George was genuine in every word he spoke and with that man you can certainly tell it. It was a true honor to meet him and I will never forget it. I hope he gets to come back to town very soon and work with us again on something in the future! So, those reading this are going to do what? Watch Troll 2 if you have not done it and go to facebook and LIKE George Hardy!

Amazing weekend

Had a amazing weekened with castmates Antwoine Steele, Brad Westmar, Nicole Santorella, Paxton, Director Todd Sheets, George Hardy from Troll 2 and Allan Kayser from Night of The Creeps on the set of House of Forbidden Secrets.

We laughed, we cried… and it was good. Weekend 3 is history!

Had an amazing time this weekend. It was our longest shooting time so far, no sleep at all – tons of blocking and effects, huge dialogue scenes, massive areas to light – and I loved it all! In 3 days I got around 7 hours of sleep. The cast and crew were simply incredible. At one point the actors and I had a meeting so I could explain the evening and how long it was taking. We played a song and did some Zen / Chi work for about 5 minutes. The actors all told me that they wanted me to take my time, that they understood and they would be there no matter what. They trusted my vision, and they wanted to make sure I was able to get what I wanted for the film. Even if it took till Noon the next day, they were there for me. That felt great.

This weekend was also incredibly hard for the actors due to the amount of emotion they had to portray.  Everyone stepped up to the challenge and did such a wonderful job.  Nicole really got lost in her character of Cassie, pushing herself to the edge on many occasions, to the point where I was actually a bit worried about her.  I asked her about it and she said she was doing OK… but she and many others in the cast had to visit some dark places and to see their dedication made me proud and warmed my heart.  Thanks to the cast for taking my words into their hearts and giving them life and passion!!!

Saturday night was a rough one, but I can honestly say we did the best we could to move as fast as possible. Some things are out of our control, but in every way that I could control, we made sure things were rolling ahead. We had two major characters that did gore scenes and there was a ton of Special Makeup Effects work to do. The effects crew did a great job!!! One of the most disturbing things I have even shot.

All in all, a major amount of scenes are in the can, looking great and sounding even better!!!! This is going to be an amazing film.

Todd Sheets

Director / Producer

My Favorite Scenes

Hello all, I am Amanda, Assistant Producer on this crazy film. So far the experience has been more than great. In the few weeks we have been filming we have created a small family. We have grown to know each and it is really amazing. I hope all productions are like this one.

My favorite scene so far is the Dorothy Fremont parking lot scene. It was a bit of a trick on our parts. Poor Dorothy! I took her back to a room behind closed doors to work on her lines with her. In reality, we did not talk about her lines, she already knew then, we instead talked about life. Growing up and what it was like. We had a great conversation, like always. We must have sat int here for about an hour while the crew got the scene together. It was a bitter cold night and that always makes things a bit slow. Lighting a car is probably not the easiest thing, so add that with the frigid conditions! We heard a knock on the door, it was time. We were stopped halfway to set by director extraordinaire, Todd Sheets. He explained to her, “You’re going to get in and turn on the vehicle, then reach for your phone… bla bla bla… (I will not bore you with the whole thing!) Then reach for the radio and turn it on” So Dorothy had the scene down, her lines perfect, she was ready to rock n roll! Filming began.. first take..  The grips, gaffers, and assistants all watched on. Dorothy executed her lines perfectly. Suddenly without any notice, the ghost from behind the seat attacked poor little Dorothy.  She screamed in horror and kicked that poor guys butt! We totally scared her.  See, the thing is, he wasn’t supposed to pop out for at least 2 more minutes and she didn’t even know how the ghost looked!  We did not let her see him.  Her face, her actions, her words, they were so… outrageous!  The poor woman didn’t know what to do with herself!  She even got out of the vehicle and then got back in still cursing everyone on set! That by far was my favorite scene. I laughed so hard I was crying. We will need to make it up to her sometime soon for being such a good sport.

I hope everyone who watches the film will enjoy that scare as much as I did. Thank you all so far for the support and have a great rest of the day!

First Weekend of Shooting

Just finished our first weekend of shooting before we take a break for the Christmas holidays. Things went even better than I thought, we had an amazing time and the cast proved to be just as incredible as I expected them to be!

The main Cast of House of Forbidden Secrets

We had several key dialogue scenes to do and some minor stunts and action sequences. Things went very smooth. Highlights were the Seance scene where Iris, playing the role of Dorothy Fremont, was actually so scared at Nicole’s amazing performance that she tried to run away! Great job everyone! Cannot wait to be back on the set with all of you on January 4th, in the new year of 2013!  The new dolly we made from scratch worked great as did our steadicam system created by Assistant Director Wayne Whisenant.  Footage came out stellar!