The morning after I finished a draft of the Jonah treatment, I took a look at it with fresh eyes. That's always a good idea, and really helped this time. I had some thoughts on how I could flesh out the scenes involving Ninevah (introducing a new character -- the queen, which lets us work in a female role into this otherwise male-dominated story) and how we could have some fun with "Tarshish" in song (which is easy for me to say, but Aaron gets the challenge of seeing if it can fly lyrically).
Anyway, after a couple of additional hours of tweaking, I sent the treatment out to our key people for their review and input. We'll see how that goes.
Watched the first rough cut of "Daniel and the Lions" this weekend. The first rough cut is usually pretty devastating. There's no score, the audio is all over the map (sometimes inaudible, sometimes blaring, seldom balanced), there's no color correction, and other things that can make you depressed about the prospects for the finished movie. However, after having gone through the process a half dozen times, I've learned not to read too much into my feelings after viewing a rough cut. That said, while there were several elements that concerned me about this rough cut, I was not nearly as devastated as I have been. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think this will be a nice addition to the Liken line up.
This week I hope to start a rewrite of the "Nephi and Laban" stage adaptation based on what I saw on my trip to Edmonton, Alberta for the premiere of the stage version. I also want to start the first draft of a stage adaptation of "The First Christmas," which we hope to have ready for stakes for this Christmas. We have some interest from a stake in Arizona, and hopefully others will come forward. I know putting on such a project is a huge challenge, and that any stake that agrees to undertake this challenge deserves heaps of blessings and a lot of appreciation from their youth.
But first up this week is to work through the pages of notes we'll have on the rough cut of Daniel. That starts tomorrow.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Jonah treatment
I've been holed up the last couple of days focusing on writing the treatment for "Jonah and the Great Fish." It's a challenge to sequester myself, since there are many things going on that are of interest. But I know that until I get a treatment done, all the other departments are in limbo. For example, I got a call yesterday from Ken Eklof, who has spent the past month in Nauvoo performing the role of Brigham Young. While Ken is a talented performer, he is also our set designer, and he is keenly interested in knowing what he can start planning on. He was hoping to send his boys down to the studio to start tearing down the village market set from Daniel. But I told him that it is possible we could want to hold onto that set to adapt for Ninevah.
But that, based on the principle of dominos, creates the problem of where to build our boat and great fish sets. At this stage, I don't see how we can fit all the sets in our current space unless we spread the shoot out to allow time for a major rebuild. But, we're early in the process and new ideas could still occur that could help us figure out a workable solution.
Anyway, I finished a draft of the treatment about an hour ago. I'm pretty pleased with it, although it still needs some massaging. For one thing, right now it's only got 5 songs in it. Normally, we get about twice that. So we'll have to look closer at that. I would like to flesh it out a little more, but on the other hand, I don't want the story to drag out, like some old musical that feels like it's breaking into a song every fifth minute. That problem notwithstanding, once again I am in awe of how rich the scriptures can be as you dig into them and start to imagine what the participants were like and how they must've felt in the various situations in which they found themselves. Plus, as I dig into the stories, I'm always struck by how many "liken" angles we could use.
On another front, saw a two-page spread on "Daniel" that is going in a magazine next month. It was designed by our new marketing guru, Brandon Very nicely done. He's very talented on the creative end, as well as the implementation of the creative stuff. Nice combination.
Rod's been cranking away at the rough cut of Daniel. If all goes well, we should have something to watch this weekend.
Getting tired. Think I must call it a night. Hopefully, in the morning, I'll have fresh eyes that will help me tighten up this treatment before I send it out to the team for their input.
But that, based on the principle of dominos, creates the problem of where to build our boat and great fish sets. At this stage, I don't see how we can fit all the sets in our current space unless we spread the shoot out to allow time for a major rebuild. But, we're early in the process and new ideas could still occur that could help us figure out a workable solution.
Anyway, I finished a draft of the treatment about an hour ago. I'm pretty pleased with it, although it still needs some massaging. For one thing, right now it's only got 5 songs in it. Normally, we get about twice that. So we'll have to look closer at that. I would like to flesh it out a little more, but on the other hand, I don't want the story to drag out, like some old musical that feels like it's breaking into a song every fifth minute. That problem notwithstanding, once again I am in awe of how rich the scriptures can be as you dig into them and start to imagine what the participants were like and how they must've felt in the various situations in which they found themselves. Plus, as I dig into the stories, I'm always struck by how many "liken" angles we could use.
On another front, saw a two-page spread on "Daniel" that is going in a magazine next month. It was designed by our new marketing guru, Brandon Very nicely done. He's very talented on the creative end, as well as the implementation of the creative stuff. Nice combination.
Rod's been cranking away at the rough cut of Daniel. If all goes well, we should have something to watch this weekend.
Getting tired. Think I must call it a night. Hopefully, in the morning, I'll have fresh eyes that will help me tighten up this treatment before I send it out to the team for their input.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Cleaning up and moving on
Not much to report yet. After wrapping Wednesday, it was time to catch up on e-mails, management meetings and phone calls. That took up most of Thursday and Friday. Also, some much needed family time. We went to dinner together and also caught the new "Pirates" movie, which was a lot of fun.
Also on Friday, T.J. Young came in to do some post audio work. He was our Ammon in our second movie and plays the role of Samuel in our eighth movie that comes out in November, "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy." It was good to see him again. He's been off climbing world peaks and is about to leave for several months to direct the national touring production of "Aida," so we had to get him in here before it was too late. It was a little bit of a mad scramble to get his scenes of "Samuel" roughly edited so we had something to ADR to.
Yesterday, Saturday, started to get serious about wrapping my mind around Jonah. Mostly, that involved organizing my Jonah binder, re-reading the scripture story, and doing some research Ninevah (those Ninevanians (Ninevites?) were nasty).
There is a whole lot of editing to get done in a big hurry for "Daniel and the Lions." We're hoping to have a rough cut done this week.
Also on Friday, T.J. Young came in to do some post audio work. He was our Ammon in our second movie and plays the role of Samuel in our eighth movie that comes out in November, "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy." It was good to see him again. He's been off climbing world peaks and is about to leave for several months to direct the national touring production of "Aida," so we had to get him in here before it was too late. It was a little bit of a mad scramble to get his scenes of "Samuel" roughly edited so we had something to ADR to.
Yesterday, Saturday, started to get serious about wrapping my mind around Jonah. Mostly, that involved organizing my Jonah binder, re-reading the scripture story, and doing some research Ninevah (those Ninevanians (Ninevites?) were nasty).
There is a whole lot of editing to get done in a big hurry for "Daniel and the Lions." We're hoping to have a rough cut done this week.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Wrap day
Today we returned to the home in Mapleton that serves as Amelia Brown's family house. We were here pretty close to a year ago shooting the modern-day bookends for our last batch of movies. It was Christmas in July then, just as it was today. Fortunately, this scene involved only an interior -- no snowing up the outside of the house during a windstorm like we had to do last year.
We shot three scenes in the house involving Amelia, her father, and George the housekeeper. Each actor is very professional, and the day was completed a few minutes before 2 p.m., which also served as a wrap for the 5-day bookend shoot. Fast and furious, and it felt like we covered quite a bit of ground. Although you never fully know how well what you shot works until the final piece is edited together, it felt like we got what we needed, and many wonderful moments.
We had a really good crew as well. In our type of productions, it is important to have a crew on hand that knows what it is doing AND does it in a way that is conducive to what we're trying to do. Many times I hear somebody start to say something they shouldn't, catch themselves, apologize, then move on. At the end of the shoot, I had a number of people come up and say how refreshing and unusual it is to work in this type of environment where everybody is nice to each other and there is an atmosphere of respect. Although I don't have much experience in other types of sets, I still can appreciate what they mean and count myself greatly blessed.
No time to relax after the shoot, however. People are waiting on me for the script to "Jonah and the Great Fish," which is scheduled to go before the cameras in October. Although I have a rough idea of how I want to approach that, tomorrow, I begin work on that script in earnest.
We shot three scenes in the house involving Amelia, her father, and George the housekeeper. Each actor is very professional, and the day was completed a few minutes before 2 p.m., which also served as a wrap for the 5-day bookend shoot. Fast and furious, and it felt like we covered quite a bit of ground. Although you never fully know how well what you shot works until the final piece is edited together, it felt like we got what we needed, and many wonderful moments.
We had a really good crew as well. In our type of productions, it is important to have a crew on hand that knows what it is doing AND does it in a way that is conducive to what we're trying to do. Many times I hear somebody start to say something they shouldn't, catch themselves, apologize, then move on. At the end of the shoot, I had a number of people come up and say how refreshing and unusual it is to work in this type of environment where everybody is nice to each other and there is an atmosphere of respect. Although I don't have much experience in other types of sets, I still can appreciate what they mean and count myself greatly blessed.
No time to relax after the shoot, however. People are waiting on me for the script to "Jonah and the Great Fish," which is scheduled to go before the cameras in October. Although I have a rough idea of how I want to approach that, tomorrow, I begin work on that script in earnest.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
A new "imaginer child"
In the Liken series, we see the scripture stories unfold through the imagination of a modern-day child. Thus far, we have had two "imaginer" children, Spencer and Amelia.
We are now introducing our third, Devin. After much looking, we found an adorable young boy, Isaiah Smith. He's 6, and my experience in working with young children has made me leery of writing anything for such a young age. Not that I don't like children. It's just that shooting a movie sounds more fun than it actually is, especially for kids. By the time you're on your 4th take of your 7th set-up, not many kids that age are eager to do it again. But this episode seemed like it needed to be somebody about that age, and I felt that if we looked hard enough, we'd find a kid who could play this part. It took quite awhile, but we found him. He came to us via a referral of a friend of ours, Marvin Perkins, from Southern California.
When Isaiah came in to audition, I had my doubts. He was a cute young boy, but like many young boys his age, he was awfully wiggly and smiley, and this role called for the character to be a sad little boy. But we gave him some homework -- to go take a day or two to see if he could do a whole scene and look sad the whole time. When he came back a couple of days later, I still had my doubts, because he was still awfully smiley and wiggly when we were chatting before the call back. Then, when we called action, young Isaiah went to work. The smile and wiggles disappeared, and out came this sad little boy, with slow nods and mournful eyes. When we cut, the wiggles and smiles came back, but not until then. Suddenly, we were very encouraged. The topper was that he had two older sisters who came with him, and it just so happened that the script called for Devin to have two older sisters. We auditioned them, too, and when all was said and done, I was very encouraged.
A couple of days later, I called to give them the news, and there was a lot of rejoicing in the background as mom relayed the news.
We began shooting yesterday at Devin's Grandpa George's house. George is played by Amelia's housekeeper, who has since retired to live closer to his grandchildren. The scenes were shot at the Olmsted complex at the mouth of Provo Canyon, an absolutely beautiful park-like setting that my brother, Ken, lined up for us via the Utah Valley Film Commission.
The most difficult scene involved an exterior, when Devin's parents say goodbye to Devin and his siblings before leaving for a trip. The scene included Debbie Stapley, who played "Queen Lamoni" in our second movie. She played Devin's mom. Devin's dad was played by Marvin Perkins. The scene involved about 9 different set-ups, and we had to get it before the sun moved too much and showered our actors with sunlight, whereas they had been in shadow for the bulk of the scene. We finished just in the nick of time and got some great performances all around.
After we wrapped at Devin's house, we all rushed back to Dixon school in Provo to do a pick-up of a scene involving Thurl Bailey. We only found out this morning that Thurl would be available to do the shoot, provided we could fit it in a 90-minute window during the afternoon. It was a bit of a logistical challenge, but Ken managed to book both actors and the school in time. We finished the scene with minutes to spare. But I'm delighted we got it, because it will enable us to tie Thurl Bailey the stern school principal to Thurl Bailey as Goliath in Amelia's imagination.
One more shooting day, tomorrow, then we're done with the bookends shoot. Tomorrow, it's back to Amelia's house to shoot a portion of "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy" bookends.
We are now introducing our third, Devin. After much looking, we found an adorable young boy, Isaiah Smith. He's 6, and my experience in working with young children has made me leery of writing anything for such a young age. Not that I don't like children. It's just that shooting a movie sounds more fun than it actually is, especially for kids. By the time you're on your 4th take of your 7th set-up, not many kids that age are eager to do it again. But this episode seemed like it needed to be somebody about that age, and I felt that if we looked hard enough, we'd find a kid who could play this part. It took quite awhile, but we found him. He came to us via a referral of a friend of ours, Marvin Perkins, from Southern California.
When Isaiah came in to audition, I had my doubts. He was a cute young boy, but like many young boys his age, he was awfully wiggly and smiley, and this role called for the character to be a sad little boy. But we gave him some homework -- to go take a day or two to see if he could do a whole scene and look sad the whole time. When he came back a couple of days later, I still had my doubts, because he was still awfully smiley and wiggly when we were chatting before the call back. Then, when we called action, young Isaiah went to work. The smile and wiggles disappeared, and out came this sad little boy, with slow nods and mournful eyes. When we cut, the wiggles and smiles came back, but not until then. Suddenly, we were very encouraged. The topper was that he had two older sisters who came with him, and it just so happened that the script called for Devin to have two older sisters. We auditioned them, too, and when all was said and done, I was very encouraged.
A couple of days later, I called to give them the news, and there was a lot of rejoicing in the background as mom relayed the news.
We began shooting yesterday at Devin's Grandpa George's house. George is played by Amelia's housekeeper, who has since retired to live closer to his grandchildren. The scenes were shot at the Olmsted complex at the mouth of Provo Canyon, an absolutely beautiful park-like setting that my brother, Ken, lined up for us via the Utah Valley Film Commission.
The most difficult scene involved an exterior, when Devin's parents say goodbye to Devin and his siblings before leaving for a trip. The scene included Debbie Stapley, who played "Queen Lamoni" in our second movie. She played Devin's mom. Devin's dad was played by Marvin Perkins. The scene involved about 9 different set-ups, and we had to get it before the sun moved too much and showered our actors with sunlight, whereas they had been in shadow for the bulk of the scene. We finished just in the nick of time and got some great performances all around.
After we wrapped at Devin's house, we all rushed back to Dixon school in Provo to do a pick-up of a scene involving Thurl Bailey. We only found out this morning that Thurl would be available to do the shoot, provided we could fit it in a 90-minute window during the afternoon. It was a bit of a logistical challenge, but Ken managed to book both actors and the school in time. We finished the scene with minutes to spare. But I'm delighted we got it, because it will enable us to tie Thurl Bailey the stern school principal to Thurl Bailey as Goliath in Amelia's imagination.
One more shooting day, tomorrow, then we're done with the bookends shoot. Tomorrow, it's back to Amelia's house to shoot a portion of "Samuel and the Christmas Prophecy" bookends.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Shooting bookends
In the middle of shooting the modern-day bookends for three Liken the Scriptures movies. On Friday, we shot two major scenes at Dixon Middle School in Provo. These were two rehearsals for two school school concerts.
The first is for an alternate, ecumenical version of our "David & Goliath" movie. It concerns a young girl, Amelia, who is asked by her choir teacher if she would be willing to fill in for another girl who has fallen ill in the concert's teacher-student duet. To help build Amelia's courage, the wise teacher, played nicely by Angela Winston, tells Amelia that sometimes we have something inside us that we may not see ourselves, but "Somebody up there does." To illustrate, she tells her the story of a young shepherd, named David. We have already shot and released another version of the movie, which features a young boy overcoming the challenge of giving a talk in Stake Conference, but we also want to release a version that might be more readily understood by a broader audience.
The second rehearsal involves the same young girl, Amelia, some months later, when she finds out that her teacher has been suspended for refusing to remove the song "Silent Night" from the upcoming Winter Festival concert. The district administrator, played wonderfully by George Dyer, steps in to take over as the choir teacher.
I was delighted with the way both scenes played out. It was a long day, but we got about 10 pages shot.
The next day, Saturday, was an even bigger challenge. We shot the two school concerts that went with each of the rehearsals we shot on Saturday. We had about 370 people volunteer (bless their hearts) to be members of the audience. In addition, we had about another 40 cast members, and a crew of probably 50 or so. If I'm right on my math, that's about 460 people on location -- a new record for us (and one that I hope stands for a long time).
Given the numbers, I thought the day went as smoothly as possible. I'm truly grateful for my wife, Suzanne, for heading up craft services so graciously. I thought yesterday how that project that she handles on a volunteer-basis has grown from feeding a tiny cast and crew on the early movies with trips to KFC to this fairly full blown operation. She's got some wonderful helpers, too. I noticed my daughter, Danielle, getting up at 4 a.m. to and pitching in throughout the long day without a complaint. (My other two daughters, Katie and Alexandra, help out too at the check-in table and wherever else they're needed.)
When it comes time to shoot the concert scenes, people are very patient and give it their best to get into the spirit of the scenes. In both concerts, I was moved to tears many times (granted, not an especially hard thing to get me to do -- but still!), and as I looked around, I could see I was not alone. Frank Gerrish, who plays George, the housekeeper, told me that he brought some stuff that actors put in their eyes to produce tears, but found that he didn't need them. Very touching scenes. I feel deeply appreciative of everyone who worked so hard to make those scenes possible. I truly hope we have been able to capture the feeling we were hoping to get.
When the day ends, there's still a few hours of wrap up work to do, and by the time we get home, we are zombies. But we are happy zombies, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the rest of the Sabbath. Tomorrow, Monday, we are back at it at a different location in Orem. I'll write more about that (hopefully) soon.
The first is for an alternate, ecumenical version of our "David & Goliath" movie. It concerns a young girl, Amelia, who is asked by her choir teacher if she would be willing to fill in for another girl who has fallen ill in the concert's teacher-student duet. To help build Amelia's courage, the wise teacher, played nicely by Angela Winston, tells Amelia that sometimes we have something inside us that we may not see ourselves, but "Somebody up there does." To illustrate, she tells her the story of a young shepherd, named David. We have already shot and released another version of the movie, which features a young boy overcoming the challenge of giving a talk in Stake Conference, but we also want to release a version that might be more readily understood by a broader audience.
The second rehearsal involves the same young girl, Amelia, some months later, when she finds out that her teacher has been suspended for refusing to remove the song "Silent Night" from the upcoming Winter Festival concert. The district administrator, played wonderfully by George Dyer, steps in to take over as the choir teacher.
I was delighted with the way both scenes played out. It was a long day, but we got about 10 pages shot.
The next day, Saturday, was an even bigger challenge. We shot the two school concerts that went with each of the rehearsals we shot on Saturday. We had about 370 people volunteer (bless their hearts) to be members of the audience. In addition, we had about another 40 cast members, and a crew of probably 50 or so. If I'm right on my math, that's about 460 people on location -- a new record for us (and one that I hope stands for a long time).
Given the numbers, I thought the day went as smoothly as possible. I'm truly grateful for my wife, Suzanne, for heading up craft services so graciously. I thought yesterday how that project that she handles on a volunteer-basis has grown from feeding a tiny cast and crew on the early movies with trips to KFC to this fairly full blown operation. She's got some wonderful helpers, too. I noticed my daughter, Danielle, getting up at 4 a.m. to and pitching in throughout the long day without a complaint. (My other two daughters, Katie and Alexandra, help out too at the check-in table and wherever else they're needed.)
When it comes time to shoot the concert scenes, people are very patient and give it their best to get into the spirit of the scenes. In both concerts, I was moved to tears many times (granted, not an especially hard thing to get me to do -- but still!), and as I looked around, I could see I was not alone. Frank Gerrish, who plays George, the housekeeper, told me that he brought some stuff that actors put in their eyes to produce tears, but found that he didn't need them. Very touching scenes. I feel deeply appreciative of everyone who worked so hard to make those scenes possible. I truly hope we have been able to capture the feeling we were hoping to get.
When the day ends, there's still a few hours of wrap up work to do, and by the time we get home, we are zombies. But we are happy zombies, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the rest of the Sabbath. Tomorrow, Monday, we are back at it at a different location in Orem. I'll write more about that (hopefully) soon.
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