Club God – One Last Shot… Part Deux

Apparently God does not want Club God released yet. That’s all I can think of… because I still need one last shot of an audience in order to finish the short.

I’d shoot at my own church, but being Catholic and all, the church pews look like, well, church pews, not an auditorium audience. I’ve tried a couple of times to get a Protestant co-worker to shoot video for me at her church which is more auditorium-like, but that has not panned out.

My brother in Houston tried shooting some footage that was nice, but not at the right angle.

So, tonight, I’m trying again. I’m going to a school graduation and will attempt to setup my camera in the back row of the theater and hopefully get enough backs of heads of the audience to fit the shot. I’ve taped off the angle I need on my flip out viewfinder in the hopes that I can match it seamlessly with the original footage.

If this doesn’t work, I’ll be at a loss.

I know the Lord will have this short completed when he wants it completed and not a second sooner. But, to say the process hasn’t been frustrating would be lying.

But I trust and I go with the flow.

As Mike Sweeney, a Catholic baseball player (Royals, now A’s) once said, he put a sticker on his bible which has a tandem two-person bike, with one person peddling hard in the back and the front seat empty. To him it symbolizes his faith. His job is to pedal as hard as he can and he’ll let Jesus steer him in the right direction.

So, I’m pedaling Lord. Just steer me near an audience shot and we can finally wrap up this short… please.

Messenger Doc – Recording Session #3

Tonight the bad laid down some really nice bed tracks of the guitars, bass and drums.

Jim and Chilton jam, baby.

Cathy chats with the group in between sessions.

Dave and Dea take a break.

Terry records Jim and Chilton laying down bed tracks.

And then Dave woke up…

Stephanie and Matt

Pete, camera in hand.

The next recording session is scheduled for Sunday.

Messenger Doc – More Recording Wednesday

The Messenger band will meet again this Wednesday to continue laying down tracks for their upcoming CD.  I’ll have more pics and vids later on this week.

Messenger Doc – First Day Pics

Bobby Dickson, Messenger’s drummer/guitarist/singer extraordinaire, has a wonderful grandmother who’s offered the bottom floor of her beautiful house to the band in order for them to record their first CD.

Here’s some pics from Sunday’s initial setup to laying down their first tracks.

Pete documenting the action.

Jim and Chilton rock the house.

Pete with camera in hand.

Terry, the architect of the Messenger CD.

Tiffany and Cathy having fun at the “studio”

Matt and Bobby prepare to jam.

Cathy directs Pete directing.

Keep checking back for more updates, pics and vids all summer long!

Messenger Doc – First Night Recording

Last night I shot the first official recording night for the Messenger band for their new CD.  They worked on laying the basic tracks for “Blessed Be the Name.”  It was a very good learning experience for everyone, I think.  The difference between singing in front of a large church and singing for a CD is similar to the difference between acting in a theater and acting in front of the camera.

The band members will have to learn the “audience” in the recording process is only inches away with the microphone.  And all of the buffers that hide imperfections during a live performance, like the church members singing along, the echoes in the building, etc. are stripped away during the recording process and you are left quite alone with you, your voice and/or instrument, and nothing else.

They’re all extremely talented people so, as the process continues, they’ll quickly adapt to the recording requirements and make a great CD.  They are very dedicated people and hard workers to boot.  By the end of the recording process they’ll be like old pros.

A productive night for the band and for Sonlight Pics.  I’ll have more video and pics coming in the future.

Purgatory, USA – First Read Thru

One of the first real gifts a writer has in the film making process is hearing their words read aloud by the actors. You finally get a sense if what you heard in your head translates through the minds and mouths of others.

Thankfully, the first read-thru of the six-part Christian webisode series called Purgatory, USA was a wonderful success.

On Wednesday, April 23rd at around 7:00 p.m., we headed over to the Ross home for the first read-thru.

Tiffany, me and Dorothea.

In attendance was my daughter, Dorothea Bauer (Nikki) and my wife, Dea (Mickey, Nikki’s mother), Tiffany Ross (Babs) and her mother, Cathy (Jean, Babs’ mother). All are competent actors and, again, I wrote the script with their strengths in mind.

Dea, Dorothea, Tiffany and Cathy

I was both nervous and excited. I thought the script was funny, in a goofy sort of way, but I wouldn’t be convinced until I heard laughter coming from a third party… the Ross family. Fortunately, my insecurities were unfounded, as the script reading went very well. Everyone really enjoyed the story arc and found it both humorous and nicely layered with Christian themes.

We were all excited to start making this series.

Shooting will commence in June/July time frame.

Purgatory, USA – Concept

Despite my best efforts, my daughter, Dorothea, wants to be an actress. I was a professional actor for many years and also worked behind the camera in a variety of capacities on independent productions as well as a national cable channel, so I am very familiar with the business.

And it’s a tough business.

However, my daughter is a very determined child. And, as I did, she offers her passion for acting to the Lord and lets Him take care of the business side. In the meantime, having moved out of the entertainment industry some time ago and into the “real” world, I had been trying for years to somehow combine my passion for film making with my strong Catholic faith.

The end result was the creation of Sonlight Pictures.

Our first project is the short Club God. And I wanted to quickly follow that up with something that I could shoot over the summer with my daughter that would be both Christian and allow her another step toward her long term career goals.

After talking with a very good friend of hers, Tiffany, an energetic and beautiful young woman with a generous heart, I decided to see if I could write a mulit-part webisode that would promote Sonlight Pictures, be geared to the teen market, and just be kinda funny.

The outcome of that creative effort is Purgatory, USA. The story revolves around the main character, Nikki, who must spend the summer with her flaky cousin Babs. Each story would be limited to 10 minutes in length and would incorporate moral and biblical themes.

We originally planned for the first run of the series to include 10 episodes, but due to scheduling limitations we chose to limit the initial run to six episodes.

I loved the writing challenge of having to squeeze a beginning, middle and end into a 10 minute format. It makes you economize, that’s for sure! Overall, the challenge was a lot of fun. I was able to tailor the characters to each of the actors’ personalities and strengths and the end result is a pretty good script that I think the young actors will be able to perform with skill.

I can’t wait to get this story, and these young actors, in front of the camera. Should be a fun summer!

Club God Behind-the-Scenes Shoot Photos

Check out all of the behind-the-scenes pictures taken on the Club God shoot day over at my Facebook photo album.

Plenty of pics, so take a look.

Club God – One Last Shot

I need just one last shot to complete Club God. See this shot?

I need an audience to fill that barren part below the stage. I thought I could simply find it on a stock footage website, but no luck.

I tried putting a still pic of an audience there, but the lack of movement from any of the audience members screams that the audience is fake.

I’ve posted on film forums to see if anyone has a clip of an audience from anything they ever shot that would fit this picture, but the response has been crickets.

So, I guess I’m going to have to find a theater or something and shoot it myself. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I’ll find the theater with an audience that fits this area, nor do I know how I’ll be able to get my HD camera in there… ugh.

Okay, Lord, time for something to happen…

Updates at SonlightPictures.com

I’ve updated the Sonlight Pictures website (sonlightpictures.com) with a new layout for quick links to each of our current projects as seen below. We’ll have more info there and here as well.

Stop by every once and a while and see our progress.