"The Project" has started...

Haven't honestly had this much fun since...well, since starting the previous film... We started shooting "The Project" today. I have yet to look over the footage but from what I remember shooting, it went very well. Kelly Karavites plays the role of a milita member who has to flee from his neighborhood after seeing the horrific images of death upon awakening in his backyard. He then meets Chris Margaritis' character who is camping in the woods and they decide to try to find a place where they can find safety. It was very hands on with a lot of planning involved for the scene. Wanted to make it realistic and not the typical "Come on, we've got to get out of here!" cliche dialogue. A lot of the dialogue was ad-libed and we blocked the scenes on the spot. We had a wirless microphone and were able to get some dialogue without being connected to a long wire which usually plugs into the camera, so it gave me more freedom to move around with the camera which worked out well. Made sure to get a lot of coverage since within the next two weeks, Spring will bloom and I want to make sure to get all that's needed in the woods before May 1st, 2009. So the whole plan is to shoot the woods sequences by then and then to move onto the flashback scenes. Due to continuity with the weather, we were unable to shoot a planned beach scene as well as fully finish a scene that took place with the two characters sitting in the middle of the woods but we have a good week and half to film those scenes if needed. Atleast now if we reshoot the scene of them both in the middle of the woods talking, Kelly has more of an understanding (since he ad-libed) of what tone and feeling I need for his character to convey with the situation he was in. As we kept on shooting the dialogue and feeling imporved but the weather kept on making it more difficult to use those shots, so we shall see. There might also be some new ideas for his character to talk about, if we do reshoot that scene. All in all I think today went very well.