On Monday, September 30th the 7 main actors and the director, composer, line producer and 2nd assistant director all gathered for the first ever reading of the screen play. The reading took about an hour and a half and we felt encouraged enough at the moment not to abandon the whole thing.

Now, we are comparing schedules, setting up rehearsals, finding costumes, dressing locations, looking for actors for supporting roles, and a few hundred other tasks. The first day of shooting will be announced as soon as possible.

One of the tasks is making art work to serve as backdrops for green screened TV shows. Below is a background for Mary’s Fun With Math TV show.

 

 

 

In Nudged, the main character, Paul, is a student of archery and he uses a zen-like approach to his practice. This makes his archery as much a meditation as a martial art. Below are two videos that illustrate the Japanese archery practice called Kyudo. Instead of the traditional Kyudo bow, called a yumi, Paul uses a six foot long English longbow and broadhead arrows.

Clip from One Shot. One Life by John Braeley

Clip from The Empty Mind by John Braeley

As of today six of the eight main roles have been cast and several of the supporting roles as well (Sept. 17 Update – 7 of 8 roles cast). Also, several production staff roles have been filled. Extras for the party scene and other supporting roles are sought.

The big scene, people-wise, of the film is the party at John’s house (Scene 21). This will be held outdoors at a private home that has a performance stage and is surrounded by sculptures. The party will be like a hippy happening from the 60’s but set in the current year. There will be guests eating and drinking, street performers, The Giant Brain (which is an interactive sculpture and street theater combined), a band or two, and nine main characters trying to advance the story line. The items below are offered to give those considering a role as an extra (guest or performer) a feeling for the party setting.

An overall view of the party area:

Marvin Niebuhr’s performance sculptures: http://flimflamlab.blogspot.com

The performance stage:

The Giant Brain:

I’ve been fixing some holes in the green screen that we plan to use for many scenes in Nudged. I was wondering if the new paint over the patches would “matte out” evenly along with the old, spotty paint. I do plan to repaint the whole green screen but I just wondered how robust is the “Matte cutting” process. In the clip below it would seem to be quite robust.

I have added a ghost-like character to Nudged and she first appears in a painting  and then walks into the room. This is a test of how that might work.

June 1

Rigged up the camera to shoot a moving background to use with the green screen tests shot at Jeff’s Studio. Final composited movie is at https://vimeo.com/67616009

May 25

Jason and I spent Saturday doing camera and lighting tests at Jeff’s studio which will be used as a community TV station in Nudged.