If you go back to Lawson: The Force, the precursor to White Heat, you can say this movie is going on 3 and a half years in the making. Ideally in our perfect world we laid out, this wouldve been done Spring '07 like initial teasers well... teased. Now however, I am still hard at work on everything post production. Recently due to the holidays and my constant sickness since early November, my post production has been less productive than one of the coughs I'm having. I've gotten a fair amount done, but nothing like I'd hoped.
I'm sure the anticipation, and moreso the frustration is killing our four fans, but believe me, it's killing me too. Since I'm editing it all and all than crap I have seen everything from start to finish. There's some scenes I've seen a hundred times by now. To say I'm sick of them is an understatement, but I'm still impressed with them when all is said and done. It's going to be great to see it all in action all together and with a huge group of people to witness what hardwork and no cash can accomplish.
I've held off making bloopers since the one I did ages ago. There are two others out there as well, but my time is better spent with the actual movie. I'll save bloopers for the ending credits so people will stay and sit through them and stock around for what is hopefuly going to be a cool q&a session and after party at the premiere. Soon enough.
I hope to have an update again soon with new still shots, and maybe there will finally be a video tour of my editing shit and maybe a running commentary from me regarding a certain actors behavior on the set of the movie. What kind of jerk demands a trailer, catering, and girls when we have no money?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Keeping Busy
Hello!
While Barry is glued to his editing computers there are still a great many things to be done in the world of Lawson. We have a lot of little things we want to shoot either for the DVD or the big premiere we plan on having. There are some awesome things in the works and if they pan out you are all in for a treat.
I've been trying to get into the swing of recording some more music lately. Most of what I've been doing isn't specifically for the movie but I am using as practice for the Lawson Theme Song, for which I already have a finished demo. I want to polish it up and I have some more terrifically cheesy lyrics to go with it. I'm trying to get a little more skilled with my recording and editing before tackling my final take on the theme.
John, Barry and I have all been interested in taking a crack at scoring the movie but we can't really do that until we can see the scenes and how they are paced. Hopefully we can deliver some quality sounds to go with the already impressive-beyond-our-means sights. Maybe we'll just hire John Williams.
Thanks for reading and keeping up with your Lawson news!
-Tommy
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT: Frank Stallone is jealous of the Lawson Theme Song.
While Barry is glued to his editing computers there are still a great many things to be done in the world of Lawson. We have a lot of little things we want to shoot either for the DVD or the big premiere we plan on having. There are some awesome things in the works and if they pan out you are all in for a treat.
I've been trying to get into the swing of recording some more music lately. Most of what I've been doing isn't specifically for the movie but I am using as practice for the Lawson Theme Song, for which I already have a finished demo. I want to polish it up and I have some more terrifically cheesy lyrics to go with it. I'm trying to get a little more skilled with my recording and editing before tackling my final take on the theme.
John, Barry and I have all been interested in taking a crack at scoring the movie but we can't really do that until we can see the scenes and how they are paced. Hopefully we can deliver some quality sounds to go with the already impressive-beyond-our-means sights. Maybe we'll just hire John Williams.
Thanks for reading and keeping up with your Lawson news!
-Tommy
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT: Frank Stallone is jealous of the Lawson Theme Song.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Slow and steady
I've been holed up in my sweet office, staring at the screen, going through footage and just cutting the movie together. I am working on a gun fight/maze at the moment. My hope was to have it finished this weekend but I've got half done. The upside of it is the first half I have done, is chock full of effects and a ton of the post work is done for the gunfire, explosions, blood and all that stuff. These things add so much to the scene it's crazy.
I wish I had vacation time from work because I'd literally take two weeks and just sit there all day and try to get the rest of this done. It's happening at a steady pace, but man am I getting antsy. I need a new comfortable chair as well. That might help me too because I can only sit there for so long before needing a break and watching the celtics or csi or something. I will try to give an editing update every couple days or so and possibly put up new still images and if you two are lucky, maybe a nice ten second snippet of action
Barry
I wish I had vacation time from work because I'd literally take two weeks and just sit there all day and try to get the rest of this done. It's happening at a steady pace, but man am I getting antsy. I need a new comfortable chair as well. That might help me too because I can only sit there for so long before needing a break and watching the celtics or csi or something. I will try to give an editing update every couple days or so and possibly put up new still images and if you two are lucky, maybe a nice ten second snippet of action
Barry
Friday, November 28, 2008
Radio Interview pics
Here are some pics from of us doing the interview with MJ for her radio show last week.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wrapping
I received word Saturday night that filming on Lawson: White Heat concluded. Shooting is finished, editing is in the process. Triumph is on the horizon. 2 years we all worked on this. From the starting stages sitting in my old apartment living room with scripts doing walk through thinking we would be done filming a movie in a month or two until Saturday when the camera stopped recording for the last time we all have gotten support from family and friends, and a million questions asking when the movie is going to be finished. It is much appreciated to all of those who have been part of the movie, contributed, helped, acted, donated time, locations, or laughed at what clips and scenes have been filmed or shot. It means alot to us and we are anxious to get the finished product out there. We had a radio show interview tonight (see post below for the link) and it was just another aspect of the whole movie making process that was fun.
Note: Saturday's shoot was done in Egan's basement. Egan's house borders a football field, and when when the shoot was done, an announcement was made and the following video was recorded.
I also heard Terry Funk caught wind of the epic undertaking which was finishing shooting the movie. He was so proud and was telling every one "We did it...We did it kids, we did it!" Im sure theres video floating around out there.
Note: Saturday's shoot was done in Egan's basement. Egan's house borders a football field, and when when the shoot was done, an announcement was made and the following video was recorded.
I also heard Terry Funk caught wind of the epic undertaking which was finishing shooting the movie. He was so proud and was telling every one "We did it...We did it kids, we did it!" Im sure theres video floating around out there.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
FINALLY
Remember the date kids, November 22nd 2008. This is the biggest day for us so far in the world of Lawson. After just over two years, numerous roadblocks, lack of money, plenty of doubters, technical difficulties, headaches, personal doubt and lack of motivation (for me sometimes anyway), and constant nagging from our rabid three fans wanting to know when the hell this thing would be finished, we finally finished shooting last night as mentioned in the two previous posts.
The last scene was fittingly enough the most physically draining, and mentally draining for me personally. It was the climax between the Chief and Reeses issues coming to a head. How it's going to look cut together is anybodies guess but all I know is after it was finished it was very rewarding to know our hardwork has finally paid off. Unfortunately for me though, there was no jubilant celebration for me at all as the physical demands, cold and filthy basement, and general exhaustion had me take a trip up to the good old emergency room to get a double treatment for my good friend Asthma. I've never been in a colder, more dust filled basement than the one below Egans parents house. Black snots and black goo being hacked up, an inhaler that became pretty useless by nights end and more physical activity than my 200 pound, out of shape aging body is accustomed to. No longer am I the slim and sexy, athletic, and "invincible" 16 year old that I wish I could still be. Instead I am an aging, fattening, hypocondriac that is in pain and winded from the simplest tasks like lifting the toilet seat. Needless to say, when this is finished and the "Lawson riches" come into our bank accounts, I will be an absolute dive and demand the Arnold Sfhwarzennegger treatment and insist on having a stunt double, and not worry about doing my own fights or stuntwork.
The rewarding part of it all for me personally, is knowing that myself, John, Tommy, Egan, Kyle, Abdi, and Lianne, and even the smaller roles from Jesse, Rory, and All the Asians were done all by us. We had very little help at all (thanks Ted, Alicia, Mohammed, Maggie etc for locations) and for all of our hard work, this has been an amazing experience in movie making, friendship, and facing adversity. We held out hope, we've persevered through a ton of horse shit, people backing out and numerous other issues to finish something really special to me and to everybody else involved. To all our fans and supporters, and everybody involved, a sincere thank you is in order and a round of applause for all of you. You were all big helps and without you all and your patience and willingness to sacrifice Friday and Saturday nights for a project that seemingly would never end is awesome. Thanks
Whatever happens with the movie, be it ten people see it or ten million see it, love it or hate it, at least you'll all know the hard work and time, and virtually no money that went into it was a fun learning experience for us. For those movies out there that are considered "low budget" while have millions of dollars at their disposal, and even the ones with 5/10,000 dollars. That's 5,000 more dollars than we had when we started. We used the little money we spent (I'd honestly say in two years the movie cost a whopping 2,500 dollars total give or take). So all people saying you need a ton of cash to make a movie, eat my ass. You need fun people who have sort of an idea how to do stuff, and a crew of people who want to have fun doing it.
In the famous words of RapMaster Reese
"suck my fuckin dick yo!"
The last scene was fittingly enough the most physically draining, and mentally draining for me personally. It was the climax between the Chief and Reeses issues coming to a head. How it's going to look cut together is anybodies guess but all I know is after it was finished it was very rewarding to know our hardwork has finally paid off. Unfortunately for me though, there was no jubilant celebration for me at all as the physical demands, cold and filthy basement, and general exhaustion had me take a trip up to the good old emergency room to get a double treatment for my good friend Asthma. I've never been in a colder, more dust filled basement than the one below Egans parents house. Black snots and black goo being hacked up, an inhaler that became pretty useless by nights end and more physical activity than my 200 pound, out of shape aging body is accustomed to. No longer am I the slim and sexy, athletic, and "invincible" 16 year old that I wish I could still be. Instead I am an aging, fattening, hypocondriac that is in pain and winded from the simplest tasks like lifting the toilet seat. Needless to say, when this is finished and the "Lawson riches" come into our bank accounts, I will be an absolute dive and demand the Arnold Sfhwarzennegger treatment and insist on having a stunt double, and not worry about doing my own fights or stuntwork.
The rewarding part of it all for me personally, is knowing that myself, John, Tommy, Egan, Kyle, Abdi, and Lianne, and even the smaller roles from Jesse, Rory, and All the Asians were done all by us. We had very little help at all (thanks Ted, Alicia, Mohammed, Maggie etc for locations) and for all of our hard work, this has been an amazing experience in movie making, friendship, and facing adversity. We held out hope, we've persevered through a ton of horse shit, people backing out and numerous other issues to finish something really special to me and to everybody else involved. To all our fans and supporters, and everybody involved, a sincere thank you is in order and a round of applause for all of you. You were all big helps and without you all and your patience and willingness to sacrifice Friday and Saturday nights for a project that seemingly would never end is awesome. Thanks
Whatever happens with the movie, be it ten people see it or ten million see it, love it or hate it, at least you'll all know the hard work and time, and virtually no money that went into it was a fun learning experience for us. For those movies out there that are considered "low budget" while have millions of dollars at their disposal, and even the ones with 5/10,000 dollars. That's 5,000 more dollars than we had when we started. We used the little money we spent (I'd honestly say in two years the movie cost a whopping 2,500 dollars total give or take). So all people saying you need a ton of cash to make a movie, eat my ass. You need fun people who have sort of an idea how to do stuff, and a crew of people who want to have fun doing it.
In the famous words of RapMaster Reese
"suck my fuckin dick yo!"
Take that, Axl!
Hello, friends!
As John said, we shot the last scene we needed to do yesterday. I was unfortunately at work for most of it, so I can't give you too many first hand details. But if it went as well as the rehearsals from the morning, then it is going to be a really good movie fight.
Not only is it very exciting that we have no more scenes to shoot (barring any additions or reshoots we deem necessary), we finished one day prior to the release of Chinese Democracy. The jokes and comparisons have been made over the past couple of years since our movie has been taking forever. But whatever. We at least finished shooting before Chinese Democracy came out. And since that mythic monster actually came out, it should be reassuring to you, the Lawson-fan, that our movie will be ready for a viewing someday soon!
In other news, at 11:00 o'clock tonight some of us will be interviewed on a web radio show. Check it out live at this site:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/triadstudios
or check out MJ's myspace page where the shows are posted:
http://www.myspace.com/triadstudiospresents_mj
I'm sure we'll cover any number of topics about our movie and the show may accept call-in questions (though I'm not 100% sure of that), so get your questions ready. We want to hear from you guys. Or at least listen and be there in spirit. It should be fun.
Thanks for reading and please check us out tonight on MJ's radio show.
-Tommy
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson will get his free Dr. Pepper today. Thanks, Axl!
As John said, we shot the last scene we needed to do yesterday. I was unfortunately at work for most of it, so I can't give you too many first hand details. But if it went as well as the rehearsals from the morning, then it is going to be a really good movie fight.
Not only is it very exciting that we have no more scenes to shoot (barring any additions or reshoots we deem necessary), we finished one day prior to the release of Chinese Democracy. The jokes and comparisons have been made over the past couple of years since our movie has been taking forever. But whatever. We at least finished shooting before Chinese Democracy came out. And since that mythic monster actually came out, it should be reassuring to you, the Lawson-fan, that our movie will be ready for a viewing someday soon!
In other news, at 11:00 o'clock tonight some of us will be interviewed on a web radio show. Check it out live at this site:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/triadstudios
or check out MJ's myspace page where the shows are posted:
http://www.myspace.com/triadstudiospresents_mj
I'm sure we'll cover any number of topics about our movie and the show may accept call-in questions (though I'm not 100% sure of that), so get your questions ready. We want to hear from you guys. Or at least listen and be there in spirit. It should be fun.
Thanks for reading and please check us out tonight on MJ's radio show.
-Tommy
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson will get his free Dr. Pepper today. Thanks, Axl!
shooting, done
About four or five hours ago we finished shooting the last scene for the movie. We're all super excited, happy, dirty, proud and tired.
Barry showed us all another scene that he just finished editing. (he posted a screen grab from it last weekend) Its truly fantastic. Moves the story along nicely and is full of hilarious vulgarity.
In between us all choking to death in the horribly dusty Egan family basement we watched a video we made years ago. It was entertaining but pretty sloppy. Since we made that movie we've all gotten older and fatter, but we still have the same goofy sense of humor. (and a little more talent) Lawson: White Heat is going to be a full length, well done version of those fun movies we used to make in one night, quickly and with in camera edits 5, 7 or 10 years ago. And its going to be great!
-johnk
Barry showed us all another scene that he just finished editing. (he posted a screen grab from it last weekend) Its truly fantastic. Moves the story along nicely and is full of hilarious vulgarity.
In between us all choking to death in the horribly dusty Egan family basement we watched a video we made years ago. It was entertaining but pretty sloppy. Since we made that movie we've all gotten older and fatter, but we still have the same goofy sense of humor. (and a little more talent) Lawson: White Heat is going to be a full length, well done version of those fun movies we used to make in one night, quickly and with in camera edits 5, 7 or 10 years ago. And its going to be great!
-johnk
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Picture
I thought this would be a funny one to post while I am editing. I found it about ten seconds ago and laughed at it.
Click to enlarge it
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Dumb Video
So as some of you may or may not know... Actually you all know because the people who read this are the people I speak to anyways. After the movie is done, I am going to be working on a bunch of sketches, skits, dumb shit, and dubbing of old UWA matches. The idea is to have a "variety web tv show" with a wrestling federation as the main focal point. The beauty is we never have to do anything physical because of the old footage we have, and all of the new stuff will be done in a round about way. Should be tons of fun!
Here is a second teaser for the show
Here is a second teaser for the show
Monday, November 10, 2008
some news
We were invited to be guests on an Internet radio show to plug the movie and chat and crap. Once details are solidified I will post the info and the three fans we have can tune in and chat.
We took the weekend to plan our final shoot. This is our first ever attempt at a movie fight. Some of us have experience fake fighting and choreographing fights from our younger UWA days so we have an idea of what we are doing. I can't tell if this will be easier or harder for a few reasons. Before it was literally one camera and one chance to do everything in front of a live crowd. Now we can re set stuff that doesn't work the first time and do multi angle gimmicks. For me personally I like the one chance as it makes it more pressure filled to do things, but I am also liking the idea of being able to be safe and not hurt myself like I have in the past.
As far as the post production activities go, I am editing. Capturing video is the worst part about it. We are working on merchandising and promotions so if people have hints ideas or interest I. Helping make sure to get in touch
We took the weekend to plan our final shoot. This is our first ever attempt at a movie fight. Some of us have experience fake fighting and choreographing fights from our younger UWA days so we have an idea of what we are doing. I can't tell if this will be easier or harder for a few reasons. Before it was literally one camera and one chance to do everything in front of a live crowd. Now we can re set stuff that doesn't work the first time and do multi angle gimmicks. For me personally I like the one chance as it makes it more pressure filled to do things, but I am also liking the idea of being able to be safe and not hurt myself like I have in the past.
As far as the post production activities go, I am editing. Capturing video is the worst part about it. We are working on merchandising and promotions so if people have hints ideas or interest I. Helping make sure to get in touch
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Two More Shoots To Go!
Hey, all you Lawson-Fanatics!
As the two of you may know, we are rapidly approaching the end of this two year production. We are a tall stack of calender pages away from our original April '07 release date but it will be worth it when we are able to sit down with you and watch a well done micro-budget movie.
Last weekend we did one of the final three shoots. It was my last scene as Lawson and our last scene at our Whitman location. I'm sure if you go back and read older posts you will see that we have been "done with our Whitman location" several times, but this time I think we're really done with it. It was a pretty quick shoot. It was cold but luckily I got to dress in the Lawson garb which, as I learned over the summer shoots, is very warm.
The scene we were doing is the last one you will see in the movie. In addition to some continuity errors, you will get to see a pretty great looking prop that Kyle made. To say more might ruin the surprise. Another interesting tid bit of trivia to keep in mind when you see the final scene of the movie is that Commissioner Tunney was very drunk.
In other news, we had a meeting last night to go over a big fight scene we will be shooting soon. Seems like it's going to be good. Any of you who remember UWA will get a kick out of it. That will be our final shoot. So now comes the time when we need to consider how to deal with this movie being done. How, where, and when do we screen it? We are still going to have our big premiere and party of course, with all the fun and games as advertised. We are talking about different ways to make it available online for download and such. Seems like there are a lot of options of what we can do to actually have this movie be seen by some folks. We'll see how all this unfolds as the months go by.
There are some additional promotional things I would still like to shoot so don't be surprised to see me post another blog later on about how I put the retired Lawson costume back on to do a short commercial or PSA. They will be fun to do, but actually finishing the movie itself is the priority right now.
Thank you for sticking around while we make this thing and thanks for reading!
-Tommy
PS: We are doing our Second Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest! Email us a picture of your Lawson: White Heat-related jackolantern by Halloween night, and if it's is the best one you will win a FREE DVD!
Check out last year's winner and an entry from this year's contest:
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT: In the 1989 movie, The Punisher, Dolph Lundgren uses the same shotgun as Lawson during the Fun House gun fight. Lawson has always been an inspiration to low budget action heroes.
As the two of you may know, we are rapidly approaching the end of this two year production. We are a tall stack of calender pages away from our original April '07 release date but it will be worth it when we are able to sit down with you and watch a well done micro-budget movie.
Last weekend we did one of the final three shoots. It was my last scene as Lawson and our last scene at our Whitman location. I'm sure if you go back and read older posts you will see that we have been "done with our Whitman location" several times, but this time I think we're really done with it. It was a pretty quick shoot. It was cold but luckily I got to dress in the Lawson garb which, as I learned over the summer shoots, is very warm.
The scene we were doing is the last one you will see in the movie. In addition to some continuity errors, you will get to see a pretty great looking prop that Kyle made. To say more might ruin the surprise. Another interesting tid bit of trivia to keep in mind when you see the final scene of the movie is that Commissioner Tunney was very drunk.
In other news, we had a meeting last night to go over a big fight scene we will be shooting soon. Seems like it's going to be good. Any of you who remember UWA will get a kick out of it. That will be our final shoot. So now comes the time when we need to consider how to deal with this movie being done. How, where, and when do we screen it? We are still going to have our big premiere and party of course, with all the fun and games as advertised. We are talking about different ways to make it available online for download and such. Seems like there are a lot of options of what we can do to actually have this movie be seen by some folks. We'll see how all this unfolds as the months go by.
There are some additional promotional things I would still like to shoot so don't be surprised to see me post another blog later on about how I put the retired Lawson costume back on to do a short commercial or PSA. They will be fun to do, but actually finishing the movie itself is the priority right now.
Thank you for sticking around while we make this thing and thanks for reading!
-Tommy
PS: We are doing our Second Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest! Email us a picture of your Lawson: White Heat-related jackolantern by Halloween night, and if it's is the best one you will win a FREE DVD!
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT: In the 1989 movie, The Punisher, Dolph Lundgren uses the same shotgun as Lawson during the Fun House gun fight. Lawson has always been an inspiration to low budget action heroes.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The End is Near
One down, Two to go.
We are down to our final two shoots thank god. After two years of blood sweat and tears. Mixed in with some piss shit here and there the end of this long journey is finally upon us. Finishing this is going to be such a load off my back personally. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of learning on the job. I suppose the only way to get better at this type of thing is to keep doing it, so after the movie premiers and is of course loved by all, I will feel like a seasoned veteran having this experience under my belt.
There are obvious flaws, inaccuracies, inconsistencies (some of which we are well aware of) but that's fine. I can honestly say I am pretty thrilled with how things are turning out. I will be completely honest about the fact that things are far exceeding my expectations, and probably everybody elses.
We still have a little bit of work left, and then I will be doing everything I can to get the post work finished in a timely manner.
One huge lesson which I've mentioned numerous times before...
PRE PRODUCTION IS A HUGE DEAL! Had we given ourselves more time this wouldve been done a while ago.
The other, I am taking a long break from doing a full blown action movie after this. I think a nice raunchy sexy comedy is on tap.
We are down to our final two shoots thank god. After two years of blood sweat and tears. Mixed in with some piss shit here and there the end of this long journey is finally upon us. Finishing this is going to be such a load off my back personally. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of learning on the job. I suppose the only way to get better at this type of thing is to keep doing it, so after the movie premiers and is of course loved by all, I will feel like a seasoned veteran having this experience under my belt.
There are obvious flaws, inaccuracies, inconsistencies (some of which we are well aware of) but that's fine. I can honestly say I am pretty thrilled with how things are turning out. I will be completely honest about the fact that things are far exceeding my expectations, and probably everybody elses.
We still have a little bit of work left, and then I will be doing everything I can to get the post work finished in a timely manner.
One huge lesson which I've mentioned numerous times before...
PRE PRODUCTION IS A HUGE DEAL! Had we given ourselves more time this wouldve been done a while ago.
The other, I am taking a long break from doing a full blown action movie after this. I think a nice raunchy sexy comedy is on tap.
Monday, September 29, 2008
What a weekend
So there are about 35 scenes in the movie, give or take a couple. You know how these things go where things get cut, shortened, lengthened and what have you.
Today we finished one that was on our list for the past two years. One that we said we would hold off on until we were just about finished with the movie. Today was that day, and we have 2, MAYBE 3 days left of shooting! HOLY SHIT!
I wanted to put up a bunch of screen shots and all that jazz, but I've had a long weekend, took a long nap, and haven't put the new footage on the computer. I am still pumped, and will make sure to put some shit up tomorrow to go along with this post.
until then, this is for Egan, Tommy, John and Kyle. This is just a little tease for something I want to get going once the movie is finished.
Today we finished one that was on our list for the past two years. One that we said we would hold off on until we were just about finished with the movie. Today was that day, and we have 2, MAYBE 3 days left of shooting! HOLY SHIT!
I wanted to put up a bunch of screen shots and all that jazz, but I've had a long weekend, took a long nap, and haven't put the new footage on the computer. I am still pumped, and will make sure to put some shit up tomorrow to go along with this post.
until then, this is for Egan, Tommy, John and Kyle. This is just a little tease for something I want to get going once the movie is finished.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
DVD Screener
I put together what I have edited onto a DVD for a screening over the weekend. There are some scenes with temporary music, there are unfinished scenes, and there are definately scenes that need some audio touch ups (considering we use one mic, and it is a shotgun on the top of the camera) but overall it gives everybody a pretty good idea of how the movie is turning out.
Egan, Koziol, Tommy and Lianne have all taken a look and it got all positive feedback. I am pretty excited seeing it all FINALLY coming together. It has been a long time coming and thankfully its on the cusp.
In October of 2005, we goofed around for one of the weekend competitions and came up with "The Force"
Fast forward to the Summer of 2006 and we all felt we needed to take things up a notch, and finally work on something serious. Not just a three minute sketch or anything using a camcorder. We wanted to actually have a script and do it like a "real" movie.
Fleshed out ideas, and we had a script we were happy with in July. We took our time getting going, needed a warehouse for our grand finale (which on this date two years later we STILL don't have), and we needed to plan on when to get started.
Early October we finally got going and were literally breezing through scenes. Had a ton edited, got a rough teaser done for Xmas and we were REALLY confident that if things kept going at that pace, and our location came through, a Spring 07 release was beyond doable.
Here we are again in the present, and now it is about damn time it's coming together. I couldn't be more excited to be honest.
I am actually putting together little promo packs FINALLY for select people to get a little screener with two or three scenes and shit like that. Mini posters, promo pictures. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to send one to Sara, the poster designer months ago but shit has been crazy. Considering I assume she doesn't read this, it will be a big surprise when it finally shows up at her place.
Either way, I felt it was necessary to update people so as to keep this blog going. Especially since it will be more of a ghost town once it is out for everyone to see.
I will be back with more this weekend as Saturday we are knocking off yet ANOTHER big scene in the movie. Thank god!
After that we have two things that can be done in a day, and a big old school fist fight scene and THATS IT!!! WHOOOOO!!!!
To celebrate, we are going to go on a nice road trip
Egan, Koziol, Tommy and Lianne have all taken a look and it got all positive feedback. I am pretty excited seeing it all FINALLY coming together. It has been a long time coming and thankfully its on the cusp.
In October of 2005, we goofed around for one of the weekend competitions and came up with "The Force"
Fast forward to the Summer of 2006 and we all felt we needed to take things up a notch, and finally work on something serious. Not just a three minute sketch or anything using a camcorder. We wanted to actually have a script and do it like a "real" movie.
Fleshed out ideas, and we had a script we were happy with in July. We took our time getting going, needed a warehouse for our grand finale (which on this date two years later we STILL don't have), and we needed to plan on when to get started.
Early October we finally got going and were literally breezing through scenes. Had a ton edited, got a rough teaser done for Xmas and we were REALLY confident that if things kept going at that pace, and our location came through, a Spring 07 release was beyond doable.
Here we are again in the present, and now it is about damn time it's coming together. I couldn't be more excited to be honest.
I am actually putting together little promo packs FINALLY for select people to get a little screener with two or three scenes and shit like that. Mini posters, promo pictures. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to send one to Sara, the poster designer months ago but shit has been crazy. Considering I assume she doesn't read this, it will be a big surprise when it finally shows up at her place.
Either way, I felt it was necessary to update people so as to keep this blog going. Especially since it will be more of a ghost town once it is out for everyone to see.
I will be back with more this weekend as Saturday we are knocking off yet ANOTHER big scene in the movie. Thank god!
After that we have two things that can be done in a day, and a big old school fist fight scene and THATS IT!!! WHOOOOO!!!!
To celebrate, we are going to go on a nice road trip
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
And they're off!
So I am settled into my new place after about 2 months of living out of boxes and not being able to do much in the way of editing. I got a lot of rewrites and scene polishing done in that time for the last few scenes we are doing. The original ending to the movie has been changed drastically. Overall, the entire tone of the movie is completely different now than when we starting working on it. What started out as our attempt to do a serious, gritty cop drama, has turned into what we know best, and it is ridiculous comedy, perverted humor, offensive insults, and our always improving attempts at some serious action/effects.
Now that I am settled (which I will take pictures of my sweet set up once I am finished making my little studio look good and post em up here so people can see where I do the "movie magic" and edit, do music, blah blah blah.
Onto the editing spectrum:
It's been a while but I started back into it this weekend. Went back to an old unfinished scene, and noticed that a file of footage has literally vanished from my hard drive. I have to go back and reload a few minutes of a tape to fit it back into the timeline. Not only that, this is the one scene left that we need to head back and get reshoots on. It shouldn't take very long, but in the end it will be worth doing. Since I forgot we were doing that, I decided I would stop there and just move on to a completed scene. Now here I am at almost 2 in the morning, needing sleep so I can be nice and refreshed for work in the morning. PRONTO.
I am planning on going through all of the tapes and making a catlogue of them in case we ever dub the tapes or anything and see if any fans out there want to make their own cut of the movie. In theory we should have all these tapes logged and labeled and stored properly for these organizing reasons, but I am a busy guy, and this isn't my full time job and I don't have an intern to do it (unfortunately)
Needless to say, I have a full plate in front of me now as far as editing goes. In the time since I've been between houses, a lot of footage has piled up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just a time consuming thing, and something I don't think will help me out in the "I think I am getting carpal tunnel syndrome" from using the computer so much. That's lame.
Regardless, I WILL be back with another update in a few days to a week. Should have pics posted of my station, kinda do a LAWSON: CRIBS type deal and maybe I will post new screen shots and shit from this weekends big shoot. BIG SHOOT.
After this weekends shoot, there are 2 more BIG SHOOTS left. This is all shit for the finale that we've been discussing, laboring over, and pulling all of our hair out dwelling on. We've gone through so much trouble, so many cancelled locations, and plenty of time and tape working on the last half hour/45 minutes of this thing. This is the reason for delays, but now it's almost over! CAN'T WAIT!
As a momento to the old days, let's take a trip down memory lane, almost 3 years ago to be exact, and take a look at the silly 10 minute weekend whipped together video that inspired us to buckle down and do an actual legit version.
It is a strong possibility that this will be included on the DVD release of White Heat, sans copywritten music and shit, and touched up a bunch so it will be smoother so we can have a compare and contrast so people can see how we went from "THE FORCE" which is what it is, to the all out epic "WHITE HEAT" which I truly believe is going to impress a lot of people. Especially once our budget of pocket change, crew of under 5 etc. etc. comes out.
So enjoy the inspiration one last time as the horses make their way around the home turn, and the release of WHITE HEAT finally nears.
LAWSON: THE FORCE
Now that I am settled (which I will take pictures of my sweet set up once I am finished making my little studio look good and post em up here so people can see where I do the "movie magic" and edit, do music, blah blah blah.
Onto the editing spectrum:
It's been a while but I started back into it this weekend. Went back to an old unfinished scene, and noticed that a file of footage has literally vanished from my hard drive. I have to go back and reload a few minutes of a tape to fit it back into the timeline. Not only that, this is the one scene left that we need to head back and get reshoots on. It shouldn't take very long, but in the end it will be worth doing. Since I forgot we were doing that, I decided I would stop there and just move on to a completed scene. Now here I am at almost 2 in the morning, needing sleep so I can be nice and refreshed for work in the morning. PRONTO.
I am planning on going through all of the tapes and making a catlogue of them in case we ever dub the tapes or anything and see if any fans out there want to make their own cut of the movie. In theory we should have all these tapes logged and labeled and stored properly for these organizing reasons, but I am a busy guy, and this isn't my full time job and I don't have an intern to do it (unfortunately)
Needless to say, I have a full plate in front of me now as far as editing goes. In the time since I've been between houses, a lot of footage has piled up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just a time consuming thing, and something I don't think will help me out in the "I think I am getting carpal tunnel syndrome" from using the computer so much. That's lame.
Regardless, I WILL be back with another update in a few days to a week. Should have pics posted of my station, kinda do a LAWSON: CRIBS type deal and maybe I will post new screen shots and shit from this weekends big shoot. BIG SHOOT.
After this weekends shoot, there are 2 more BIG SHOOTS left. This is all shit for the finale that we've been discussing, laboring over, and pulling all of our hair out dwelling on. We've gone through so much trouble, so many cancelled locations, and plenty of time and tape working on the last half hour/45 minutes of this thing. This is the reason for delays, but now it's almost over! CAN'T WAIT!
As a momento to the old days, let's take a trip down memory lane, almost 3 years ago to be exact, and take a look at the silly 10 minute weekend whipped together video that inspired us to buckle down and do an actual legit version.
It is a strong possibility that this will be included on the DVD release of White Heat, sans copywritten music and shit, and touched up a bunch so it will be smoother so we can have a compare and contrast so people can see how we went from "THE FORCE" which is what it is, to the all out epic "WHITE HEAT" which I truly believe is going to impress a lot of people. Especially once our budget of pocket change, crew of under 5 etc. etc. comes out.
So enjoy the inspiration one last time as the horses make their way around the home turn, and the release of WHITE HEAT finally nears.
LAWSON: THE FORCE
Monday, August 11, 2008
Finally an update
Over the weekend we finished up on most of the ridiculous special effects of the movie. It was a VERY long day of shooting, with a lot of different gags and incidents going on in one scene.
There are 24-26 scenes in the movie. There are plenty of locations, characters, gun fights, violence, comedy and all that hopefully you'd want. When all is said and done, I am expecting that the movie is around 90 minutes, give or take. When we set out to make a feature, I am sure people assumed we were just clowns messing around and doing nothing serious. To be honest when we started, I dont think even we realized exactly how intense, how legit, and how good this thing would be turning out.
Throughout the entire shooting process of the movie, I have done numerous rewrites and made plenty of changes to the original script. Honestly, the comparison to the original, and what we have now is crazy. Its a lot tighter, better dialogue, more consistency with the story, and literally about 40 pages longer than the original. I have a copy or two lying around of the original, so when we become huge, famous movie producers and directors and all that jazz, those puppies will be collectors items huh?
SIKE!
Anyhow, we have 3 or 4 things left, and I have plenty of editing and post to do as well. Almost finished... Almost.
One hold up for me personally as far as the editing process goes is the fact that I am literally in between living spaces as we speak, and have been for over a month. This weekend that changes and I will be FINALLY in my new place with a sweet ass set up/mini studio for editing, shooting, and music. CANT WAIT!
There are 24-26 scenes in the movie. There are plenty of locations, characters, gun fights, violence, comedy and all that hopefully you'd want. When all is said and done, I am expecting that the movie is around 90 minutes, give or take. When we set out to make a feature, I am sure people assumed we were just clowns messing around and doing nothing serious. To be honest when we started, I dont think even we realized exactly how intense, how legit, and how good this thing would be turning out.
Throughout the entire shooting process of the movie, I have done numerous rewrites and made plenty of changes to the original script. Honestly, the comparison to the original, and what we have now is crazy. Its a lot tighter, better dialogue, more consistency with the story, and literally about 40 pages longer than the original. I have a copy or two lying around of the original, so when we become huge, famous movie producers and directors and all that jazz, those puppies will be collectors items huh?
SIKE!
Anyhow, we have 3 or 4 things left, and I have plenty of editing and post to do as well. Almost finished... Almost.
One hold up for me personally as far as the editing process goes is the fact that I am literally in between living spaces as we speak, and have been for over a month. This weekend that changes and I will be FINALLY in my new place with a sweet ass set up/mini studio for editing, shooting, and music. CANT WAIT!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, June 06, 2008
Some stuff
I just finished a scene last night. It came out pretty good in my opinion. This was one of those extra scenes added on after shooting began. There have been a few of these additions made to the movie, as I felt we needed more explanation, story progression and character development.
The initial script I literally threw together in under a week. While it is full of jokes and funny scenarios, it was missing some things. I didn't have time for a rewrite because we wanted to jump right into shooting, therefore some things could be improved on. So, as we've gone along I've come up with additions and changes to make things more complete, and I think some of the newer stuff is even better than what's in the original script.
So a word of advice from the experiences I've had so far. DO NOT rush into shooting your movie. As excited, motivated, and as ready as we were to start and finish in two months, quality is taken away when you rush, and unless you have a legitimate budget and cast and a shooting schedule, be prepared to be dissapointed when the movie winds up taking much longer to finish than your initial timeframe.
For the fun of it, here's another screen cap from the movie, so you can see a few lab workers hard at work making batches of white heat.
The initial script I literally threw together in under a week. While it is full of jokes and funny scenarios, it was missing some things. I didn't have time for a rewrite because we wanted to jump right into shooting, therefore some things could be improved on. So, as we've gone along I've come up with additions and changes to make things more complete, and I think some of the newer stuff is even better than what's in the original script.
So a word of advice from the experiences I've had so far. DO NOT rush into shooting your movie. As excited, motivated, and as ready as we were to start and finish in two months, quality is taken away when you rush, and unless you have a legitimate budget and cast and a shooting schedule, be prepared to be dissapointed when the movie winds up taking much longer to finish than your initial timeframe.
For the fun of it, here's another screen cap from the movie, so you can see a few lab workers hard at work making batches of white heat.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Two Week Update
Hey, friends!
We are continuing a pretty productive streak. Last weekend we took another chunk out of the ending with some gory effects. They didn't work as well as I would have liked but we can always try again. Who knows, maybe it will look alright on camera and still be usable. We didn't get as much done as we set out to do last week but we did add a new scene to the ending which I like a lot. It helps you see how much of a bad guy Dy-Lan Badi is and where his head is at during this part of the movie. It's a cool scene.
This morning we did another section of the ending. It was an interesting shoot because it involved pacing for suspense, special effects, and a few camera tricks. Rich did a very good job portraying a coke head on the run from our deadly hero. Plus, he shaved his beard into a scummy, Lemmy-esque mustache. John did a really cool prosthetic effect for the scene using gelatin and fake blood. This afternoon might be scrapped due to the weather, but at least we got some stuff done this morning.
Thanks to Rich and Owen for coming out and helping us out. And thanks to you for reading!
-Tommy
We are continuing a pretty productive streak. Last weekend we took another chunk out of the ending with some gory effects. They didn't work as well as I would have liked but we can always try again. Who knows, maybe it will look alright on camera and still be usable. We didn't get as much done as we set out to do last week but we did add a new scene to the ending which I like a lot. It helps you see how much of a bad guy Dy-Lan Badi is and where his head is at during this part of the movie. It's a cool scene.
This morning we did another section of the ending. It was an interesting shoot because it involved pacing for suspense, special effects, and a few camera tricks. Rich did a very good job portraying a coke head on the run from our deadly hero. Plus, he shaved his beard into a scummy, Lemmy-esque mustache. John did a really cool prosthetic effect for the scene using gelatin and fake blood. This afternoon might be scrapped due to the weather, but at least we got some stuff done this morning.
Thanks to Rich and Owen for coming out and helping us out. And thanks to you for reading!
-Tommy
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Progress and hold ups
Hey, all you White Heat addicts!
Yesterday John, Barry, and Egan shot a lot of good stuff for a montage that will be in the movie. The Chief walking his beat and looking cool while on the trail of Dy-Lan Badi (that's not a sentence). I had to work so I missed most of the montage stuff, but we planned on doing another part of the end scene after I got out. It fell through, unfortunately, since the actor we needed for the scene was nowhere to be found. Hopefully he's alright wherever he is. You know, so we can find him and kill him (in the movie, not in reality).
Next weekend is a pretty elaborate scene involving a ninja and some gross blood and guts that will hopefully get done. If that doesn't happen we do have some contingency plans on hand. We're working at a pretty good pace nowadays and it's exciting. This movie's going to be sweet!
Thanks for reading
-Tommy
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson has killed 11 people in the past two weeks.
Yesterday John, Barry, and Egan shot a lot of good stuff for a montage that will be in the movie. The Chief walking his beat and looking cool while on the trail of Dy-Lan Badi (that's not a sentence). I had to work so I missed most of the montage stuff, but we planned on doing another part of the end scene after I got out. It fell through, unfortunately, since the actor we needed for the scene was nowhere to be found. Hopefully he's alright wherever he is. You know, so we can find him and kill him (in the movie, not in reality).
Next weekend is a pretty elaborate scene involving a ninja and some gross blood and guts that will hopefully get done. If that doesn't happen we do have some contingency plans on hand. We're working at a pretty good pace nowadays and it's exciting. This movie's going to be sweet!
Thanks for reading
-Tommy
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson has killed 11 people in the past two weeks.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Another Successful Shoot
Happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there. Yesterday we started early and worked into the late night putting together a great scene. We built a pretty convincing set, in my opinion, between the scenery and the costumes. There was a drug lab of sorts that appeared to be bad guy quality control. It looked sexy. There were a few scientists and of course a few ski-masked scumbags that end up having a run in with Lawson. Thanks to Tim, Evan, Jesse, and everyone else who came and helped, sacrificing a Saturday to help us get this movie finished.
In addition to being in the scene, Tim was taking some "on set" pictures that should be surfacing soon. They look really cool. The scene had a little bit of everything that you would want from an action movie: guns and assorted weapons, bloody special effects, hilariously vulgar trash talk, interesting camera shots, and more. Aside from bare breasts and explosions, this scene covers some serious action movie bases.
I'd go into more detail about the effects, but for now I don't want to give away many of the gags you'll see in the finished movie. Just know that bad guy lives were ended fantastically and brutally. Justice was served. Served hard.
Yesterday was also Egan's birthday. So if you see the Chief in your travels be sure to wish him a happy (belated) birthday.
I'm probably forgetting a bunch of things I wanted to write. I'm tired and it's late. Remember to call your mother. I'm trying to think of something clever to write about mothers or mother's day to end this but all I can think of is the scene in Death Wish where Kersey's wife gets murdered. "Mother's getting the shit kicked out of her . . . "
Good enough.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
LAWSON FUN FACT: Lawson recommends hollow point bullets as a fine gift for Mom.
In addition to being in the scene, Tim was taking some "on set" pictures that should be surfacing soon. They look really cool. The scene had a little bit of everything that you would want from an action movie: guns and assorted weapons, bloody special effects, hilariously vulgar trash talk, interesting camera shots, and more. Aside from bare breasts and explosions, this scene covers some serious action movie bases.
I'd go into more detail about the effects, but for now I don't want to give away many of the gags you'll see in the finished movie. Just know that bad guy lives were ended fantastically and brutally. Justice was served. Served hard.
Yesterday was also Egan's birthday. So if you see the Chief in your travels be sure to wish him a happy (belated) birthday.
I'm probably forgetting a bunch of things I wanted to write. I'm tired and it's late. Remember to call your mother. I'm trying to think of something clever to write about mothers or mother's day to end this but all I can think of is the scene in Death Wish where Kersey's wife gets murdered. "Mother's getting the shit kicked out of her . . . "
Good enough.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
LAWSON FUN FACT: Lawson recommends hollow point bullets as a fine gift for Mom.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Checking In
Since this blog is always dead, I try to give updates every so often.
We have made significant progress since I last posted. I am pretty excited about where we are at, even though we are at a minor crossroads as the equipment we've been borrowing is going in for routine cleaning and crap.
Egan and myself got together last night to plan the next action sequence and story board it out. We are pretty happy and pretty excited about it. Should be pretty cool. We filled Tommy in on the action and he liked it. Pretty exciting stuff.
Been editing some more stuff, trying to catch up on what has been shot already. Been busy with classes and writing, but it's over now so I can get back to business and edit some crap.
Looking good though, looking good.
We have made significant progress since I last posted. I am pretty excited about where we are at, even though we are at a minor crossroads as the equipment we've been borrowing is going in for routine cleaning and crap.
Egan and myself got together last night to plan the next action sequence and story board it out. We are pretty happy and pretty excited about it. Should be pretty cool. We filled Tommy in on the action and he liked it. Pretty exciting stuff.
Been editing some more stuff, trying to catch up on what has been shot already. Been busy with classes and writing, but it's over now so I can get back to business and edit some crap.
Looking good though, looking good.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
These Boxes Are For Action Packing
Hey there.
We just spent the morning shooting some fun stuff. The ending is underway and Lawson is going after the bad guys in a maze of boxes full of drugs. I don't want to say too much about the scene, but it was a fun time and it feels good to be moving forward. We are probably shooting some more tonight. Definitely looking forward to it.
Here's a picture from after we finished shooting and I was out of costume:
Pretty sweet! I just had a chance to watch the footage that left me in that state and it's awesome. I am really happy with it.
That's it for now. Maybe one of us will update with some of today's details after we do more tonight.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT:Lawson is a blood fueled killing machine.
We just spent the morning shooting some fun stuff. The ending is underway and Lawson is going after the bad guys in a maze of boxes full of drugs. I don't want to say too much about the scene, but it was a fun time and it feels good to be moving forward. We are probably shooting some more tonight. Definitely looking forward to it.
Here's a picture from after we finished shooting and I was out of costume:
Pretty sweet! I just had a chance to watch the footage that left me in that state and it's awesome. I am really happy with it.
That's it for now. Maybe one of us will update with some of today's details after we do more tonight.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
TODAY'S LAWSON FUN FACT:Lawson is a blood fueled killing machine.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Hey yo!
We had a meeting last night, and we scheduled a good amount of crap to be done in the next 2 weeks or so. If all goes planned, we will have eliminated 2 rooms of the finale in 2 weeks time. I am very excited at the prospects of this as it brings us a few steps closer to our ultimate goal, finishing this movie FINALLY for a Summer Screening. I personally can't wait for this, as we have been working on this since October 2006, so we are coming up on a year and a half in a few days.
In other news, the editing front is coming along slowly at the moment. I just recently got a new computer for my birthday, and I have been swapping programs to it and being distracted by a few other things (finishing my script for a class), but since I am able to have some time now, I hope to have some new stuff to be shown pretty soon.
I am also buying a portable keyboard, and a MAC drum machine program so I can get busy on doing some more music for the movie. Needless to say, there is still plenty to do, but we are still so close to being finished. While I am here, I will post this joke video that has multiple Egans in it. This was to see if I could do this kind of thing, and while not perfect, it is pretty good.
In other news, the editing front is coming along slowly at the moment. I just recently got a new computer for my birthday, and I have been swapping programs to it and being distracted by a few other things (finishing my script for a class), but since I am able to have some time now, I hope to have some new stuff to be shown pretty soon.
I am also buying a portable keyboard, and a MAC drum machine program so I can get busy on doing some more music for the movie. Needless to say, there is still plenty to do, but we are still so close to being finished. While I am here, I will post this joke video that has multiple Egans in it. This was to see if I could do this kind of thing, and while not perfect, it is pretty good.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Poster Art Update!
Hi!
The other day Andy Amato sent us a picture of his drawing for the poster. This drawing shows us the format of what his upcoming painting will be. I'm pretty excited about it and I can't wait to see the painting. I was debating whether or not to post the drawing here because I want the painting to be a nice surprise that we can unveil to you all when it's finished. But I couldn't resist giving you just a little taste . . . a little tease . . . a little Coffeestache . . .
So cool.
This weekend we are hopefully shooting some of the ending stuff. I am pretty excited about it. I had felt a little creatively burnt out for awhile but lately I am feeling rejuvenated and inspired. This movie will knock your socks off!
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson has put more men underground than shovels.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
The other day Andy Amato sent us a picture of his drawing for the poster. This drawing shows us the format of what his upcoming painting will be. I'm pretty excited about it and I can't wait to see the painting. I was debating whether or not to post the drawing here because I want the painting to be a nice surprise that we can unveil to you all when it's finished. But I couldn't resist giving you just a little taste . . . a little tease . . . a little Coffeestache . . .
So cool.
This weekend we are hopefully shooting some of the ending stuff. I am pretty excited about it. I had felt a little creatively burnt out for awhile but lately I am feeling rejuvenated and inspired. This movie will knock your socks off!
Today's Lawson Fun Fact: Lawson has put more men underground than shovels.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
New Artwork
Hi friends!
We're still hard at work on making this movie the best it can be. Should be pretty sweet! Making movies isn't just pointing a camera at some folks and having them say a few things. Sure those are the basics, but there are also alot of other thing which go into a movie that are taken for granted. Things like music and advertising artwork are as much an important part of the process as the rest. A movie that is well done but has inapproiate music or a terrible poster won't float (especially a low budget indie movie that won't be shoved down your throat by a bombardment of TV and billboard ads, regardless of what it is about). Think of how different The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would have been with if the soundtrack was old ragtime piano. How successful would the Lord of the Rings movies have been if the poster was a fat geek reading a copy of Return of the King while eating a meatball sub?
Basically my point is that other elements go into a movie that help represent it as much as the script and the footage itself. The music in the trailers has helped set the tone for the movie and the posters help give you an impression of the movie before you even get to see it. First impressions are important. Which is why you notice (hopefully) that our poster is cool.
So after all of this babble I'll get to my next point, the main reason I'm writing this. In addition to the cool poster made by Sarah, Boston artist Andy Amato has agreed to work on a painted movie poster. Everyone who is helping us out along the way is putting in a lot of hard work and I get pretty excited with each new picture, poster, rough cut scene, and piece of music we encounter. Mr. Amato sent me these two sketches that he was "messing around with:"
I can only imagine how cool the end result will be. And you know what this means? A painting of Chief Coffeestache is on the way!
So we'll have Sarah's poster, representing the modern sleek action movie look, and Mr. Amato's poster, representing the old-fashioned traditional movie poster of the actioners we grew up on. It's the pairing of these elements that makes Lawson: White Heat what it is.
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
Today's Lawson Fun Fact:
Lawson is a work of art!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Screen Shots
Here are a few of the screen shots from this weekend. There are more pictures loaded onto the myspace page.
Myspace.com/lawsonwhiteheat
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Weekend Update
Where to start. The other night 2 sneak peak clips were posted on youtube. Threw a couple bulletins up on myspace just so people know they are there. Didn't want to over do it and send a bulletin every ten minutes, so it was just a few the whole weekend. The feedback has been all positive. People saying they knew it'd be good, but it far exceeded expectations. It looks like a real movie. Impressed with the angles and all that stuff. Needless to say, it made us all feel pretty good. Thanks to everybody that watched, liked or disliked, and gave us feeback on the movie.
Yesterday we had a day of shooting. We had three things on our schedule, but due to a time issue in meeting with the second crew of actors, we got two done. Thankfully we got the harder of the three done, as the other will take about twenty minutes and we can do it any night of the week.
What we shot yesterday was a sweet police briefing and a disturbance call for the cops to check out. I will post some screen shots later tonight after I have digitized the footage. It was a lot of fun, and it was the most people we've had in one day to help with the movie if I remember correctly.
Special thanks to Al Ravage and Eli, Debruyn, Doug, Bill "Flanigan", Abdi, Jerry, William, and John, in addition to us buttheads. It was a very productive day, and hopefully all that shit comes out good. We are pretty sure we got everything we need, but I just have the tendency to worry that we missed something, mainly because we don't have storyboards and we shoot on the fly. This is all such a good learning experience and tool for us, that we already know the do's and dont's when we work on our next movie when the Lawson period is through.
Check back later tonight and we will have some caps up.
Barry
Yesterday we had a day of shooting. We had three things on our schedule, but due to a time issue in meeting with the second crew of actors, we got two done. Thankfully we got the harder of the three done, as the other will take about twenty minutes and we can do it any night of the week.
What we shot yesterday was a sweet police briefing and a disturbance call for the cops to check out. I will post some screen shots later tonight after I have digitized the footage. It was a lot of fun, and it was the most people we've had in one day to help with the movie if I remember correctly.
Special thanks to Al Ravage and Eli, Debruyn, Doug, Bill "Flanigan", Abdi, Jerry, William, and John, in addition to us buttheads. It was a very productive day, and hopefully all that shit comes out good. We are pretty sure we got everything we need, but I just have the tendency to worry that we missed something, mainly because we don't have storyboards and we shoot on the fly. This is all such a good learning experience and tool for us, that we already know the do's and dont's when we work on our next movie when the Lawson period is through.
Check back later tonight and we will have some caps up.
Barry
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
New Screenshots
This past weekend we shot an add-on scene for the movie (I swear the add on scenes are longer than the original movie). This was our first test to see how the basement location looks as far as warehouse space. Using movie magic, camera trickery, and different props, we intend to get as much mileage as we can out of the couple basements we are using. We had a very productive weekend and got a good scene done in short time.
Here are some pictures from the shoot:
This upcoming weekend we have a solid days worth of shooting. We have three important scenes to shoot, and once they're finished, literally we are in the home stretch, FINALLY!
It's going to take a little more time, but you can literally taste the finish, and see some light at the end of the tunnel. All this hard work and stress is going to be so worth it once we premier the movie. Can't wait!
Barry
Here are some pictures from the shoot:
This upcoming weekend we have a solid days worth of shooting. We have three important scenes to shoot, and once they're finished, literally we are in the home stretch, FINALLY!
It's going to take a little more time, but you can literally taste the finish, and see some light at the end of the tunnel. All this hard work and stress is going to be so worth it once we premier the movie. Can't wait!
Barry
Saturday, February 02, 2008
First Poster
This poster for the movie was done by our good friend Sara. I personally think its pretty damn cool seeing a poster for what we've been working on for a while. I love it, cant wait to get a nice copy of it for my wall and stuff. There might be alternate posters on the way too cause some other folks offered to try it out as well, so people will be able to have Lawson posters to wallpaper their rooms.
AH YAH!
Barry
Monday, January 14, 2008
HAHAAAA!!!
Barry here, giving an update from the editing aspect of the movie. I just finally finished one of the most tedious parts of the movie. The scene involves a crime scene investigation, which is an integral part of our story, and it is a funny one. The only problem is, it was so hard to put together smoothly due to certain factors out of our control (bad location audio, and certain consistency flubs), but all in all it came out pretty good all things considered. I dont know why it was such a pain in the ass, but something about it took me forever to finish it.
I've gone back over some older scenes that are finished and color corrected, and audio corrected them to make em look and sound premium. I am not in the midst of piecing together two more finished scenes, then I have to go back and voice over and put music to a TV watching part in the movie. All in all things are finally back on track and going well.
I sent Egan a ton of screen caps (which you can also see on the myspace page), so he can work on putting them on the website. I have seen the layout and have given my input and agreed on the less is more aspect for the site, and from what I have seen, I am pretty happy about it.
I know we have said this a million times before, but we really are closer and closer to finishing this movie with each passing day. Although the process has been tedious, time consuming and at times very frustrating, it has all been worth it. One motivating factor for me personally at the moment is the school film festival. Last year we won for best trailer with the short teaser, and theres nothing more that I would like, than to have the movie finished for this years and try to win more shit.
I believe the deadline for submissions is sometime in late march/early april, so theres a goal we can TRY to reach. Doesnt mean it is going to happen, because as I've learned from shooting this thing, obstacles do appear, and theres nothing you can do about it. It'd be fantastic to be able to submit it and see what happens, but if it doesn't, at least its a motivational factor to kick ass on this bitch the next two months.
More soon.
BARRY
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The site + more.
Over the last two weeks or so, I have been working on designs for the Lawson: White Heat website. We decided to scrap the other site for a couple reasons, one of which was I was not happy with the way it was starting to look. I felt it was generic, and cluttered at the same time, without any real sort of good content. This time I took a new approach to designing the pages. I went simplistic, but attractive. The designs I have so far look good, but you aren't bogged down with too many images, or just to much random shit on each page like before.
I have the designs for the top level page(Which I will post a preview for soon), the First tier of content pages, and some of the second tier. The site isn't going to go beyond 3 tiers of pages(homepage, first tier, second tier) All the content, and then some, can fit perfectly into that structure. I created a Photoshop file of each page first. Once I am done with my last two pages, I am going to turn them into HTML. I am still yet to decide on a switch board system yet. I am thinking most likely(without getting to technical) all the pages will run through a central file that will pull the content files for that page, I will then use something to make the page URLs look nice, instead of URL parameters floating around everywhere. I don't think this site is complex enough to require any sort of database content management system, even a light one, that I write myself. No need to spend the time on it if that is the case.
I've spoke with a friend from work and he is going to alter a flash player we have, and I am going to use that for all the videos on the site. I feel it looks a bit more professional to have your own media player, or one not branded by another company. I know other people are fine with using Youtube, and I would be, if getting a new media player wasn't so easy. Also, that way, we can embed the videos into Myspace, other pages, just like before, instead of linking to Youtube, it can link to a page on the Lawson site, generating more traffic back to the Lawson site.
Barry is getting some screen caps for me over the next couple weeks, and the site will feature various screen caps from the movie. You can see your favorite people in action(by favorite people, I mean the Chief, of course). Each major character will have their own page, which will have in-action screen caps, photos from the photoshoot, and potentially a little video, with either them in-action, or partaking in some funny antics that is not in the movie.
Overall, I think the site is going to look good, it will also become a great landing place for people looking for information about the movie. Currently, we have this blog, which sure, it's got good information, but it's all in post form, and stuff moves below the fold and to archive pages pretty quickly. The site will have all the information anyone would need right there, and it would not be hard to find. Unfortunately, I don't have an estimated release date for it, but I can tell you this, it will be done before the movie for sure.
Speaking of the movie, I can't wait to get it done. Recently, the anticipation has been building again, and I'm just at the point where I want to get it done so everyone can see it. I hope people haven't been getting frustrated with the fact we aren't done yet. Though, I am sure everyone working on the movie will tell you two things, It is hard fucking work making this movie, and we haven't forgotten or given up on it. If you were once excited for the movie, get excited again. If you are still excited, thank you for your patience. The movie will be coming soon. I truly believe it will meet, if not surpass your expectations. At least I know it has already surpassed mine. We have some shoots set up, as well as some prep work for the big finale. With all the set backs we have had over the last six or so months we have really come a long way, and are ready to get this done.
I'm also excited to see the poster when it is done, hopefully soon, so we can plaster them everywhere in Boston, hopefully. I know we have been looking into getting postcards to hand out(kinda like club promoters, right Barry?). I really want to spread the word of the movie. I truly think people are going to enjoy it. Overall, I just want people to see it. I personally don't care if we make a dime off of it, it would be nice, but if we don't, I had a great time making a great movie, and that alone is worth doing it.
I have the designs for the top level page(Which I will post a preview for soon), the First tier of content pages, and some of the second tier. The site isn't going to go beyond 3 tiers of pages(homepage, first tier, second tier) All the content, and then some, can fit perfectly into that structure. I created a Photoshop file of each page first. Once I am done with my last two pages, I am going to turn them into HTML. I am still yet to decide on a switch board system yet. I am thinking most likely(without getting to technical) all the pages will run through a central file that will pull the content files for that page, I will then use something to make the page URLs look nice, instead of URL parameters floating around everywhere. I don't think this site is complex enough to require any sort of database content management system, even a light one, that I write myself. No need to spend the time on it if that is the case.
I've spoke with a friend from work and he is going to alter a flash player we have, and I am going to use that for all the videos on the site. I feel it looks a bit more professional to have your own media player, or one not branded by another company. I know other people are fine with using Youtube, and I would be, if getting a new media player wasn't so easy. Also, that way, we can embed the videos into Myspace, other pages, just like before, instead of linking to Youtube, it can link to a page on the Lawson site, generating more traffic back to the Lawson site.
Barry is getting some screen caps for me over the next couple weeks, and the site will feature various screen caps from the movie. You can see your favorite people in action(by favorite people, I mean the Chief, of course). Each major character will have their own page, which will have in-action screen caps, photos from the photoshoot, and potentially a little video, with either them in-action, or partaking in some funny antics that is not in the movie.
Overall, I think the site is going to look good, it will also become a great landing place for people looking for information about the movie. Currently, we have this blog, which sure, it's got good information, but it's all in post form, and stuff moves below the fold and to archive pages pretty quickly. The site will have all the information anyone would need right there, and it would not be hard to find. Unfortunately, I don't have an estimated release date for it, but I can tell you this, it will be done before the movie for sure.
Speaking of the movie, I can't wait to get it done. Recently, the anticipation has been building again, and I'm just at the point where I want to get it done so everyone can see it. I hope people haven't been getting frustrated with the fact we aren't done yet. Though, I am sure everyone working on the movie will tell you two things, It is hard fucking work making this movie, and we haven't forgotten or given up on it. If you were once excited for the movie, get excited again. If you are still excited, thank you for your patience. The movie will be coming soon. I truly believe it will meet, if not surpass your expectations. At least I know it has already surpassed mine. We have some shoots set up, as well as some prep work for the big finale. With all the set backs we have had over the last six or so months we have really come a long way, and are ready to get this done.
I'm also excited to see the poster when it is done, hopefully soon, so we can plaster them everywhere in Boston, hopefully. I know we have been looking into getting postcards to hand out(kinda like club promoters, right Barry?). I really want to spread the word of the movie. I truly think people are going to enjoy it. Overall, I just want people to see it. I personally don't care if we make a dime off of it, it would be nice, but if we don't, I had a great time making a great movie, and that alone is worth doing it.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Lawson is a Goddamn Hero
Hi, friends.
Lawson has been recognized as a "GODDAMN HERO" by the Bay Area band Arnocorps! They really know their shit. Check them out here:
http://www.myspace.com/arnocorps
A picture of Lawson is featured in the photo album of "GODDAMN HEROES." Pretty cool.
Well, we better get back to finishing this bastard. More updates to come!
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
Lawson has been recognized as a "GODDAMN HERO" by the Bay Area band Arnocorps! They really know their shit. Check them out here:
http://www.myspace.com/arnocorps
A picture of Lawson is featured in the photo album of "GODDAMN HEROES." Pretty cool.
Well, we better get back to finishing this bastard. More updates to come!
Thanks for reading!
-Tommy
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