1 – I’ll never film in PA during Locust mating season, or whatever season that was that made them make so much damn noise.

2- When the script says “2 AM”, I will not shoot until the sun is down. As much as I can do with After Effects, I can’t make a 6:00 PM sun shining through a window look like a 2 AM moon.

3 – I will never NOT look at the view screen at least 3 times before saying “action”, making sure that I’m actually recording this time.

4 – I will not write the line “I have hit every obstacle you can imagine in FL” in script again, because that seems to have some sort of magical power that ends up making that line true. For the 90% of footage in Fan Film that is in the project, nearly all of it was shot in 48hours. The last 10% that takes place in Florida took 5 months to get done.

5 – I will never cut my hair before a shoot again. I had to have 2 more last minute hair cuts with screen caps in hand for re-shoots. I should have just kept it long. Although, being the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, and having a goatee, the pony tail would have made me 1 blue shirt away from looking like the “Comic Book Guy” in The Simpsons.

Now that we’re coming into the home stretch of “Fan Film The Movie” it’s time to pay a little more attention on these details to wrap everything up.

After a little time and focus, I was able to “fix” a couple of shots where we accidentally left the in camera “indoor shot” filter on when we moved outside.

Here’s some quick screen caps of the results (left side before, right side after):

You’ll probably notice it’s a bit of a departure from the “Star Wars” styles I’ve been working on up until now, long story short I didn’t want all the marketing material to look like “Fan Film” is an actual Star Wars Fan Film. I think this conveys the core elements pretty well: Star Wars, Homemade Movie Making, and low budget.

Re-writing these scenes thanks to my broken ankle went down to the wire. I wrote one scene on a note pad in the airport, David Smith came up with one scene while we were viewing the edited footage from the last shoot, and David, Chris Irons, and Dave Fox wondered into the woods on Saturday and improvised a scene that came out better than anything that could have been scripted.

Now all that leaves is the final Florida filming. Previously, we were awaiting my wife’s schedule to clear to shoot. As Murphy’s law would have it, her schedule is back to normal, and now we’re patiently waiting for my ankle to heal.

While I wait, it gives me time to figure out exactly what to do and what not to do in terms of releasing this monster project that’s starting to take on a life of its own.

Right, here’s the plan – though I expect it to change in the near future if not by the end of the day:

Fan Film: The Movie – edited and released and submitted to…

Fan Film: The Series – Edited and release a new episode each week for 6 weeks on this site (which there is a new site waiting on deck for these release, BTW)… These episodes will have additional scenes, extended footage, and episode specific special effects scenes that won’t be in the movie version. Each week we hope to have one of the actors from the project as a guest on the our podCast “The D-1-3 Show” to talk about that busy weekend.

Steve Bost’s Inside the Actor’s Cabin – Edited and released on this site.

Last but not least, in the ream of “Deleted Magic”, “Building Empire”, and “Return to Jedi”, I may put together a “Fan Film – Way Too Much Information Edition” DVD image with alternate takes, cut scenes, comments, etc and host a bit torrent for download.

But before the “Too Much Info” DVD, and after the series release, David and I will be back to concentrating on his solo project “Thacos Last Stand”.

We may even possibly film a sequel to 2:40 next month, but don’t hold your breath.

Chris Irons, Matt Hunsworth, Dave Fox, and Karen Hunsworth were in the audience as the actors while David Smith stood behind the camera capturing it all for a future featurette following the release of Fan Film.

Thanks again Steve, you were fantastic.

Visit Steve’s website at: stevenbost.com

So just to drive the point home – any filming I was hoping to get done while I’m visiting in PA this weekend will deffinately not have me in the scene unless it calls for me to stand completely still of sit down the whole time.

Didn’t I mention in an earlier post how unhappy I was that I had to go to Vegas in the first place?

Anyway, that somewhat screws up the re-shoots I’m flying up the PA to do this weekend.

Long story short, everything I had slated to do has to re-written to keep me in one place, or remove me completely.

If it wasn’t for a specific scene with me and Karen that David and I really want to re-film, I’d probably just send the equipment up and let David handle it – especially since at least 2 scenes we’re re-shooting are because I was working the camera and didn’t have it recording.

Ugh. Oh well, I’m still looking forward to the trip – really, that’s not sarcastic. I’m also looking forward to being wheeled to the front of security at the airport.

As far the shoots for Orlando – My wife ends her marathon night shifts with her currently project next weekend. Fine, great, everyone’s available to film. That is except me because I can’t walk without the aid of crutches. I’ll give it until thanksgiving before I panic and start re-writing those scenes as well.

Oh, the ankle? Well, long story short – I stepped off a pathway in a construction area at our Vegas property and turned my ankle so far sideways that the tendon pulled a good chunk of bone off my tibia.

Apart from the technical experience I’m picking up doing this project, here are a few things I’ve learned:

1. Never, EVER, record audio when there are locusts present.
2. I can’t act.
3. Dave and Chris, can act – well. And are hilarious!
4. Shooting in 1080i is awesome. So much room to work with to get rid of that pesky boom mic that keeps coming into shot.
5. When you write “INT: Dining Room. Night” you sure as hell better film at night.
6. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make any part of my house look like my parents house.
7. Adobe products are awesome, however, windows still sucks.

Eh, there’s probably some other stuff about working with a camera and boom mic and other useful stuff I’ve learned too, but those are what stand out.