DreamStalker Films

Welcome DreamStalker Films fans and anyone visiting the site for the first time!

First, I’d like to update everyone on the Public Service Announcement that we have been working on with Boy Scout Troop 87 about not texting while driving.  The project is going amazingly well, especially considering the short amount of time that there has been to work on it at this point.  It has only been about a month since we first broke down the concept.  We finished the pre-production in a week and a half, shot the film in one weekend and two weeks later we have a third take at a rough cut that is pretty close to a finished cut.  You can see it here.

Second, a quick update on Slayer Wars 3.  Day 8 was completed amidst the shooting for the PSA.  This finishes up all of the “graveyard” shooting.  We should be getting back to shooting in the early part of January.

Another quick update on DreamStalker Films’ current projects before I am too bombarded to make any updates at all…

Since the last update, we have completed 2 more shooting days of Slayer Wars 3.  These two nights completes the first full scene in the film.  We got a lot of really good looking shots and tried a lot of new camera moves.

Up Next this coming Saturday evening will be the eighth shooting day in which we’ll be getting some pick-ups, reshoots, and a short new sequence for the graveyard scenes.  This will be our last shooting day for 2009 so as to not interfere with anyone’s holiday schedules.

Also this weekend we’ll be shooting a brand new project… something we have never done before, a Public Service Announcement (PSA).  This is being sponsored/produced by Nick Benzer (Ni-Que Renn in Slayer Wars) and his Boy Scout troop.  The PSA is about Driving and Texting.  We’re on a tight schedule with this project and you will all likely be able to see it up here on dreamstalkerfilms.com and on YouTube.  We are also hoping to have it air on the local public cable channels, so stay tuned.

Finally, I have been slaving over Slayer Wars 2 for the last couple of weeks.  First, I got the film cut down another ten minutes (which clocks it at about 80 minutes) and the pacing is much better.

Second, I have been working on a new full trailer for the film.  Our original teaser was made after only three shooting days of the film (and one night filming shots only for that teaser).  So this time we have all the footage from the film to cut from.

I’ll be working on this new trailer for awhile, though, as there are many shots that need visual effects.  I do hope to have it up here in the early part of 2010.

Another shooting day completed on Slayer Wars 3 finally after a several week hiatus for “Down and Out” and scheduling conflicts.  I have begun looking at the new footage and it looks like we should have most if not all of the shots we need for all of the graveyard scenes. Thanks to everyone that came out and made that happen.

I’ll be cutting the footage together and making a decision on whether we’ll need pickups at that location or not in the next few weeks.

You can check out more pictures from the newest graveyard shoot on the DreamStalker Facebook page here.

We have about five more shooting locations for Slayer Wars 3, and I expect at least 3-5 more shooting days before the end of 2009, but have not decided what we’ll be shooting next, yet.

Stay tuned for more news on DreamStalker Films.

Hey everyone just a quick update.

“Down and Out” had it’s first premiere last night at the A3F One-Shot Film Festival.  Unfortunately as we did not make the top 20 our premiere was at 6:30 pm.  Not many people got notice of this and therefore missed it.  Nonetheless we had a very good turnout and the film seemed to have a positive response.  Since the top 20 were shown at 8, there was some time for some Q&A with the directors of the Honorable Mention films (the ones that did not make top 20).

I was the first up and answered some technical questions as well as some fun ones (like how many times did Derek get slapped?

The top 20 were very enjoyable for the most part and my hat is off to all the teams that made it into that group and to Minus Mitchell Productions for their much deserved best film award.  A3F will be posting those top twenty on their site in the next few days…

But you don’t have to wait for “Down and Out” because it is live now.  Click here to go to the “Down and Out” page and take a look.

Just a real quick update… The film that we shot for the A3F 48 Hour Film Challenge last weekend,”Down and Out,” will be premiering with the 26 other films that met the 48 hour deadline.  The Festival on Wednesday October 21st, 8pm, at AMC Arizona Center 24

565 North 3rd St.
Phoenix , AZ  85004

So if you’re going to be in the area, come by and bring your friends.  Tickets tend to sell out for this event so if you want to get your ticket early, purchase one on the A3F site here.  Tickets are $8 for an adult, $6 for a student.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Another weekend of filming completed, but this time, not on Slayer Wars.  This weekend we competed it A3F’s 48 hour One-Shot Film Challenge with 29 other teams.

The fun began with a mixer in Phoenix on Friday night.  At the end of the gathering they revealed the details for the 48 hour films.  They needed to be one continu0us shot of 1-3 minutes (that part we already knew), needed to have a specific line of dialogue, theme, and prop.

To make a long and sleepless story short, we did it!  We completed the film fulfilling all the requirements and actually with a few hours to spare.  I don’t think it is the best film we have ever done and I am somewhat concerned with whether or not it will be seen as a comedy when we were going more drama (you’ll understand when you see it), but I am extremely proud of all of the cast and crew for all of their hard work and support.

We should be hearing back on whether we got into the top 10 or not by the end of the week.  The top 10 will be screened on October 22nd at the A3F Festival.  If we make it, I hope everyone can try to make it, I know it’s a Thursday night…  But if not, the film will be available here on dreamstalkerfilms.com after the festival!  In the meantime you can check out some further details on the film, “Down and Out”  on it’s new page here.  Also, there are more pictures from the set on the DreamStalker Films page on Facebook.

Welcome back Slayer Wars fans!  Just recovering from a long, and very busy weekend of shooting Slayer Wars 3.  The weekend started with the final part of changing my hair for playing Jedu in the final film.   As has been always planned, Shannon (Buffy) shaved my head on Friday… and, well… it is WEIRD.  I’m getting used to it, but the look I was going for is great and thankfully I do not have some goofy shaped head, as it turns out.

Early Saturday morning began day three of production.  We began shooting a very early scene in the film that takes place in a cemetary.  We shot in a park with styrofoam gravestone stand-ins.  Thanks to Laura, Alanta, Shannon, and Scotty for getting up and out there so early so the lighting would be right as we are shooting this day for night.  This picture has been tweaked to look more like it was night time as will the footage we shot.

Moving on we completed the Jedu’s Nightmare sequence we began awhile back when I had all that hair.  Thanks Matt for showing up to stand in for Dark Jedu’s arm.  It seemed like you enjoyed strangling me a little too much, though.

After a nice nap, Scotty, Shannon, and myself went to Phoenix to shoot all of Jedu’s Place shots up at Scotty’s place.  After some shots and some reshots because I forgot I was supposed to not have a left hand in the third film, everything went off really well and we even got a few quick extra shots of Buffy and a vampire for a transition in Slayer Wars 2!  Thanks, Scott for letting us shoot there, the place was perfect.

Sunday, Shannon, Matt, and myself got up even earlier to get back to the park and film another scene in the cemetary that takes place after the one we started the day before.  This was my favorite scene to write and one of Jedu and Buffy’s only scenes together in Slayer Wars 3.  We completed the shoot in record time thanks to rehersal (Practice DOES make perfect!  Who knew?  Thanks Shannon for doing so well with the material.)  I am very pleased with how the footage has turned out for this so a big thanks to Shannon and Matt for getting up so early and doing that.

Now, I am working to get all of the recent footage backed up this week and catch up on some needed sleep as I am likely to not sleep very much next weekend.  Friday night is the kickoff for the 48 hour film competition DreamStalker Films is competing in.  I really hope everyone has remembered to keep themselves available for at least this coming Saturday (Oct 10) as that will be the day we will be shooting.  I’ll need as much help as possible both in front of and behind the camera.  Look forward to working with you all on it!

OK, so it’s been a busy few weeks and it’s only going to get busier, so I will try to put up another post after the next couple of days of shooting, but it’s possible nothing will be up until after the 48 hour film competition that DreamStalker Films will be participating in October 9-11th.

That being said, here’s the rundown of what has happened the least couple of weeks.  We wrapped principle photography on Slayer Wars 2, as I posted last time.  Unfortunately, due to some technical problems with a few shots, we had two more nights of pickups on that final scene.  Good news is, the rough cut is now looking really good and feels like the whole thing is really coming together now.  Officially Slayer Wars 2 is in Post Production and I am continuing the visual effects on the Caldrin and Jedu scene currently as we move aggressively into Production of Slayer Wars 3.

On Saturday 9/19, major preparation for Slayer Wars 3 finally happened after seven years… I cut my hair.  As many people know I was originally growing out my hair for Slayer Wars 2, of course this is when we were going to start filming in 2004!  So now there are flashback scenes that need to be placed in the second film, and very pivitol ones in the third one that connect all three films together.  So, I needed my hair cut back to the way it was 10 years ago.  Do I look 10 years younger though… judge for yourself.  Here’s a rough edit of the first part of the haircut special feature I’ll be putting together:

Filming on Sunday, 9/20, we shot the final two sequences for Slayer Wars 2, flashbacks that had to be added to the Slayer Wars 3 schedule.

Continuing later that evening, we shot the first night of flashbacks that take place during the first film.  Some of these shots were direct replacements of ones I wanted to cut back to from the first film, but as there was a major casting change from the first film to the second and third, we reshot.  I also took the opportunity to expand on some moments that bugged me from the first one, and hopefully anyone who’s seen the first will laugh at these expansions.

Here are some comparison shots:

Buffy did you change your hair?

Jedu-Khr, your hair looks great, but what about that second chin?

September 26th, we shot the final night of the flashbacks.  More expansion of events from Slayer Wars 1, and some new experimentation on shooting that I hope works out the way I intend.

Another haircut is in store next for me.  This will happen this Friday (and yes more footage will be added), as I have intended for Jedu to be bald (a little Lex Luthor, I know) in the final film.  Now that the flashbacks are done, onto that we go.  Day 3 and 4 will include a Graveyard, Jedu’s Hideout, and the final shots for Jedu’s Nightmare.  Contact us if you want to help or get a part in Slayer Wars 3 or the upcoming 48 hour film project (shooting October 10th).

Principle photography on Slayer Wars 2 is complete!  After nearly a year of shooting the first of two Slayer Wars sequels, the last scene, which is actually one of the first scenes in the movie, has finally been filmed.

It was one of the most complicated scenes to set up and shoot for several reasons and kept getting delayed over and over during production.  Namely, we needed a specific costume that the entire scene was based around, a dress.  The dress, along with some other costumes, were set to be specially made by a friend a couple of months before production began, but in the end did not come due to some health issues over the past year.

Plan B was to have Chrissy Palmer, our new Darth Empiric, put together the custom dress.  Unfortunately due to several circumstances she had less than a week.  We got her the pattern and materials but found out too late that the pattern was not going to work.

Plan C: Chrissy ran to Savers and bought several options and came by my place for me to choose.  So finally, with 48 hours to spare, we had a dress.  I sent Chrissy back to make a black sash for said dress and went back to scrambling everything else together.

Though, as usual, we did not have as many extras as I would have hoped and many of them were the same people we have used several times, thanks to Shannon Griffith (Buffy) and Laura Rappleye (Laura Luv) we were able to have a couple of new faces to this opening scene.  Thanks to Aaron “Fenyx” Clatone, Dori Perry, and Morgan Williams for showing up for the first night in front of the camera, and to all our regulars thank you for your continued support in these projects and putting up with all the drama (much of which comes from me directly).

Filming went really well for the most part and I appreciate everyone’s patience as there was quite a lot to get done and this was our first use of the new Dolly (thank you Derek!).

After capturing and reviewing briefly the footage on Sunday, I discovered that one shot we missed and two more were not usable.  So, on very little notice, Shannon, Matt Torrez, and myself ran back up to the set and did those pick ups.

I have edited about a third of the scene now and it looks really good.  Thank you all!

Moving forward, Slayer Wars 3 is ramping up for production.  Derek, Shannon, and myself met with Scott Kos (our music guy for all three films and Symon in Slayer Wars 2 and 3) and Eric Kask of Fume Entertainment (another local fledgling film company that will be joint producing Slayer Wars 3) on Sunday to begin breaking down the script for Slayer Wars 3.  We have nearly all of our locations figured out, a rough idea on casting new roles, and a list of costumes we’ll need.

The first official day of filming for Slayer Wars 3 (we have already shot the opener and half of another scene) will be on September 20^th, beginning with flashback sequences that take place between Slayer Wars 1 and 2, and some more elaborate looks at the end sequence for the first film (things that happened that we had not originally seen).  This is first on the docket as I’ll be cutting my hair down to the length it was in that first film to do these scenes, then, I will be shaving it all off, Lex Luthor style for the bulk of Slayer Wars 3.

Stay tuned for more news, photos, a new trailer for Slayer Wars 3, and site changes!

Saturday night was another successful night of shooting.  The sunset flashback sequence originally intended to be shot next week before the Dress scene was moved up with only about 24 hours notice.  This was decided to give us more time in preparation of the final scene to be filmed next time as we’ll need all the time we can get.

Thanks to Matt for being able to come and run the camera for this sequence… and Pete for coming with to take some wonderful pics like the one here.

Later on a small sequence was also shot at the laundry room in my apartment complex.  This is the final sequence to Jedu’s Demon Killing Spree.  The camera was unmanned and the sequence took very little time, but required a great deal of time and makeup to set up.  This is why this scene had to be shot after we finished with Darth Perfidious… had to be sure to have enough green (makeup that is)!

Next Saturday, the final shooting night for Slayer Wars 2!