Day 3 Norbeck Pass June 5th

At the Norbeck Pass location just off of "Fossil Trail" in the Badlands, Producer Luke Schuetzel goes over the story boards with 1st Assistant Director Keilin Johnson. The Story boards on a film are basically sketched drawings of the imagined action in a scene. It's a good refernce point to quickly picture what the next shot/idea is. Everyone can use it to their advantage. D.P.s and actors as well see what the director has in mind and can readily go about creating the desired shot.

Here I lie dead in the grass.  This shot is only of my hand and Bertha as she prepares to remove the wedding ring from it.  This is part of the ritual burial that she plans for me.  Preparation for this scene was simple for me, just get my hand made up.  But oddly, I did need to consider "being there" as a character for her character.  And my "being there" was to allow her to fight with my hand to get that ring off.  I did this while, for the moment at least, feigning death. 
 
 

Director Andrew Kightlinger speaks with Park Ranger (Sorry, did not get the name.  Very nice woman though). When shooting with permit on any restricted area's the production staff is held responsible for any mishap or damage to the location. As this site is part of the National Park system, Rangers have visited the set often to check up on the progress of the production. We have been incredibly fortunate with the cooperation of the Rangers and the Park Service here. Not possible without their help.

                                                                                                                                                                

Not sure If this is me at the Okay Corale (sp?) or if I got lost looking for my car at the mall.This should give an Idea of the barren landscape of todays shooting.  If you look closely you can see actors and some crew members treking back and forth to the protective tent, set up for occaisional protection from the sun.

In this scene Julia, Mike Suarez (Boom), Nathan Hultz (seen behind Mike), Luke (Producer in the cowboy hat), and Scott Schulte (with the bounce card)  look on as Tristan and Mike McCoy prepare a shot where it needs to "appear" that Bertha is digging for a secret box.  No digging actually occured as it was National Park property, but they had to make it look like it was about to.  Actually fun to watch this process.

The bounce card that Scott is holding, is an important lighting feature to take available light, whether natural or generated and "bounce it" to where it suits the D.P. best.  These cards are many different colors and combined textures to get the desired effect.  Most are white or tin foil-esque.  Some are round and fold in on themselves too.  As an actor you will probably come across a time where someone may hold one of these things RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE!  Don't be alarmed.   These are people just trying to get you properly lit.  And amazingly....they're doing it with a piece of white cardboard.
Now THAT'S the movies!!