Desolation In Production - DAY 5
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Welcome to Snooping Midget Productions Day Five Production Blog on the film Desolation, the first short film by Simon Molloy & Adam Huddleston.

With Loxton as the remote location for this days shooting we headed off at about 7:30 towards the Murray. A grueling 3 hour drive later we arrived at the property we were to shoot on. We celebrated our driving achievements and sparkling on road conversation with a few cold beers on arrival.

More than a few beers later we set off to inspect the hut we would be using for filming. The hut which is quite scary in broad daylight became our worst nightmare on arrival. Any house which has a built in slaughter room should generally be avoided at night.

Being the manly men we are though, Adam, Rob (our main character), Bruce (Adams Step-dad) and myself bravely ventured inside the house, exploring room after room of dank, musty, creature-filled scariness, myself armed with my camera with the built in light going at full power (to make sure the others felt secure of course). One of the rooms had a beehive being formed between the outer and inner windows creating a perfect cross section of a honeycomb structure with approximately 2000 bees crammed into the tight space. I have never experienced black as black as that house without lights on. Lets just say I almost required that second pair of underwear I brought.

From the hut we left to go cross country to the house where the three of us would be staying. Bruce & Adam left in their landcruiser ute, the four wheel drive rugged country vehicle making light work of the dusty unkempt track (if you can call it a track). In contrast, myself and Robert traveling in a late model Mitsubishi Lancer with bodykit struggled to both keep the vehicle on the road and avoid ripping the front spoiler off the car. Combined with our beer drinking and adventurous spirit, the drive became interesting to say the least.

We bunked down in the Jackeroos house for the night finally getting to sleep at about 4:00 in the morning, with Rob and Adam being brave and sleeping on the floor of the lounge room. I chose instead to sleep on a broken couch and spent half the night removing  the springs from my arse.

Needless to say we woke fairly tired at about 8:00 the next morning. After a quick 45 minute drive into Loxton we grabbed some makeshift breakfast and head back along the road to film some road shots of the car. Special thanks to Rob for thrashing the car and wasting all his fuel getting the car up to speed for the shots.

After finishing up with the highway scenes we headed back to Paruna to meet the other members of our makeshift cast. John DeCaux and his friend Alex met us at about 11 and we head to the hut to commence filming of what would be our final shoot. The day went quite smoothly, the heat staying down to a reasonable 34 degrees.

Some problems we faced was creating a small amount of fake blood which we did, with the help of John and Alex by combing honey, water and red food dye. It turned out quite effective.

Huge thanks must go out to John, Alex and Bruce who all came and really helped us out on the day. Bruce was a great sport supporting the boom mic for the majority of the 5 hours we shot. Lucky he's a farmer, us city folk would have pulled out after about 25 minutes. John and Alex really contributed greatly both acting and contributing ideas and suggestions. Thanks so much to them all.

Also thanks must go out to Bruce and Kerry who both welcomed our intrusion with open arms. Thank you very much for your hospitality.

So now its onto editing. We are going to 'go hardcore' and try and knock it over asap and we'll keep everyone posted.

Stay Tuned

Simon

Currently watching : Fahrenheit 9/11 Release date: 05 October, 2004

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Desolation In Production - DAY 4
Current mood: anxious
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Welcome to  Snooping Midget Productions Day Four Production Blog on the Film Desolation, the First Short Film by Adam Huddleston and Simon Molloy.

How do we start this Blog.. Let me just say "Sex Scene". I can hear all the guys out there going "Lucky Bastards", and all the women going "perverts". In this case I think the women have it. Though necessary for the film, the Filming of the Sex Scene was seriously uncomfortable. Even watching back the takes, and I mean takes.. I think there was about 20 of them... was uncomfortable.

Again problems arrose for todays shoot with the good old battery not being fully charged so that stuffed up a lot of the time management of the shoot. There was a lot of sitting around waiting for the battery to be charged enough so we could finish a scene.

I'd like to thank Brett and Liv for there use of there house again and there use of there bodies for the sex scene... haha

Other than the uncomfortableness of some of the scenes shot today, the overall filming went pretty well. Its really hard to judge how well our filming went when you watch it in 4:3 when it was filmed in 16:9. We have found this the biggest problem so far... Its a problem which kind makes you a bit dis-heartened, but once you see the footage in full quality and size the performances come to life and makes both me and simon feel a lot better about the film.

Todays shoot consisted of 4 scenes with about 15 different shots to make up the scenes. With a total of 2 hours being spent on filming, and 1 hour on waiting around and setting up.

With one more days shooting to go the film is coming together.. Although the next shoot will be the longest by far.. Seriously expecting a 15 hour day. But looking forward to it.

All photos from todays shoot can be found at
http://gallery.snoopingmidget.com

Say tuned

Adam

Next Days Filming Saturday the 24th of February 2007

Currently watching : October Sky (Special Edition) Release date: 25 January, 2005

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Desolation in Production - DAY 3
Current mood: artistic
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Our third day of filming began with an early start for us but not for the hot weather. By 9:15 the mercury had already reached 34 degrees and was only set to get hotter. We asked ourselves, "what better time to get dressed in black and wear a balaklava and fit 6 sweaty guys into a un-airconditioned outside toilet." After a rousing response from cast & crew we set to work filming from about 10am.

Our first issue arose on the trip to Cavan, where we filmed, when we realised we no longer had a third thug. After a quick call to a fairly well built friend of ours (Spencer), we were set to go.

Due to the cramped conditions and unforeseen circumstances we were forced to pen a few last minute script changes and invent new ways to get our pre-planned storyboards onto film. Rob (our main character) was a real trooper on the day, spending the majority of the time inside the cramped toilet block wearing woolen pants and a fairly stifling shirt.

With more hands on set than on the previous filming days we were able to concentrate more on the direction than the trivial things like concentrating on background noise etc. Special thanks to Abbie for all her help in sound and assisting with everything else and also for sweating it out in the mens toilet.

Also special thanks to our resident photographer Cedar Moon for taking countless, and i mean countless, production shots on the day, despite falling asleep for at least half an hour. All photos shown in this blog were taken by her.

With a total of approximately 16 seperate shots taken in the toilet, it was hard yakka surviving the 4 hours of intense heat. This shoot has been the biggest undertaking up to the time of writing. 

We are quite satisfied with the footage taken from todays shoot, even at times surprising ourselves with our dormant creativity.

All photos from todays shoot are available for viewing at
http://gallery.snoopingmidget.com

Stay tuned

Simon & Adam

Next Days Filming Wednesday 21st Feb 2007

Currently watching : The Da Vinci Code (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) Release date: 14 November, 2006

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'Winging It'
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Simon's First Blog.

I decided it was about time I posted a blog about our experiences up to this point. The feelings encountered when undertaking an activity like this with no former experience are overwhelming. The idea that we could just 'wing it' has really caused some major problems during filming. But i ask myself, how did everyone else start out.

 I think the major problem that both Adam and myself face is that we are not prepared to accept an average film. Given the circumstances and the experience we have, you may say we should be quite pleased if we release a film which is average or even borderline but unfortunately I don't believe that either of us set out to make a movie or to make a name for ourselves in average movies.

In my head the movie plays like a well-oiled machine. The camera shots and acting all run smoothly and with the precision of a man with a lifetime of experience in film. Unfortunately, the reality of filming brings me heavily back down to earth. The shots in my head are not possible on a zero budget. The actors, although doing a fantastic job for untrained amateurs, are no professionals and lighting and sound control has been frustrating to combat.

That said the whole experience is GREAT!!! I feel for the first time that i have found my vocation. Will post again soon.

Simon

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Desolation in Production - DAY 2
Current mood: happy
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Desolation in Production - DAY 2
Welcome to Snooping Midget Productions Second Blog on the Production of our short film Desolation.

Today meant an early start for Simon and myself,  we were shooting a garage seen at 8.00am in the morning... Great idea that was.

6:30am The day started off great with adam thinking that it was going to take a bit of time to get the scene setup..

Adam Driving pick up Simon at 6:30 in the morning.


Adams proof that it was bloody early

6:45am Arriving at Simon's he was pleased to see me, especially after a night on the piss.

Simon looking like shit.

7:00am We arrived at the set and got setup pretty quickly, not running into the same problems as last time. But a whole new lot.

7:10am We over estimated the time it would take to setup the set by about 50 mins. So there we were all set up with no actors until 8:00am.. Another great start.. So there is only one thing you can do at a time like that and thats get a macca's breakfast.

Simon Setting up the Camera and sound equipment


The gear that makes this film possible


The camera, with simon doing something in the background

8:00am rolled around and our main character showed up, but with the wrong car.. Problem number two rears its ugly head...  So we had to send him home to get his other car, luckily he only live 10 minutes away from this set.

8:30am All set to shoot, with actual actors to direct the film went off without a hitch. Still finding telling the actors what to do a little daunting but we're starting to get used to it.

Adam preparing Rob for the upcoming shot.

Simon working out the best camera angle for the upcoming shot.

The shooting time of today was 1 hour with a few hiccups, which we can fix for next time.But other than the waiting around the day went really well again..Its still a big learing curve.....

Stay tuned....

Adam

Next fiming Date: Saturday 17th of February 2007

You can view all the photos from this days shoot at http://gallery.snoopingmidget.com

Currently watching : South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut Release date: 23 November, 1999

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Desolation in Production - DAY 1
Current mood: excited
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Welcome to Snooping Midget Productions First Blog on the Production of our short film Desolation.

Today was our first day of shooting, we had a afternoon shot at a house in Grange, Adelaide for one of the scenes. Arriving at the location at 7:00pm we got underway pretty quickly but our progress what short lived. Two problems arose before we even began to shoot, one we forgot the digital camera for our  production shots, but the only problem with that, was that now our blogs will not have any photos for anyone to see... Not a huge problem.

Secondly the batteries for the camera were not charged, which wasn't going to be a problem as we were using the camera on mains power... Until we realized that running the camera off mains power stuffed up the sound... leaving us with a electric hum in the earphones...Not good.

With the light faultering we had to get underway, running the camera off a half charged battery.

Once started though filming went quite smoothly.. With an average of four takes per shot, which i think is pretty dam good for a untrained actor.
With only the first take of the afternoon including a unexpected shot of the boom mic. Oh also having trouble with a phone that wouldn't ring...

Other than that we found the whole expreience of the first day of shooting a entertaining one. With a number of problems that we can make sure don't happen again for our next shots. Its all a learning curve.

Stay tuned...

Adam

Next Filming Day Saturday 10th February 2007

Currently watching : Forrest Gump (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) Release date: 28 August, 2001

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