The Volunteer: Update #1

Finishing production was (and is) such a monumental achievement that for a second there, we let ourselves forget that we're only halfway there. At this stage, we're still thrilling at the footage we're seeing. All the hard work that our dedicated cast and crew put in is paying off on the screen and we're very gratified (and grateful!).

Here's a little update video to give you a peek into where we're at. Thank for your continued support!

Production Highlights

Well, we did it. We survived our gruelling production schedule - one that saw us shoot, on average, 3.28 scenes per day for 28 days.

There are no words to describe the gratitude we feel for the cast and crew who worked ridiculous hours and produced such satisfying results. It was amazing to watch a crew gathered from all over the world gel into such a cohesive unit!

Here are a few photographs from the shoot, captured by the brilliant Jonathon Bowman.

Brandon biking down the halls of the old cheese factory outside Wellesley, ON.  A great location, thanks for the hat tip, Murray Bender!

First Assistant Camera Ozvaldo Sepulveda and our young star Katy Adam.

The dynamite camera crew: (L-R) 2nd AC Alex Mielke, Director of Photography Christopher Schneider, Director Jonathon Steckley, Camera Operator Ben Barber, and 1st AC Ozvaldo Sepulveda.

Ben and Chris preparing for a push.

Prepping a scene, L-R: Andrew Cherry, Cheryl Lee, Ken Ogasawara

This is our Production Manager Trevor Hunsberger's parents dog, hogging the limelight,  surrounded by some of our brilliant cast.

Ken had to pretend to struggle to carry this mattress up the stairs so many times it became a real struggle.

There are many more photos and screen shots and you'll see them in good time!  

Jon is currently starting the arduous process of post-production, cutting rough scenes together. Eventually we'll need to raise some more cash to pay for sound design, a score, and colour grading, among many other things... stay posted!

And again... THANK YOU for everybody who has been supporting, encouraging, and praying for us during this epic journey.  We could not have made it this far without you.

Seeing RED!

Well, friends, it's been awhile since we've posted but that does not mean we've been resting on our so-called "laurels".

Since we (well, really, YOU) hit our fundraising goal at the end of May, we've been busy locking locations, wrangling camera, lenses, crew, and all the other pieces necessary to make an awesome movie!

The most exciting thing we've done so far is to take the RED ONE digital film camera for a test drive. For those of you who don't know, the RED ONE is a professional film industry camera that has been used to shoot masterpieces like The Social Network (skip to 0:54 mark to get to RED footage).

We packed in a full 16-hour day with a nearly full crew: 2 sound guys (boom + mixer), 3 camera guys, (Cinematographer, 1st Assistant Camera, 2nd Assistant Camera).

Here's our director Jon peering into the monitor of the RED ONE. On the monitor and in the background you will see Ken standing in a river, in Elmira ON.

What you can't see is that Ken mucked around in that water for about an hour and was thoroughly soaked by the end of it. When we came out of the river, a young guy wearing a camouflage mesh-back hat and a Three Wolf Moon t-shirt saw us, laughed, and said:

"You're not from around here, are you? I wouldn't step into that water unless I was wearin' hip-waders. You're gonna be glowing in the dark tonight!"

Apparently nobody thought to tell Ken that there was a chemical plant spill across the street some years ago and that nobody but foolish outsiders go swimming in that water. Awesome. Noting the panic on Ken's face, he added hastily, "You'll be fine, though... I'm sure."

Later on in the day we shot at our favourite location at Roadside Farm outside Wellesley, ON. Beautiful, filmic, friendly farmers, and lots of space and privacy.


Here's a sample screen grab from our day featuring Andrew Cherry.

(We've posted this image despite the fact that our DP, Chris Schneider, is not completely happy with his lighting in this shot. C'mon, Schnitz - it's looks pretty amazing for an ungraded test shot).

So - we learned a lot and are super super grateful for our crew for volunteering a FULL day with us. Shout outs to:

Sound: 
Luke Bennett (www.theredcarpetstudio.com)
Ian Reynolds

Camera:
Cole Bennett (www.colebennett.com)
Andrew Musselman (www.eclinmedia.com)
Christopher Schneider (imdb.com profile)

Y'all rock.

16,000 THANK YOUS!

	Dear friends, family, "volunteers", THANK YOU! Our 30 day online fundraising campaign to help fund the production of our feature film, The Volunteer, ended with a bang! You supported us to the point of overflowing... we reached our $15,000 goal with 9 hours remaining and you made the most of it! The final tally is $16,210!! And we're still getting cheques in the mail from people who want to support us! We can now get down to the nitty gritty of preparing for our month-long shoot in August. Lots of rehearsals, locations scouting, equipment scrounging, crew-building, etc. But knowing what we have to work with, budget-wise, is a huge load lifted off our minds and we thank you so much for your generosity. As the old saying goes, "It takes a village to raise an independent film." In closing, check out this video, we mean every word of it. Humbly, gratefully, sincerely yours, Jonathan, Trevor, & Ken
	To follow our progress, check out any of the following: - Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/roscofilms - Follow us on twitter: @roscofilms - website: www.roscofilms.com

Random Acts of In-Kindness

There is a reason why most people leave when the credits start to roll - there are a LOT of people involved in making a film and in fantasy-land where everybody gets paid what they're worth, that adds up to a LOT of money.  Money that most indie filmmakers don't have.

So how do we do it? Recently crowd-sourcing platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have been a boon for independent projects of all kinds.  We have our own campaign going (ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!!) if you're wondering what to do with all that pesky cash lying around.

But the REAL secret to making big things happen is the in-kindess, if you will, of others.

Just yesterday we got word that Conrad Grebel University College at University of Waterloo have provided us with one of their apartment units at a considerable discount to help us house our cast and crew!

Our crew will be super happy when they learn that though they will be working for free (in-kindness, holla!), they will be sleeping on real beds, not just on available floorspace like at a 24-hour Korean bathhouse:

And MCC Thrift Shops in our area have let us use their entire store as a prop house. Costume, furniture, anything that could be in a thrift store, it's ours for the using. That so incredibly in-kind of them!

This isn't even getting into our cast and crew who are donating huge amounts of time and talent to help make this production something we can all be proud of.

In other words: THANK YOU. To everybody who is giving cash, to the organizations and individuals who are pitching in to pull things together for us, we can't do this without you... and for a film about helping and community support, we wouldn't have it any other way!

#TrueStory - The car.

Yesterday afternoon Jon, Cheryl, and I were leaving the New Hamburg Thrift Centre with an armful of costumes for our film (thanks guys, you'll get your clothes back eventually!) and Jon said,

"Where in the world are we going to find a car for Becky and Rick?"

5 seconds later, we see this car in a parking lot:

One U-turn and 60 seconds later, we're talking with Paul, the friendly owner of this beauty and we've got a fantastic car for our two fantastic characters! Thanks Paul!

If only it were always so easy...

Why every filmmaker needs a great still photographer

A filmmaker's primary weapon of choice - generally speaking - is a film camera, for obvious reasons. We're all about the moving pictures here, and unless you're doing a stop-motion film, having a still photographer might not be at the top of your production priorities.

It should be.

We discovered just how valuable a good photographer is when we had our friend Jonathon Bowman on set to take some behind-the-scenes photos during one of our rehearsals. We are enormously grateful to have such talent with us! Thanks Jon!!

While the rest of us were busy critiquing the movement of an actor's eyebrow, or standing around deep in thought, trying to figure out how to make a scene work, Bowman was capturing fantastic candid moments:

Kaity Adam. Photo by Jonathon Bowman

Cheryl Lee. Photo by Jonathon Bowman

Colin Shantz. Photo by Jonathon Bowman

We've got Bowman's photographs all over our website, blog, and facebook page and man, does it look good.

Another practical reason for having a great photographer on set is that when preparing submissions for festivals, media releases, etc, a quality still photograph is essential for posters, articles and the like. So instead of sending them a screenshot - which never looks as good as a photograph - you can send them a properly composed and processed photograph.

I leave you with a gem from a recent photo shoot on location showcasing the lads of Rosco Films.
We will show this photo to each one of our cast and crew before shooting.

The message is simple: This guy is in charge.

Meet the cast: Kaity Adam

Kaity Adam on set rehearsal. Photo by Jonathon Bowman.

The youngest star of our ensemble cast, we're happy to introduce Kaity Adam in the role of Amy! She's starring in her first major role in a feature film and doing a fantastic job of absorbing, processing, and channeling a complex character. Good thing she's smart beyond her years (we wish we were!).

How Google Streetview Can Help Indie Filmmakers

Obvious statement alert! An integral part of making a film is finding and securing locations to shoot at. This process is called location scouting, and I'm told top-notch location scouts get paid upward of $3,000 a week** or more for their services.

That's a lot of money.

I don't know about you, but we certainly can't afford to forfeit our weekly coffee budget to pay some guy to drive around and take photos*.  As for scouting ourselves, we can barely afford the gas and time!  Enter Google Streetview.

From the comfort of your own slouchy desk chair, you can now walk the streets of nearly any city in the world. Again, this is nothing new, but think of the implications for filmmakers!

Hmm, if only I knew of a nice old farm to shoot at, preferably one where the home is up against the road - oh wait: there it is.

Hmm, if only I could find a cool-looking concrete-encased riverbed with a bridge over it - oh wait: there it is. 

Hmm, if only I could find a yard with a gigantic raw chicken in it - oh wait:

The list goes on. Technology can save indie filmmakers money AND enable them to stay slouched in their editing suites for even more time. And that's what filmmaking's all about: being creative.

*This is not an accurate summary of a professional location scout.


**I had first erroneously posted that the rate is upwards of $3K / DAY. Not so. That would be insane.

Meet the cast: Theodore Bouloukos

Coming all the way up from New York City to shoot with us, we're very excited to have Theodore on board. Theodore has a resume as thick as his beard and has been featured in films that have played all over the world. Theodore will be playing Rick, Amy's unstable and embittered father. We've checked out much of Theo's considerable reel and knew that he could act. Several Skype rehearsals later and we know that he's going to be absolutely sublime! Check out more of Theo at his facebook fanpage.

Meet the cast: Myra Segal

Myra from a previous role. "Hitchhiker" 

Coming all the way from Montreal, Myra is playing the role of Becky, Rick's girlfriend and Amy's wannabe step-mother. We recently had Myra come down to Kitchener for two days of rehearsals and she knocked it out of the park (as we knew she would)!

Stay tuned for more cast and crew introductions!

Introducing... THE VOLUNTEER

We are making a movie!

I don't even know where to begin. So for now, watch this:



We want to make a film about real life, as Jon put it.  Sometimes we go to the movies to escape real life and sometimes we go to the movies to be reminded of the humour,

In the beginning

Welcome to the Rosco Films maiden blog post! For the next 6 months or more, most of what you'll be seeing here is our progress on the production of our feature film project, THE VOLUNTEER.  Eventually you'll be seeing other things like "5 Films Everybody Hates But I Love" and stuff like that.

From now on, the posts will only get better, if you can imagine such a thing. For now, please check out our website at roscofilms.com

-Ken