First Teaser for the Epitaph: Bread and Salt movie.

 

A higher quality version of the trailer is available at Epitaph Teaser HD. The teaser was edited by our producer John H. Rogers III.

-Nate

1st Fight Scene for Epitaph: Bread and Salt in the can.

We started Friday morning at 9:00 am. My doorbell rang. A weary Joseph Canales entered with a two liter of Mountain Dew. So I'm like "Hey, man, what's up." We chat for a bit, then he tells me he walked for three hours to get to the location. Apparently he got in at about six or so that morning via Greyhound because his car broke down a day after he'd bought it. Through a series of events he decided to walk from the Southside Greyhound station to our location. I have friend who does this in the summer, walking from Blue Island to the Northside. He does it for exercise.  Difference is, he doesn't have to do an action film afterward.

I got him fed and and moments later Adam our DP got there and Christian Dior Creasy who plays Arcus Fallen and who has been volunteering to do the BTS for us. So for the whole day Joseph and I worked on the construction of the scene as Adam plotted out the angles and all the video elements and Christian shot BTS. We got an amazing fight out of it. Everyone was happy with it when they saw it edited together.

It's funny because when I started putting the scene together for some reason I felt l should reverse the flow of battle, weapons first then martial arts, but when I edited it yesterday I decided it was excellent the way it was, martial arts, weapons and then back to martial arts. I ram really happy how it turned out.

-Nate

 

 

Epitaph: Bread and Salt Production Underway

WOW! It's been some time since I was last here. I wanted to update and keep people posted on what was happening at least on a weekly basis. I've been steady with my production journal, but I haven't been getting around to updating the blog. So here's what been going on. The movie is cast for the most part. We still need someone to play the Rabbi Hassan and Dr. Tanner parts, but we've started shooting what we can.

When we started we slated to shoot with the Canon HG10, but I was contacted by the photographer who help shoot JR2 Production's "The Storm". He showed me what he had in mind and what his camera The Canon 5D Mark 2, could do. He came aboard and has been shooting since last week. It's been slow, but we plan on a three month shoot and have been working it out. Adam's a perfectionist and I'm a shoot and run kind of guy, so we've been meeting in the middle and managing to get some great shots. I tell him what I'm going for and he figures it out. Best DP I've ever worked with on anything.

So far we've shot scenes with Jack Gusta, Yohanni Liman, Jim Hager, Carissa Lynelle, Jenna Halvorson, Walldkiria Kawai and a little bit with Leena Kurishingal of "The Long December." We added a cameo by scream queen Kelsey Zukowski and also had three went through several ladies to play the character "Siren" until we met Rachel Stubbs came to us. She's a trained stunt woman, has worked with "Babes with Blades" and is engaged to a guy who makes prop weapons. You simply don't get better than that. LOL. I've been working on the posters too. All of them are on our facebook and production journal.

-Nate

Epitaph: Bread and Salt Casting

We did casting for the Epitaph: Bread and Salt film this Friday and saw a lot of great actors. We had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends. We met with each actor one by one and cast people who looked as close to the characters as possible as well as could make the characters believable. Saturday we met with DP Adam Daniels who wanted to shoot the film on his Canon 5D Mark II. The images this things shoots is incredible. So things have started. In two weeks we should know whose who and what's what.

Epitaph: Bread and Salt Lighting Test

I went to the Apple store today (you know, where I convert my footage, LOL) and here's a few of my test shots for this area. I get attacked by an Estrie on the big street. Have a fight in the alley with an undead assassin and a whole bunch of other fun things that go on.

The irony is I went through all that trouble to convert these files (Which is why I hadn't uploaded them, I thought I had to convert them) and then I get ready to upload them and as I'm reading the list of accepted files low and behold M2t is right there. Remember RIF: Reading Is fundamental.

Either way I have the camera in 24p/1080p mode (the HG10 comes in only two modes 1080i and 24p, tell me this wasn't made for low budget filmmaking) and it's in shade mode I believe. Watch as I poorly narrate this walk through a northside neighborhood.

And at I some point in the vid I meet a guy on the street who asked to be put on camera, but what he had to say won't be shown for the sake of all in the watching/hearing of said video. Honestly, if it had been a woman, the vid could have become an instant HBO hooker doc, but I digress.
(Then again Zombie Girl seems to be quickly becoming a beloved character, so maybe a zombie hooker doc?). But yea, so take some time and check out the footage. I hope you like it. I'll be posting more soon.

You'd be surprized what happens when you walk down the street with a camera. When we had the DVX all the women thought we were with Girls Gone Wild, yet there was no evidence of such save me having a video camera. (I actually used that DVX to talk my way onto the "ER" set once. LOL).

We are considering ways to add extra light to these scenes if needed, but I really like the creepy look in some place, specifically the shopping center and some of the alleys. But here's the "footy"...

Epitaph: Bread and Salt Film: New Victor Locke Costume

I've put together the second "Victor Locke" costume for the upcoming "Epitaph: Bread and Salt" film. The outfit consist of a dark blue trench coat, black hoodie and black pants and is based on the cover for "Epitaph: Beginning of the End" comic. It's the second costume, the first being based on a cover for the upcoming "Victor Locke: Demon Hunter" series.

At this time props including a vampire handbo, several vampire guns said to shoot a special kind of silver bullet, a fighting stake and various holsters and sidearms to keep Chicago citizens safe from Estrie and other vampires.

I have been designing the props myself and still have a ways to go. None of the blades have been filed down yet for screen use and I'm still mapping out what I want some of the special effects to look like in my head. There will also be special appearances that I'm going add back into the script including Fixmaster, Damious and maybe Patrika. So far the main characters from the first comics consist of Nightevil, Ashen, Zombie Girl Rebecca and  Locke himself.  Characters that have not been seen in the comics yet consist of Dr. Tanner of Frank Stein Institute, Siren and the Defenders of Eden (aside from Rebecca).  

Masters to play Demon Hunter in Comic Movie

Hey guys, if you're on my Facebook, DVXUser or HV20.com, you know that you're truly will be playing the role of Victor Locke, the demon hunter from the upcoming Night Phoenix Press comic book series Epitaph. This is something a little different, where the film will show the origin of some of the main character and then the comic series takes places after the film.

If you're a fan of horror or comics in general then this one is sure to please. This adult oriented comic series has vampires, demons, monsters, witches, mages and even a superhero or two will pop up to save the day sometimes.

The comic deals with a cult that wants to take over the world, but focuses mainly on their efforts to rise to power in Chicago. Their weapons are the media, government and evil supernatural creatures they are inviting into our world.

Honestly, I love the concept of the book and have wanted to get involved with sci-fi and comic book movies for a good little time. The script is in the works now and it's looking pretty good. A lot goes into producing an action film, and much more goes into a supernatural based action film. And you can be sure another behind the scenes DVD will come out of this. If you want to make action films (particularly marital arts films) and haven't seen "Action Filmmaking: The Making of Wages of Sin" it's on Amazon right now, so get it. And as you know the book that started it all "Action Filmmaking" is also still available also on Amazon.

New Site and New Book

We have a new website. We are now TimeCodeMechanics.com so now you can go and check us out under our full name. I really got tired of having to spell the site out for people, now I don't have to. While this may take longer to type in, I say type it in once then bookmark it because I hope you'll be coming here often.

Our new books "Writing for Digital" and my first fiction novel "Blackrayne" both are out so I advise you to pick them up. If you're a writer and you want to write for the digital medium, then this is the book that will start you on your way. If you're a reader and just want to read a good piece of urban fantasy, then check out "Blackrayne".

Writing for Digital is my new how-to book about writing for various form of digital media. It's written for the lay person, and takes the modern writer into the new world of multimedia, with concise information to get them up and running writing for the digital medium. I cover writing for digital movies and webisodics, video games, online comics and novels. Writing web copy and blogging are also covered and presented in the most straight-forward fashion for the beginner.

Blackrayne is my new novel about Dr. Jason Blackrayne, a not so ethical shrink who contracts HIV after sleeping with one of his clients, a sex addict who committed suicide after learning she'd contracted the disease.

Jason now bides his time reading porn mags, harassing competitor Dr. Phoebe Forester and getting his needs met by a hooker named "Lips". But Jason's life changes when he meets Dr. L. Robert Hauss, former psychologist who claims he can heal any disease and radically change a person's life based on the "Transcendental Collision theory" the concept that all energies are one and can be readily manipulated once we've transcended the mental trappings of the mortal world to tap into these energies, merging the mental with the metaphysical.

Jason becomes one of Hauss' disciples; he's fit, cured and wields the energy bending, mind manipulating power of the Transcendental Collision. But when Hauss' jealous rival decides the power should be hers and Hauss' followers should be dead Jason must find a way to shake her before she takes everything he's gained, including his new life.

If either of these sound good they're available now on Amazon.com or tell your local bookstore to get them. Writing for Digital may not be in stores for a month or so, but you should be able to find Blackrayne in stores or have them order it for you.  My author page is up too so check that out for all my current and upcoming books.

-Nate