4th Day of Shooting Grace

Another day atop Mt. Hamilton at the Siwajek Ranch turned out eventful when we went back up to shoot the last part of the principal photography. It began with our explosions once again not working... in order to collapse the tunnel, we needed an explosion that would be able to actually take a piece out of the hillside, however the mixture of explosives we had was apparently missing one key ingredient. Since we were too far away from any civilization to be able to pick anything up, we decided to stick to the first plan and just put a ton of gasoline on top of gunpowder, which ended up making quite a nice explosion. All the shots turned out perfectly, the only snafu of the day being when the tape from the blast shield camera, which had recorded a close up shot of the explosion as well as a shot from inside the tunnel of it collapsing, was taped over by accident. Other than that, we had a great shoot day, and at the end of it we celebrated 2nd Assistant Director, Christianna Gunn's birthday with a cake and pizza back at the house on location.

Here are a few teaser stills from the shoot:



Second & Third Days of Shooting Grace

The second and third days of shooting Roth Rind's new short film, entitled "Grace," were an experience in themselves. We came up late Friday night to a secluded ranch 10 miles away from the observatory on Mt. Hamilton. Mohammad Harirsaz, Brent Franklin, Daniel Szymski, Roth Rind, Boran Vukajlovic, Sean Siwajek, and Sheldon Steere spent the first night until about 4:00 AM building the tunnel on the hillside, building a sniper's nest for the character Dae-Hyun, as well as burying the cable to run the explosions we would be firing during the shooting. The next morning, we had a 7AM wakeup call (some people were to be up at 5AM) and ate breakfast, paid for by Roth Rind. We started shooting and then ran into our first snag when the squibs we had made for the gunshots wouldn't fire. We decided to just shoot what we could that didn't use the squibs and then figure out how to get them to work that night. We filmed everything up until the first shot that would need a real explosion in the background, which was supposed to work on the same general principle that the squibs were working on, so when it didn't work the first couple times, no one was really surprised. That was when Daniel Szymski came up with an idea that saved the production, all we had to do to insure the explosions/squibs would go off was to just coil the wire. It was that simple. After that, the explosions fired on time, the squibs were fixable, and we could carry on with production. We wrapped that night and everyone relaxed for a few hours, and then at about 9PM, Christianna Gunn, Peter Kim, Brent Franklin, Daniel Szymski, Boran Vukajlovic, and Sheldon Steere spent the next 4 - 5 hours working on re-doing the squibs with the new coiled wires inside so that they would be ready for the next day. The next day, with another wakeup of 7AM we woke up to a beautiful fog settled over the valley. We spent the next couple hours waiting for the fog to dissipate. We did a few tests of the new squibs, which worked perfectly, and then waited for the final bit of fog to burn up. Finally we started shooting, and just as the first shot started, the squibs stopped working. We spent the next half an hour trying to figure it out, when Daniel came up with another amazing idea, instead of using the firing system, he would wire it up straight to our on-site generator and zap the squibs. Again, it worked, and we were able to get back into production.Production went relatively smoothly until we got to a complicated shot where the squib was supposed to burst a packet of blood inside the American Soldier's helmet that Marek Haiba was supposed to be wearing.We couldn't get the squib to fire in a way that would burst the packet of blood in the right way. Once again, Daniel came to the rescue and was able to get it to work, however the helmet was the wrong helmet, and it wouldn't fit on Marek's head, which meant we needed to fire a bullet through another helmet in order to get the shot, and set up the squibs again. All this took the better part of an hour, and when it finally was finished, it was already too late to shoot the final part of the scene, and since the tunnel didn't so much blow up as catch on fire, we decided we would go out for another day of shooting next Saturday. So stay tuned for another epic story of shooting next weekend.

In the mean time, check out these shots from the shoot, as well as some pictures from the shoot taken by expert photographer Stephen Abbas, the on-set photographer, on his blog:http://www.stephenabbas.blogspot.com



All in all, the shoot was impressively professional, and everyone's positive attitudes, attention to detail, hardworking work ethic, and good vibes helped it be one of the funnest professional sets I've ever been on.Despite the few errors that came up, which were met with a positive problem-solving attitude instead of slowing everything down, everything went smoothly, and almost everyone's expectations of what it would be like were more than exceeded. I'd like to thank Silicon Valley Film Studios, and everyone who made the shoot this weekend possible:

Mohammad Harirsaz, Brent Franklin, Daniel Szymski, Roth Rind, Boran Vukajlovic, Sean Siwajek, Sheldon Steere, Christianna Gunn, Amani Marie, Stephanie Emerson, Peter Kim, Stephen Abbas, Donn Bradley, Marek Haiba, Zak Migurski, Jennifer Gonzalez, Danielle Baker, Stuart Rind, Ashley Elieff, Marco Onton, and Jerry Pang.

First Day of Shooting Grace

The first day of shooting Roth Rind's new short film, entitled "Grace," went amazingly well! We built a set to look like the inside of a collapsed tunnel, and the actors performed their scene beautifully inside it. Here are a few shots of what it looked like on this impressive set, built primarily by Roth Rind, Amani Marie, Stephanie Emerson, and Danielle Baker, with help from the rest of the crew.



Greg Danger finally on its way!

You remember that one project we were telling you was going to be done about 2 years ago and then NEVER DID IT? Well it's actually getting done now! Salty Samurai Studios' own Mario McKellop and Sheldon Steere will be working to bring the vision of Greg Danger: Industrial Espionage to life... finally! We recently reworked the rough draft of the script and had editors and professional screenwriters go over it, giving their notes, and have what we are considering the tightest and funniest script we have done yet. We will be filming the pilot episode in April, after filming for Grace is done. This will hopefully be the largest Salty Samurai Studios project yet! Get ready for Danger! If you'd like to work on this amazing project, please send a message to saltysamuraistudios@gmail.com


Greg Danger: Industrial Espionage, along with the characters, names, and stories are the copyrighted intellectual property of Sheldon Steere and Salty Samurai Studios.

Filming new K-57 music video.


Matt Cross and the Garage Boys are back! Salty Samurai Studios' own Sheldon Steere, along with
Producer / Director Roth Rind, and Director of Photography Matt Cross will be working on the new K-57 Music Video "We Here to Party." During the summer, Matt Cross and Sheldon Steere filmed the music video "Hustla" for K-57, Mi$$ Ri$$, Rizwan the Akkie, and The Jacka. Editing is finally almost done, (look below for screenshots!) and K-57 liked it and has commissioned us to do the next project, "We Here to Party." We're very excited to work with K-57 again, and now that we'll have a budget to work with, this next music video looks like it will go off with a bang!

If you would like to hear music by K-57, go to http://www.myspace.com/k57ishere


New Project: Grace

Salty Samurai Studios' own Sheldon Steere, along with Producer / Director Stephanie Emerson, and Producer / Director Roth Rind will be working together with the following: Mohammad Harirsaz as Sound Director, Kelly Miller as Sound Assistant Director, Christianna Gunn as 2nd Assistant Director, Amani Marie as Script Supervisor, Geva Whyte as Camera Assistant, Matt Cross as Key Gaffer, Boran Vukajlovic as Gaffer, Dan Lyons as Key Grip, Rich Hagedorn as Electrician, Stuart Rind as Special Effects Coordinator, Dylan Baker as Special Effects Assistant, Ashley Elieff as Costume Designer, Stacey Morrison as Makeup Artist, Katie Lanning as Set Dresser, and Guy Denues as the Licensed on-site EMT; starting this month, to bring to life the story of Grace, a short film that touches on the subjects of war and humanity, and the fine line between them.

Summary: "It's the Korean War and John, a United States soldier, finds himself trapped in a collapsed underground tunnel with a North Korean foot soldier, Dae-Hyun. What would you do if you were trapped with your worst enemy?"

The most amazing thing about this production is that it will be the first time we have worked with live explosions and squibs, and there will also need to be a fake tunnel set that has been rigged to collapse. All of this will make, for a very difficult shoot, but more importantly it should make for a very interesting film. Shooting is planned to begin in March, and I will give updates as the shooting progresses.

Filming the Hollywood North podcast.

Salty Samurai Studios' own Sheldon Steere, along with Producer / Director Roth Rind, as well as Mohammad Harirsaz and Dan Lyons, filmed the live panel event for the Hollywood North Podcast today. The event showcased representatives from Cinequest, the 48 Hour Film Project, the Arab Film Festival, SF Indie Film Festival, SF International Film Festival, SF International Jewish Film Festival, and SF International Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival.

Hollywood North is Co-hosted by De Anza's Film & TV Department Chair Zaki Lisha and screenwriter and De Anza screenwriting instructor Barak Goldman, and is produced by De Anza film school students. It probes and explores all matters pertaining to the education and business of film, television, and other media. To listen to their podcasts, search for Hollywood North on iTunes.

The exciting thing about filming this event, was having 3 HD cameras linked to a monitor, where Director Roth Rind sat and communicated to everyone filming through Clear-Com microphones. This was our second attempt at filming a live stage performance, after filming the Rock on the Mount back in August, and overall the filming went very well. Having the Clear-Com
system allowed all of the camera operators to communicate fluidly and simultaneously with each other and with Roth Rind who was watching and organizing from the monitors; which saved us from problems like duplicating shots with multiple cameras, and allowed us to get things like a wide and closeup on the interviewee as well as a reverse on the interviewer all at the same time with little to no hassle.