Emerson St. John's Production Photos

One of the jokes around the set has been that we have taken so many production photos that we could probably sell a few thousand shots of the crew to films that didn't have enough material for their DVD extras. Last night was day 6 of the shoot and I have already taken almost 500 pictures. Emerson handed me three CDs with probably twice that many pictures. Here are some of his highlights from day 5 of shooting driving scenes:

Above Silver Creek Falls

After an early start on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University for the morgue shots, yesterday, and a long afternoon of filming at the falls, I just didn't have the energy to post. The latter was a fun shoot--Thomas (Brian) learned to skip stones, Chad (the DP) learned the virtues of sunblock, and I demonstrated how to fall into hip deep water with an expensive camera.

This morning, they began the long process of filming driving shots (something we will devote at least two days to). After a couple of hours of standing on the roadside, I realized I could be more productive to the project posting photos. After the first draft of this post, I returned to the spot they were when I left only to find the whole cast and crew gone. Since cell phones are strictly off during a shoot, I opted to return to known-territory rather than wander the hills of Kentucky looking for a wayward film crew.



Some more cast and crew pix...

Jenna Taylor (cast, "Wendy")

Marshall James (intern)

Zach Lynn (intern)

Thomas Gibbs (cast, "Brian")

Nick Haney (intern)

More production photos from July 17 and 18...

Some press for the film...

Check out the front page story about "Girl on Rocky Top" in the Richmond Register...

Here comes the rain

Wednesday we scrambled to shoot scene 12. This is a pretty quick scene in which Scott, dogged by the narrator, encounter a random couple as Scott is leaving a convenience store on the way home from work some time after the accident. The couple--more their behavior than physical resemblance--reminds him of Brian and Wendy and takes him out of the present. It was a race against the rain to get all of the shots required for this short scene. Kurt (pictured below) became our unofficial "project meteorologist" by staying glued to his iPhone all morning warning us of approaching storms. We got all but one shot in before the rain started and Andrew had to call a wrap.

Notice how I used the word "wrap?" It's rubbing off on me. Chad had a bunch of clothespins on shirt yesterday. I asked someone about them. "You mean the C-47's? Those are for clipping gels over the lights." they said. Clothespins are C-47's. I will find a way to work that into this blog again.

In the afternoon, the rain cleared off and Andrew, Chad, Emily, Emerson, Kurt and I went to check out Friday's locations. One is the morgue scene, another is the waterfall. They worked out the shots and blocking for the morgue scene in hopes that we can wrap there by 1 pm or so and leave plenty of time (and light) for the waterfall.
~Scott

Cast and Crew

Chad Cogdill (Director of Photography) and Kurt Riche (Grip/Gaffer)

Tommy Paulson, First Assistant Cameraman

Andrew Kramp (Director) & Nick Swarts (cast, "Scott" and Narrator)

John Fitch (Producer)

Brendan Townend (Location Sound), Angela Hudnall (Intern & Extra), Ian Hummeldorf (Intern & Extra)

Jen Donnelly (cast, "Tab")

Kenny Lawrence (intern/grip)

Emily Hofelich (Producer & Script Supervisor)

James Webb, Second Assistant Cameraman

Me (Scott Coykendall, Screenwriter) and Emerson St. John (Producer & Assistant Director)

More shoot photos from Scene 12

Speed...

Today we filmed scenes 15 and 16 that take place in two separate hotel rooms. It was a long day, the crew set up the two hotel rooms very quickly, but we did several takes of each shot. Some of the highlights:

Thomas (playing "Brian") and Jenna ("Wendy") playing the "slapping hands" game in Scene 15.
The phone call from home in Scene 16 (with Nick as "Scott" and Jen as "Tab"), and (my favorite) Thomas (playing "Brian") and Jenna ("Wendy") at the end of scene 15 whispering in one bed while Nick (Scott) stewed in the next bed.

Some more pix from the shoot...

Filming Starts Monday

Production gets underway tomorrow--Monday, July 13 (right on schedule)! I won't be there to report first hand, but I arrive Monday evening and will post briefly based on Chad & Andrew's account.
~Scott