El Caff Wins Best Film at Carrboro Film Festival!

It was a really big weekend for El Caffinato - first, we screened the movie for members of the cast and crew at our apartment, converting our living room temporarily into a movie theater for the occasion. A number of the terrific "El Caffinato" team were able to come, joined by friends and family, some of whom had not gotten to see the film at all yet. It was great to see everyone, and great to hear a fresh set of laughs and reactions to the movie.

The next day was the Carrboro Film Festival, a full day of really terrific films made by filmmakers who all had some connection to North Carolina. We saw lots of moving documentaries, terrific pieces of animation and great narrative shorts. When "El Caffinato" came on in the 5:30-7:00, we had all just scared been half to death by Michael Sharpe's "Deviling" - we weren't sure how the audience would react to the transition to people singing and making hipster jokes. But we were thrilled to hear the collective murmur of recognition when the music started ("Wait, this is a musical?!") and relieved to hear the many laughs that various moments elicited.

Then at the end of the day, there was this:

The Kay Kyser Award for "Best Professional Film."

"El Caffinato" walked away from the festival with the "Best Professional Film" award. We were surprised and honored to be selected from among all the great films that showed at the festival. What a beginning!

We also have made an official movie poster now, which you can check out here, on our IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2100434/

Behind the Scenes at Milo's Lament

As we mentioned earlier, "El Caffinato" will have its festival premiere at the Carrboro Film Festival on November 20, 2011. The schedule is finalized, and it looks like we will be part of a block of stellar films starting at 5:30 and running until 7:00, with a Q & A session following the block and the festival awards ceremony right afterwards. Tickets to the whole festival are just $7.00, so you should come out for the day (starts at 1) and see a terrific, eclectic mix of short films.

In the meantime, in case the trailer wasn't enough of a taste for you, we thought we'd offer a little behind-the-scenes look at a section of our movie that we refer to as "Milo's Lament." This is how we took it from conceptualization to screen. 

It starts with a storyboard, drawn by Liz Levitt-Bradley:

Liz drew 140 little drawings like this one, plotting out camera angles, camera motion, edits, and (to some extent) lighting and costume. All of this was done before we got to the set on the day of shooting. We showed early drafts of these to our cinematographer as a way of talking through the shoot, "rehearsing" everything as much as we could before starting. 

Then it was time to go and shoot. As directors, this was the fun part, because we got to watch as our cinematographer, Nic Beery, and gaffer, Nathan Rosenquist, brought their creativity to bear on the ideas that we put on paper, bringing them to life in a way that surpassed everything we had imagined. In this case, we were at the Carrboro Arts Center (the day before we shot at Jessee's Coffee and Bar, which was our primary location): 

Nathan Rosenquist focuses a light on Zachary Davidson in preparation for filming.

This gave us the raw footage - a lot of little pieces, not in sequence - which we then assembled into the right order (using the storyboard as a guide) and color corrected to make it look nice and dramatic and smooth. Here's one frame from the sequence that resulted from filming on that day: 

Neat, huh? 

See you at the Carrboro Film Festival! 

El Caffinato to screen at Carrboro Film Festival!

The official word is in: El Caffinato will have its festival premiere at the fifth annual Carrboro Film Festival on November 20! The festival screens short films made by filmmakers from all across the state of North Carolina - we're thrilled to be among the selections and can't wait to see the other great films that will be shown.

If you're local to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Durham/Raleigh area (or even if you're not), mark your calendars now and plan to come out and see us on the big screen. The festival runs from 1-7 pm, and the full schedule will be posted on the Festival website sometime closer to the day. Until then, be sure to check out our trailer, if you haven't already.

El Caffinato Teaser Trailer!

Here it is, folks - the official teaser trailer for our hipster Western musical, "El Caffinato!"

Now that you've seen this, you're probably wondering when the whole thing comes out. Keep watching this space for news about screenings and festivals. And eventually, of course, the whole thing will be available online; not for a while yet though. For now, you'll just have to watch this trailer. Over and over. Show it to your friends and loved ones. Embed it on your blog or Facebook page. Help us spread the word! 

Start counting down! - The El Caff trailer is coming

You can begin the countdown, everyone, because as of Monday, October 17, the El Caffinato teaser-trailer will be online and ready for viewing!

Aiden picks up paper, just like they do it in the movie.

If we've been lapse in our posting of news here on the blog, it's only because we've been hard, hard, hard at work readying El Caffinato for the world. As reported previously, we built a sound booth in our apartment and have been bringing in our fabulous cast one by one to record the final vocal parts for the movie; that same sound booth was also host to Liz and Aiden doing Foley (sound effect) work - they systematically recreated every sound that you will hear throughout the film, one by one! That includes, but is not limited to: paper tearing, clothing shifting, feet stepping, coffee sipping, and, um, the sound a chess piece makes when it meets its demise (you'll see!). We even took the mic outside one night after it had rained to get that perfect cowboy-boots-on-wet-asphalt sound.

Liz, Rory, and Aiden head out at night for Foley work.

Once we had it all recorded, it was time to mix-mix-mix and color correct. Now we have a film that's been mixed more than stiff-whipped egg whites and colored more than a second grader's coloring book (albeit a little more carefully). Not really, of course - it just feels like a ton of work, and it encourages hyperbole. The end result, however, which we are still inching towards, is just marvelous.

Sarah Long records some lines of dialogue

So why just a teaser-trailer? Well, we have already begun the process of submitting El Caffinato to film festivals and will be continuing to do so for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, that means that it might be shown on some nice big screens. Unfortunately, it means that we can't let you see the whole film through the comfort of your chosen web browser just yet. Along with the trailer on Monday, however, we will have a nice gallery of production stills for you to look at, and if you are local to the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area, there will likely be some local screening parties (dates and locations still TBA).

Thanks for sticking with us - we know it's been a long wait, but we think you'll find it's worth it!

Picture Lock!

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since we first posted on our Facebook page that we had finished a rough cut, and about 5 weeks since the shoot - but we can now say with a certain degree of confidence: we have picture lock!

In other words, we've made all the cuts we want to make, we've put the pictures in the order we want them to be in, and generally, from start to finish, the film plays out the way we want it to play out. Of course, good news has to be tempered, so we have to rush to say that the film is still not ready to be shown just yet, but we are one major, MAJOR step closer! Just knowing that we can get from frame one to the end without any holes is a big relief for us (you never know, when you've finished production, whether that will be true or not).

So what's left, you ask? Two major steps, which we'll be tackling simultaneously. We have to record and mix our sound, which involves doing ADR and re-recording for all the vocal tracks and then doing Foley for the sound effects. Tonight we built a little sound recording booth in our apartment out of cardboard and some egg crate bed toppers that were on clearance sale. With our super cool USB mic and spit guard, it looks like a pretty pro little setup (and it sounds great, too!).

In addition, we have to do color correction, which is the rather pain-staking process of looking at each shot and balancing its levels and colors with the ones around it to disguise the fact that we shot completely out of sequence, and two shots that appear back to back might actually have been shot at 3 pm and 11 pm, respectively.

But never fear, folks - we have a deadline, and we're determined to meet it. We won't say it out loud here, lest we jinx it, but watch this space. There will be more soon!

That's a wrap!!

Yesterday was the major production day for El Caffinato, and a little less than twelve hours ago we got our final shot. After coming home from the shoot, too buzzed to go to sleep, we sat up and watched all of the footage from both days (we shot at the Carrboro Arts Center for a few hours on Saturday as well); all we can really say right now is: Wow! It looks absolutely stunning. Here is just a tiny preview of the sort of images we got yesterday, though a still doesn't begin to do the footage justice.

from left: Christian Straubhaar, Rory Bradley, Melanie Ungar, Michael Mulaiya, Sarah Long, Matthew Hauser, Julia Hood, Liz Levitt, Miles Bonsignore

So we have a lot of work ahead of us and also a lot of little things to share here in the coming weeks. For now, we really just want to take the time to say thank you to everyone who has made this film possible, not to mention better than we ever imagined:

As we reported last week, we were incredibly lucky to have Nic Beery of Beery Media on board as Director of Photography/Cinematographer. It was awesome to watch Nic work yesterday - he has such an amazing touch, constantly adjusting, re-framing, tilting, panning, always looking for the most expressive and interesting framing. Nathan Rosenquist worked with him as Gaffer and did a spectacular job of making our location look like a hip coffee shop at night, even though we started shooting at 3 in the afternoon on a bright North Carolina day. David Parent worked as both Camera Assistant and Assistant Director on this project, and without his reminders and guidance, I'm very sure that we would have missed several crucial shots or just not made it through the day. A huge thank you to all of them!

On the other side of the camera, we had the best (and best-looking) cast that anyone could ask for. Aiden Dale, Zach Davidson, and Emily Frachtling all put out amazing performances as El Caffinato's leads: Dusky Dan Digby, Milo Beckett, and Pepper, respectively. In most cases, they were able to give a jaw-dropping performance on the first or second take, which was crucial, since we were shooting 8 pages in 10 hours. Miles Bonsignore, Matthew Hauser, Julia Hood, Sarah Long, Michael Mulaiya, Christian Straubhaar, and Melanie Ungar filled out the hipster population of El Caffinato beautifully - we were amazed to see how each and every one of them really took up their characters and gave them a life and energy that just popped right off the screen. Watching the footage, it feels truly like an ensemble piece with really terrific performances by all.

Also in front of the camera was the artwork of Kate McCracken, a local Carrboro artist whom we met at Jessee's. She does amazing figurative graphite drawings, and we were so glad to have some of them on the walls while filming.

Finally, a huge thank you to Jenna Petrie from Jessee's Coffee and Bar, who stayed after hours to keep the place open for us during the shoot! Without her patience and forbearance, none of this would have been possible. Also from Jessee's, we want to say thank you to Olivia and Chyenna, who have been really supportive of this project throughout. Without a doubt, Jessee's is the coolest place to get coffee in Carrboro - once the film is done, we definitely hope to have a screening party there!

So as always, keep watching this space. We're going to be hard at work on Post-Production for El Caffinato now, and with a little luck and a lot of elbow grease, we should have a film to show in the near future!!

El Caffinato Gets a Camera Crew!

Well, it's been a week now since we lasted posted anything about El Caffinato, but that's certainly not because we don't have anything to announce. We'll in the full-on blitz leading up to the shoot, and each day brings noteworthy news.

One incredibly exiting piece of news is that Nic Beery of Carrboro's Beery Media has signed on to the project as cinematographer, bringing along Nathan Rosenquist as gaffer and GlideCam operator and David Parent as camera assistant. Beery Media has been producing films and videos for over 20 years, including an Emmy-nominated PSA, and their films have been shown at festivals from Cannes to New York to Fiji. Needless to say, we are thrilled to have such an amazing camera crew for El Caffinato, and now we really can't wait to see how it's going to look. Check out Nic's films, and also consider contributing to Nic's current Kickstarter campaign, "Sayonara to Hello." He is making a documentary with Steve Marshall, who has been living his dream as a magician in Japan since 1998, and is now returning to the states for a performance and lecture tour. We've talked with Nic about it, and it's a really awesome project - they're so close to their goal, so please think about whether you might be able to help them out!

In addition to this amazing crew, we've got a great cast signed on to the project as well. We're in rehearsals with them now, and we will post something about them all in more detail soon.

Throughout the post-production stage, which is rapidly approaching, we will be posting previews of the music, stills from the film, and some more promotional materials to get you psyched for when the film is released. Stay tuned!

Location? Check!

El Caffinato is now one major step closer to being ready for production - we're super pleased to announce that Jessee's Coffee and Bar in downtown Carrboro has agreed to let us film there!

For those of who you are local to Carrboro/Chapel Hill, Jessee's is an awesome place with delicious coffee (they roast it themselves), a great selection of drinks, a cool atmosphere, and awesome people. You should check it out! As far as the film goes, it's got a very hip interior with an interesting layout, great light, and a really cool palette. Really - it's a dream location, and we couldn't ask for anything better.

Just about all of El Caffinato will be shot in and around Jessee's, with only a short segment ("Milo's Lament," as we've been calling it) taking place elsewhere - more details on that second location later. Now that this is squared away, we're going to be furiously working on finalizing the storyboard and getting ready to meet and rehearse with the stellar cast and crew that we're assembling!

Two Guns for Greta - In Development

Work on "El Caffinato" continues (but nothing we can share publicly yet), as does post-production for "The Hole in Their Day" - it turns out the less time you spend in pre-production, the longer you spend in post: we spent about four days in pre-production for that one; to paraphrase David Foster Wallace, it seemed like fun, but we'll never do that again. Since there's not much to say or share about either of those just now, we thought we'd give a very advance preview of a third project currently in development:

What: "Two Guns For Greta," a 20 minute film noir about a community theater production of a play by the same name. Replete with a slightly hapless detective, a charming but potentially dangerous femme, and a diabolical crime boss (er... theater director).

In development? So far, "Two Guns for Greta" exists as a handwritten outline on a few sheets of paper and a handful of images in our heads. We'll turn to scripting it fully as soon as "El Caffinato" is shot, and we have a half-dream of shooting it sometime in the winter.

It's funny how details fall into place differently for every project. The music for "El Caffinato" was written in just two days, but we've got lots to do before we're ready to shooot. "The Hole in Their Day" is completely finished, but the right music just won't present itself. "Two Guns for Greta" is not even written yet, but we have a pretty set notion of where we'll shoot it, and we have pretty clear ideas about how to light it. If only our projects would get together and swap hang-ups, then we'd have at least one film that sailed through without a hitch and a few that we could just ditch.

Then again, assuming these problems do work out, we end up with three films and not one. As usual, life seems pretty OK if you think about it long enough.

El Caff Gets Promo Poster

Liz Levitt-Bradley recently finished up this awesome promotional poster for our short rock opera, El Caffinato. It's a lino cut, hand carved and hand printed. Check it out!

In other El Caffinato news, the four producers met yesterday and are going to be spending this week assembling cast and crew members. More announcements about that and a preview of the music will be coming soon.

El Caffinato: A Mug Full of Coffee, An Earful of Noise

What is it: A ten-minute rock opera, vaguely inspired by Westerns but set in a hip, contemporary coffee shop.

Status: In pre-production

Emily and Rory work on music for El Caffinato

The premise: When a peaceful group of coffee-drinking hipsters are disturbed by the arrival of a raucous and offensive intruder, they must convince a mysterious and heart-broken loner to help them drive him out and restore peace to their coffeeshop.

The plan: We're hoping to shoot this one by late July or early August. The script and music are written, the arrangements mostly done. The producers (Rory Bradley, Emily Frachtling, Liz Levitt-Bradley, and Rebecca Ripperton) will be meeting in the next week to talk about lining up the cast and securing a location.

Blog Launch!

Welcome to the Miner Light Productions blog, home to all news relating to the musical and filmic efforts of our little "company." We've been talking about starting this blog for a while, and so we have a lot of backlogged news to share about several projects. Rather than spill it at once, we'll post it in phases. Watch this space for the full scoop on Miner Productions and our various films: "The Hole In Their Day," "El Caffinato," and "Two Guns For Greta," (as well as whatever else we dream up in the meantime).