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!