CLUTCH

Today, I finally got to shoot my first film school project. There's quite the story involved, let me tell you. It all started out as a horror film/comedy short, but evolved into something completely different and much more.

The original story was this: A young girl (Annie) and her friend (Claire) are watching horror films together. Annie makes fun of Claire for being afraid of the movies, saying "they're too fake". However, when she returns home that night to find her house empty and the lights not working, she begins to think she herself is stuck in a horror film. Just when she's the most afraid, the lights come back to reveal it was just a surprise birthday party. But wait! Plot twist, there WAS a killer in the house with her who now feels cheated out of killing her because of so many people.

That was the original. It turned from a house to a school due to location agreements. Then today when we got to filming it, we had to drop this story completely due to our actresses backing out. Determined not to back down, I wrote a new script on the train ride to the city and finished it before reaching the school. I'll wait to give you more details about the story until after I put it out, but here's a summery.

A girl cannot find the inspiration for her script, until a friend comes by and provides her with just the thoughts she needs.

The film stars myself and my assistant director, Amelia DeWane. She did an amazing job and I can't wait to share the whole film with you. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

Production Diary 7/21/12 - Chronicles of the Chronicler 3: The Lost World

Today, was the final step in production for Chronicles of the Chronicler 3: The Lost World. The only things that were missing were the voices of Gali, Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka. Now, we have the final cast. Not exactly as planned, but a cast none the less.

Sam Shenberger (Me) as Takua, Jaller, Hewkii, Kongu, Matoro, Nuparu, Altair, Onua, Ahkmou, Makuta, Guard, Orkham, and The Rahkshi

Carl Mohr as Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka

Lauren Murphy as Gali

Shannon Asprooth as Hahli

Frank Padour as Tahu

Production Diary 5/30/12 - Wrap for Chronicles of the Chronicler 3: The Lost World

WARNING: THIS DIARY UPDATE CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS FOR CHRONICLES OF THE CHRONICLER 3: THE LOST WORLD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Today marks the last day of production for COTC3. I filmed the last shots for the film, and what may possibly be the last stop-motion shot I'll ever shoot. I have some mixed emotions about it. Part of me is relieved that its over, and part of me knows that I'm gonna miss it.

This movie has been a crazy ride. I can't say it was the most stressful movie I've ever done, Sam's Comics holds that award... This one holds second place though. At least this one didn't drive me to the point of nervous break-downs. I would say that Chronicles 3 wins the longest lasting production award, as it started production sometime in January, began principle photography on February 11th, 2011 and ended on May 30th, 2012. Part of the reason it lasted so long is because "Sam's Comics" was picked up by the McHenry County College Film Production Club on March 7th. I did do some filming during production for "Comics", but only one clip actually survived "The Purge".

model photo taken during production for "Sam's Comics: The Movie" (2011). Earlier this day, Sam had filmed three scenes for "Comics".

The story for the third one was very difficult. At the end of the second movie, Takua mentions that he has a feeling that a new batch of Toa will come along. The original plans for Chronicles 3 was for the Matoran Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Hewkii, Nuparu, and Matoro to become the Toa Inika (like they do in the 2006 Bionicle storyline). This idea was scrapped early on, because I didn't have the Toa Inika sets released by Lego. I was stumped for a while, but then I got new inspiration after watching "Shrek 4". This got me thinking about alternate reality, which somehow got me thinking about time traveling. The next idea for the third movie was to have time travel, but then that became too complicated. Then came the idea that became the final film: bending time by bringing the fallen Toa from the past to save the present.

There was no script when I started filming; I only knew what I wanted to happen. Because of the nature of the Toa's deaths mentioned in Chronicles 1, Onua and Pohatu had to come head to head in another fight scene. The idea I had was to have them sword fighting, but then I thought "I did that like four times already in the first two", so I decided to have them fighting hand-to-hand. This turned out looking much better than the sword fights, and effected how the rest of the script was written (like a few months later when the script was actually written...) I filmed bits of several other scenes before "Comics", but as soon as it came along, production immediately halted, only to have infrequent bit shoots whenever I had time to film between "Comics" and my school schedule. Once "Comics" was finished, I reviewed what little footage I had done already, and then made a big decision: To scrap all completed footage and written script drafts and start from scratched. This delayed production from starting in November 2011 to January 2012. I finished the script on my 21st birthday, January 3rd, 2012. By this time, I had my buddy Carl Mohr attached to the project as various voices.

Several things were changed from the original February 2011 plans. The characters Taipu (who was going to appear in Chronicles 1 before being replaced by Hahli) and Macku were dropped from the script, and the Rahkshi were given more screen time. Later in March, the script was added on to, fleshing out the plot to make sure that this last film in the series was the best it could possibly be. The biggest change made in the plot was the fact that (AND THIS IS MAJOR SPOILERS HERE) Takua, against all odds, becomes a Toa once again. He was originally only supposed to be a minor character as a Turaga, but in the end, I couldn't justify downplaying the main character in the final installment.

Another big step I took to make sure the fans would be satisfied with COTC3, I decided to film some scenes while I was on vacation in Michigan this last week.

All in all, COTC3 totals 1501 still frames and 348 videos shots. That's 638 more stills and 326 videos than COTC1, and 491 more stills and 292 more videos than COTC2!

Still some voice over recordings to do, so I'll leave the diary update at that.

Production Diary 5/22/12 - Chroniclers of the Chronicler 3: The Lost World - Le-Koro/ Ga-Koro scenes

For the first time in the Chronicles of the Chronicler series, I finally did some outdoor filming. I was on vacation somewhere in Michigan (I have no idea how to spell the name of the town), and I decided to take advantage of some of the beautiful lake-house scenery to use in COTC3. I filmed six sequences outside. Two of them were in the woods, three out in the open area outside the lake-house, and one was shot down by the lake itself.

The first set of scenes took place in Le-Wahi and Le-Koro, the Matoran city built in the tree-tops of the forest in Le-Wahi. I basically just shot these scenes on a flight of overgrown stairs leading from the lake-house down to the beach. It created a very dramatic environment for Toas Lewa and Pohatu to encounter a Rahkshi. A few shots were hard to get just right, but I got them eventually (and thankfully, I narrowly avoided some poison ivy!)

The scene with Toas Lewa (left) and Pohatu (right) in the forests of Le-Wahi was filmed on a flight of over-grown stairs.

The beach scene takes place in Ga-Koro, a Matoran city built on the water in the bay of Ga-Wahi and home to Hahli the Chronicler. This scene was a bit problematic to shoot, as stop-motion animation requires me to take still photos of each of the character's movements. While shooting outside in and of itself creates a problem with shadows moving because of the wind/the sun, shooting by the water was proving to be a greater issue, as the waves, while small waves, still were creating a significant continuity issue. As a result, the entire Ga-Koro sequence had to be shot in video format, so that the waves could move on without disturbing the characters, who had to either not move in the frame, or had to have movements that could be performed hand-held beneath the frame. This also made filming a fight scene between Toa Gali, Toa Lewa, and a Rahkshi very difficult, as mobility of the models is more limited in video shots (because you can't reach up and move pieces yourself, because your hands would get in the shot).

All in all though, I am very pleased with the final result of these scenes and I'm sure viewers will enjoy them too.

left to right, top row: Lewa, Rahkshi Guurahk, Rahkshi Leerahk, Rahkshi Kuurahk. 2nd row: Turaga Takua, Toa Onua, Toa Pohatu, Rahkshi Onurahk. 3rd Row: Hewkii, Kongu, Toa Gali, Toa Kopaka. 4th row: Altair, Nuparu, Toa Tahu. 5th row: Jaller, Hahli, Matoro.