The Blog Moves...

The time has come! Our Blog is moving to its new location on our official Standing Firm website! This gives us more control over the Blog and lets us add new features we couldn't here. No worries this Blog will stay here if you've linked anything to here on your websites or facebook posts or emails. The current archive has been imported into the new blog however so no matter what we'll have a full collection of entries for your enjoyment.

Posts are categorized into areas of Production so you can go through the entire journey of the film from Pre-Production, to Production (filming), and Post as well as News/Press.

What does this new Blog have for you? You'll notice some useful links to the right when you visit. Links to popular Christian websites we support, and also the websites of other Christian Films in production or recently released. Please use these links to your advantage, and share these other films with the people you know! Also if you would like to comment often, there is now the ability to create an account (with an avatar), sign in, and comment to your hearts content! Leave us messages of encouragement, bible verses that come to mind while your in prayer, or anything else that you might want. Besides us posting, your responses help keep the Blog alive and kicking. Let us know that you like what we're posting, or that you don't. The more of it you say you like, the more of it you'll get!

Also the crew page is being rebuilt on our website. Right now you can find biographical information on myself and Kevin Michael and learn how we came together to create our company, and a lot more. It seems like every new story about the creation of this film builds on another. We will add more crew member bios as we're able. Click here to see them.

Consider this the last post in this location. The U-Haul has been unpacked, furniture and the proper furnishings are in place, and we're ready to begin a new! Visit The New Blog

That's a Wrap!

The last seven days have been a combination of things. Exhausting and exciting, but above all Blessed. We can't give all the hairy details because nothing is set in stone (yet). But we hopefully have some big things to share with all of you soon involving post-production and the completion of the film as a whole.Last weekend, myself (Kyle), Rob Reisman (playing Dave), and Kevin Michael (Co Writer/Producer), set out to LA to meet some folks who had seen a Promo DVD we sent. To make a long story short, things look good ;) I know that isn't a lot of information and as stated nothing is for sure, but I do want everyone to be rest assured we are moving along and God is moving big time. Once the time comes and things are more solidified I can share more information, but for now I'm asking everyone to pray. Pray that whatever is going on (I'm driving you nuts aren't I?), that it would be the Hand of God and nothing more, that the decisions being made are of the Lord and of no other influence, and that leading up to when we can make a full announcement, everything would go smoothly.



"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." - (Philippians 4:6-7)On a different note as you noticed by the title of the Blog, THAT'S A WRAP. Yea you heard me, we are done with principle photography. 25 Weeks, 44 Shooting Days, 600 hours on set with people you care about, a church with volunteers, a new company, time away from families and jobs, miracles on set, miracles off the set, a cast/crew growing stronger in Christ, 8+ deaths in relation to local church families and people involved, a local community and internet fan-base in prayer, and a little story called Standing Firm. My o my has God brought us a long way, and we have a ways to travel still! Weighing out all the pain and frustration, the headaches and pitfalls, nothing can compare to what is without a doubt the greatest year of my life. Praise God for his Faithfulness in answering his children's prayers, and may He continue to be lifted up as we move along. He gets bigger, we get smaller...what a beautiful thing.

The stage we are at now is getting the edit together as best we can before we evaluate what needs to be included in pick ups, or reshot. The nature of this project allows reshoots in a way that no other project would allow. Having full access to all locations (as long as we are indoors, it is about 20 degrees here right now), and having everyone on board is obviously a great Blessing to the project and insures the best product possible. Could God have given us a more Blessed situation?

This means we will all be taking a bit of a break while we begin to iron out this “big thing” going on (I can feel it, you hate that I can't tell you), and also do what is stated above. This also means its time to move the blog to another location. Where will be specified soon and you can move yourself there. It will be setup a lot better than this blog and allow more functionality for those of you out there who enjoy keeping up with our updates!

We are so grateful that all of you out there have continued supporting us after such a long time. This is a great hurdle for all of us to be jumping, in more ways than one. We are extremely grateful for the encouragement we have received from all of you, especially your prayers as each problem presented has been solved in God's timing. This is something that requires you, all of you.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." - (1 John 5:14-15)

God Bless & MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Kyle Prohaska

Bits & Pieces #3 (W25:D1)

Today was another day where we needed to get remaining pieces of scenes previously shot. Some of the more complicated scenes in the film involve scenes at church, with different angles and cutaways needed. Most church days we ran out of time to get everything needed, and we were forced to wait a long time down the road to come back. This involves matching lighting from previously shot footage. Luckily we have a laptop on set with the entire film on it. It has come in handy for a number of things, including continuity checks. There is very little left to film, and the current first cut is at about 90%. Things are coming along nicely.

Trailer Prayers

OK here is the deal. We have a new trailer cut together for all of you out there. Excited? So are we. The trailer has been shown to many select people for feedback and tweaks and we have something we are really happy with. One slight hang up though. The music used towards the end of the trailer that practically carries its emotional tone will cost us a little bit of money. Problem being, that money doesn't exist. I wont give you the quote because that isn't important and is confidential information between us and the licensing company.

What can you do about it? Well there is always the option of donating. We don't want to push that agenda as much as the next one. We want you to PRAY. PRAY PRAY PRAY. Pray that the amount needed would show up in some way. We don't have the amount needed and need God to bring it for us to use the song.

After a certain point if nothing happens we will recut the trailer to something we can use. That'll just prolong the trailer release as we are really trying to concentrate on getting the actual film put together. Trailers are a whole new ball-game in terms of their complexity and making them effective. We also have a big press opportunity coming up I wont shed details of now but it will be big for us, the biggest we will probably get until many many months from now. We can recut the trailer, but God can do anything right? If this is the trailer he wants us to use, the money will show up. If not...then we recut it.

Either way ask God to bring us the answer and quickly, ideally before the big press opportunity. Having the new trailer debut along with it would be extremely beneficial.

Lets see what God does, he could have something up his sleeve.

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UPDATES:

12/05/08 - We currently have 26% of the needed funds!
12/07/08 - We currently have 45% of the needed funds!!

Having a Post-Perspective

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about all you loyal Blog subscribers and readers :)

The film is not wrapped yet, we are attempting to schedule the last of the last right now. December as you can imagine causes issues for scheduling, but what month so far hasn't? Don't worry we'll be done soon, I've said it before but there really isn't any other word to use. It's all very small stuff so we should get it done quickly.

Post-Production on the film is in full swing. What does that mean for you? Well once the picture is officially wrapped we will be creating an entirely new blog directly on the Standing Firm website to serve as our main blog from end of Production all the way until whatever ends up happening with the film (release, premiere, distribution, news, etc.). We look forward to really beefing up the inside info about the film as Post gets going really intensely. What is involved in Post-Production? Eh not too much, just editing, sound mixing and recording, ADR, foley, the score (looking forward to sharing small bits of this in the future), Visual Effects (yes we have a few to do surprisingly...it seems like the fun never ends), Color Correction, Behind the Scenes content, DVD Menus, DVD Artwork, a new completed final trailer, Final Encoding and Mastering to DVD. There are lots of subcategories included in there but I wont mention what those are.What we will try and do as Post-Prod goes along is give you an insight into what goes into Post-Production by visiting each of the corresponding topics. Hopefully the new blog will be a place where you can learn quite a bit about the technical side of filmmaking if you don't know much already, and for those who already know a lot...maybe you'll pick up a thing or two.

You'll be surprised to know the entire film (capture files, Final Cut Pro project, posters, website, encoded web files, audio wavs, etc.) is only reaching bout 520GB as of today. Not a lot considering the length of film we are creating (90 minutes as a goal). Yes we are backing it up, don't worry. :)

Till next time...

Spoken from the Heart (W23:D1)

Today we shot a scene in the pastors office and the pulpit footage needed for our church scenes. Pastor Billy Crone, our local pastor at Niagara Frontier Bible Church did a great job. He was a natural at the pulpit (obviously) and when it came to shooting in his office, everything went smoothly. This scene is probably one of the most important OF THE ENTIRE FILM. After we filmed everything we "needed" for the scene, I told Rob that I was just going to roll it and he could say whatever he wanted. What would his character say at this point in the story? What kind of feelings would be bubbling inside? We hit the record button and the result was amazing. God really worked through Robby as he started talking about so many relatable things to the common Christian. My eyes lit up as I watched the monitor, knowing that this footage was going to be a really impacting moment of the film for a non-Christian viewer. It's remarkable what kind of stuff you can get out of someone sometimes if your loose on what you want their character to say and let them speak from the heart. It's not always Shakespeare but it's genuine. Things come out you couldn't have written down or put on paper. God showed up big time today, PRAISE HIM.Happy Thanksgiving to all out there who are keeping up with the Blog! Have a great time with your family and friends!

Oh but wait there's more! :) What would a day of shooting be without bloopers? Pastor Billy is one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet and his humor is WELL KNOWN in our congregation. I figured I would share a few of them with you (and a few from past shoots). He's the only guy I know who can flip from serious to ridiculous so quickly. ENJOY! Oh and just for the record, Pastor Billy despises chicken and loves beef, hopefully that'll clear up a thing or two.

NO Crew (W22:D2)

Today was interesting. We only had one small thing to shoot, the second piece to a scene which was filmed over 2 months ago when the sun was shining and the grass was green. Right now its 20 degrees and that annoying white stuff covers the ground, one of the joys of Western New York (I'm kidding of course). Regardless we only needed this one other piece of a scene and we got it done very quickly. I didn't have someone to boom sound so I grabbed my mom (Deb Prohaska playing Jen in the film) to hold the boom for us. 5 minutes of instruction on operating procedure and she had it down. We didn't have lights either, I had a reflector and natural light. I moved the camera to different places in the house to try and find the proper place. The area I picked ended up working great because there was light from both windows behind the subject giving a nice contrast on his face and a rim on his backside. The problem with the winter is things also tend to get a bit blue outside because of the sunlight reflecting off snow. A gold reflector gave it some warmth (propped up on a chair with a piece of duct tape to keep it from falling) and the right white balance setting gave it the proper look. Aaron Slack playing Shawn in the film is officially wrapped! Thanks Aaron!

This week is a big week, please pray for us. Wednesday finds us shooting one of the most crucial conversations of the entire film. Pray that all goes well and that the scene is of the Lord and not of ourselves. This is a major scene where the context can speak to the viewer in a deep relatable way.