blog Leap

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Backstory:
I've completed three independent feature films, plus countless shorts and adverts. My first feature was a no budget slasher I shot in 2007 for a budget of $600 called "Wulf". It played a few festivals and then I buried it, considering it my trunk novel. In 2009, I turned my back on horror and decided to be the Christian I considered myself to be. I still wanted to make movies and had an idea to combine parkour and the last days into a movie that was ultimately called "Leap".
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I shot it in 2009 on MiniDV (a Canon ZR800) for a budget of $200. I spent three months teaching my actors parkour and they did most of their own stunts. It screened at a local theater and we sold 200 DVDs. Let's be honest though- it's bad. My heart was in the right place, wanting to share what I was finding in my own personal Bible studies with the rest of the world, but it was poorly executed.
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In 2010, I made the sequel, "Leap: Rise of the Beast". It was the first feature film shot on a Canon Rebel T2i and we only had the kit lens. The budget was $2000 and continued the story I began in the first film: a group of college kids trying to save the world while the Vatican hunts them down. My goal was to make a Christian version of the Bourne series. We had a theatrical screening for it, sold 100 DVDs and then I stuck it on YouTube in 2012 and it now has over 1.5 million views and has made over $10,000 over the past ten years. Most of that money has gone toward purchasing better equipment because hey, tax write-offs :)
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Immediately after Leap 2 came out, I wanted to do something different before finishing the story. So I wrote a supernatural Christian thriller but everyone kept begging me to do Leap 3 next instead. I caved and wrote the script called "Leap: Revelation". It picked up in the middle of Leap 2, followed a new parkour crew and took us to the end of the world. The only thing stopping me from shooting it was the financing. I figured that I'd need $20,000 to do the movie on a "low-budget" while paying for actors and a few key crew members. Unfortunately I never raised the funds.

The past ten years saw me being homeless, getting a dream job as a VFX supervisor, losing everything I owned (including my dog) in a house fire, rebuilding my life, getting a wife, a new dog, and moving back to Montana. Now I run my own production studio called Pyro Studios and I feel like I'm at a point where I want to revisit this material again. I've grown a lot as a person and as a filmmaker and finally feel like now is the time. I've been keeping a production journal on my computer and I'll be sharing that here.

I hope it is useful and I welcome you all along this journey.

-Chris

Ten Years Difference
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James Rogers said:
I read a report that religious films are a safe bet because the audience is more interested in the message than production quality, exotic locations, and name talent.

I sometimes write religious stories but they tend to be from the hell mythology side. I see the devil as nothing more than a fallen angel who got a bad wrap from the other side. The devil and all of the stories of hell are only used to control the masses.

"between the pope and air conditioning, I'd take air conditioning"
Woody Allen
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I'd believe it. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason why my last film has 1.5 million views on YouTube. On the flip side, I find that getting people involved to make a film with religious themes is more difficult than say horror. Same with getting funding. Unless you belong to a large church which does this as a ministry, you can forget funding. People want to see the film, but they're never able to "help". But they'll pray for it.

With the controversial message in this one, I'm just trying to fund it myself.
 
Casting Begins.
This shoot is going to creep up on me quicker than I realize so I decided to start casting today. I'm beginning the process with a craigslist post, as that had usually worked well in the past. One thing I do to help filter out spam is ask that potential actors send a headshot (even if it's just on a phone), a list of previous acting credits - theater or film, and a code phrase in the subject box. You'd be amazed how many people can't follow simple directions.

At this point, I'm really just looking for my two main leads since I need to get them going with the parkour stuff soon. After craigslist, I'll be reaching out through some Facebook groups and also the local theaters. We only have a community college out here, but I'll reach out to them too.

I've also started storyboarding with my favorite app, Previs Pro. I imported my Final Draft script and it automatically creates all the scenes and populates them with each character. Now it's a matter of building out the scenes with all the set dressing and props and then I can start "shooting" using the AR feature.
 
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mlesemann said:
In addition to Craigslist, do you reach out to actors you've worked with before? Or do you prefer to start fresh?
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Ten years ago, the plan was to use some of the same actors. But now I’ve moved 4 hours away, so they would need to be put up for the duration of the shoot. So I I’m trying to start fresh and get to know the talent out here.
 
Newspaper Props
I need some fake newspaper props made with custom headlines. Does anyone have suggestions of places they've used? Also thinking of taking advantage of ChatGPT for writing the fake articles.
 
Had a few responses from Craigslist. I signed up with Backstage.com and posted there as well. They gave me a coupon code during checkout that let me post for free. I did have to complete a background check, which I'm not too fond of, but it passed their muster and the posting is live. I really need to figure out what the local actors are using to keep aware of acting gigs.
 
Adding to my previous entry, Backstage is pretty awesome. I woke up this morning to over 60 responses on their platform. Actors from all over the US and the world. Not sure I have the budget to fly people out, but it's something I'll keep in mind on larger productions. I decided to see how many local actors from my area are on the site, so I did a search and came up with five pages worth! This must be where the actors are hanging out. A lot of actors have video samples of monologues and stuff, so that's really awesome! I invited a few locals to submit for the movie, so we'll see what happens.

With the large of a pool to choose from, and the potential level of talent (a lot of these guys have worked on Yellowstone, which is shooting three hours away from me), I really need to make sure that my script is top notch. Not just the story, but the dialogue too.
 
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So this is cool, about a year ago as I was starting on the script, I was getting ready to pitch to a potential client and through the staff page of their website came across someone that has the look for my female lead. In her brief bio she said that she was a Christian, wanted to be an actress, and someday compete on Ninja Warrior - meaning she'd be a great fit for the parkour. While I now have over 100 submissions on Backstage.com, none of them were local. So I did a local search within 50 miles of Kalispell, MT and she popped up, along with about 13 others that had the right look for Blake or Liz - the two leads. I reached out to her, she's interested, and is currently reading the script before deciding if she wants to audition.

Then, last night, I got a contact submission from my website. It was from a guy that was raised here in Kalispell, he lived in LA for four years where he did a few indie projects, some stunt work, competed on Ninja Warrior, and is an MMA guy. Now he's back in the area and wants to meet up. He said he saw my post on Backstage but his profile still says LA and he wanted to "cut through the noise" so he messaged me directly. We're doing lunch next week to discuss the film. Even if he's not a good fit for this role, we'll probably end up working together on something else since I'm also a martial artist and parkour guy.

So yeah, really like Backstage at the moment. Especially since it didn't cost anything.

I did receive another reply to my Craigslist ad. This one was an older actor who could be a great fit for Trevor, the father character. He's worked with Lou Gosset and send a photo to prove it.

I also started playing with some new title design ideas. The font I've been using the past 10 years for the film was recently used on The Orville. While I was using it first, now that's all people associate it with. So now I'm playing with some new ideas:

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I'm not in love with it yet, but I think there's potential and like where it could be headed.
 
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Just completed my first parkour workout of the year. It's been a long winter here in Montana and the snow is finally starting to melt enough that I can hit up my hotspots. My shoulders, wrists and arms are especially sore. But it feels good! I need to get myself in shape before I start training actors. I'm hoping to have the film cast by May, then that would give me a month with the actors to get them up to speed. That's the plan anyway. As we all know, at this ultra low budget level, things don't always go as planned ;)

I have an acquaintance that runs a Christian radio show. He wants to have me on it to talk about the film and see if we can get some donations. We'll see what happens.
 
Since this is a low budget film that I'm having to fund myself, I need to save money when I can. With the last third of the film taking place in the mountains, I can't exactly tape out T marks on the ground for my actors. I look on Amazon and found some beautiful T marks made of powder coated metal. The downside was that they are $13 a pop. Ouch. I wondered if I could make some myself?

I'm not a master craftsman when it comes to working with wood, but I do have a hand sander, drill, hammer, and a circular saw. I also had some scrap wood from an old pallet I salvaged a while back. After an hour of work, this is the result:

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They're not pretty, but they'll do the job just fine I think :)

For outdoor shooting in the past, I've just made T marks with sticks, and that can work, but this feels a little more professional. I can also spray paint these different colors for the different actors.
 
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Chris Tempel said:
Since this is a low budget film that I'm having to fund myself, I need to save money when I can. With the last third of the film taking place in the mountains, I can't exactly tape out T marks on the ground for my actors. I look on Amazon and found some beautiful T marks made of powder coated metal. The downside was that they are $13 a pop. Ouch. I wondered if I could make some myself?

I'm not a master craftsman when it comes to working with wood. I have a hand sander, drill, hammer, and a circular saw. I also had some scrap wood from an old pallet I salvaged a while back. After an hour of work, this is the result:

tempImagelnIGvM.jpg


tempImageJaQnV4.jpg


They're not pretty, but they'll do the job just fine I think :)

For outdoor shooting in the past, I've just made T marks with sticks, and that can work, but this feels a little more professional. I can also spray paint these different colors for the different actors.
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This is the mentality of a true indie filmmaker! You're not cutting the corners, you're rebuilding them cheaper and smarter.
 
Got a couple of auditions tomorrow. One is over Zoom with a guy that lives three hours away. I really hate Zoom, but he was excited about the script so I'm giving him a shot. If he blows me away, it'll be worth paying for travel for him during the shoot. The second is a gal I found on Backstage, but not the one from before (never heard back from her). This new gal is very excited, loves the script, looks the part, and is a local. We're meeting up at a park to do hers. I always try to pick a place that's public, but also quiet. There's not a lot of places out here to rent or use for the day to do auditions, plus my talent pool is so small it makes more sense to audition actors as I encounter them, rather than picking a date for everyone.

The way I handle auditions is pretty laid back, except I do bring the cinema camera and fully pimp it out because I want to see if they're camera shy at all, and I record the audition with that like a screen test. I make a little small talk, ask about their hobbies and interests (fishing for any cool skills or ideas I can add to the character if I cast them) and then have them do the monologue of their choosing I asked them to prepare in advance.

Then we go on to read 3-4 scenes. I typically pick scenes that show the arc of a character, as well as one that pushes their emotional acting skills. And that's it. I see if they have any questions for me and then we part ways.

Side tech note: This is my first film that I've produced that was written completely in Final Draft. As I'm preparing sides for the auditions, I wondered if there was a way to print just the scenes I need. Sure enough, there is, and it worked great! Way easier than copy and pasting the scenes like I've done in the past.
 
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Casting went pretty well. I'm not sure about the guy I did the Zoom audition with, but the girl did a great job and blew me away. I liked her performance, and her attitude. I tried cutting together the Zoom audition with what I shot in the park with the girl but it's not smooth. My wife suggested having both of them on a Zoom call and run some scenes together. Might try to set that up for early next week. Once I cast the lead, I can cast the two secondary characters that are related to him in the script.
 
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