Shroud
We shot "Shroud" in a blind rush over 20 days, over 9 locations (including Texas, Arizona and California) at an insanely break-neck speed.
Obviously, this is not how you shoot a film, but under such extreme, if not impoverishing, constraints of time and money, sometimes you just have to make it happen -- every surviving first time filmmaker comes to learn this.
Also, I took the first time filmmaker's "THOU SHALT NOTS" as a checklist. For your very first film, you absolutely never shoot:
1) A period piece
2) In exotic and remote locations
3) with animals
4) with children
5) with firearms (mostly for safety and insurance purposes)
But, I decided if this was going to be the only film I ever got to make, I was going to give it my best.
On Shroud, I was the writer, producer (with two others), director, production designer & set decorator, art director, graphic designer, fight choreographer, co-editor, casting director, locaton scout and co-worked the color correction, and some of the visual effects.
Again -- OBVIOUSLY -- not what you want to have to handle on a film, but I didn't have enough money to hire these positions.
Despite these restrictions, "Shroud" turned out pretty well for a first film.
When I started, I had an insultingly meager budget. I can't go into right now, but you would be surprised how far you can actually make money go.
Nicole Leigh Verdin is the leading actress who played Lady Victoria Celestine. Her beauty is surprised only by her spirit -- this is not hyperbole. She is quite possibly the most kind and professional person I've ever met. She will astound you with her generosity and her ability.
The dresses she wore were hand-made by Dallas dressmaker Marty van Kleeck -- a perfect union of the feminine and the fashionable. The plate armor was made by Patrick Thaden & Ugo Serrano of Thaden Armory.
Well, that's the summary.
More to come...
David Jetre
