Braving Rapids Filming - Day 4

 Sunshine, Movie Cameras and Crafty Food!

It’s Day 4 of filming Braving Rapids in Utah and we haven’t been without a few glitches, but things are going really well. I think. It’s my first time producing a movie so what do I know?

Our director, Erich is very well organized and has meticulously mapped out the filming days and what’s needed for every scene, with his attention to detail touching my heart in a special way. To have someone spend so much effort and time to bring my sweet story to a screen is gobsmackingly incredible. I hadn’t given it that much though before, but a director must have to LOVE the story and have a vision in order to spend this much time and talent to figuring out scenes and angles and lighting and what the shot will look like on camera. Everyone keeps asking me if it’s surreal to have my words spoken by actors and it is but having Erich so invested in this story of mine is the most surreal.

I’m producing this film with Erich and Melanie, who is a little powerhouse of efficiency. She’s acting in the movie in the next weeks as one of the bad guys but for now we both run around with radios wearing our sun hats, and often toting a script as we rush back and forth from the set to our RV headquarters where makeup is located. Today’s set is beside the Provo River at a park called Vivian Park which is about 20 minutes from our Orem Air B&B. It’s a busy little park for rafters and fly fishermen today. We’ve taken up 4 parking spots with our RV and a good part of the grass with our equipment. Our leading man missed his flight from LA last night and flies in this morning so will be late for filming and Erich has already adjusted the schedule. He’s a pro!

It's interesting how a movie is shot. In my tiny pea brain as an audience, I assume the whole scene is shot continuously but no. Little bits are shot (filmed) all over the place. One day might be shots of the puppy playing, then before they find the puppy, Grace looking mad in the car on her way to the river, then shots of Haley bandaging Jake's foot before we even shot the scene where he cuts his foot. Movie magic, I keep saying to myself!

Everyone keeps asking when the puppy will be here and as the arrival of our tiniest star, a Siberian Husky puppy named Seyka, gets closer, excitement is mounting. Seyka and her handler, Tawnii are coming from Idaho, the state that borders Utah north of Salt Lake and we couldn’t be more grateful to have a young puppy play our wolf and have Tawnii so eager to be a part of this. We even have her driving her truck up and playing the wolf sanctuary worker at one point! Yea Tawnii!

My duties are mostly paperwork, permits, schedules, emails, fetching the food, toting equipment, being on hand for anything Erich needs. Today, I loaded my rental car with stuff and followed Erich in the RV to Vivian park where I figured out how to engage our RV’s pop out section, got the generator and A/C going, helped set up crafty (snacks and drinks) at our tent near the river, reordered a canceled lunch order for tomorrow from EZ CATER, (my new best friend), and am now stuck in the RV guarding all the stuff while they shoot the scene where Haley the river guide, instructs the family on how to paddle. I just heard on my walkie talkie Erich’s voice say “Picture up and roll camera.” So I guess they’re doing the first take of the day!

                                                                       Producer Melanie

I love our cast. Everyone looks so much like I pictured them it’s strange and wonderful. Everyone is professional, happy to be here, and excited to hope that Braving Rapids will be available next year. I keep saying that with the WGA and  SAG strikes and no new content being sold to streamers and studios, our little Indie movie might slip into a niche market and get great distribution when channels are crying for content to air next year.

I'm off to get our catered meal for 1:30 pm -- An Applebee's buffet of chicken strips, boneless ribs, salads and brownies. We set up everything on a picnic table and let everyone go to it! Drinks are always cold and plentiful in this 97 degree heat. Luckily there is a slightly cooler breeze by the river where we're shooting on this hot Utah weekend (and the weather reports say it's about to cool off)

While lunch is served, I will head  across the river to scout out a house we might use for the final scene when the river guide has everyone stay over and they find out that the "wolf" is part husky and the little girl has the opportunity to adopt him after all. This guy, Dave, owns a cabin-like house on the rive that would be perfect for Nick's place. 

Sound Guy - Adam

Amy and Nate playing Grace and Jake (staying cool in the RV)

The RV taking up 4 precious spots at the park

Megan playing Marka the mom of the kids and kick ass person!

                                                                                 Me!

That’s it for now. This experience is unique, strange, interesting, not exactly fun yet but I can see that like summer camp, by the end of my time here, I might be wishing I could be on set again and again and again. 

We'll see.

Day 2 of Filming BRAVING RAPIDS

 We are on Day 2 of filming this movie, doing inside the house shots of the family getting ready to leave on the rafting trip. Today is just Grace and her mom, Marka, lightning outside the window (in 88 degree sunshine here in Orem, Utah), Grace waking from a nightmare.

So much of filmmaking is prep, setting up the shot, rehearsing lines, blocking, waiting. As a producer, I have specific duties I've assumed and often Melanie and I confer on who will take care of what. We also have an awesome PA on set, Ford, who will do anything and everything. Yesterday he did the breakfast scene dishes where Marka makes pancakes for her kids!

I've set up an office in my bedroom which is across the hall from the scenes being filmed today in the little girl's bedroom during the thunder storm. I share this room with Hair and Makeup, today, a lovely person named Courtney who looks like a young Siena Miller. Soon, I'll head out to pick up El Pollo Loco for lunch for everyone. I'm online scouting weather, magnetic truck signs, food, where to find this and that.

The two actresses on call today are crushing every take, doing their jobs like the pros they are. Amazing. While watching the scene of the mom telling the little girl how she flew to Taiwan to find her baby, I had to tear up an hour ago. The words were exactly mine uttered to my  daughter who used to love hearing me tell the story of her adoption. It was a moving moment for me.

I'm taking tons of photos and videos of those backstage moments and will upload them as soon as I can. In the meantime, enjoy these...

I'm Producing a Movie!

 Talk about self-indulgent. A blog about me and what I'm doing...

Very long first sentence: I wanted to chronicle my journey as a film producer and because we feel it might be in poor taste to publicize the making of a movie when the WGA (writers guild of America) and SAG (actors) are on strike to gain fair working conditions and fair wages and controlled use of Artificial Intelligence, I wanted to make this journey private to anyone who reads my blog, not shout out to the world that Indie film is continuing with this strike with non-union workers.

I'm not union, as a writer, actress or anything else. The film I'm producing is non-union.

Backstory: I wrote a script called BRAVING RAPIDS (maybe 3 years ago) on a suggestion from my then manager that producers were looking for family movies. I can't remember if she liked it or not but she didn't take it on, stopped managing and when I was asked for a script with heart in January, I sent the producer, Erich, the script. It's the story of a little girl wrestling with adoption abandonment issues who goes on a family river rafting trip and finds a wolf cub. At the end of the trip she must give up the cub to the authorities/sanctuary and realizes that placing someone you love with a better life isn't abandonment.

Erich liked/loved the script, had his investor read it and anyone else who could pretty much insure that the finished movie would be sold, aired, and then we signed contracts with me as one of the producers. There are 4 producers, FYI. We managed to find the BEST CAST in Utah and maybe anywhere, and are so excited they've joined this project. I love everyone that was chosen! 

I spent about 347 hours scouting for a puppy to play the wolf cub and knew it would be a last minute call because, as I kept telling Erich in June, "the puppy we want hasn't been born yet." We hit the jackpot with a Siberian Husky puppy tentatively named GREEN GIRL who we now refer to as Rapids. She and her owner will join us next week in Provo to film for a week for live shots of the wolf cub. When the puppy sleeps, we will use a fake cub who is now sleeping on my bed at our producer Air B&B. 

Stay tuned for the real puppy photos!

Sunday, I flew to Utah and am now sequestered inside a small Air B&B doing pre-production work before filming begins tomorrow. Up until now, I've been home working on getting permits to film at parks, securing filming insurance, lending my hand to casting and consulting, finding the puppy. The  script was locked before the writers strike but as a producer, I'm allowed to make changes to suit filming and of course, being non-union, I'm within my rights.

Yesterday I hit the ground running getting props, set décor and supplies. It was an 8-5 day of thrift stores, Walmart, Target, Lowes, Walgreens, Trader Joes, Big 5 and various other stores to find things obscure like a pink elephant stuffed animal, battery operated fans (it's 100 degrees in Provo!) and a dream catcher. I returned to the house/headquarters at 5 pm with a car loaded to the roof with stuff. 

Today, we will pickup the RV which will be our traveling headquarters and bathroom in remote areas, shop with the other producer, Melanie, at Costco for crafty (snacks and drinks). I'll then hit the thrift stores again and set dress one of the bedrooms at the Air B&B for tomorrow's filming of a scene with a little girl awaking from a nightmare. Lots of pink and purple stuff for a 10 year old girl's bedroom!

Also, working on finalizing permits, securing the house for filming the final scene and supporting Erich so he can be free to unleash his creative genius for this story. 

I'm excited! More later...

LATER: 9 pm. Tomorrow we shoot. We just had a lightning storm here in Orem Utah with a double rainbow over the house so I'm taking that as a good sign. 

Got the RV today from one of our cast and I love our choice for the male lead as Nick Swiftwater who owns the RV. Andrew seems to be a super nice guy and offered his great house for our wrap party already and if that isn't trust, I don't know what is. He's flying to LA tomorrow for a KIA commercial but luckily we don't need him for a few days and Erich worked it out on the master schedule so no one is Nick-less. Also, talked to a rafting expert today, Taylor, who works at the operation where we're renting rafts and he was great! He'll be on the set at the river for our river scenes at the top of next month and offered to take us down the river to scout locations and I'M IN!!!

Our DOP (Director of Photography) Neil, is in the house tonight and just returned from a documentary shoot on various rivers from Montana to the Pacific Ocean with two paddlers and is a really interesting dude! I can't believe I get to be a part of this.

I spent several hours today decorating Grace's room for her bedroom scenes for tomorrow. I think it looks cute but you'll tell me when the movie comes out. I hope to return some of the stuff we kept price tags on, cheapskate that I am.

Today was another day of shopping but also phone calls, permits, financials, food shopping, decorating and now sleeping...

Kim Out!