28. May 2009 by admin.

Just to keep everyone up to date on Chemical 12-D I thought it’d be nice for everyone to know that we are nearing the end of post production as we are onto our sound mix and score.   I would say that, for the first time, this is the only film that I really feel like a score would do it justice.  In Such As It Ends ther was very minimal music and it may have lasted for 30 seconds out of the 18 minute film.  Then, for the upcoming Messiah web series there will be a very minimal amount of scoring in that also.  However, I feel like Chemical 12-D could only be strengthened by some great scoring.  I am unsure of who will score it yet but I know that it will be finished relatively soon.

With that said, I cannot express how upset I am with Messiah not being finished yet.  In an effort not to start confrentation I will not name names, but there are individual’s holding the project back.  I would say the film has been pictured locked (mostly) for roughly a month now and we are waiting on a few people to wake up behind the wheel and get going with what obviously needs to be done.  You can quote me when I say Messiah will be finished and it will be awesome when it sees the light of day.  Although I see Chemical 12-D finishing up before Messiah (for 2 reasons; 1. Its a third of Messiah’s length and 2. way less post production work as all effects were done practical) do not worry because it will be releasing and I know everyone is excited for that just as well.

It is late so with that, I abid everyone a good night.

-Mac Eldridge

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27. May 2009 by admin.

Hey all,

Can’t apologize enough for not blogging for a bit, I was knee deep in pre production and then shot all weekend and I am now finally getting to breathe.  And yes, Chemical 12-D is a wrap and is now in post production (which I promise won’t be too long until it’s all done).  In fact, I already have a rough cut done that clocked in at roughly 8 minutes.  There have already been a few changes to the final cut as compared to the script for a handful of reasons.   Regardless of it’s script changes, I think it is a great project and I am pumped for all of you to watch it.

The weekend went overall pretty well.  Although we fell behind schedule in accordance to where and when we should be, we never shot an hour over schedule each day so that is something to be really excited about.  I got all sorts of compliments this weekend as to how smooth the shooting went and hopefully people really meant that when they said it to me.  I had a great time (for the most part) and worked with a ton of new people I will hopefully collabate on with in the near future.  Also I got to work with the Water Cooler Production usuals which is always fun and a great experience.  I tried my best to run a set that worked and I think the final result will show how hard everyone worked and how well everyone worked together.  I couldn’t have been happier with everything.  I also have to shout out my actors, after editing this, I know they gave me performances that are excellent and I will work with them in the near future as well.

I’ll keep you guys updated as post goes through it’s numbers.  In the meantime we only have one re-shoot this Saturday.  If you’re interested in being an extra, contact me either via facebook or email (watercoolerproductions@gmail.com).  I hope you all are as excited as I am to see this short finished.

-Mac Eldridge

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20. May 2009 by admin.

I don’t really have an excuse for the lack of blogging.

I read blogs all the time with filmmakers updating their sites during pre production and production itself and I have fallen asleep behind the wheel.  My appologies.  Now since I have said my apology, I digress…

We are all set to film Chemical 12-D this weekend.  It seems like every facet of production is just as excited to shoot something that has now turned out to be our highest budgeted short film yet.  I myself have been busy trying to make things happen and getting things prepared to make the shoot as smooth as possible.  My only concern is the lack of time to shoot.  It is only 4 pages but due to the amount of SFX we are doing, it would have been terrific to get one more day of production time.  Then, we’d be relatively relaxed as we can get shooting.  The only thing we are short of now are extras to play dead bodies and zombies.  If you’re at all interested in being an extra, email me at watercoolerproductions@gmail.com for more details.

I wish I could tell you all the things we have planned and are set up to do for this short but I cannot be a spoiler to my own film.  Stay tuned and hopefully I can get some good production stills to show around online before we release the film.

-Mac Eldridge

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12. May 2009 by admin.

I love how I said in my last post that I would try to blog every day and my next post comes a day late… In my defense, I do in fact blog every night essentially.  Take last night for example, I blogged around 10PM because thats when I got done with my daily shit.  Tonight, however, I am finishing late thus I am blogging late getting me in Tuesday’s day.  It shows as me skipping a day but I say fuck it, I really didn’t.  Anyway, we digress;

As I said in a previous blog, I was doing a commercial for Timothy O’Toole’s.  We shot the project Thursday night from roughly 11PM to 3AM and I think we got something really succesful with great heart.  Our go-to actor Nathan Polzin rocked the shit as always and it runs a minute in length.  We’re trying to get the project finished by Friday so hopefully by then I’ll be able to throw it up online.

Thanks to everyone (the extras) who made it possible.  If you were there then you would know I was really worried about attendance and although I wish we could have had more there, I think we did a good job.

On another note, Chemical 12-D got it’s last revision tonight and Thursday will be another casting session.  I’ll try my best to keep you all up to date.  Take it easy.

-Mac Eldridge

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11. May 2009 by admin.

Sorry for no blogging the last few days everybody.  I was out of town due to outside obligations of Water Cooler Productions and never got in front of a computer to blog.

I will start off with bad news (sigh)… Chemical 12-D did not land the actor we wanted because her contract with a television show did not allow her to do horror/thriller stuff.  I won’t name the actress but it sucks that people can partially own your artisitic choices as an individual.  Before encountering this actress, I didn’t even know shit was like that within actors contract’s.  Regardless, I will have a cement cast by Wednesday night so I can move forward with the film and have rehearsal the next night.

For more positive news, I have heard the SFX meeting went well for the 12-D this weekend.  As I said, I was out of town and couldn’t attend.  I guess the producer of the film (David Wagenaar) was confident enough in a few things for the project that he decided to throw a couple extra bucks into the budget so we could a few more things special effects wise easier and more efficent.  Its exciting but still nerve wrecking for me due to the fact I am unsure of how long shooting this project will take (another reason I’m nervous is because I have yet to get a full cast done and I am less than two weeks away from production).

I’ll start updating again daily (or to the best of my abilities) because I’m back in town now.  My appologies for that.  Take it easy.

-Mac Eldridge

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7. May 2009 by admin.

I’m a bit upset with myself that I am still casting for Chemical 12-D with roughly two weeks to go before principal photography begins.  However, we are in works with an actress who is really great and we landed an actor who will really bring our main character to life.  God willing the actress works out so then I can cast the kid I want to play our supporting role.

I mentioned in the previous blog that I was hoping to throw up some stuff from the auditions yesterday.  Sadly, I couldn’t get a hold of a camera to film everything but it is ok due to the very few people we auditioned.  Maybe I can record a rehearsal we have so you guys can see the process of filming and how it all goes down.  Just know that we are still working on getting the rest of our cast solidifed and our crew list should be done tomorrow.  Also, the story boarding and shot sheets have been completed so we are just a few steps away from production.

As  for other news in Water Cooler Productions, we’re shooting our Timothy O’Toole’s commercial tonight from 12:30AM to 2:00AM.  It’ll be the first commercial we’ve ever done (God willing everything goes OK) and if you want to be an extra, come on down to Timothy O’Tooles at 5572 Grand Avenue in Gurnee, Illinois!  We’ll have the commercial done in hopefully a week so once it’s finished, you guys will get to see it first.  Take it easy.

-Mac Eldridge

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6. May 2009 by admin.

Big day today for Water Cooler Productions

We’re auditioning a few actors for Chemical 12-D today.  I think I’m going to bring a video camera with me and upload some of the stuff for shits and giggles to show you guys what it is like to run a casting session for student projects (that meaning, not everybody is all that good). Don’t get me wrong, I respect and admire anyone who tries to get into the acting business.  They are putting themselves in a job where they are told they are too fat, skinny, short, or tall among many other things for roles on a constent basis and that really sucks.  They choose a career where getting chopped down and rejected is a common thing and they just have to live with it and go to the next audition.  I’m a director who actually loves working with actors so don’t think me possibly putting up some footage of the auditions is bashing anyone, just an informitive piece on what it is like to cast a project.

I’ll tell you guys how the session goes and if I feel OK doing it, then I’ll throw up a video of the whole process.

-Mac Eldridge

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4. May 2009 by admin.

Hey all,

I don’t  know how many of you are on facebook but we at Water Cooler Productions have just started a new page on facebook.  It is to really help our numbers for Messiah and future projects to make sure they have an audience.  It will be very hard but I would like to see the member page get up to 1,000 people by the time we release Messiah.  That is roughly 3 weeks to get it to that and I am not sure if it can be done, but damn it, we can try right?

So what I am asking out of all of you is to send a group invite to all of your friends on facebook in order to try to build a fanbase so our future projects can be succesful.  Right now is a crucial time for getting Water Cooler Productions off of the ground and we can use everyone’s help and support to make sure that it happens.  You all can check out the Water Cooler Productions page on Facebook by clicking here.  We can do get 1,000 members, so lets start now.

Thanks everybody

-Mac Eldridge

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4. May 2009 by admin.

Quick blog,

I haven’t thrown up any pictures or videos yet on the blog that I have advertised or especially made a blog for.  Well, here is the first one.  It is small enough to throw on here without whoring it out via facebook and what have you.  It was for my production I class where we (my crew) had to develop a one-shot.  Each crew had a director that had to be chosen.  And with me being a huge one-shot guy, I volunteered myself.  This is what I came up with.  I imagined everyone in the class doing something that progressed the narrative on-screen so I thought I would benefit myself to tell the story (or at least a part of it) all off screen.  What I came up with I was pretty happy about although the shot wasn’t to extensive or anything that required only a few in-camera tricks to make it work out (no worries, it is a true one-shot).  All in all, the project worked out pretty well and my only regret was not having a SFX person on set to bloody me up in the start of the shot and to not have real actors so the project could have been taken a bit more seriously.  Regardless, I thought it was small enough, short enough, and fun enough to put on here.  So, fellow readers, I present to you, Run.

Click on the image to play the short on youtube.

Enjoy.

-Mac Eldridge

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4. May 2009 by admin.

But, I have been a relatively busy person.  So where to start?

Well, first, we got the commercial deal done to help advertise Messiah.   And now, since everything is set to happen, I can say who will be our lone advertiser for the project.  The pub, Timothy O’Toole’s, will be letting Water Cooler Productions shoot them a comercial and play it in front of every episode of Messiah.  It’s a viral marketing thing that will hopefully get them a great commercial and some more regular customers.  We’ll be shooting it Thursday night at their Gurnee location this Thursday night from roughly 9PM to 2AM so if you want to be an extra, be sure to come by for a great time!

Next, I met with Ken, a special effects person who will be working on our next short film, Chemical 12-D.  You can see some of Ken’s past work by checking out this film Fast Zombies With Guns.  Its a good time with lots and lots of blood (done by him, respectively).  Along with him, we will be having a SFX meeting this Friday so our four SFX team can meet for the first time and really get a good idea of what we will be doing for the shoot.  If anyone is at all intersted, you can see Water Cooler Production’s first attempt at a zombie short film by clicking here to see In A State Of.  We made it when we were back in high school and I still find it fun to watch just as others have told me.  Maybe it’ll end up as a special feature on the Chemical 12-D DVD.

Well, I think that just about does it as for all of what I can say.  I’ll be sure to keep up with the blogging better than I have in the last few days.  My appologies for that.  Oh, and tomorrow I’ll post up a one minute short I did for a class.  Its small time stuff but fun to watch regardless.  Take care.

-Mac Eldridge

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