Oh the places you'll go!

When you are thinking of creating a film, the first steps are all cerebral. The intellectual property and whatnot. But when it all starts becoming "real", you have to take those ideas and make them physical. And the biggest one seems to be the location.

We have updated a lot on our location scouting, given pictures and even videos to show some of the amazing places we have found. But you don't even know the half of it! Allow me to fill you in a bit.

When doing a historical film everyone would LOVE to go to the original locations. Which would be The Netherlands, in our case. However, getting all of our team over there (along with our families) would be cost prohibitive. So, we look to the fascinating wonders tucked in America and find: a small dutch town in Michigan. Who knew?

It also happens that Michigan is very film friendly. Very. Friendly. There are a lot of talented people living there to add to our team, housing for the out of state member of the team (and their families), with the bonus of a mild summer we Texans will relish!

So, here is what we are doing: 1) Using existing buildings for sets (like the windmill). They are authentic and inspiring. 2) Creating sets in a warehouse. These babies are awesome. Seriously, our man Cronk is working some crazy magic for us right now! 3) Traveling for original location shots. Yes, a smaller team will head out to The Netherlands for the real thing. 4) Green screen. Finally, we will add some digital elements to the above sets, creating the kind of scenes we need.

Man, writing it down kind of puts it into perspective. We are doing a LOT of work to make sure this film looks authentic but it is so worth it!

Though building of the warehouse sets just got started this week, I have a picture to whet your appetite (plus, I like to share)!

Tulip Field Plates

Our team was in Holland, MI again last week, shooting plates for the film. Plates are shots that establish the scene and provide us with blank scenes on which to add our actors when/if needed in post. Our tulip fields will be long dead when we do the big filming in July, so we had to plan a quick trip to get our shots. To make things MORE interesting, Michigan has been experiencing warmer than usual weather and the tulips bloomed early!

Many thanks to the team for these shots. They are just little snippets of various scenes so you can see what we are working with, quality and look/feel. I seriously watched it 4 times before posting this. It is that beautiful!

(And no, there isn't any sound!)