"Signal Lost: Revelations" movie update, February 2021

I mentioned a few months ago that I was asked to shoot a local indie movie with no budget and very limited cast and crew availability. While slow going, it has been going. I'll share a few screenshots of the footage I've got in some of the scenes.

This is from the very first scene we shot. I hardly knew what I was doing. As I've said before, video is not something that comes naturally to me, but I love a challenge and I've been learning quickly. What I do know is light and composition, so I've been applying those basics to everything I shoot and I think it helps make the movie look better.

This will probably end up being the opening shot of the movie. I don't have a "follow focus" for my camera (a device that allows for smoother focus control), so I had to manually focus the lens as the actors walked over this rise in the terrain.

We shot this scene three times with three combinations of actors. With each change in cast, we found the new actors worked out even better than before. By the time we got this footage, the actors were nailing their lines and the weather was really cooperating. (And I was developing better cinematography skills and tricks.)

This shot of our lead actress was made in Saint Augustine. Again, we had to reshoot this for reasons, but by the time we were done, I was much happier with how it all come out. Nice Golden Hour light for this shot.

I was really excited to get this action scene done at a local bar. The actor below was supposed to run down a long hallway with me tracking in front of him with my camera slung under a monopod for some stability. The footage is terribly jerky, but that's kind of what we wanted to give a sense of the character's fear. It was very dark in the hallway and I very nearly ran headfirst into the wall at the other end because I didn't have anyone guiding me while my eyes were pointed at the back of the camera.

Closeup of a prop from Scene 3 (#whatsinthebag)

So that's what's new. We're hoping to have this finished and edited in time for a Halloween premiere at the Historic Marion Theater in downtown Ocala. After that, this movie and two previous movies in the trilogy will be available on DVD/Blu-ray and online. I believe we're also going to start a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for additional equipment that we'll need for the big action scene that we've been putting off for awhile. I will relay the info on that campaign as soon as it's live.