Connective Tissues and Egg Sandwiches

The first of June brought the last pickups that we'll need to shoot (hopefully). A skeleton version of our crew reunited for a few days to grab bits and pieces of things that we missed, had to cut for time during principal photography, or that we discovered we needed to fill a gap. There was really only one short scene that we decided to re-shoot. The rest were the equivalent of narrative tendons and ligaments for added support.

Day 1, we needed some additional pre-dawn footage for our opening woods sequence plus the never-ending collection of the 3Fs (flora, fauna, and fungi b-roll). Now, Forager's fearless Director of Photography Jon Nastasi was locked and loaded for a 4am call time. I think the promise of a truly outstanding egg sandwich at The Palisades Market on 9W was the real dealmaker--and it didn't disappoint.

[As filmmakers who came up in Austin, it seemed unfathomable to go into production without breakfast tacos--the cheap, delicious, and substantial morning staple that fuels film crews of all sizes across the State of Texas. We soon were introduced to the Northeast regional equivalent: the egg sandwich. Typically, a humble Kaiser roll, bagel, or croissant with egg, cheese, and optional meat substance (Taylor ham anyone?). While it'll never supplant the breakfast taco in my heart (literally, figuratively), I've come to appreciate the form on its own terms. And the best part for feeding hungry crew-folk is that you can find a serviceable egg sandwich at obscenely early hours, just about anywhere in the region. From a corner bodega on Staten Island, to a 24-hour gas station in the Bronx, to a swanky little micro-bakery in the Hudson Valley. And you can't always tell from the decor when you're going to hit a truly brilliant iteration.]

Day 2 of pickups was a return to the woods of Putnam County for a few daytime and nighttime exteriors. Our sound guru Jeremy Fleishman returned from the comforts of Pittsburgh to join us. The highlight was that we grabbed a beautiful new opening shot for the film that we're all totally in love with. Half by design and half by happy accident. I can't wait to see it in the cut.

Day 3 started back in NJ with a trip to Newark's Iron Bound. Julia had the idea to add a brief scene in a neighborhood coffee house. We had been by Café Opção several times and loved the way it looked. The owners and staff were incredibly gracious to work with us and let us shoot in their gorgeous space. (A thousand thank yous!). After another short scene in the neighborhood outside our friend Amy Brown's apartment (thanks Brownie!), we moved on to grab a quick shot back on Staten Island. Then we finished the day with some driving footage along the scenic NJ Turnpike.

Day 4 was a half-day in the sound studio (at MetroSonic in Brooklyn) recording voice-overs and ADR phone dialog.

That brings us pretty much up to date. We're moving into the fine cut, working on a trailer, and continuing with time-lapses.

Thanks to master producer Kit Bland for helping to wrangle all the moving parts and for hosting us in his lovely abode. And thanks again to our cast and crew, old and new, for making the necessary connections happen. Onward!

The Open Flatlands of Post-Production

If this were a marathon (and it is, indeed, it is!) maybe we'd be at mile 16 give or take. Julia and I are on that unbearably long and lonely stretch of road--every day, it's just you and your footage. And the constant pounding of progress.

It's been awhile since I've posted an update. Not because things haven't been progressing. Quite the opposite. We've had a lot to get done in the first months of 2011, and only so many waking hours each day to fill. Blogging kind of fell off the list of priorities for awhile. But as Fast Eddie once said, "I'm back, baby."

We now have a rough cut. And we've been focused combing through it for the last few weeks. Watching...discussing...checking alternate takes. Et cetera. We've also had the benefit reviewing an alternate cut that was put together by students at The Edit Center in Manhattan--some really great ideas in there that we'll surely borrow from on our way to a fine cut.

The bountiful morel season around NY and NJ afforded me the chance to shoot some very pretty seasonal b-roll out in the woods. And I was most pleased to get to cook some of the delicious fresh black morels and ramps that I found for our stalwart producer, Kit Bland, and new friend Karin Chien.

I also helped prepare a mycophillic feast in Brooklyn with writer/director David Barker, photographer Barbara Ess, filmmaker/artist Nida Sinnokrot, and editor/filmmaker Rica Linders. Three kinds of morels (Morchella elata, Morchella esculenta, and Morchella semilibera) and all kinds of talk.

Next up in the process are pick-ups (just a few odds and ends that will help smooth out a few scenes--no major re-shoots, praise be to the mushroom gods) and some sound booth recording of voice-over. Then we're back in the edit suite for the rest of the summer. Hoo boy!

We'll be posting at least one official trailer in the coming weeks as well, as part of our next fundraising campaign. Stay tuned!

I've also started shooting a series of mushroom time-lapses for inclusion--here's one of the first tests:

Kickstarts & Pickups at Year's End

Has it been a month since my last post? I guess we've had a lot going on...

The final tally on our Kickstarter campaign was beyond our wildest dreams. After surpassing the initial $3K funding goal, the pledges kept rolling in to the tune of $6360 (for the statistically inclined who want a bit of quantitative analysis in their blog-reading, that's an achievement of 212%). Our deepest, most humble thanks to our 73 backers, and everyone who helped us spread the word. Which was necessary, because we're speechless.

For those backers who are awaiting thank-you gifts, the first batch is in the mail. For folks who have official Now, Forager t-shirts coming their way, these have been custom-ordered. I hope to have all the gifts shipped out by the first week of January--thanks for your patience.

Also, we will have a few extra shirts (all cotton, dark gray with black screenprinting) in various sizes plus cloth shopping bags left over--all featuring our wood-cut morel logo. Shoot me an email if you're interested in making a direct swag purchase in support of the film.

Though the holidays have been creeping up on us, we've stayed pretty darned busy with NF-related business. We shot a day of pickups right before Thanksgiving (when I posted this on Facebook, friends from my hometown in Oregon reminded me that "shooting pickups" has a more literal meaning involving firearms, rusty trucks, and abandoned quarries). We also submitted two lengthy applications for grants to raise some more budget for post-production, and took a meeting for some in-kind post resources. All good stuff.

Julia has also been getting the editing process under way with the help of Assistant Editor, Alec Beard. The raw footage has all been transcoded, the audio synced, and scene assemblies are under way.

The last big item on our plate for 2010 will be a couple last days of production--shooting our winter exterior scenes. Now, Forager takes place over the course of a year--the only way to show this believably is to actually shoot in different seasons. While this sucks in terms of scheduling, continuity, and production momentum, it's really our only choice to make a micro-budget feature with ambitious production value. We couldn't do it without a cast and crew who were committed to the project. (Thanks again guys.)

I'll hopefully post one last production report before 2011 comes a-calling. And I think I'll have some very good post-production news to announce shortly, once it all becomes official. Stay tuned...

Kickstarter Update: Minimum goal achieved!

We've made it beyond our minimum goal of $3000, thanks to the generous support of numerous donors. This achievement ensures funding via Kickstarter. To all of our backers who have pledged so far, thank you.

And if you'd still like to show your support for "the mushroom movie"--you have until 6:31pm EST on December 3rd to make your pledge:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cortlund/now-forager

Donations $35 and above qualify for cool "forager-friendly" thank you gifts.

Production Report-Week 4

As previously mentioned, we had a week's hiatus before finishing up principal photography on Now, Forager. While a few of the cast and crew members had other job commitments, others would enjoy some well-deserved R & R. And the rest of us would be still working on production logistics non-stop...

Jenny "Queen of Locations" Harkins was hustling to find us our most challenging restaurant interior--an elegantly modern Asian-influenced fine-dining establishment. We needed a kitchen interior, a front-of-the-house interior, and a restaurant exterior. And we needed two full days to shoot all the scenes.

The difficulty: if a restaurant closes at all in New York, it's usually only for one day per week. To get a single location that matched our very specific decor and style needs for two full days--not bloody likely. So we divided the scenes into a back-of-the-house day and a front-of-the-house day. And Jenny scored us a couple of incredible locations...

For our Back-of-the-House/Kitchen, we shot one of the prep kitchens of the Thompson Hotel in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Lots of sleek new stainless steel appliances and equipment. A great layout with plenty of room to shoot. A beauty of a stove. It was everything we needed it to be.

But the Front-of-the-House that Jenny came up with was maybe the biggest location score of the entire shoot. 1 or 8 Atelier of Food in Williamsburg, Brooklyn was beyond our wildest dreams. Owners Maho and Shinji Mizutani have designed a restaurant that exudes brilliance in every facet. Sleek design, decor, and lighting (seen in the photo above); an inventive selection of house-infused cocktails; a full menu that offers top-quality sushi and sashimi plus a rotating selection of French-influenced entrees. They even featured a tasting menu of different mushroom dishes earlier in the fall season. Total simpatico. Julia and I went in for an amazing dinner a couple days after shooting--the whole experience was beyond superlatives.

In the costume department, we also had the generous support of Michael Pittard and Maggie Kleinpeter of Supermaggie (who started their business in Brooklyn, and who recently moved their operations to Austin). They helped us outfit our chefs and restaurant staff in these scenes with their super-cool octopus t-shirts.

And that's a wrap for our interior locations. We still have to get a bit of fall driving footage, a couple more days of winter exteriors in December, some Additional Dialog Recording, some short animated sequences, and some time-lapses. But some of the hardest parts of production are now behind us.

Foragers--cast and crew--you have been amazing. Our deepest gratitude to you all. Now get some rest. (Photo by Kelly Marsh)

82% Funded with 23 Days to Go!

In just about a week, we've achieved more than 80% of our funding goal on Kickstarter. We are most humbly grateful for the love and enthusiasm of our friends, family, and supporters across the country. There are no finer communities to have roots in than Austin and Brooklyn.

Our deepest and most heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has helped spread the word, offered encouragement, and pledged a few bucks if they could. Cheers!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cortlund/now-forager

Production Report: Week 3

Now, Forager Week 3 started in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, shooting a restaurant interior at Chestnut on Smith Street.

It was very fortuitous that our intrepid location scout (Jenny Harkins) made contact with Chestnut's chef (Daniel Eardley) soon after his own foray into the woods searching for fall edibles. We had found a like-minded establishment--with a perfect interior for our scenes. This wouldn't be the last time Jenny saved our bacon with a fantastic place to shoot.

Our next morning would be a venture into doc-style shooting, for scenes of Lucien at his winter job working in a bread bakery (located in Astoria, Queens). The afternoon was spent on various restaurant exteriors around Brooklyn--in Park Slope and Sunset Park. Special thanks to the folks at Moutard, Stone Park Cafe, and Hunan Delight.

We spent a full day in Manhattan for (mostly) exteriors. The East Village in the morning (where this photo of our lead characters hawking their wares was taken); Chinatown mid-day; and then a short round-trip train ride to NJ. Boom, boom, boom. We were on fire.

We rounded out the week with two days on Staten Island. I'm not sure how many films shoot in all 5 boroughs of New York, but the scrappy DIY professionals behind Now, Forager made it happen.

(Our Bronx shoot was in Van Cortlandt Park back in May--scenes of Lucien hunting for morels and ramps. 'Can one actually find morels and ramps in Van Cortlandt Park?' you might ask. My lips are sealed...)

Camp Pouch Boyscout Camp on Staten Island was a fantastic and fungi rich location. Jeremy (our sound guru) had his mushroom eyes on--finding a big Chicken-of-the-Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) log. We also spotted a big patch of stinkhorns (Phallus impudicus), a fruiting of shaggy manes (Coprinus comatus) and some blewits (Lepista nuda). I also found several Lactarius and Cortinarius species, as well as a patch of Hebeloma (these are hard to ID to species, but a typical variant has the common name "Poison Pie" if that gives you a clue as to their general edibility).

We also had the full moon working on our side for our Staten Island days--and we took advantage by shooting into dusk one day, and into the night on the next (at Wolfe's Pond Park).

Week 3--wrapped. The Now, Forager crew would get a week's hiatus while our DP Jon and our gaffer Brian went to shoot episodes of Chopped for the Food Network.

It was just the chance I needed to get back into the woods to shoot some more "mushroom porn" and gather a few more stunt fungi for our final scenes. The fall season was hanging on with some nice late hens, plenty more blewits, a late explosion of honey mushrooms (Armillaria gallica), and even some delicious gypsies (Cortinarius caperatus).

Did I mention how much we love this crew? Here's some of the gang on Staten Island at the end of the week.

(The photos in this post were taken by Jon Nastasi...on actual film, no less.)