Correction: 5:30 am not 6:00 am

Yeah, so 5:30 am was my wake up call yesterday. I don't ever recall getting up that early in my college career. We shot from around 6 am yesterday to 5:30 pm, breaking for lunch. Needless to say I woke up from a four hour nap at 10:30 last night. The sun rise over Lake Waco was nice, it was no beach or mountain sunrise, but it worked out ok. We got some of the weirdest looks from the fishermen that were near by. It's funny how when you have a camera people give you the weirdest looks or act like they have never seen a camera or crew before. I know it's not LA or New York, but seriously. We also shot a biking sequence in Cameron Park in the afternoon and every car that drove by slowed down and had to look for about 30 seconds before moving on. One guy completely stopped his "sporty" Dodge Neon, stuck his head out of the window and then proceeded to put the car into neutral and rev his engine for about 10 seconds to impress the crew before riding off. I was completely impressed, so much so that I decided never to film there again. If that doesn't describe Waco in one sentence I don't know what does.

Common Grounds was also very kind to allow us to shoot a coffee sequence there Sunday morning. We got some cool shots in making coffe and grinding coffee beans. Another highlight from the day was that I fell off the dolly that we were using. I'm cool. We ended our near 12 hour shoot shooting some UBC soccer.

Today, Monday, we completed camera mantinence, and we shipped off 200 feet of film that we shot this weekend. As I was taking the film out of the camera, I realized that I was holding around 2 minutes of film and around 17 hours of work all combined into 1 roll. We will get pictures from the development tomorrow night. If they are good, I'll post some. So, tomorrow will be the test to see if all of our efforts were properly lit and executed. I'm nervous, but I studied hard.

The Clearing

There's just something about rainy days that make you want to do nothing. I was definitely less motivated today when it was cloudy and gloomy like it has been for the past week. I think cloudcover makes you sleepy. On that note, we filmed two shots today. And as I just wrote that, it put the scope of the work that still has to be exerted for completion of this project into perspective. Both shots were under 4 seconds in total running time length, and I think we spent close to 4 hours on these shots- Which brings me to say that tomorrow we will be shooting from 6am-6pm- Which also brings me to ask myself why I want to do this for a living.




Today we basically worked on a little bit of shooting, locations, and scheduling for the rest of this week while the outside was pouty. The good news was that by sunset today the clouds started to clear, which was a sight that I welcomed.




When we were lighting for tonight's scene, I realized how much of film is based just off of painting with numbers. When you light a scene you basically take light level readings which correspond to numerical light compensations (f stops) on the camera. So, when you have your final scene set, your overall exposure is just a compromise between a bunch of different light levels. (See picture) In conclusion, I'm going to bed.

You think you know, but you have no idea.

So, in keeping with the craziness of this whole thing we like to call filmmaking, today lived up to expectations. Today consisted of waking up at 9:00 and driving to Austin to pick up the camera. We had a really good time learning about 35mm loading, exposure, and lenses- so much so that I think I've learned more today about film than I have in a couple of months. I also loaded my first $250 roll of film into the camera and found myself shaking afterwords because I didn't want to somehow screw up the film and lose $250. (Yeah I know that it's just loading film, but you can't argue with messing up $250.It was a big deal for me.)



After a business lunch, we drove back just in time for some nice Austin traffic. We setup our first shooting location above Baylor's SUB around 8-10:30 and wrapped around 11:15. All and I I'd say I'm pretty pumped about shooting 35mm. It was pretty over-dramatic because we setup 2 hours for 2 four second shots. All and all I was surprised with how well the lighting looked for the room. There is just always that hint of doubt when shooting film because you do not have instant results like video, but it adds to all the drama of shooting film..



Tomorrow our shooting schedule is going to be flexible, depending on our contacts and the weather. Weather.com has been good to me, telling me that we should see a lot more sunshine than we expected for this next week. It's nice when things come together at the very end.

Weather.com and Madness

Well, tomorrow marks the first official day of shooting. It's going to be intensive. By intensive I mean the shooting schedule includes this weekend, all of next week, and next weekend. We have reserved our Arri II C 35mm camera for this time period and we got a killer deal from a film guy in Austin. We're going to be heading down to A-town tomorrow morning to pick the camera up and get a quick review on the basics of shooting and lighting for film.

On a side note, I didn't think it was possible to look at weather.com more than 1 time per day, but it entirely is. I have basically set weather.com as my homepage for this next week. So much of what we're shooting depends on sunny days so we're hoping that we get at least a couple.

Kodak Comes Through

It's just crazy. Kodak made my day today. We received 2,000 feet of brand new, unexposed 35mm film for the project. While that sounds like a truckload, it's really only around 20 minutes of stock. Surprisingly this 2,000 feet is just quite perfect for what we're doing. Kodak definitely came through because all of this was completely donated (at a value of around $1200). We're shooting the new Vision 2 500T 5229 line of Kodak's 35mm cinematography stock selection. CRASH and CAPOTE were both shot with the same stock that we are using.

A Project Based on Beauty

There is no doubt that Kyle Lake lived life to the fullest. Both his inner and outer beauty will be remembered by all of us. I find it extremely ironic that Kyle's last sermon was based on the movie Garden State, a film that grasps what it is like to discover experiencing the here and now in the character of Andrew Largeman.


Kyle's Film is a project that we feel very called to take on. When you lose a friend like Kyle, it's hard not to want to give back in some way.


Kyle's last sermon was surprisingly very cinematic in its nature. Not only did it detail appreciating beauty in the ordinary things, but engaged a sense of inspiration and an eerie comfort in the wording. By instigating this project, we are not elevating Kyle to a level of worship and admiration, but rather we are celebrating the beauty of God that was seen through Kyle's life.






The purpose of this blog is mainly awareness about the project, and for you to follow along in the filmmaking process. A small crew of people has been assembled to organize and direct the direction of the project. Our end goal is to present the conclusion of Kyle's last sermon in an artistic and expressionistic way that is left open to interpretation.


Images and cinematography will be the main catalysts, bringing words from a page to life. The medium of film has always had a certain sense of mystery and beauty that has enthralled the world to fall in love with the cinema. We will be shooting this project on 35mm film, a medium that seems suited to capture Kyle's words, helping them still maintain that sense of love, depth, and warmth that Kyle was remembered for.


The second part of the project will highlight Kyle's life in a series of pictures of Kyle, family, and friends in a slideshow-type fashion.




Our end goal of the finished film is to reach everyone that Kyle reached and more. Screenings, DVDs, and Internet postings will facilitate getting the word out on Kyle's message and legacy.


While creating a work of art is an enthralling and creative process, it also involves a more practical end of things, particularly creating a budget and keeping a time schedule. Shooting film is 10x more expensive than shooting video. Due to the nature of the medium, developing and transfer costs for film shoot up very quickly even for the amount of film that we are shooting. We have secured a portion of our budged based on private donations. At this time we are still looking to secure more so that we can complete the project and distribute it to a maximum amount of people.


The time schedule is tentatively set for project completion in early May 2006 and we are pretty pumped about the direction that the project is headed in. A lot of cool ideas and ways to portray Kyle's message in a creative and beautiful way have surfaced and we are running with them. In the days that follow, keep us in your thoughts and pray that God would be glorified in our actions and in the production process itself.


How you can contribute financially:

Download our project synopsis here :

Kyle's Film Proposal

Contact Josh Franer : josh@30frameproductions.com