Crisis!!! Ahh!

Sorry everyone! I've been a little slammed lately.

We finished filming "Blood Pool"!!! I don't think I could be any happier, the performances are amazing, the cinematography is better than I could have ever imagined and the cast and crew worked really hard for about 4 days straight. (I am quite the slave driver apparently)

I went a bought a new hard drive to edit "Blood Pool" so I could be sure it would be secure. I paid about twice as much to get a Lacie. Well, it crashed!! It waited until I got all of my footage, my ADR and all of the stills from the production before it died. How nice.... I did get lucky though, when it was starting to act funny I copied my ADR files to my desktop and luckily, The Brass Taurus company still has my footage on their drives. I was able to get a few photos off the drive and they will be up on the website very soon thanks to the lovely Anna! I'll be sure to make another post for that ;) Hopefully Choppy has the rest of the amazing stills he took while on set. He has an amazing eye for catching those little moments, ie. Kayla and I walking around in Kathleens new heels...apparently we are 12. :)

More to come including, a bio about JR lighting who supplied all of our equipment thanks to Chris Andersen and Mitch Ebert. A bio about Sherwin Buydens and the O'Aces bar who supplied two of our locations and production stills!!! yay!

Progress...

The first "Blood Pool" shoot went so well! The cast, crew and I can't wait to finish this film. We are planning to wrap the film this weekend, shooting all day Saturday, Sunday morning at a local bar and "Blood Pool" will be in the can. Post is going to take a while and we are bringing a very talented composer on board. It's an exciting time for Crystal Cleer Productions!! :)

Meet the Production Designer!!!

As I was writing, "Blood Pool," I knew that the Art Direction was going to be very important. After all the film is named after a blood pool. :) I talked to Sean, my 1st AD, and we realized there was no better choice than Kathleen Shinn. Here is a little about her,

How can I sum this all up... 'Jersey girl transplanted to Vegas', there that does it. Born and raised in South Jersey, therefore the 'Jerseyness' is ingrained in my essence (it cannot not be stripped away). Ya gatta problem wit dat? Looking for something new and in the Southwest, I decided to try Vegas, that was seven years ago. I still have my Jersey accent, and I am glad 'cause I like it!

Art was an area of interest in school, but I had another calling, Nursing. Now, I have new interests and have been with Brass Taurus since it's inception. Art Direction has been my main focus on projects: set design, props, wardrobe and make-up. I have done some pre-production work and just started editing an episode of a web series that I directed.

Kathleen's art direction has been amazing so far, she has picked up and added little details I didn't think to put in the script. She has really brought the look of the film together and I am excited to see what else she is going to do.

Hopefully we'll have a pic of her soon, maybe we'll catch her on set this weeked ;)

Meet Samantha....

"Blood Pool" is Samantha's story. Her emotions go up and down throughout the story. Kayla Ibarra is one of the most talented actresses I know and I knew she had to be the one to bring Samantha to life.

Here is a little more about her,

Kayla’s first acting gig was at the ripe age of 5, where she played Soldier 1 in her kindergarten class Christmas play. She had a lot of fun with that, but suppressed her feelings about it until the first grade where she played the Good Queen and manned the Rabbit puppet for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (since she had not black short hair, but rather long blonde locks). When she reached high school she joined the very unpopular Band, Theater Repertory, and Advanced Acting classes. She became one of the biggest dorks in school (because acting and band were the least cool activities you could pick); however, she did also love choir- which helped save her from being pushed into lockers during class changes.

During this time, she performed in productions such as South Pacific, Anything Goes, Amadeus, Beauty and the Beast, Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Her senior year she performed in Godspell at the Arkansas Repertory Theater and was featured in a local independent film Insomniac.

Kayla is now working to complete her college degree in Theater and Film from UNLV, taking classes from Clarence Gilyard, Nate Bynum, Michael Tylo, Francisco Menendez and others. In 2008 she attended the NY Conservatory for Dramatic Arts to study acting from some very talented professionals and also taught English, Art and Drama to some amazing kids in the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador with Manna Project International. She held roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Cradle Will Rock at the Nevada Conservatory Theater and has done multiple student films, with projects seen in festivals like Springflicks and Cinevegas. She is honored and super excited to be a part of this project and cannot wait to work with the amazing Crystal Meeks! Congratulations on AFI, I knew you would get in :)

Kayla is really something special and is really someone to keep an eye on as she perfects her craft as an actress.

Stay tuned, lots more to come!!

More pictures from the first day of filming!

For more behind the scenes pictures please visit the website at

http://www.crystalcleerproductions.com/BloodPool.html

Our first day of shooting....

Wow...all I can say is wow! I don't think it could have went any better.

I knew that the story was going to be told in a great way, I have a really great cast, my job was easy yesterday, Kayla and Ross really brought it. They were flawless take after take. Honestly, I didn't do anything, it was all them.

The footage is beautiful, the 35mm adapter gave us a remarkable depth of field, and George Tesoro's lighting is perfect.

The crew worked really hard all day in the hot sun and the moral of the set couldn't have been any better. Thank you guys, you always keep our sets light, fun and really professional. Chris "Danish" Andersen is the dolly, lighting, gaffer guru and is really one of the most talented people I know.

Thanks guys!

Photo taken by: "Choppy"

More to come :)

Meet Jef!

The casting of Jef is very important to the film. He is charming, handsome and most importantly very smooth....I couldn't think of anyone better to play the role than Mitch Ebert.

He has those qualities and many more that will really bring Jef to life. Here's a little about him,

Originally from a small town in southern Wisconsin. I moved out here 6 years ago and upon finishing high school decided filmmaking was my calling. Though I was and still am unsure exactly what I want to do in films, I do know this is where I belong. Out of nowhere I was offered a job at JR Lighting and Grip, and struggled and persevered over the years and through the ranks to my current position in the company, exactly where I started, though a tad more knowledgeable. After meeting a fellow employee and filmmaker, Mr. "Danish" Andersen I've joined the ranks of Brass Taurus for their Global Film-Takeover.

Mitch has a long career as an actor in front of him as well as behind the camera. He is super talented with a great attitude! He's been developing the character of Jef and I can't wait to shoot his scenes to see what he brings to the table :)

More to come, cast and crew bios and we have AMAZING stills from the set taken by the very talented "Choppy"!!

It's coming together....

The film is really starting to come together! That's really exciting considering our first day of filming is two days away.... Kathleen our production designer is hard at work on costumes and the location, George the DP and I are meeting tomorrow to do a camera lighting test using my Red Rock 35mm adapter on his HVX. Also, the cast and I are meeting at UNLV tomorrow night to do a rehearsal and start working out this script.

Lastly, Sean the 1st AD is assembling our super talented crew and we are ready to go!

More to come....Cast & Crew bios, stills from the set and the fun stories that will happen the day of shooting.

More crew!

Crystal, the writer/director.... :)

Crystal Meeks was born and raised in Las Vegas. With southern parents and growing up in the town of sin, that made for an interesting childhood. It was destiny that Crystal would become a filmmaker, after all her parents met while working at a movie theater. She made her first films in high school and then continued at UNLV.
She has come a long way from one of her first films about a Vegetable Superhero, her films have been shown at many festivals including Filmapalooza, CineVegas and the Cinequest Film Festival. Crystal was honored to receive the CineVegas Emerging filmmaker award in 2008 for excellence in directing, as that is her true passion. "Blood Pool" is a script that is very important to her that has been through many drafts. She is excited to finally be filming it. Crystal Meeks is living in Las Vegas working as a freelance editor, she was recently accepted in the American Film Institute for Directing and will be making the move to LA at the end of July.

Meet the Director of Photography!!

I have realized I forgot to introduce the crew! They have been sending me bios so I will continue to post them as I get them.

Here is the amazing Danish!

I asked for a current photo....I guess I shouldn't be so specific :)



He is an amazing camera operator, know it all grip and gaffer, one of the best DP's I know, and a delicious pastry.... :) Meet Chris "Danish" Andersen!

In Bitburg Germany in a hospital on an air force base that no longer exists, Christopher (no middle name) Andersen was born. I would like to say it was then he knew he was destined to be a filmmaker, born with a silver light meter in his hand. No, it would be a number of years before Chris found his calling. He got lost along the way; or at least he didn’t know how to read a map very well. So he wound up in Las Vegas at no fault of his own, did the kid thing. He grew up, as people tend to do, stayed away from the hard drugs, bought a few hats, the usual.

Chris graduated damn close to top of his class in high school then it was off to college. Still unaware that he was a filmmaker he perused computer science, ridiculous right? One year went by, he was doing okay. He didn’t need to ride the bus anymore that was pretty cool. Two years, he was definitely watching a lot of movies, but still blind to his destiny. At the end of the third year of college something told him to find a new path, his report card, multiple F’s, not pretty. Film; why not, there was some interest and he didn’t like any of the other choices.

He took the crash course, finishing the film program in two short years. He found a place he liked and he went with it. He did some writing, editing, directing all that fun stuff, but he found cinematography to be his niche. He’s since stretched his cinematography muscles in a few student shorts, and a few of his own side projects. He currently works in a Lighting and Grip rental house where he gets to play with all the tools of the trade on a regular bases. He shoots often and at any given opportunity. He is primed for greatness, just as sure as digital will never replace good ol’ film

Stay tuned for bio's from the 1st AD, Director of Photography and more!

PreProduction continues....

Sean, my 1st A.D and I are meeting tomorrow to work on the schedule. It's all coming together, we shoot in a little over a week. It's very exciting! 

Detective Steele....

Detective Steele has been cast!!!

The very talented Ross Alzina has been cast as Detective Steele.

Detective Steele is the investigator who comes to Samatha's home.

Here's a little more info about Ross from Ross himself:

I started my film career in 1967 as a German soldier riding a motorcycle in an independent film called the General....actually I always wanted to be a stuntman and managed to do wild west stunt shows for two years. I love indie films...so much opportunity for everyone...cast and crew. I have had principle roles in Detective Douchey, as Detective Whitey (the web series), I.M. Caravaggio as the billionare casino owner Rick Willard, White Paint as the Grandfather, The 48 Hour film Missing Pieces as James Spitzer, House Rules as Chief of Police Robert Locke, Deal me in as Jimbo the mechanic. Featured roles in What Happens in Vegas, Rocky VI, "21", Yonkers Joe, Iron Man, Oceans 11 & 13, Rush Hour II, Head of State, Intolerable Cruelty, Escape to Witch Mtn., Hang Over, Tomcats.....many tv shows including Las Vegas the series and five appearances on CSI.

More to come later including cast bio's from Samantha & Jef!