I've been MIA from updating on here for far too long, but I had a good reason. I was directing a feature film called "Magdalena" it's a human drama focusing on a mother and her daughter. Quite the departure from my usual horror, sci-fi and historical fiction mainstays. And that's exactly why I did it, wanted to branch out a bit. (Though there are definitely a few moments in this production that are inspired by my horror sensibilities.)
Though this is the biggest budget I've ever been trusted with as a director it was not a large budget. As an ultra low budget feature we only had 8 days to shoot everything! A movie with over 100 scenes and at least 3 camera set ups for virtually each scene. To make things even more intense halfway through production the historic and devastating Los Angeles County fires started. Destroying the homes of so many people in areas like The Palisades, Altadena and the Sepulveda Pass. Several times members of the cast and crew had to drop everything and go back to their homes to evacuate, and of course we also had to cut filming early at one point. Changing some exterior scenes to indoor sequences to protect the safety of everyone with the toxic air quality.
Still, we persevered and that is all thanks to my amazing cast and crew who stuck it out in not ideal conditions. We became a well oiled machine, that worked together and kept morale as high as possible. I am so grateful for their hard work and proud of them.
Attached to the gallery below are screengrabs from our production dailies. Our digital image technician on set and colorist is Ben Rytz, and he compiled all of these for me to share. I cannot wait for people to see the end result of this film, we are so proud of the work we did and are now entering the post production phase. With hopes of beginning our submission process to film festivals in mid-late 2025. More updates to come!
Specs/Credits:
ARRI Alexa Mini - Apollo Lenses
Director of Photography, Curtis Yap
1st AC, Mifiel Valdes
1st AD, Cameron Mitchell
DIT, Ben Rytz
Head Gaffer, Cooper Finn
Key Grip, Saket Raut
Art Direction, Samuel Figueroa & Tiffy Wang
Costumes, Juliana Rincon
Hair/Makeup, Emily Margaret
Script Supervisor, Michael Karr
Actors featured: A'Cora Berry, Daniel Fitzgerald, Lea Roman, Sophia Estrada - Padilla, Kendra Meza, Hugo Perez, Karine Castro, Rob Hoflund, Alexandra O' Hara, Angelica Mora.
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