The key thing we wanted to make work was the reasoning behind Zinone deciding to agree to Jerrod’s plan. We shot the sequence in the woods first, and it played pretty well, but it felt like there wasn’t enough continuity between the Zinone we see there and the guy at the end of Episode 11. There’s a big jump in mentality, so we debated how to cover that gap, and make his decision clearer, without explicitly showing the specific reasoning that went into it.

Out of that process came the two scenes that now open the episode, the brief voicemail from Jerrod Woolf, which is used to reestablish the deal, and the scene where Zinone makes a delivery to new character, Schulkin, played by friend of Respect Films and former contestant on MTV’s Yo Mama, Jordan “Hair Jordan” Schulkin. The idea behind the scene with him was to put Zinone in an environment that would reflect his own mental turmoil, hence the jarring editing and intercutting of the video game footage.

Inspiration for the scene came from the sequence in Boogie Nights, where Dirk goes to make a coke deal at Rashad Jackson’s house. The scene features a great performance by Alfred Molina, and a surreal environment punctuated by a guy throwing firecrackers randomly. The construction of the scene puts you on edge, and that’s what we were after with this one. Structurally, I also found it interesting to introduce a whole new character and world so late into the film, and use that to comment on our characters’ plight.

That scene was added way into post, and was the biggest change in the episode as executed versus in the original conception. There were some other changes along the way as well. Brian and Hallie reworked some of the dialogue for their meeting in the woods, and brought a lot more tension to the dynamic than I’d originally imagined, but it works. It sells his altered state well.

Another element added in post was the two abstract montages that bookend the episode. The inspiration for these was similar montages that Battlestar Galactica often used to open important episodes, like the first season finale. It was the idea of using an overture to set the mood and evoke the conflict that will play out over the course of the episode. I always enjoy cutting abstract stuff like this, and the opener was designed to reinforce the core conflicts.

The closing montage was designed to bring things full circle and give everything a finality that the close of the Milton rising scene didn’t. It also serves as a teaser for Volume II, mixing a lot of the imagery of that volume with stuff we’ve already seen to serve as a seamless transition between the two stories.

A lot of choices went into the episode, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. It’s been a long road to complete the first volume, and now I’m digging into editing on the second volume, working to ensure that I can hopefully match what we did with the first, and with any luck, exceed it.

Volume I ends here, and nothing will ever be the same! An offer from Jerrod Woolf puts everyone’s fate in Zinone’s hands. He’ll have to choose whether to follow the path of angels, or the path of devils!

This episode concludes the first season of The Third Age. Keep an eye on the site for content throughout the year, and look for the debut of the second season in summer 2010. Thanks everyone for watching, and now that the season is wrapped, please share any thoughts you’ve got!

The day was much more visually intensive then dialgouge heavy so we were able to get some great looking stuff. As always Brian Townes is so in touch with the Character of Zinone that we didn’t have to direct him all that much. In fact, he brought a bunch of ideas to the table that Patrick and I didn’t even think of to make the performances even better.

This shoot also brought in a cameo of from NFL Writer’s Room actor Tom McCaffrey (He’s the dude who is always wearing the Dolphins Jersey). He guested with the part of a suspicious teamster and that scene only took t’ree or four takes before it was nailed by him and Townes.

Also, halfway through the shoot a bomb was dropped on us! In 6 months Brian is leaving for Brazil to begin raising his family their with his Brazillian Wife. This means we’ve been given a hard deadline to finish the Third Age or at least all scenes with Brian in them by then. Luckily, this should be more the doable and if for some reason we are unable to, we are packing up the light kit and heading for Brazil.

So all and all this was a good one. Some great visuals and performances were captured and look for this stuff to drop sometime later in 2010!

Well, it’s varied over the course of producing the series. In the early days we split pretty evenly the duties of directing the actors and operating the camera. The way we work, we’d usually just let whoever had a good angle or idea for how to shoot the scene jump on camera, and switch off as time went on. There were exceptions, like the opening scene, in which Jordan appeared and I operated the whole time, but generally that’s how it was done.

In the early days of shooting, the person not operating would generally hold the boom. It was a very scrappy way of doing things, but worked out pretty well. As time went on, we added two regular crew members who became key to the evolution of our working system, producer/on set boom operator Amber Yoder and lighting designer Raul Coto-Batres.

When they came on board, we shifted a bit to a system in which Jordan would usually operate camera, and I’d oversee everything more generally. We’d still discuss shots, and also discuss character motivations and talk with the actors, but Jordan did more of the actual operating of camera. The reasons for this were varied, but it was primarily a function of our shifting interests, I’m not as interested in shooting on a scene by scene basis, and that’s something he really enjoys, so he became more in charge of that stuff.

But, I’ll still jump in on certain shots. For me personally, it’s the crazy shots that interest me the most, doing wild camera moves, stuff that doesn’t always work but sometimes leads to greatness. That’s what interests me most while shooting, so I like being able to guest occasionally and get those shots. But, most of the time Jordan nails it, so I can take a more general role of getting the actors prepped and helping shape the overall look of scenes.

Having our additional crew has made it a lot easier to oversee the set, and for me at this level, about four people on set is perfect. I don’t like having a ton of people around since I think it can distract the actors and make it harder to get lost in the moment of the scene. While I love doing wild visual stuff, I also really value getting a performance right and working with an actor to refine things and make them great.

We’re lucky to have a great cast on the series, but as with all things, greatness takes work, and working with the actors together to build the scene is key to making a successful moment. A little work between everyone can take a scene that isn’t playing that well on paper and make it one of the most exciting on screen. And, ultimately that’s all the matters. On set, I love to take suggestions from the actors, or from anyone. I think that interplay makes for better films, and that’s why we have a very loose power structure on the show. Jordan can direct someone or choose a shot, I can do the same or Amber. As long as it makes for a better film, it’s a good thing.

This week, The Third Age makes you ‘A Very Generous Offer’! With one episode to go to the finale, Zinone finds himself wondering whether he’s a prisoner or a guest at Woolf Pharmaceutical. Be sure to check back next week for the double length season finale!

The two main reasons for this temporary halt in production was my absence from the East Coast since I’ve been working on Pawn Stars in Las Vegas for the entire month of January and of course the holiday season. But we are excited to get back in action and film several days in February before the Respect Films crew heads to the United Kingdom to complete our documentary on legendary comic book writer Grant Morrison!!

Then the weather should heat up and we will be all set to wrap production on The Third Age Tale in spring/early summer and usher in a new era in the Respect Films Story.

-       Episodes 1-3: Introduction of main characters/scenario and establishment of themes

-       Episodes 4-6: Rising Action and introduction of characters (Holly/Alicia) who complicate initial premise

-       Episode 7-10: Establishment of stakes and breakdown into chaos

-       Episodes 11-13: Resolution of Initial Conflicts and…

The story was always broken to some extent. We knew where the major characters would end up, and based on our ideas for Volume II, the end of Volume I always had to happen a certain way. But, the structure of that story wasn’t always there.

At the beginning of the writing process, Jordan and I broke out stories by episode, but as time went on, we moved each storyline forward independently. That meant that we reached a point where we had to sit down and figure out how all our disparate scenes would piece together. In doing so, the goal was both to pace the episodes in a way that spread out the various elements, like trippy scenes or dialogue scenes to ensure that there was enough of each in each episode.

But, I also liked the idea of a unity of feel and focus across episodes and chunks of the show. By having two intercut plotlines that develop independently, you’re invariably going to create some meaning in the way you combine them. In Episode 3, that meant seamlessly segueing from Jerrod Woolf’s story about the vision in Tibet to Milton standing on the bridge, to Morning sensing him through the TV. Connecting the story points gave a unified feel and added more emotion to the moment.

Similarly, in Episode 9, the chaos of the house invasion sequence puts the audience into the shellshocked mindset that Jerrod Woolf has when we see him at his desk in the next scene. The entire episode has a chaotic, out of control feel, even though Jerrod Woolf’s delirium is due to something entirely different.

This is something that could have been done all on the writing side, but I kind of prefer to do it with scenes once they’re shot because you have a better idea of the emotional feel of something. It can help determine color correction and cutting choices if you want to try to link things to each other.

In retrospect, I might have established the stakes of the story a bit earlier, since I know a lot of people said they were confused at the start and some may not have stuck with it. But, I like the mystery, and I think it leads to a great payoff in Episode 7 if you stick with it. It’s a slow build story that gets bigger and bigger until it all collides in the season finale. So, stop by in 10 days to see that collision and how the entire season story arc resolves itself.

This week, Holly, Zinone and Morning are on the run, and their fragile group is falling apart. See ‘In Exile’!

And, as always, comments and feedback are much appreciated. Thanks!

Filming on the scene mostly occurred in September 2008, when we had all four principal actors, Brian, Hallie, Misti and Scott together in the location we were using for Leo’s apartment. We shot elements in chunks, the scene with Hallie and Zinone in the shower, then the stuff with Morning and the guards, but it was tricky to piece it all together. We wanted to do an extensive search, but with such a small location, there wasn’t that much searching to be done, and it was hard to build suspense.

We were running low on time on the shot day, so we basically went nuts with lights and a newly purchased smoke machine. It was a lot of fun to do, I was yelling out directions as our extras in masks walked in place and lights were panned all over them. It looked very cool and we got some of my favorite footage from the whole film that day, particularly the shots of Morning.

However, it didn’t quite tell the story. Some pieces were there, but not everything, and as I worked to edit, the scene hung together, but didn’t quite work as we wanted it to. So, Jordan and I worked off the cut and decided to shoot a few pickups to flesh out the story, and try to add in suspense. To do this, we shot the entire sequence that takes place outside of Leo’s house at the start of the episode, and establishes the mercenaries that have been sent to capture them.

I also came up with the idea of linking Jerrod Woolf more directly to the raid. I used a piece of footage we had shot for the scene that closes the episode, where Jerrod is drugged out, and added it in at the start to convey that he’s overseeing the mission. That linked the two stories together in a more dynamic way, and sets up some future plot developments.

Then, we went in a shot a few scenes of a mercenary walking through the space to cut in to the existing footage. That mercenary was actually played by Steve Deluca, who plays wire wearing experimentation victim Steve in the series. He’s our utility guy, and has played four roles over the course of the film.

That footage fit seamlessly with our existing footage, and was edited together with Zinone and Holly’s conversation to build tension there, and hopefully make for a better scene. The scene still isn’t quite like I imagined it, but I think it works, and taught us a lot of lessons about how to execute action sequences that we’ve used on future shoots.