Your Voice: M-Cosm Update
[A note from Dino: Since this is the summer of Johnny Depp and films in Wisconsin, we wanted to highlight that a member of the CW community is shooting a film here in town. While it appears that the Wausau Film Festival might have died on the vine, it also appears that we have an active and passionate underbelly of scene shooters, and color saturators here in town. This post comes to us from Erik. Good on you Erik!]
I apologize for no commentary this weekend. We finished photography for Daily Routine, a quick three minute short from Stop That Nun that was entirely fun. Unfortunately with sweeps at the station and Microcosm now heating up big time, the turn around for editing that will be a bit long. Still big thanks to Chris Leslie who acted as both the star and producer of the piece, Brett Widmann and Seth Callaway, both of whom recorded our sound on site and Katrina Shankland who acted for us as well.
Speaking of Microcosm, the last auditions where this weekend and by far our most successful. Thanks to a good time frame we were able to get in contact with UWSP Theater faculty a bit and that resulted in many talented folks making their way out to read for us. I had a director’s favorite problem: too much talent to choose from. I did cast however, and as soon as everyone accepts their roles, I will post them up here for all to see.
And speaking of sweeps, this week I had a promo made for one of my pieces. Crazy, I know. They actually touted me as “award winning photographer Erik Cieslewicz” for commercials leading up to newscasts. It’s a little silly to be happy to see something like that, especially since I’m surrounded by people who are pushed daily in promotions, but still, I have to admit it was pretty neat. So I was able to do a pair of great sweeps pieces Thursday and Friday. Those will be up on the YouTube channel tonight if all goes well.
Commentary may go on a short hiatus, but will be replaced with information about Microcosm, including a call for background artists. I really hope to get a lot of Wausau community members in the film, so I’ll be giving dates, times and locations for people to just show up to and be in a movie. Pretty sweet, huh? We’ll even feed you if you show up on set. I realize that’s way cooler to hear if you’re in college or something, but hey, free lunch is free lunch.
This Friday my producers and I have a huge meeting with the City of Wausau and we’re really hoping they will be very accommodating to us. I really, really want to shoot in Wausau, but as a low budget film production, we will go where ever it’s cheapest! But having interacted with Mayor Tipple before along with Dennis Saeger, I have faith that Wausau will be as good to us as we plan on being to the city.
background » Blog Archive » Your Voice: M-Cosm Update said:
[…] kayciesblog5358 wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWe finished photography for Daily Routine, a quick three minute short from Stop That Nun that was entirely fun. Unfortunately with sweeps at the station and Microcosm now heating up big time, the turn around for editing that will be a … […]
April 28th, 2008 at 12:42 pm #
oldwoodchair said:
OK…I guess I’m totally clue-less…not sure what this is all about, but it sounds interesting…if anybody cares to explain.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:23 pm #
erik said:
Not a problem, Chair :) If you haven’t been reading my blog (www.citizenwausau.com/elvideo), then this one might not make much sense!
While I am a photojournalist by trade, the dream has always been directing feature length film. As I get the bills paid off I’m starting to look for ways to break into the industry, of which there are many. Aside from applying grad school soon, possibly moving some place with more production opportunities, I’d like to pull a John Waters or Kevin Smith: that is make a film in my home town that gets the film industry to come to me.
It’s a long shot to be certain, but I love production and I have a tight group of friends that do as well. So this summer we are producing a 15-20 minute short film for entry in festivals, use on resumes and generally good experience. The title is Microcosm and it follows four Wausau area high school graduates the day before they all leave for college. It’s a neo-realist film in the veins of The Rules of Attraction, Fallen Angels and even a little Mallrats tossed in there.
We’ve just finished casting the film and are now locking down locations, the big one coming up is shooting on the Wausau city streets. We want to do a lot of work downtown and little bit on Grand Ave as well. We have a meeting this Friday with the Mayor, Traffic Lt. and a couple other city officials. A bit more complicated than my days in Oshkosh when the City Attorney’s signature was all that was required!
So once we have locations locked my producers, Seth Callaway and Chris Leslie, and I will begin to schedule our shoots. When that’s done I’ll be back on CW, along with a lot of other public forums, to ask for background artists (most commonly called extras). Shooting a city street with no one walking on it looks kinda creepy since this isn’t some weird post-apocalyptic story! So it’s a chance for those of you interested in the process to just hang out on set, be in a movie and even get free lunch.
If you’d like to see my some of my other short films, I’ve got some up on YouTube:
Forfeit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHvrZ2lsSkE
Holy Chip! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N69-gSSUG1I
Both were fun and have screened at some festivals, but Microcosm is a very diligent (I don’t want to use the word serious because it’ll be loads of fun) attempt to get noticed by the film industry in festival and other screen opportunities.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:14 am #
oldwoodchair said:
Erik: Thank you for the clarification. I went & read your blog & looked at the youtube films. How great to see someone following their passion! You have a new fan….
April 29th, 2008 at 9:12 pm #
erik said:
haha, Thanks, Chair. I really appreciate the kind words. And thanks for watching my stuff, that means more than most people know.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:16 pm #
timothyp said:
Pretty cool films. Hope for the best for your new project, please let us know when you need those “extras”! Liked Forfeit especially, had me cracking up right from the beginning scene at the hotel… very well done, both of them. Congratualtions, you all should be proud of your hard work.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:53 pm #
erik said:
Thanks, Tim. I will definately let you know when we need extras. That will probably be determined this weekend. And I’m glad you enjoyed Forfeit, it’s sort of my magnum opus at the moment. :D
April 30th, 2008 at 5:22 pm #