And so it begins...

The project has officially begun. After much deliberation and thought, The Low/No budget horror feature tentatively titled "Exit 101" has begun the development stages. This feature is being created by a group of amateur film makers who have never before undertaken such an endeavor. We live in a rural area where we are left with mostly our imaginations to find things to do. Most of us have worked together as band mates, or in big hollywood productions as extras and we found that we wanted more out of it than just standing around for 12 hrs. We wanted to take it further, but in our own area. We have set out to create something from literally nothing. As we embark on this long journey in horror movie making. This blog will mark the events that are soon to come as we attempt to create a feature film with no experience and literally no money. From the inception of the idea, to the final product. You will be able to see the project as it takes shape. I hope that we can all learn something from experience and have some fun.

Now, to get into it.

Over the past 3 weeks I have been coming up with ideas, and working on gathering gear for the shoot. I've started on the script. I'm currently 10 pages into the script for the film, and have written the first 2 scenes. I used this time to research different cameras, as well as learned about amazing resources for indie filmmakers, especially www.dvxuser.com. The nice folks there helped me narrow down my camera choices to just 1. Within our "no/low" budget constraints it looks like our tool of destruction has been chosen: The Panasonic DVX100B. Soon we will have the money raised to purchase the camera and begin learning its functions and getting out and doing some test shoots via a few makeshift short films (improvs mostly). The film's story is going to revolve around a small rural town (go figure) whose inhabitants are unaware that a biological weapon is sitting in the middle of town right off of "Exit 101".

I'm not going to spoil the story for everyone just yet. But I will add more details on the planning process. So far, I will be directing (and wearing many other hats I am sure).. Jarrod Musselwhite will be Producing as well as assisting in building of things we may need (crane anyone?) Jarrod will also be assisting me with casting. Jarrod has also already secured several locations for shooting for us. Branden Farrow, will be serving as "all around guy" since we don't know what the proper description for him would be. He's basically going to be helping with whatever needs doing. Brandon Lucas will be our boom operator/sound guy. He's got a good background in audio, and of the group he is the most suited for this position.. plus he's a pretty strong guy! We are currently looking for a camera operator, make up artist and special effects supervisor. But, I would guess we will wind up all wearing those hats as well at some point. More to come!