Saturday, June 13, 2015

That's A Wrap!

We wrapped principal photography for I Love You Because
Thanks to Tom and Barbara Kline for letting us film in their backyard today; to Groveland Masonic Lodge for loaning us tables and chairs; to Mr K and the Kahana's Stunt & Film School junior students and their parents who spent the afternoon being extras; and to the rest of the cast and crew on set today, for making our last day a great one!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

How We Spend Our Days Off

First day off we've had from working on our film all month I Love You Because, so went to see someone else's:The Hobbit Battle of Five Armies.






We enjoyed it; what did you think of it? 

Friday, January 9, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M2jSzLBzK4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Friday, January 2, 2015

We had a great rehearsal Tuesday night with Kirk Klemash (Pastor Mike) for I Love You Because






Tuesday, December 16, 2014

A Brief History of I Love You Because

In December of 2010, I was finishing a run as Ebenezer Scrooge in the play Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge directed by Tom Kline and produced by the Moonlight Players.





One night, after a performance, most of the cast went to the pub across the street. It was the usual post-show cast hangout due to its location and because it was the only place in town open late at night.

I was crammed into a booth in back with Tom and a few others. Tom began telling us about his plans to make a feature film out of his play 9 Months, which he had directed several years before. During the discussion, Tom said that he'd like for me to play the lead in the film. I had a lot of respect for Tom as a director from my experience on Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge and would have taken any role if it meant working with Tom again.

And thus began our long and arduous journey with I Love You Because.

Tom's film went into production early the next year; but, as often happens with low-budget films, the production shut down after only three days of filming.  I had put a considerable amount of time into the film, and did not want that time to be wasted, so I asked Tom if he would be willing to let us take over the production. He resoundingly agreed.

Jason and I planned to start our production with a clean slate. We would have a completely new production team (me and Jason), new crew (mostly Jason) and a new cast, with the exception of myself. I would remain the male lead in our version of the film because I had already done the character work, and out of convenience.

Our first step was to adapt the play script into a film, adding a depth that was not possible due to the restrictions of the stage and putting our unique stamp on the script. We combined a few characters, and added several of our own; such as Sean, Paddy and Ian, who are original to our version of the film.


(from L. to R. Sean (Travis Johnson) Kevin (Me) Paddy (Leon Jones) Ian (Kenny Forthun)

My character, Kevin, needed friends, and we figured why not write the roles for my friends who are also aspiring actors. There would be a real life basis for the relationship of the characters in the film, and we'd  be helping them out by writing roles specifically for them, which would show off their acting talents. We never considered casting anyone else for the roles, and were delighted when all three actors accepted the roles when we offered it to them.

We also added a few other roles for actors like Brendon Rogers and Debbie Sussman, who we have worked with on other projects and wanted to work with again,

In 2013 we locked the script for production and began the audition process.

For those of you keeping track of this blog, or who follow our Facebook page I Love You Because The Movie, you know how things have progressed from there. For those of you just joining us, be sure to subscribe to this blog and check out the archives. Or join the Facebook page by clicking on the link above.

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