At All Cost - A Christian Rebel Productions Update

It's been awhile since I gave a proper update.

The past few months I have been in production on my latest project - a collaboration with St. Louis actress Vickie Kellerman-Doerr - titled "At All Cost". I can't talk about the plot at this point, but it is a modern day drama - and departs somewhat in style and tone from The Trigger and Resolve. It is written and Produced by Vickie, and Directed by me.

I've been shooting on the Panasonic GH3 - having finally retired my HV30 after its last hurrah on Resolve. The GH3 definitely is a different animal - designed primarily as a stills camera with a lot of robust video features as well.

With the HV30 I really had no control over Depth of Field unless I was zoomed all the way in to allow for a long focal length, given I had no control over the aperture. With the GH3 I have a lot of control over everything: aperture, ISO, shutter speed etc. While it is an interchangable lens camera I've been primarily using the 25mm Leica (50mm in 35mm terms) because we're shooting in enclosed spaces without enough light, and it allows me to open it up to f/1.4 if needed. I try not to shoot that wide open, as the depth of field is so incredibly shallow focus is tricky - but I generally am shooting at at least f/2.0.

The GH3 has required me to buy a rig to support it, as my handheld style creates a lot of jitter with the Leica lens - as neither the GH3 nor the lens have image stabilization.

Shooting has been delayed thanks to the large winter storm that's taken the US and put it under a layer of snow and ice. We are about 70% shot with a rough edit coming together. Given the uncertain shooting schedule no release date has been set.

"At All Cost" stars Vickie Doerr, Clayton Humburg, Nicole Gonnerman, Keith Ruck, Tim Butler, and Luis Perez.

Script Drafting: The Way

The Way is an allegorical Christian fantasy story based on Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Back in 2008 I scripted a version of it I was intending to produce, but truth be told, it is not a microbudget type film. I estimate a minimum of $10,000 for extensive makeup and basic prosthetics as well as a fight/stunt choreographer for hand to hand combat that will be in the film. And that would be for a 20-30 minute short version, which would make it an even riskier financial endeavor right now than attempting a feature for that money.

I put together two teaser trailers for the 2008 version of the script.

The Way Trailer from Brian Elliott on Vimeo.

The Way Trailer # 2 from Brian Elliott on Vimeo.

 The challenge with the story, is that I want to ground the characters in our reality, but lead them to walking onto the way. Creating a transition that isn't overly cheesy, or at the least makes sense within the world has been the script's biggest challenge. Recently, in my experimentation with non linear storytelling in Resolve, I've found some new ideas for making it possible.

I'm also contemplating different characters of different ages, as I'm no longer limited to high school friends like I was during the original drafts. I actually know REAL people.

"The Way" is a film that's probably a few years out given all the challenges, but it is in the works and I think will be (hopefully) a unique film and a different sort of twist on stories like Dante's Inferno and Pilgrim's Progress.