First Screening!

What a long road it's been.

I'm proud to announce that "Dawn" is finished. Everyone's hard work has finally paid off, and we are very happy to screen the film in Savannah, GA tomorrow night (November, 17th) at 7:00 p.m. at the Trustees Theater.


I hope that those of you in, and around, the Savannah area will be able to make it out to the show. It will be playing with a few other senior and graduate thesis films, so it will be worth your time to make it out.

Thanks again for all your support! Hope you enjoy the film!

-- Joshua

Note from Color Corrector Tawan Bazemore!

Hey, guys. While waiting for the final exports from Tawan, I thought I would pass on a note he wrote on his Facebook page. Take a look at his work and thought process on color grading "Dawn"!

-- Joshua

Color Correction!

It's been a long journey, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. And thanks to Tawan Bazemore, our color correcter, that light looks much more beautiful then I could have imagined.

That's not to say we haven't had our bumps in the road. With me in Savannah, Kevin & Tawan in L.A, and Michael Lloyd in Jamaica on his honeymoon (Congrats!!!), it's been a bit difficult to work around everyone's schedule. Not to mention some technical issues that shut us down for about a week or two. However, we are back up and running.

I wanted to give you a little heads up on what's down the road for you all. Within the next week, or so, we should have our online copy of "Dawn" available for all our Kickstarter backers who donated $25 or more. The rest of the rewards will be available later in the year (Octoberish). Kevin will work on the Behind the Scenes as I put together a production book for those who bought one. Posters are finished, and they look great in frames. I will update more often once these things get closer to delivery, and give you all a little taste of whats to come.

Anyways, here's a taste of the work Tawan has done on coloring the film. Enjoy!

Visual Effects Update

Okay, I confess. I'm not the world's biggest fan of visual effects. I hate the fact that, most of the time, these effects take front and center in a movie instead of the story (looking at you Michael Bay).

However, I love it that filmmakers are able to use visual effects to enhance their films. These effects are often overlooked, because they are integrated so well into the film the audience does not even realize they are seeing an effect (thank you Black Swan).

No matter what my feelings toward visual effects may be, they are here to stay. So I decided to try my hand at making a movie with a few visual effects in the way I feel they should be used. In order to do this, we had to find the very best compositor we could. That's why we asked Pat Longstreth, and thankfully, he agreed to take on the work.

Today, I was able to finally see "Dawn" in the way it was meant to be seen. And it was great! We only had around 13 VFXs, but they were essential to our film, and I'm very excited that they are finished. So excited in fact, that I wanted to share one of them with you. Here's a "before and after" shot for you:





Pretty sweet, huh? Yeah, I know it's not a giant, fighting robot. That's what makes it cool to me, though. The fact that you can't tell it's a visual effects shot is exactly what a film like this should look like, and I can't thank Pat enough. Working with him also reminded me of why I love films so much. It's a collaborative effort. Everyone on the team brings something to the table, and it's makes the film become something more then what the writer, or director, first thought it could be.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. You'll be able to see the rest of the effects once the film is released...

Or will you?

From Dust to Dust

Alright, so I haven't posted an update in awhile. Sorry. I guess that's the nature of this post-production process. We are busy on all fronts, though.

I was able to get a peek at the visual effects the other day, and am excited to say, they are coming along very well. Can't wait to plug them into the film and see them with the rest of the movie. Very exciting!

Sound and score are currently being worked on as well. As soon as I have a taste of the score for you all, I'll post it.

But now on to what this blog is really about:



Great, right? Yeah, it's great. That was Brett Brooks.... as he told you, already. He was the storyboard artist for "Dawn". He also designed the poster and website for us. I am very excited for this project, and hope you are, too.

So we are asking for your help to get this project off the ground. Please visit the Kickstarter page and check out all the information, and if you find yourself wanting to donate, it would be greatly appreciated. And be sure to read about all the rewards! He has a $25 "pre-order" reward that will get you a signed copy of the finished book! You can't beat that, guys.

Well, thanks for the support you continue to show for "Dawn". Any you can give to "Dust Bunny" will be great!

Press Kit and New Crew Members

What a long night. But a fruitful night. After numerous attempts at a poster using production stills from on set, the decision to try something more representational with graphic art was made. And I think it was the right decision. Allow me to present to you all the final "Dawn" poster (click to embiggen):



Not only was the night spent on perfecting this beauty, but the website was updated in both looks, and functionality. If you click the "Press Kit" link on the homepage, you will get to download the film's electronic press kit. This will be sent to the film festivals we submit to later this Fall. Inside this kit, you'll find information about the film, crew, cast, and other nuggets of information. I think this turned out very nice, and I hope you all enjoy it.

None of this, however, could have been possible without the help of Brett Brooks, who took time out of his busy schedule to undertake this project. Brett also served as the film's storyboard artist.

I'm really appreciative for his time and work, because not only is he busy, but he's busy working on his first graphic novel, Dust Bunny. I encourage you all to check out his progress, and keep up with all the new updates he posts. This is going to be a fantastic novel.

We have also attached new members to the "Dawn" crew. I mentioned in my previous post that we are hard at work on finishing up the last bits of post-production, but I haven't formally introduced the new members.

Patrick Longstreth will be acting as our Visual Effects Compositor. He'll be in charge of making sure that the handful of VFX shots are integrated nicely within our film. I'm looking forward to seeing his work. The last time I worked with him, Pat gave us this. You can check out his personal website here.

In the ways of sound, we have James Scullion as our Sound Design Supervisor. He's taking charge of making sure "Dawn" sounds as if it was filmed in the 1800s. Sound is half the film, and I'm both excited and confident that James will bring something new to the world of "Dawn".

Well, that's it for today. Thanks for supporting us, and I hope you like all the new stuff we're giving you.

Joshua

It's Been Awhile

Yeah, so it's been a long time since I've had the chance to sit down and send you all an update on the film. I'm really sorry about that, so I'll try and catch you all up on what's been going down.

If you're like me, then you must be missing the Vlog updates. Kevin Ray (editor) has done a great job with keeping you all up to date on our progress, and has done it in very creative, and often hilarious, ways. Unfortunately, once we began actually cutting the film, he did not have a lot of time to work on the updates. On the up side of that...we do have a movie.

I still have some behind the scenes videos lying around, so maybe I can get to them. I'll try and do as good as a job as Kevin. But no promises on either of those things. There is still a lot to do in ways of post-production. But before I get into the work to come, I'd like to reflect on the work that's been done, and the process of getting to where we are now.

We arrived in Paintsville, Kentucky on May 14th. That day we unpacked and rested in preparation of the long week of filming. We were welcomed with open arms from the people at Mountain Homeplace, and were often treated to great meals (Thank you BLUE GRASS BAR-B-QUE!) after long days of filming.



We shot at Mountain Homeplace for three nights and four days. Yes in that order. You usually do not want to start filming with nights first, but when working with the crazy logistics we had, it made sense, and worked out in the end. In order to get the harder elements of the script finished early on, the crew had to really work hard, fast. And because of that hard work, we were able to get everything we needed to tell this story. They overcame every obstacle in their way, and exceeded an already high expectation. It was amazing watching them come together as a team, and then as a family. By the end of this shoot, we all were witnesses to something truly special that I don't think any of us expected. I can never thank this team enough.



And the cast. Man, the cast in this film was a true blessing. They made my job incredibly easy. They were always willing to go the extra mile, and do it with a smile. Even when they were getting shot at, falling to the ground with fire, or even lying down in awkward positions for long periods of time in the freezing cold. I could go on and on about each one of them. I am forever gratefully for their hard work, dedication, talent, and great attitudes.

After wrapping and coming back to Savannah, Kevin and I took a day off to recoup. Then we got to it with cutting the film. Well, you know, when we weren't busy playing Angry Birds or stacking things on top of Kevin's cat. The editing went really smooth thanks to Kevin already having a rough cut of the film one hour after wrapping in Kentucky. It's one of the best things about making a movie. Putting the pieces together, and seeing the film take shape is very exciting, and very rewarding.

It took a few weeks, but we have a film now that we are all very happy with. Michael Lloyd (cinematographer) has done a bit of color correction on it, and we are currently having the sound design, special effects, and score worked on. If everything goes as planned, we should have a complete film in August. Then we'll see about getting it in to a festival near you.

Oh, yeah. One more thing:

www.dawn-film.com

There you go. You'll find the trailer, synopsis, a link to this blog, and soon some press kit materials that we'll use at any film festivals we are invited to. Please feel free to share this with your friends, family, and even an enemy or two.



Thanks again for all of your support throughout this film. It means a lot to us all. Seeing the excitement you have for this film is great. I hope you all see it soon, and can share in some of what we all have been feeling for the past few months.

Till next time--

Joshua David Matthews

Vlog 8 - Day Two on Set

Set Photos!

Just wanted you all to know that we have some set photos up for our shoot in Kentucky up on DAWN's facebook page. They were taken by Adam Bailey, our 1st AD.

Take a look!

Vlog 7 - Day One on Set

Vlog 6 - Skinner's Torch Test

Vlog 5 - Lighting Test

Vlog 4 - Thank You!

Vlog 3 - Storyboards

Vlog 2 - Kentucky Location Scout

Vlog 1 - Kickstarter & Preproduction

Kickstarter Campaign

Please join us in getting "Dawn" made! Thank you!

New DAWN Crew Members!

It's always a great feeling to have others get as excited about your film as you are. We would like to welcome David Walton Smith and Jeffrey A. Bloch to the DAWN team. David will act as our Line Producer while Jeff heads up the VFX team as our Visual Effects Supervisor.

Welcome, guys. Can't wait to work with you both.

Joshua

Storyboards

Wanted to share this with you all. It's a few of the many storyboards Brett Brooks is creating for our film. It's a great style he's using, and I can't wait to share more with you all.

Joshua

Starting Storyboards

Working on some storyboards with artist Brett Brooks. Stay tuned for video animatic.

Joshua

Teaser Poster

Check out the Teaser Poster for DAWN. Co-Writer, J Tyler Helms, did this last week, and I wanted to share it with you all.

Enjoy.

Hymn for Eve

Location Scout - Day 1

Hello All,

Today, producer Wes Fleming and I went on our first location scout for DAWN. We headed out to Oatland Wildlife Center just outside of Savannah, GA to view some of their cabins. The cabins were great. They were built in 1835, and have recently been renovated and dressed inside based on the same time period.

We were unable to get inside these cabins today due to the director of the center being off. However, we will be setting up another to go out and look at the inside as well, very soon.

Check out these photos!

More locations to come soon--

Joshua Matthews

Welcome!

Hello Everyone,

Pre-production for my thesis film, DAWN, has begun! At this time, producers Wesley Fleming and Michael Lloyd are busy recruiting crew members and finding locations.

We are also proud to have fellow screenwriter, Josh Helms, busy at work on our original score for DAWN. So far the rough sketches he has been sharing are getting us all very excited to see what he has in store for us. His brother, and co-screenwriter, J Tyler Helms is also helping out with some concept art.

Michael Lloyd, also serving as the film's Director of Photography, is planning something special in terms of the look of the film. He has already enrolled the help of Whitney Hess to work as our Gaffer.

Kevin Ray has also joined up as the film's Editor, and Adam Bailey is our First Assistant Director.

We will be keeping you all updated with location scouts, crew updates, and casting details as pre-production rolls forward.

Thank you all for following--

Joshua Matthews