Photos: Day Ten, Eleven, and Twelve

Hi everyone,
We've reached the home stretch. Only a couple of days left. For me the end of a shoot is something that is always both highly anticipated as well as somewhat dreaded. While it's definitely nice to have some time off, I'm always a little sad when the cast and crew splits up and goes their separate ways. Even if you're planning on working with many of the same people again, the crew will never be exactly the same. Having said that, I think it's nice that at the end you'll always have a movie to remind you of all of the good times you had working on the production. Many of these fun moments can be seen in the below pictures.
-Pete

Photos: Day Nine

Here's the photos for day nine. Be sure to check out my awesome headphones.
-Pete

Photos: Day Seven and Eight

While I'd love to tell how tired I am after a long day of production, I thought I'd post a photo gallery instead. After all, if a picture's worth a thousand words than 29 of them has to be worth at least 29 thousand words (also I'm too tired to blog). No amount of coffee can prepare you for the quantity of loading and unloading of trucks that each day requires. Having said all of this, making movies is awesome and I wouldn't want to do anything else.
Enjoy the pictures,
-Pete

Photos: Day Six

Since it took me so long to post the last two days worth of photos, I figured I'd upload todays photos today!
-Pete

Photos: Day Four and Five

Hi Everyone,
Here's the pictures from tuesday and wednesday. I thought I had posted these a couple of days ago, but clearly that was not the case. Things have been so hectic lately I didn't even realize they weren't up until just now. Sorry about that. Anyway, in a surprising turn of events, tomorrow marks my professional acting debut. Indeed, because Fly Away is such a micro-budget production, many of the crew members are actually doubling as extras. While I've done a very small amount of "acting" in the past, this will be my first feature and as such, I plan to spend the rest of the night getting into character.
wish me luck,
-Pete

Day Three: Photos

Heres the photos from day 3. More to come tonight!
-Pete

Day Two: Photos

Photos from day two have arrived! Here the lovely ladies from our multitalented production office can be seen standing in for the actors while the camera, electrical, and art departments set up the shot around them. Having worked in the production office for the last week or so, I can assure you that getting these people to stop working and sit still for any amount of time is next to impossible. I am constantly in awe of our AD's ability to get them to do so.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures.
-Pete

Day One: Photos

Hey everyone, here's some photos from yesterday.
-Pete

Day One: Production Meeting

Hello World Wide Web,
having just returned from my first first day of pre-production, I can now officially state that we have a really great crew working on this film. While avid readers of this blog will likely recall that I may have said something to a similar effect in several of my previous posts, the truth is that I really hadn't met any of them in person before today. While they seemed nice in E-mail form, for all I knew they could actually all have been complete jerks. Today I can confirm, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is absolutely not the case. From the first second I stepped foot into the production office, it immediately became clear to me that our crew is not only a well oiled movie making machine, but also a great group of people. Despite having never actually encountered someone on a film that I didn't like, I'm always excited to learn that I'm going to have an easy time getting along with my fellow crew members.

Having said that, today's main event was a large crew meeting between all of the various department heads ensuring that everything was going to be ready for production when the camera starts rolling on saturday. Together, they meticulously went through the production schedule and made sure that every prop, costume, location, and camera angle was decided upon and accounted for. If there's going to be a shot of Mandy watching TV, what show is she going to be watching? If she is watching a show, will it actually be playing, or will it be added in later during post production? If it is going to be added during post production, will the television screen be overlaid with a green screen, or are you simply just going to place tracking marks on the screen? These are the kind of questions that are constantly being asked to ensure that even the most finite of details be ready, so that when the director yells action, everything is good to go . While no amount of preparation can make production run perfectly smoothly, if you can eliminate all of the potential problems that are able to control, than that's half the battle right there. This is especially true on a lower budget film like Fly Away, since every additional second you spend in production costs extra money.

Thats it for now,
Be sure to check back in tomorrow for more.
-Pete

Party Photos

Hey everyone,
here's some photos from last night's cast dinner at Janet's house. As the days pass and we get closer and closer to the beginning of production, it's extremely important that our entire cast and crew become familiar with one another. Although many of us have been working on the film for months, and some even years, others are more recent additions and so it's great when everyone can come together as a group, read the screenplay together, and really get to know each other. While this sort of team building is an important part of any production, perhaps the most significant event of the night came when Janet revealed what was for dinner; homemade lasagna. Personally, I'm of the opinion that there are few things that can achieve the kind of group cohesion necessary for filmmaking quite as well as the miracle that is lasagna. I'll do just about anything for someone who can make a good baked pasta. With that said, I think everyone's really excited to get to work. I'll be sure to keep you updated on all of the goings on as production starts to take off.
-Pete

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to the Fly Away Film blog!

This is the website for Janet Grillo's newest film Fly Away. Based on her award winning short, Flying Lessons, Fly Away tells the moving story of a single mother, Jeanne, grappling with the challenge of raising her autistic teenage daughter, Mandy. While I'd love to tell you more about the story, this being the internet, I'm going to try my best to keep this brief. However, if you do want to know more about the story, feel free to click on the "About the Film" tab on the website toolbar. We also have bios of most of the cast and crew up there (the rest are on their way), so be sure to check those out as well. We have a really talented team, so don't be surprised if find a couple of people that you've heard of before.

Although the blog may not be too spectacular at the moment, as production starts to get underway you can expect to find all sorts of great features popping up everyday. We'll have everything from interviews, to videos, to production stills, and even blog posts written by the cast and crew, so be sure to come back and check out all of that stuff out as it goes up. I'm hoping that in the next few weeks, this website is able to become a place that is as interactive as it is informative, and where you'll be able to learn all sorts of things, not only about the film, but also about autism in general. Obviously this is only possible by building a community around the site, so as we start to get things going, feel free to comment on the blog, follow us on Twitter, or become our fan on Facebook

Once again,

Thanks for checking out the site, I can't wait to see it grow.

-Pete Binswanger