Mark Twain once said to the effect that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute. Here in So Cal we’re blessed. If you don’t like the bright sunny days, wait a while, maybe a long time. So, recently, on a bright, sunny Sunday morning in Santa Monica, the team of SOS got together to shoot a pitch video for the crowd-funding campaign. Our team also includes our garrulous parrot, Coco, who by the way will have several scenes with ‘dialogue’ in SOS.
Our team consists of a small group of multifaceted and talented actors, who wear different hats. In the photo below we see Aygul Maksutova, the lead actress who plays MARINA in the South of Sunset film.
This morning Aygul is acting as a hair dresser (adjusting Wojciech’s wig who plays MISHA, SOS’s own soulless psychopath) and a makeup artist. We were going for the look of Keanu Reeves in John Wick 3.
Aygul also was the boom operator and traffic lookout for the some alley scenes. She is pretty tireless. For the pitch video, she did a lot of running up and down staircases, tight walkways adorned with spider web, all in killer high heels.
Here in the photos below is Wojciech Fry-Lewis in his character as MISHA. Black Hair – Black Soul. The only creature he loves is his parrot Alexander (Coco by birth)…Otherwise in real life Wojciech owns pretty golden curls and positive attitude.
We also see Vincen Ross, who plays SASHA, a Travolta look-alike assassin and one of Misha’s evil cohorts. Here, on the kitchen counter of the apartment we shot, Vince practices his butterfly knife wielding ability. Vincent was born in Brazil, and he came to Hollywood three years ago to follow his dream. He is a wonderful person, extremely passionate, and serious about his craft. He spent all his free time learning how to handle the knife and how to suck the contents out of a raw egg.
Poor Vincen went through an entire container of dozen eggs in this scene. I believe he got sick in the end!
On the sofa next to the cage with Coco, is Paul O’Lague. Paul was very instrumental in getting the parrot for the shoot. On the shoot he volunteered to work as our parrot whisperer. He was very helpful with lighting by holding a bounce board in some shots.
It is always a good idea to have an editor on the set. Maciek had some excellent ideas on how to change the shots to integrate them together. With this crew, I could relax, and there was not much for me to do except provide support for everybody and operate the camera.
Our director, Andrzej spoke a bit about the equipment we used for the pitch video, “We shot this video using a wonderfully small Sony FDR-AX100 4K Ultra HD Camcorder, that delivers vibrant blacks. I rented it from Samy’s Camera and prepped with the help of two wonderful guys Francisco and Danny there.. Before I hand off the footage to Maciek for the edit, I’m working now selecting the best takes. See you at the movies!”
FOLLOW US ON OUR SOCIAL MEDIA ⇓
