We’ve wrapped on principal photography for the feature film adaptation of Acid Test!
If you followed our progress play out on social media, I assure it, we all had an amazing time. I can’t say enough about my amazing cast and crew who gave their all – body, mind, and soul – to this project. Leading this project with my Assistant Director Anna Tran and my Director of Photography Kay Parker was a partnership I hope to keep for every project.
Having produced on over 30 shorts, scripted and documentary, and worked on 2 other features, there were many things about the production of my debut feature film as a Director that I felt both prepared and completely unprepared for. I learned so much and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we’ve accomplished.
We were so very lucky that Houston weather, for the most part, cooperated and after a tough first week working out the kinks, we sailed through the rest of our production.
Here’s a review of what we’ve accomplished so far:
January 2016: production on the short film.
June 2017: premiere of the short film at Literally Short Film Festival which launches a successful award-winning festival run through April 2019.
April 2018: Table Read of feature film draft after 2nd Seed&Spark campaign participating in the #HometownHeroes Rally sponsored by the Duplass Brothers. This weekend workshop really helped kick the revisions necessary to get our production draft ready!
January 2, 2019: Announce our feature production dates after approval from Houston Community College (HCC) to teach a summer course for students to work as production assistants, learn set protocol, gain professional experience, and expand their professional network.
February 22: Our fiscal sponsorship through From the Heart Productions is approved and our fundraising page goes live!
April 26: Our fiscal sponsorship through the local Houston non-profit Fresh Arts is approved! Having the support of a local organization is critical to this Houston-based film and Houston-based crew.
June 2: Thanks to YOU, we raise over $40,000 in charitable donations in 3.5 months and with $15,000 of private funds, we go into Day 1 of production. My original email citing a $35K mark was incorrect!
21 days of principal photography (8 overnights)
1 day of voiceover recording
12 hour days, 5 day weeks
103 pages final script
95 scenes
10 different locations across Houston
5 pages/day shooting average (3 was our slowest, 6.5 our fastest)
16-22 setups per day depending on how many inserts we shot
63 cards
1000 shots (!!)
With the in-kind donations and donated services, the production value of what we shot was over $140,000! And we didn’t go over budget or over schedule!
The best part was that everyone had a great time and wants to work with each other still! The students learned a lot and some have already been working with the professionals from set on other projects!
July 4: Wrapped! Had a fundraising party at Bar Boheme. I’m currently waiting to see what our 10% of drink sales from the night netted us.
July 14: Submitted a rough cut of the film – 2 hours and 8 minutes – to a finishing fund grant.
Then…vacation! A different kind of family trip!
Now, post-production is gearing up. The plan is for Kay and I to work on the rough cut and carve out the best version of this story and amazing images we captured together.
The reality is that for more specialized post services like sound design, color correction, and visual effects, we will need to raise more money to finish Acid Test as we intend. Fingers crossed that the grants we’ve applied to come through!
Spreading the word and keeping the interest and energy up is also critical to our ongoing and future success. When you see posts on social media, please LIKE and SHARE! Continue to let people know about your involvement and support of this project and encourage others to do the same.
People can still make a charitable tax-deductible donation toward our post-production efforts in two ways:
Thank you, again, for your donations and support of Acid Test. Many of you have been along for the ride, and contributed multiple times, since it was a short film.
–Jenny Writer/Director, Acid Test
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