Cutting it down

It’s absolutely crazy that the year is almost gone. Really, PATER MATER is still sort of a young project- the initial idea came at the beginning of 2021, so we’ve been working on it for a year. And we’re super proud of how much we’ve been able to do in that amount of time (with the exception of keeping this blog updated). After we finished shooting in July, the last few months have been filled with editing and preparing for the next steps of post-production. The stages of filmmaking are really different: shooting itself is a highly collaborative, many-parts-moving, continuous rush of a process. Editing, on the other hand, can often be just one person in a room with a laptop and a few extra screens. It’s slow, sometimes excruciating, sometimes exhilarating. You find things that you were sure were going to work that don’t, you find new things you never noticed or imagined that do, and you rediscover all the little mistakes and surprises that came along the way (like an inquisitive dog head appearing in the middle of a bush). It’s like writing the film for a third time. I think that’s what’s so exciting about this art form: there’s so many opportunities to shape and change the final work, and the work done at each step enacts meaningful change. A film can be completely different if any one of many minuscule factors are tweaked. That’s exciting, and terrifying. And that’s why we love it.

The all powerful Adobe Premiere Pro. All hail.

It has also become increasingly evident that one can continue tweaking an edit forever, and we’re coming to a self imposed end to the process soon. That means we’re finally ready to raise some more money for the rest of post-production, so be on the lookout for news of our Kickstarter to be launching in the next few weeks. We’re really close to crossing the finish line, and community support of independent art will help us get there. And we think you’ll like the final product, too. :)

Auditions, casting, and building the team

I feel like every time I write a progress update, I want to start with “I’m so excited...” And it’s true! It’s been so cool taking each small step in getting this film made and seeing it come to life a little more, and building out our team and bringing more minds into the project.

We met so many wonderful performers during our auditions, and it was really hard to make final decisions. Isabel, Solomon, and Ilya are awesome, and I can’t wait to see them bring Kathryn, Davey, and the Hitman to life. And as we round out our crew and collaborators, it’s becoming more and more evident how special this art form is - it’s impossible to do this stuff without a community, and there’s a pretty great group of people around.

So, in short, “I’m so excited!”

Location Scouting

Bronwyn and I headed up north along the coast today to try to find some visually interesting locations to set Kathryn and Davey’s journey within. Luckily for us, the California coastline is a stunner. We were treated to fog and wind (and cold), and it was still amazing. The trip also gave us the chance to try out some of the equipment we’re planning to use (like a DJI RS2 gimbal and a Blackmagic Design Pocket Cine Camera) and really start thinking about the look we want to have in different sections of the film. We used the car ride to talk props, logistics, and funds, and to discuss important topics like cannibalism and Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl.

Prepping for Auditions

Wow. Daniel and I have been blown away by the quality of acting applications we have received so far. We’re honored that these characters have spoken to so many talented actors! We’ve had a lot of fun looking through everyone’s sizzle reels. It is surreal that soon we will have real people representing characters we dreamed up on a page.

Davey, Kathryn, and the Hitman were born out of our desire to find a space to talk about big questions about science and art. Daniel and I enjoyed inspirational stories about how famous men like Steve Jobs and Jennifer Doudna channeled their dual interests into incredible successes, but we felt that there were few popular stories about the tensions we felt as students trying to fit both interests into our lives. In fact, there seemed to be very few stories about graduate students at all. Thus Davey, our chaotic artist, and Kathryn, our stubborn scientist, were born. We can’t wait to see them come to life.

Our project can be found advertised on Facebook and Backstage, and we will be accepting applications through the end of this week.

Here we are!

Hi everyone! We’re super excited to be moving into the production phase of Pater Mater. We’ve spent months working on the script, thinking about locations, and logistics, and we’re excited to be expanding our team. We’ll post updates to the project on this blog as we go along!