Fantastic news all around

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of the Ghost Tours team: composer Benn Cole, who will be doing a custom score for us.

Benn is currently part of the Film Scoring program at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA. If you want to learn more about Benn and listen some of his music cruise on over to his website Benn Cole Music.

Part of what makes this such an exciting announcement is that it means I'm at picture lock. The story is in place. There's still plenty of work to do, even on actual pictures, despite the name. There are two sets of images that are currently placeholder that I need to do some work on. But the story won't change and the timing won't change so it's safe for Benn to start work and it's safe for Dan the sound designer to start work.

They say sound is 70% of any film you see, so these two guys will be doing some very important stuff for me in the next few months.

Shoot Day 3: Ups and downs and ending high

A year from now, a month from now, maybe even a week from now I won't remember the chaos of today, I will only remember the fun and the good footage. If I were a person prone to freaking out today probably would have been a bad day. It started with getting a flat tire on my way to pick up our out of town actress. Then as I was on the phone with the producer confirming that we were finally on our way I got the news that the building we were shooting in is under construction and the classroom we were assigned apparently doesn't exist any more. At one point we had too many lights plugged in and because it's a holiday it took quite a bit of time to find someone who could unlock the fuse box.

The thing is all of these problems are surmountable. Fortunately, I am well versed in how to put on a spare tire, so we only lost about 20 minutes getting to set. We simply moved the walk and talk to a hallway that wasn't under construction, and the classroom to one further down the hall that was open. And eventually we did find a maintenance guy to fix our fuse problem. Our lighting crew is unlikely to ever make that mistake again. And at the end of the day we still wrapped early. So really, none of it matters.

What matters is the moment I expect I will remember most about today: watching my actors perform and feeling really giddy about how well they were all clicking. Then one of them caught me with my "I'm so excited" smile and just laughed. It really was a good day.

The Core Team

The key to good filmmaking is having a good team. It is also what makes filmmaking so much fun. It might start as one person's idea, but the end result is so much more than that. The collaboration is not only between the director and the actors, though certainly the actors have a huge contribution to make. Well before the actors are even selected, people are joining the team who will have a incredible impact on the final product. It is important to put together a team that is talented, invested in the story being told, and is easy to work with. The first few key people can make or break a film.

Here is who we have so far: