Strindberg "Collision" Scene

We had a big three day shoot this past weekend for the Strindberg project. On Friday, the lead character, Bjorne the Assistant, played by actor Patrick Garvey, had a "run in" with as Albert the Merchant, played by Pat Doyle.

Pat Doyle as Albert the Merchant

Patrick Garvey and Pat Doyle prepare for scene.

In the scene, the two collide and packages go flying. In our attempts to simulate "flying" parcels, we got a little over zealous with our tosses. One of the packages would not be coming home with us...

Stranded Package

More Period Clothing for 'Strindberg's Assistant'

Our 1910 period piece, Strindberg's Assistant, features at least one character--played by Ági Rédei--who tends to roam the shadier side of town. Last night we visited the Madison Theatre Guild to fit her into a lady-of-the-evening outfit. We look forward to working with Ági this weekend as we continue production on this project.

Costuming Strindberg

In our Strindberg's Assistant project, Georgia Curry, one of the lead actors, plays a Swedish house maid who's come over on the boat in 1910 to America. This past weekend, we visited the Madison Theatre Guild Costume Shop to fit her for a couple of different changes of era clothing. Here's a glimpse of one of them.

Photos by Michael Haven.

Building A Big Beefy Editing Beast

After six years of living and breathing Apple's Final Cut Pro, Tarazod Films has made the switch to PC and Adobe Premiere We were well overdue for an update our system and editing software anyway, and with the less than impressive release of FCP X, the decision was easy.

Yet, we weren't going to buy some off the shelf Dell or HP. No thanks. We wanted something beefy and powerful to groove through all the HD footage we've been shooting of late. So yesterday, we had our good friend and filmmaker Michael Haven over to our house. (Mike's the DP on our Strindberg's Assistant project.) Together, we built a brand new editing PC.

This is an investment in our film and media production company so we went for some big guns. Here's a list of the components...

• Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 case  
• ASUS P6X58D-E X58 motherboard   
• Intel i7-980 Hex Core processor  
• Nvidia Quadro 4000 video card
• WD Veloci Raptor 600GB 10,000RPM system drive
• Corsair Dominator 24GB DDR3-1600MHz (6 x 4GB) memory
• Corsair 850W CMPSU-850TXV2 power supply
• G-Tech G-RAID 2TB (4th Gen) storage
• G-Tech G-DRIVE 2TB back-up storage 
• Pioneer BDR-206DBKS blu-ray optical drive 
• MS Windows 7 PRO 64-BIT OEM operating system
• Adobe CS5.5 Production Suite editing software

Where's the Beef? Right here...

Slow Food St. Louis to Screen "Chickens" Again!

The Slow Food people in St. Louis have been good to us. They will be running our film for a third time in as many years. The two previous showings were in November 2009 and March 2010.

This month's screening will take place in a couple days on August 22nd. Sponsored by Slow Food St. Louis, it starts at 7:30 pm at Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave.,St. Louis, MO.

MCC Mentioned in City Farmer Book

Canadian author and urban sustainability advocate Lorraine Johnson first published her book, City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing in 2010 throughout Canada. The US edition came out earlier this year. We were happy to see that our film, Mad City Chickens, was mentioned, albeit briefly, in the chapter entitled What the Cluck?: Backyard Chickens"

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE AND READ]

Johnson's book is currently available from all major booksellers.

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1553655192
• ISBN-13: 978-1553655190

Production Begins on Strindberg's Assistant

It was last month, July 16-17, that production finally began on one of the many projects we've had waiting in the wings--Strindberg's Assistant. Shooting has continued on and off with the availability of cast and crew. If all goes well, we expect to have the majority of the principal photography completed by early September.

Strindberg's Assistant is a short period piece set partially in 1910 Stockholm and also in turn-of-the-century America. Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, and essayist. Known for his prolific writings, he also explored alchemy and the occult sciences. Our fictional tale builds on this theme, but we will say no more at this time.

From the set of Strindberg's Assistant.

Here's a behind-the-scenes peek at one of the shooting days. Video by Ivy Suryana of Bear Mound Video.