Although we may be filmmakers by trade, we are storytellers by nature. Venture into our world and let us weave a tale for you. We will tell you about life and love and fear and pain. We will show you laughter and tears, the devil and God. The story is the lifeblood of our world and nothing matters more.
…So lean close, and let us tell you a story.
2:48PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: Uncategorized
One of our favorite things to do in filmmaking here at Whitestone is to create a new world. We do this through cinematography, set design, lighting and a host of other techniques. For us, each new film is a test run, a trial and error effort that moves us closer to our goal of making excellent cinema. For the past few months, we’ve been discussing where digital effects fall into our bag of tricks. We’ve tried a few digital effects in ‘That’s Magic!’, with varying degrees of success. This month, our resident artistic genius Bill Johnson tried his hand at some sky replacements and set extensions from some test footage we shot. His first pass results look very promising, so we wanted to share them with you. These are rough drafts, but they show us the potential of what is to come. We will be employing some of these techniques, along with some more complicated ones in the films to come. In the meantime, check out our first pass tests, and get excited with us as we continue to push ourselves in the art of filmmaking and storytelling.
Whitestone Sky Replacement Tests from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.
3:45PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: Uncategorized
Whitestone is in full swing with preproduction for our latest film ‘Bobby Watkins’. We are just a few days away from filming and we couldn’t be more excited! This is a fun little project for us to tackle while we gear up for a much larger and darker project this fall.
This past friday we had the pleasure of having our great friend Ernie Johnson in the studio laying down the voice over for the poem that overlays the film. There was much energy in the room as we brought the first layer of this film to life.
The setting of the film is a ‘Dr. Suess’ and 1950’s vibe, so our costume and art direction team have been hard at work creating the world for us to film in. Our team at this moment is designing props, gathering and building costumes, making fences, and even making hundreds of pancakes (that’ll make sense soon enough).
Another unique technical aspect of this film will be our attempt to make it look as if it were shot in the film process known as ‘Technicolor’, Read the rest of this entry »
4:06PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: Uncategorized
It’s the leading cause of preventable death for dreams. Paralysis sets in and entire lives are ruined by its effects. Pragmatists, or pessimists wearing ties, use it as their greatest asset.
Fear is the deathblow to dreams.
Unbridled fear is often the killer of so many works of art, so many great ideas that don’t get off the runway because they blow up in the hangar. This is because the artist or dreamer is afraid. Afraid of what others might think, afraid of complete and abject failure, or afraid even of success.
This is a preventable travesty.
How many unfinished manuscripts, half written songs and brilliant business plans unwritten must we suffer before the fear of not living to our potential overtakes fear of momentary failure. Those who quit easily were never serious in the first place.
Read the rest of this entry »
5:16PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: News and Updates, Production
Whitestone is pleased to announce it’s next film in development. Bobby Watkins is a fairy tale about a little boy who figures out a way to make it his birthday every single day, but with unexpected consequences.
This is a tale most dreadfully true,
About a boy who had birthdays just like me and you.
We’re excited to be moving into preproduction on this project and plan on having the film completed by mid August. The entire film will have a 50’s vibe from production design down to shooting it to look like Technicolor. We will be posting behind the scenes videos, tutorials on how we create the look of the film, and even some live web broadcasting from set. So check back often, and we’ll see you on location!
4:14PM by Brandon McCormick | Cetagories: News and Updates
Whitestone would like to say ‘thank you’ to the festivals that have accepted That’s Magic into their lineup. We’re happy to be a part of these great festivals and look forward to hanging with all of you.
DC Short Film Festival
Feel Good Film Festival
Dragon Con Film Festival
Keep on the look out for more announcements as we continue to get accepted to more festivals.
Thanks!
