Unfortunately that weekend's weather was in the 90's, high humidity, and Shannon's out of shape physical condition proved to be a hindrance to completing this short film in the estimated 5 hours. In fact, they were on location for a mere three hours or so before Shannon thought he was going to have a heat stroke, and nearly collapsed from heart-attack like symptoms on the way back to the car. Sadly, the majority of that time was spent sitting under a shade tree resting, and Shannon frustrated at his physical condition due to wanting to finish this project. The boys were troopers and never once complained. A rare appearance from a Game Warden also delayed their filming as we explained we were just having some fun making a you tube video.

Thus, the three returned to the location on a another weekend to finish. While Shannon's physical condition wasn't as much of a hindrance (they took 20 minute breaks in the air conditioned car after every half hour of filming, and Shannon was armed with pain killers and lots of water this time), SEVERAL TIMES, Shannon forgot the first rule of filming with a video camera, "Press the record button to start recording"! We missed several VITAL shots because of this oversight. Also, Shannon would inadvertently not stop recording (thus plenty of raw footage of us just walking, resting, and talking) and when the time came to record he would actually STOP the recording on accident when he pressed the button! (The sun was so bright it was difficult to see any text on the viewfinder 95% of the time).

Finally, a week later, they returned to the location and then the green screen in Shannon's backyard for some vital pick-up shots, which only took them a few minutes each.

There was also some controversy among some third-party adults concerning the boys being paid for being in this silly, fun movie. What it boiled down to is Shannon makes personal sacrifices and saves up his spending money all year to make a few movies. He believes in reimbursing the cast for their time that they are graciously giving toward making his dream come true - especially since no one else WILL participate. But how do you determine how much a task is worth paying? Well, Shannon looked to Austin, TX - Texas' film-making epicenter, and cross-referenced those details with S.A.G. information. It boils down to: at the time of shooting, in professional film-making, an ultra-low budget film pays $100 a day. Taking into account several factors,...
>>This project was SUPPOSED to take a day total, but due to the director's health, a second day was added; then, due to the director's incompetence, a third day was added to the schedule
.>>The Texas weather was very HOT and humid, and this little fun project turned out to be on par with any day-labor job any adult could manage.
>>This is NOT a professional film project, but a hobby, yet, we need SOME sort of pay-scale to be in the ball-park with for the cast's hard work and time.
...Shannon decided $200 each was a fair salary. (If he were to have paid MINIMUM WAGE as indie-films under SAG guidelines and his own family had suggested, he would, in fact, have had to pay the boys even MORE. However, that $400 was all Shannon had saved up for a budget for that time of the year. (Mostly thanks to Shannon sacrificing going out to eat, going to movies, going drinking, going on dates, etc etc etc) All in all, considering the high temperatures, the schedule, and the work that was involved, Shannon made a call, and he stands by it.

TRIVIA...
During the homage to the old Spaghetti Western shootouts, the director had, what can only be assumed to be, a brain fart. For no apparent reason, Shannon chose to break the 180 rule of film making (which confuses the audience), mostly dealing with the holstered guns. Anthony was on the left side of the screen, Mikey was on the right side of the screen. Logic, and the 180 rule, would dictate Anthony use his right pocket for the holster, and Mikey use the left pocket as his holster. Alas, it did not come to pass, for no conceivable reasoning. No explanation for this. None whatsoever. It will forever be a mystery on par with the framed spoons in The Room, or the bacon taped to the bathroom wall in Gummo.

What did we learn on the show tonight, Craig?
After a similar incident during "My Brother's Keeper", you'd think "HIT THE RECORD BUTTON" would be a no-brainer. While it is a conscious decision to do so by now, we are working with new cameras that have horrible viewfinders in the daylight. During the second day of shooting "Duel Control", the record button had not been pushed for nearly a dozen critical moments. A THIRD day of filming was added for these needed pickup and re-shoots, and yet AGAIN, the record button wasn't pressed during one vital scene - even though, upon inspection of the camera after the scene was filmed, it appeared as though it DID record. Spooky! (Or just bad luck!! Or unexplainable creepy events!) SO, yes, MAKE SURE THE RECORD BUTTON IS PRESSED!
Also, the entire through-line is needed to be conveyed to the actors so they know what is coming next and how to end the shot they are working on. We try not to pile on too much information at once so the actors can be as in the moment as possible and only think aboat what they are currently doing, but, as we realized, they also need an ultimate destination, not simply an objective. (Just something to be aware of in the back of their minds.)
If special effects are involved, especially compositing (like, masking a part of the picture out with a blank slate of the background), don't be lazy, USE A TRIPOD! Hand-held is a pain and no-no! That way, the post-production process will take seconds instead of HOURS/dayz!!!! (If ye want to simulate hand-held, get a wider view, then zoom in during post and add a wobble.)
If chopping off body parts is involved, use GREEN SCREEN! Trying to composite with all persons in one shot is a PAIN that takes hours, if not dayz!!! Film a background plate, film the sword-wielder in front of green (or BG and sword wielder together) then film the person whose body part is chopped off in front of the green!!!!
Manual key-framing, ROTO-SCOPING, masking, and especially LIGHT SABER effects + ADHD is T-O-R-T-U-R-E!!!!
But the last, but surely not least, trick I learned - actually reinforced from when we filmed Insanely Sane, but I forgot - is when someone is getting PUNCHED by an invisible enemy, not to "lean in" before jerking their head around when getting "punched".

Summary...
Two unnamed boys disagree over which channel to watch on the television.
The antagonist of the duo knocks out the protagonist with a frying pan that appears out of no where, but then decides there's nothing on worth watching, so he leaves.. with the remote control.
The protagonist chases after his foe and the battle only escalates to outrageous proportions from there.

The Making of...
2RockinTwins on Youtube announced a video competition. While not necessarily planning to enter this contest, Shannon "Shaggy72" Shaw saw this as inspiration to make an action-comedy. He decided since the other reason for making this was to be a stress-reliever, he would make it as silly and over-the-top as possible.
Shannon enlisted the help of the teenage Anthony Perry, son of his cousin's girlfriend, as the protagonist. The antagonist would be played by Anthony's friend (also an old, long-lost family friend of Shannon's) Mike Fuqua.

DUEL CONTROL is Lonestar Pictures second short film foray into the comedy genre - the first being Overly Dramatic Breakfast starring Logan Harrison.

It is an on-purposely over-the-top, silly 2011 fantasy. It is almost a live-action cartoon. However, we stopped just short of adding the exclamation-text and other Road Runner-like bells and whistles. There is a fine line between "Scott Pilgrim"-cool and being just plain stupid and embarrassing.

This short was inspired by the 2RockinTwins you tube channel.

It was made due to the fact that Insanely Sane, a very dark, and complex film had already taken 37 months of Shannon's life. Some recent developments in computer software pushed the premiere of that specific further back, so not only did Shannon have more time on that project to finis it, but it meant that from day one of filming to completion (at THAT time) would last over 5 years! Shannon was in desperate need of another fun, simple short film (the previous 2-week diversions having been "Overly Dramatic Breakfast" and "Timespawning Prologue") to do for two reasons: 1) the dark and complex nature of "Insanely Sane", also taking into account he had procrastinated and stretched out the post-production for such an incomprehensible amount of time; and 2) he needed to FILM! Shannon is only happy when he is behind the camera, filming! THAT is his happy place. When the world gets him down, filming gets him up. And an extremely silly, no-pressure funny short like "Duel Control" was the perfect medicine for what ailed him at that moment.

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