kidnapped2008 | Resilience Productions

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Well our 2008 PROJECT:DIRECT entry was more like PROJECT: BAD LUCK! The rules were simple: make a new short film specific for this contest, that somehow incorporates a RED PHONE and a HAMBURGER (in order to prove this was filmed specifically for this contest).
"Kidnapped", our third (barely) COMPLETED Lone Star Pictures project, was ready to roll! The star had even agreed to do it for FREE. And he had a girlfriend perfect for the other role as well.
Unfortunately, right before we were to begin filming, the star had an accident at work and nearly severed his finger. He was out of commission!
The star of Insanely Sane was busy with.. life; besides, his girlfriend couldn't make it. The girlfriend was essential to the story: it's what gave the film it's heart and soul.
One of "ole faithful" came to bat. He starred in BOTH of our previous movies. Unfortunately, between sports and living out of town, we had to wait until the day before the deadline to start filming.
Also, we found out at the last second, none of the female leads were available. Thus, the girlfriend had to be changed to a "brother/friend" (Same thing happened w/ "Refugee". However, this time, when the story was hastily rewritten, we lost the vital romantic sub-plot. What was left, was a horrid shadow of the story.)
It's a shame, really, not only did this project have POTENTIAL (which was utterly killed by bad luck before and during filming), but, as it turns out, twas the final project to involve the original "not ready for world wide web cast" of John, Dustin, and Dakota (Keith could have been involved, but the director thought it unwise to include him due to volatile family issues he was dealing with at that particular time).
After we bought a chain-net for the basketball goal, for an essential scene in the flick, the court FILLED with teenagers playing ball on the new net and new ball we purchased. Which was fine with the director, who thought he'd use that time to rewrite the story.
1) Shannon is NOT a writer. 2) It takes him weeks, not hours, to write. 3) Shannon sucks. 4) The ENTIRE story for this film revolved around the girlfriend. (Think Pulp Fiction without the briefcase: missing a vital McGuffin to bring it all together.) 5) We SHOULD have scrapped this for next year and made up an entirely new story, or used a backup story instead.

We won't bore you with all the minute-by-minute details of filming and the problems endured. It all came down to two things: 1) As soon as we lost the female, we should have made a completely different movie. Period!!!! 2) We were ALL exhausted, not thinking clearly, and in a hurry, not using common sense, and not thinking clearly.
How rushed and out of it was the director!? Well, he had forgotten that little bit of common sense that dictates when filming at night, in the pitch black of darkness, that's a great time to get the lights and extension cords out of the trunk of the car so the camera can actually see what is being recorded. .. .. We didn't. .. .. And the color correction done so we can see anything looks HORRIBLE! ARGH!!!
It was pretty much a disaster. The cast put their faith in Shannon and the aspiring director's exhausted brain let them and himself down.
Which is worse? Not even TRYING... or... trying and failing miserably.
Well, considering, about $200 was already spent on this movie, we were going down fighting.
The director got pwned.

By the 11pm deadline...
- We STILL had to edit together the vital basketball scene-
A couple scenes (including the vital basketball court and approaching the hideout) needed color correcting (major rendering times on our antique pc) due to it being PITCH BLACK!
- It had NO sound effects or ambient-sounds yet. The dialogue-sound needed work as well.
- There is VERY little music, but due to the new story direction, 90% of the early score already composed was useless).
The war was over. The battle was lost. This was 101% learning experience, nothing else.

THE FUTURE:
A script is in development to REBOOT this project.
The new version will be of professional quality. Other than a few plot points, everything in this newer version will be completely different and infinitely better than the original. There really can be no comparison between the two.