1960's protest Reenactment Shoot

I woke Saturday the 21st hoping we could get in our scheduled reenactment shoot without getting slammed by the rain. It was overcast but not raining so I turned on the local weather channel and yikes, tornado warning, possible hail, rain, lightning and high winds. There went my 200 people who signed up to participate as extras. Bad weather will stop a volunteer most days. It hadn't started raining yet and I thought there could be a window so we met at Reese St. our location and waited. I blocked off the street entrance with orange construction tape and started to see cars roll up and people get out wearing 6o's attire. Some of the extras decided to brave the elements to participate in the film. Wow! We had a 10am start time and at 9:35 the rain came down hard again. Everyone huddled in the covered entrance of a night club to stay dry. Still in good spirits the actors were all ready to work. I could see a slight break in the clouds coming so I told them we would get some shooting in.

As luck would have it we got about 2o minutes of dry weather and 40 minutes of light rain. We scrambled to get our various protest shots. The actors were great! Twenty seven people came out in that rough weather and I am extremely grateful. The crew as usual was fantastic. Raines checked people in and handled personnel, Dali handled the actors and kept them ready to go,

Fabrice, secured the location and kept an eye on the crowd and Drew was A.C. for the day helping with the gear. We squeezed in a lot and it's a good thing we did. When we rapped it started to rain heavily again and them it got nasty!

All and all it wound up being a good shoot and a fun time. A big thanks to everyone who came out!

Civil Rights Movement Reenactment Shoot

Last Friday we began shooting the last phase of our documentary, Before the Memories Fade: Voices from the Civil Rights Movement. Over 25 University of Georgia students participated in various reenactment scenes from the 1960's.

Friday marked the next to the last production day in this 2.5 year filming process. The students were great even when the temperature dropped a little. It was cold for Georgia that night.

We shot chase scenes, jail scenes, confrontations and more. I also took the shoot as a teaching moment for some actors who only knew a little about the movement. In between scene changes I talked about various people, topics and situations they should learn more about. After all it was college students their age who travelled south and made the difference.

My Athens crew was great and my two Key PA's, Dali and Fabrice, have been working closely with me over the last month helping to put various shoots together. They are fantastic and real go getters!

This Saturday the 21st, we will be shooting a mass march in downtown Athens. We have over 150 people coming which should make a very exciting and realistic reenactment. Let's hope the weather holds out. If it doesn't we are shooting anyway because they marched in the rain also!