Starring: Jonathan Nail, Michele Boyd, Jay Caputo, Amol Shah, Melissa Dalton and Jason Burns. Created and written by Jonathan Nail. Directed by Jorge Luis Urbina. Produced by Allison Vanore. Scored by Rob Gokee. Edited by Jesse Averna.

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Even though it was late (around 2am) I managed to stay awake long enough to see a bit of the footage we had shot and I nearly busted a gut. Everything looks great! The comedic moments are genuinely funny. I cannot wait to share this with everyone.

Huge thanks to my production team: Allison Vanore, Jorge Urbina, P.J. Gaynard, Raphe Wolfgang, Rob Gokee, Derek Oishi, Eli Benavidez  and my lovely wife, and my kick-in-the-pants, Jan Min (she made craft services and every meal a religious experience — donut bread pudding… enough said.) I seriously could not have imagined doing any of this without your hard work, ingenuity, dedication and your unquenchable desire to create. Thank you to everyone involved who donated their time, equipment, skill and effort. Your passion for film-making was apparent every moment you were on set – thank you for pouring your passion into my show. You are all AWESOME!

Massive Shout Out to the entire crew! Every day there seemed to be a new face, out of nowhere, who showed up on set to wrangle a light or move some equipment. It was a pleasure meeting and working with each and every one of you. All of you showed up as a favor to a friend, a stranger to me, and your effort, time and skill is appreciated beyond my means of expression. Thank you.

Now to fire up the enthusiasm, once again, for the post-production team and get our pilot episode polished to wow the rest of the interwebs-TV community. Trailers and teasers coming soon, naturally.

]]> http://watchsolo.com/blog/wrapped-episodes-1-2-of-solo-the-series/feed/ 7 http://watchsolo.com/blog/mission-flight-suit/ http://watchsolo.com/blog/mission-flight-suit/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:40:10 +0000 Jonathan http://watchsolo.com/?p=237

I just wanted to give you a sneak peek at the flight suit I will be wearing as I play Scott Drizhal. A talent designer and good friend, Ben Liu, created the mission patch designs. And it is amazing how just shopping at a few local stores can help you drum up and instant flight suit. Sewing on the American Flag patch was actually fun, and took me back to my college days when I would spend hours in the costume shop at the Krannert Center (Univ. of Illinois) – sewing is a very useful skill I am proud to have in my toolbox.

We are filming my scenes, in the nearly finished Artemis spaceship set, next week. So this week I still have a few props to finish work on – which I will be more than happy to share with you here. A little more set dressing is necessary, which we will tackle this weekend.

I’m ready to suit up!

SOLO – The Series needs your support! We need to raise $30,000 by November 30th to be able to just barely cover our costs for food and equipment rental. If 300 donors stepped forward right now and donated $100 each, we would reach our goal. More would be a blessing! Your contribution today is TAX-DEDUCTIBLE to the extent permitted by law.

Your tax-deductible donation also makes you a special member of an elite team we lovingly call: SOLONAUTS. Think of all the benefits of being a SOLONAUT: Your name in the credits. First peek at all future episodes. Behind the scenes gossip and photos. AND you will forever have our ETERNAL LOVE AND GRATITUDE!

SOLO – The Series is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of SOLO – The Series may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

We have nearly two-thirds of episodes 1 & 2 in the can with a successful, long weekend of shooting. And the footage we have is funny and looks freakin’ awesome! However, after a weekend off, and with our next weekend of filming quickly approaching, we found ourselves facing some unavoidable delays. I won’t go into details, but it was enough to send us scrambling for solutions. Ah, the joys of producing a web series. We are now attempting to schedule our final two days of filming.

During this “downtime”, the director and I are working on doing some video pre-visualation so that we can begin cutting together the footage we have so far. This will allow us to determine how the episodes will cut together, timing, and more importantly how we should film the spaceship scenes. The pre-vis will also allow us to start working on the handful of effects we have in the show.

We are also doing some revisions to the spaceship set. Our new Art Director has jumped right in and is throwing bits and pieces around, and I am redesigning the control panels for a more up-to-date look and feel. One of those “wish we had done this before” – but I know the results will be freaky awesome. So, no worries, right?

Big production meeting tomorrow to discuss finishing up this “pilot” and how we turn this fun, two-weekend project into a viable web series.

So, Chris & Curt (“The Mercury Men”) and PJ (who was the DP for MM, as well) all went for a little tour of the set of “SOLO”. I felt like I had to explain my choices for doing this or that, but in hindsight I realize that everyone was pleased and impressed with the work I’ve done so far on the set. By the time that Chris (who is visiting from Pittsburgh) and Kurt (who lives in L.A.) had to leave, my producer, Allison, and composer, Rob, showed up. We all had a pow-wow while waiting for Michael, the potential Production Designer I desperately need. Michael arrived and we ventured out to the set, once again.

Michael is a great guy, full of fantastically fun ideas. PJ, Michael and myself were all throwing ideas out on how to improve the set. It was quickly decided that more needs to be done to dramatically light the set, add some color and depth with the addition of color and some more set pieces. If we can fit it all in under $500, it’s a deal. We also realized that we need the input from our director, Jorge (you keeping these names straight?) before we may continue further.

I’m waiting to hear back from Allison regarding Michael and his level of commitment. I’m really hoping for a savior, in a way, because I’m burnt out on working on the set. I need to focus on the scripts and the other bits of minutiae. Oh, and I have to start focusing on my character, Scott, as well.

So, today’s meeting was full of excitement and new ideas. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Our casting director is arranging for our casting space and is furiously putting together the breakdowns for the characters that have yet to be cast for the show. More details to come…