Phew…We made it.  We made a damn movie!

Ok, ok…A short movie.  A trailer. But it’s a giant step! And two years of work!

We showed up to the studio around 3:30pm Friday, and the crew was already at work. The makeup artist, Kyla, was already attaching the elf hacker – Kyle – ears.  The crew was setting up lighting and their shot for his shoot.

Once the rest of the cast for the day arrived, and we had a brief safety meeting for set etiquette. I can’t say enough how efficient and professional Redleg is. They got straight to shooting – their vision and setup for the hacker’s shots was spot on.  He lowers his AR glasses, and faces his foe in the matrix. I can’t wait to see what our CGI guy – Devin – is able to pull off. From the concept art – it’s going to be fucking awesome!

Then, it was Kristin’s turn.  She is playing our “High-Powered CEO” whose LEAST scary quality is the amount of wealth she possesses. Kristin is so happy-go-lucky, but when she hears, “Action,” she is a being to be feared. Our head writer, Scott, was there, and he’s already thinking about how to fit her into the series as a possible Season 2 Villain. Dreams, man.

All this time, poor Jennifer was sitting very still, trying not to make any facial expressions as Kyla put her prosthetics and makeup on – about a two-hour process. Jennifer is playing an orc mechanic, and the look was perfect.  She was SO EXCITED to play with some power tools in an actual motorcycle shop located behind the studio. The owner of the shop was awesome for letting us come play, and even taught Jennifer how to use the angle grinder for the best shot.  The lighting in the shop was awesome, and I think it’s one of the coolest shots in the trailer!

Then, it was my turn.  I ran in fear, I crashed and got bruised up (an effect, I promise!) and then faced a terrifying cyber-fighter. Did I mention it was cold? It was about 20 degrees outside, and I laid on the concrete quite a while as we tried to make sure that we got the right shots.  The things we do for our art and passions…

That was just Friday.  We wrapped around 1:15am, and left to get some rest before day 2. 

On Saturday, we arrived late to Ping Tom park in Chinatown because the entrance is hard to find! That only left a short amount of time for me to get into costume and makeup in order to time it with the sunset.  With a beautiful scene of the Chicago skyline behind me, I wrapped my filming responsibilities for the weekend.

Then the fun began…

We spent the next five hours shooting ‘the fight scene.’ Two trained stunt fighters and choreographers duking it out, while the Redleg crew had a BLAST changing angles, getting the best shots. They finished the shots they needed, and then started playing with the shots they WANTED until we had to wrap when the park closed at 10pm. It was even colder – we bundled up tight and could still feel the pain of the cold. But no one wanted to quit. The lighting, the fight, the shots, the producer – Josh – blowing vape smoke into the scene to give it some fog. It was just magical.

Cold, cramped, exhausted, and ecstatically happy, we called a wrap on the Chicago Shadows trailer shoot.

We have a ton of photos we’ll be releasing as we gear up for release. Kickstarter Backers will get access to the trailer on June 1^st, 2020.  The world premier will occur at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio on June 17-21 at their short film screening, and then we’ll release it to the world.  I’m so proud of what my team, and Redleg Films pulled off last weekend, and I CAN’T WAIT to see the final product.