The Airplane Opening Sequence

The opening of the film is of an airplane landing on Moosehead Lake, Maine.  Sounds simple.  But in fact you really need to watch the videos to trully value what this sequence is.  To really make the best of this concept we are creating the entire sequence as animation.  But the final product will be so photo-realistic that the audience will believe it was shot "in-camera".  The first stage was to create a pre-viz of the scene where you layout the action and camera movement.  This cuts down time and gives us the freedom of adjusting without being time consuming.

Step #: Pre-viz



Step #2:  Redeveloping the Pre-viz

After discussions between the director and the VFX designer some changes were made to certain shots in the sequence.  One of the was the reflection shot which we thought needed a different angle in order for us to really see the beauty of the shot.



Step #3 the VFX designer is adding camera shake and extending the cloud part of the first shot to allow us more time to add more titles before the plane flies by the camera.

People Are Fragile

Anne Marie (Jepson) Peterson

Character Profile

"People are fragile," that is what Anne's mom use to tell her when she was growing up as a kid. They can be easily broken like pottery or like her grandmother's expensive china set. Anne didn't really understand the relevance to the statement until her mom was diagnosed with cancer.

Life isn't fair, but it does teach it's lessons. Anne used the loss of her mother to inspire her to go to school to be a nurse. She knew she couldn't save everyone but she could make a difference.

"Try to see the best in someone" is something she always heard from her grandmother, and it was statement her grandmother lived by. Her grandmother would give the shirt of her back, if someone needed it. Anne was born in New Sweden, Maine, but after her mom died she sent to be raised by her grandmother in Greenville, Maine.





Meeting Jack Peterson was one of the magical moments in her life. He seemed sad and yet his eyes sparkled with hope. "What was it about him that I can't keep my eyes away from him?", she kept asking herself. Like a magnet she found herself drawn to him, wanting to know who he was and who he wanted to be.



"We all have pain," Anne Peterson found herself always saying, "it's what we do with it that matters. We can hide it or heal, it's doesn't magically go away on it own."



How do you deal with pain and loss?


Stay tuned in for more character profiles for THE HOUSE, you can also check out http://www.thehousefilm.com  for more on the company.

"Do You Believe in the Ability to Change?"

JACK PETERSON

Charecter Profile

Imagine each day looking into the mirror and realizing the reflection that you see is someone you think is better than you, that is how Jack felt every day of his life when he saw his twin brother... Jimmy.

Jimmy and Jack were identical, except for the fact that Jack was the "brains" and Jimmy was the "brawn". Jack secretly envied his twin. Seemed that all the girls adored Jimmy, but ignored the "quiet genius". Jimmy was the life of the party, but Jack was the silent hermit. Jack almost resented his brother... until the day-

Sometimes when we bury our loved ones, their memories continue to haunt us. Sometimes we "just can't forget". Jack can't. Alive Jack envied him, dead he missed him. "You don't know what you have until you lose it", Jack's mother used to always tell him... The truth hurts sometimes.

Jimmy was in the Marines, was there in Afghanistan. He returned... but not the same.

We all have things we bury in our past. Jack has his. He's seen death many times, and oddly enough seems to be the one left to carry the burden...

Now a knock at the door... FBI asks questions... about something... Did Jack do it? Does he know who could have? Is there something bigger going on?

What would you do if the FBI started to poke around into your past?

Paradise and Home?

Paradise and Home?

Part II of my location scouting in Greenville.

Two things stood out to me when I was in Greenville: The landscape that looks like something out of The Last of The Mohicans (Michael Mann's version of the film) and a place that feels like "home". Could both be in one place?

Can the people be this inviting to those who visit the area or move there? Yes. Quite possible.


The setting we were searching to find that would fit perfectly for the setting of THE HOUSE had to be somewhere that anyone could find inviting, but also have something unique and original about it. That way the audience would sense throughout the film that Jack and Anne Peterson live a fairly peaceful life of contentment... until the day the FBI shows up to their door and dig up Jack's past.

While on our location scouting of Greenville we found many motels and also very beautiful inns. One of the inns we looked at was the Blair Hill Inn which has a very majestic view from its dining room and deck. The above view on the blog post is taken from Blair Hill looking out over Moosehead lake and the mountains and hills behind the lake.

Below are some of the property that is the Blair Hill Inn. There's something iconic about the look of this place. Loved the one photo I took of the wall that stands alone with doorway and window.

I asked a quesiton to many different people when visiting Greenville: "what do you want the world to know about this place?", so I could give that image to the world in the setting of the film. I received different responses, but the conclusion was a simple message: Paradise in a place called home... (stay tuned in, more updates to come.)

You can also check out the company's site http://www.jbmovies.com

The House Film Production (Location Scouting) Part I

The Location Scouting/Visit to Greenville, Maine... A large part of our reason for going to Greenville was that we wanted to talk to key individuals in the town about our interest in shooting the film there. This was a rare opportunity for a town because I had decided that I would re-write the entire script of The House and set it in a town in Maine that exemplified what Maine was all about, but I wanted it to be a town that most people had never heard of before and had a lot of character to it to make it stand out to the audience. By re-writing the script around a town, we would write in businesses and locations that would benefit from the exposure. Also the town as a whole would benefit because the world would hear about it more and want to visit the area. Our hope is that by producing this film in Maine and allowing the Maine way of life to come through the story it would help to draw more business to the state, especially in film and other aspects of the arts to create a creative economy that would help the state to grow and offer better jobs to the next generation

Below are just a few of the stills taken from the videos I recorded of Greenville.

The boats in Greenville on Moosehead Lake:

The Katahdin Steamboat: Antique steamboat from the 19th century and was rebuilt and donated to the museum by one of the local citizens. Many people take tours on the boat during the summer season around the lake.

Bottom- Bird’s Eye-View of Greenville and more of Moosehead Lake:

For more location shots and news on the production of The House stay tuned in… we will be posting more very soon!