It's all the rage!

Werewolves are very in right now. It seems like you can't pick up a book or turn on the TV without seeing some sort of teenage werewolf. I, personally, tried to stay away from this particular trend. I haven't found anything remotely fascinating about vampires or werewolves since jr. high. That being said, I have been working on a werewolf movie for school. We are encouraged to find and work on projects that the upperclassmen are planning. I was drafted to this project before I really knew what I was getting myself into. I knew the girl who was in charge of the art department and she was happy to sign me on as a member of the props crew. I crafted some awesome pitchforks with the help of Dad. We prepared and raised money, and the big day finally came. We started at 11am and were planning on going until about 11:30pm. It was hectic when we got to set. No one really knew where to set up. This was my first time on a set.

This is Jordan Augustine (Director)

This was a real production with real camera equipment, including a crane. It went about 15 feet up in the air. We shot on 35mm film, which I'm told is a big deal because everyone is going digital these days.

Not only did we have real camera equipment, we also had real sheep. I was pretty skeptical that the sheep would cooperate. It was hard to get the shots we wanted, but it turned out ok.

Just after I got there, Jordan called me over to put the collar and leash on the little lamb. As I was fixing the leash, everyone else walked away. I don't know how it happened, but from that point on I was the keeper of the lamb. This was me posing with the lamb before I realized I'd be babysitting her the whole time.

The lamb grew fond of me. Unfortunately, I was not playing the little girl that the lamb had to follow. Lamby didn't really like anyone else, and the more people tried to touch her the more she resisted being pulled around. They decided we needed to stake her in the middle of the field. The problem was it was so rocky up in the mountains that we couldn't get the stake very secure, and she escaped two or three times before they got the shot. But, for the record, I put that dang stake in the ground, and it's lookin' pretty good.

Bailee turned 11 years old on the first day of filming, so we threw her a little birthday party. She had been running all over for hours so Jordan gave her a ride over to the cake.

Then this happened. It was insane. We went from having a beautiful green field to having a white Christmas. We didn't know what to do. We couldn't cut the day short or the whole project might get canceled, but we were falling so far behind, and it was totally messing with continuity. They finally told us we could go home, we packed up all out stuff, and the sun came out. It was a rush, but we did get one full scene recorded. 12 hours and we got one 2 minute scene filmed.

The weather was much nicer the next weekend. This is Bailee and lamby trying to bond. This must have been before lamby tried to eat the ribbons in Bailee's hair.

This is Olimpiu. Besides being our shepherd he was also our culture consultant. He moved from Romania about 10 years ago and was very excited to participate in our film.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken during golden hour. And that hole is my pride and joy. There was some confusion about which department was in charge of digging the hole. In my opinion, a hole is not a prop. But for some reason it became my job to dig a hole big enough for a "dead lamb" to be buried in. The only problem was, no one brought a shovel. We had the prop shovel, but it really couldn't dig. So Joe, the Unit Production Manager, and I got to work. Joe had a hatchet and would break up the ground and then he and I would scoop out the dirt with out hands. Not everyone agreed with our method, but the hole was beautiful. Too bad it will only be halfway in one shot.

This is Jeff, our pricolici (a Romanian werewolf). He's no Jacob Black, but he was a lot of fun to work with.

Jordan was very good at directing. Bailee adored him.

We got to build the haystacks. It took a lot of work and we didn't have a lot of people. Each haystack is a mixture of wooden palates, garbage bags filled with shredded newspaper, then that was wrapped in saran wrap, covered in glue, then we put straw around that, and last we sprinkled hay on the outside.

I think it's pretty convincing.

This is Jeff getting into costume. We had some problems with the woman who was hired to make the werewolf head. And by some problems I mean a lot of problems. Does it not look like a cartoon bear that you would find at a theme park?

It was funny watching him try to get around in that awful costume. If you look closely you can see me in the background holding 3 pitchforks, a headlamp, a collar and bell, a handkerchief, a sickle, and someones soda. This was a very long night for us. I don't think I sat down that day. And the last six hours we were standing on a sloping mountain side. It was from about 3pm on Friday to 4:30am on Saturday. I got home right around 5am, slept for a few hours then were back on set by 3pm until 11pm that night.

After three days of filming lamby got a little hungry.

This was our last day of filming. We started around 8pm Friday night and went to 9am Saturday morning. This is a picture of the shepherds camp. The shingles on the hut in the back are made from the floorboards from our living room. This may have been the best of the days of filming. The art department had a little fire going for a while and we roasted marshmallows. We had a lot of fun just talking and relaxing while everyone else was filming the special effects scene.

This is after Olimpiu had stepped in the stream and gotten all wet. It got down below freezing that night and I only had on a light jacket. But at least I stayed dry.

This picture was taken at 2am, just as we were getting ready for "lunch" and bathroom runs. I remember seeing someone with a camera and hoping they weren't taking a picture. I was just waiting for someone to finally tell me where to put the stake this time.

Michelle and Bailee were so nice. They seemed to really like me and we enjoyed getting to know each other while they set up the camera.

It may not have been a huge success, but it was a good learning experience. I made some friends and I impressed some important people. I know it was a long post, but I hope you enjoyed hearing about the awesomeness of set.