Filmmakers On-Location in Croatia

This month, our creative team flew overseas to begin production of our short film The Decision. The film will compete in Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project – an international competition where teams first compete locally to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. Later the winning local films compete in a Worldwide competition called Filmapalooza for the opportunity to go to Cannes Film Festival.

Writer/director Lori Kay Allred gives direction to lead actress Leslee Crisman in Motovun Croatia (July 2015)

“This year, we’ve decided to shoot the film in Croatia because I have an art show in Split, Croatia in a week,” said producer Scott Takeda.  “It felt like a fun challenge to shoot a film while I was already over here. As things turn out, none of our film will actually be shot in Denver. We have another part of our team in Albuquerque to shoot a small segment, while the rest of us are in a hilltop town called Motovun, Croatia, just off the border of Slovenia.”

Filmmaker Scott Takeda works with team member Bojan Savicevic.

Leading the creative team is national Emmy winner Lori Kay Allred. She also directed last year’s film "If Not Now," which placed 2nd in Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project and also won Best Actress and Best Cinematography. This year, she will write the script as well as direct it.

Filmmakers Start Production On Latest 48 Hour Film

Filmmakers Lori Kay Allred and Scott Takeda watch in video village from their 2014 film “If Not Now.”

This month, our filmmakers begins pre-production on a short film for Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project. We will write, shoot, and edit a film in 48 hours as a part of an international script-to-screen competition.

“We love the 48,” said producer Scott Takeda. “We learn so much about being efficient storytellers, and how to be more effective with visuals and sound. And it’s fun too.”

This will be our fifth year producing these quick-turn competition films. Lori Kay Allred returns as our director after directing last year’s entry.

In 2014, judges awarded our film “If Not Now” prizes for Best Cinematography and Best Actress. They also named us 1st Runner Up for Best Film.

This year’s competition kicks off July 31st when dozens of Denver teams will pull a genre out of a hat and be assigned a required object, line-of-dialogue, and a character to include in their films.

6/5/15 UPDATE – Leslee Crisman has signed on to be a lead actor in our film. We are super excited to have Leslee as part of our cast. She is represented by ESI Management out of Los Angeles.

6/19/15 UPDATE – Kristen Rakes (‘The Last Stand’) has also signed to be a lead actor in our film. Kristen brings great comedic timing to her roles and recently starred in the short film “Low/Fi” which screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. She is represented by Linda McAlister Talent out of LA.

7/2/15 UPDATE – Scott Takeda (‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Gone Girl’) has joined the cast as a supporting actor. On the small screen, he recently guest starred in NBC’s ‘Grimm’ and ABC’s ‘American Crime.’ On the big screen, he just wrapped a Paramount comedy opposite Tina Fey titled ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,’ scheduled for a 2016 release. He’s represented by Donna Baldwin Agency out of Denver.

7/13/15 UPDATE – Ariel Rakes (‘Low/Fi’) has joined the crew as our cinematographer. He’s an in-demand lenser who recently wrapped the indie drama “The Garden.”

Set Stills from "If Not Now"

Actors Kate Cook and Rachel Hroncich arrive on location for an early call with long-time screenwriting partner Robert Palmer and director Lori Kay Allred. (July 2014)

We’ve been awake for nearly 72 continuous hours, but we've wrapped our shoot and have entered a rough-cut into Denver's 48 Hour Film Project for the competition. Our competition team BS Filmworks is one of 51 teams who have written-shot-and edited our film within a 48 hour time period between July 31st and August 2nd 2014.

Screenwriters Robert Palmer, Lori Kay Allred and Brock Sherman guide the cast and crew through a table read at the Hanlon Family Ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado. (July 2014)

As part of the competition, all teams drew a genre out of a hat (our team drew "Time Travel."). In addition, all teams were required to include elements in their films.  For 2014, those required elements included props (a map), a character (Anya Sakewski – writer), and a line-of-dialogue (‘I don’t know why I’m here.’)

We are titling our film “If Not Now” and will now start working on further post production for a “directors cut” that we’ll distribute in October. The next step is our 48 Hour Film Project premier in a week, then judging for "Best of Denver." Fingers and toes crossed!

Actor Rachel Hroncich takes direction from director/writer Lori Kay at the Hanlon Family Ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado. (July 2014)

Team Begins Production on 48 Hour Film Project Short Film

Filmmaker Lori Kay Allred oversees the set up of a scene for the 48 Hour Film Project.

This month, our team begins pre-production on a short film for Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project. We will write, shoot, and edit a film in 48 hours as a part of this international script-to-screen competition.

“This will be our sixth film, and our fourth year producing these films in Denver,,” said producer Scott Takeda. “We’ve learned a lot in the previous years, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to put these best practices into place.”

Recent national-Emmy winner Lori Kay Allred will direct the film this year in addition to her duties as producer. Our long-time screenwriter Rob Palmer returns. The competition kicks off August 1st when 55 teams throughout Denver will be given a required object, line-of-dialogue, and a character to include in the film. Teams will also draw a genre out of a hat.

In previous years, our team has been nominated for Best Film four times, including last year. In 2010’s Albuquerque contest, we won Best Special Effects. In 2011, we took home the Best Actor and Special Effects in Albuquerque, and the Audience Favorite and Best Use of Line in the Denver contest.

6/15/14 UPDATE – Mike Ostroski (AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad’ and TNT’s ‘Legends’) has signed on to be a lead actor in our film. We are super excited to have Mike as part of our cast. He recently shot a recurring guest starring role in the new Nickelodean series ‘Henry Danger.’

6/19/14 UPDATE – Rachel Hroncich (CBS’ ‘Criminal Minds’) has also signed to be a lead actor in our film. Rachel brings great comedic timing to her roles and is a long-time collaborator with this creative team having starred in our 2010 short film ‘Game Over’ and costarred in our 2011 film ‘The Rapture.’ We’ve also come to agreement with cinematographer Dave Klein to shoot our film.

7/13/14 UPDATE – Kate Cook (Nickelodeon's ‘Henry Danger’) joins the cast as a supporting actor. Producers are excited that she brings an energetic energy to the cast. She recently signed with the LA agency Linda McAlister Talent, and shot a short film in LA called ‘Bad Service’ with director Hannah Macpherson.

7/20/14 UPDATE – Producers are thrilled that Slade Williamson has agreed to record sound our film. Slade is a longtime member of our creative team and one of the more experienced sound specialists in the area. He recently shot a series of corporate films for Buick GMC with Takeda Entertainment.

7/22/14 UPDATE – Scott Takeda (‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Gone Girl’) has joined the cast as a supporting actor. He recently guest starred in ABC’s ‘Nashville,’ Lifetime’s ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ and AMC’s ‘Halt and Catch Fire.’

7/29/14 UPDATE – Actor Catherine McGuire (‘Those Who Can’t’) rounds out our cast as a supporting actor. She brings a tough-minded authority to her roles. Catherine was part of our 2013 team as a supporting actor and recently filmed an Amazon Studios pilot for the Nix Brothers called ‘Those Who Can’t’ starring Nikki Glaser and the Growlix comedy trio.

Set Photos From "Dysfunctional Dynamics"

Actor Sydney Ackman goes through final-looks while on set at the Comcast Digital Media Center in Centennial, Colorado (August 2013)

Denver's 48 Hour Film Project competition for 2013 has begun. Our group is one of 43 other Denver-based teams that are competing to write, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. All teams met during the evening of Friday August 2nd to draw genres out of a hat and to get their required elements. 

Actor Audrey Walters studies her lines during the shoot of the comedic short "Dysfunctional Dynamics." (August 2013)

We drew “Crime” as our genre. Our required elements included a prop (apples), a character (Virgil Gerbins – uncle), and a line-of-dialogue (‘Why don’t you do it?’). Producer Scott Takeda had an art show during the same evening, so we used that location and started shooting immediately after the competition started.

"Thank goodness our screenwriter Robert Palmer works fast," said producer Lori Kay Allred. "In about 5 minutes, he improvised six quick lines for our actors so we could be shooting during a very busy First Friday art walk evening."

We did the rest of our shooting the following Saturday in the comfortable sound stages of the Comcast Digital Media Center. Brock Sherman was our director.

Editor Ryan Welborn begins a rough cut assembly while we still doing principal shooting at the Comcast Digital Media Center in Centennial, Colorado (August 2013)

We are titling our film “The Dysfunctional Dynamics" and have submitted a hurried rough-cut into 48 Hour Film Project for the competition. 

"We're all tired, but we know we've got a better film in the can," said Allred. "So we are now working on a few more days of post production for a director’s cut.  With any luck, we'll have that ready for festivals this fall. We're specifically hoping to get into the Film Festival of Colorado, and possibly Aspen Shorts."