Cottonwood Update #8: Production Begins!

A lot has happened since the last update. Cottonwood is in full force. We had a table read last Thursday with the main actors. It was my first time ever doing one and I think it went really well. It changes a lot when you have your actors there and you actually get to hear the dialogue. There was a lot of good discussion and some great ideas for the script. Below is a picture from the table read.

We also did a little bit of filming on Thursday night. The original plan was to do a photo shoot with Greg and Nancy who are a couple in the film. But we ended up deciding to get a flashback scene out of the way. We got the pontoon out and shot a beautiful looking flashback scene.

The first "official" night of filming was Sunday. We had to film a crime scene by the river with a lot of extras. We were down by the river all day weed whacking and mowing making the area more accessible and easier to film at. When we first got there we had to deal with 4 feet tall weeds and grass, but after Colin drove over the area multiple times and we got our mower down there it was all cleaned up. We had some big challenges that night like how we were going to light the train bridge in the background, but in the end we got it all figured out.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help. We had over 20 extras come out and play cops and EMT's. It is great to have so much support for the film. These upcoming weeks are going to be full of stories so stay tuned.

Ethan Clerc