Production Blog 5

Well, today was the first scouting trip for the still untitled Western film. Phillip and I left around 1:00 pm to scout around Sim, and then to check out Westlake's Paramount Ranch. We found a few perfect locations in Corganville and up Yosemite here in Simi, so here are some pics with the location explained

NOTE: Some of the images are not formatted correctly here on blogspot due to their slim marigins. If you want to see the whole image, open it in a new window.

Corganville Location: Here we found a few areas that were hopefuls for Mordecai's cave. At first, we found a sort of opening between some rocks that we though we could use if we used some camera tricks and cheated the shots.







So we were willing to settle for it, until we kept walking and stumbled onto a perfect spot about a 1/4 a mile ahead.







So that is most likely where we will shoot Mordecai's scenes, with some set dressing of course, such as old maps, lanterns, bed rolls, food and other things of that sort. Theory being, that it was maybe a burnt out bunker or something like that, which Mordecai, the old cowpoke, used as a homestead in the foothills of the mountains. Excellent find.

Next we went up Yosemite Street to check out some of the locations around there. We found the location of the Hangman's Tree and also some more excellent areas of hills and stuff. Check it out.















Next we embarked on a quest to Westlake to find the fabled Paramount Ranch. This place was amazing. We got lost and drove past it by at least 15-20 miles and ended up in Malibu. Hahah, it was hilarious. Anyway here are some pics of this MARVELOUS location. We are crossing our fingers and hoping to shoot our ending shoot-out here.


















































So the deal wiht Paramount Ranch is, that you CAN shoot films there which is a plus, but we think that we might have a problem with bringing "fake" firearms there, seeing as there is a NO FIREARMS rule. We are gonna call the visitor's center and get the complete lowdown, and see if maybe we can weasle our way into bringing guns and using them under supervision, because this is just too good of a location to pass up.

All in all the day was VERY productive. Phillip and I feel very accomplished and more ready than ever to bring everyone a film that they will never forget.

check back for more updates as we come closer to the start of principle photography!

tb