View "The Short Film"(Windows Media Player 9)
View "The Trailer" - Large | Small
View "The Production Stills"
Hear "The Chosen One" song

What the Chosen is all about

The Chosen is a movie about lies, deception, corruption, organized crime, adultery and kidnapping. Yes we crammed all that into a 20 minute short. The story revolves around Nate, a man with very little conscience and his part in a crime syndicate that involves kidnap, extortion and murder.

See the details of the production pre though post below.

Pre-Production

Originally based on a dramedy script by Brady Stallings the script was reworked by Brady and Director Ian Duncan into a more gripping drama. The subject of the short seemed to suit the straight drama better as there is only so much a character can develop in such a short amount of screen time. Add to this that the script does not really focus on a single character and more the events surrounding a number of important roles.

Joshua Horn came on board as the AD and began putting together a script breakdown and shooting schedule based on the script and story boards, and put together a fantastic crew. Casting was done by our very supportive friends at Unique (Special thanks to Ed Arenas for supporting the independents out there). Luann Brawner our Casting Director put together a fantastic cast.

Production

Production was originally scheduled for 4 days. All shooting was competed on time however production tapes from parts of the shoot were irreparably damaged. Further shoot days we scheduled and it all came together. The final production team came from Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. Production went spectacularly well, if we had been shooting 35mm film we would have used a 48,600 feet in 4 days. That's 12,000 feet per day. And the cost to buy and develop this film would have been around $50,000. So we saved some money by shooting on digital tape at 720x480 anamorphic wide screen. Total cost of tapes $20.00.

Actually the total cost of production was under $1000 including craft services which I think ate up about 50 percent of the budget. That wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of cast and crew who generously gave up their time. We hope to reward you with a piece you can be proud of.

Post Production

Once we completed primary photography for the first weekend the post production process began.

Firstly all the tapes are logged and the scenes and takes are captured as shorter clips that can be managed for editing.

Once I have the clips I begin assembling them in the scenes as they play out in the script. I will color correct some parts and add a little music here and there to get a feel. This is a very basic edit and takes weeks to put together when working by yourself at nights and weekends.

Vegas 5.0 was my choice of editor for this short. Click to Enlarge.

Once I have finished the rough edit I will hand it over to the composer so that the production of music and sound can begin.

Then I will fine tune the edit assembling dialog and marking it for ADR (Automated Dialogue replacement). This takes a while.

Then I will add a sound effects track consisting of foley audio that is captured after production (if necessary) and any other sounds or audio effects that could not be picked up during production. This is mixed in Dolby 5.1 surround sound for those who have it. Very time consuming but necessary for a purist like myself.

Once the dialog is replaced and the sound effects are in I will take the music from the composer and put it into the mix.

After the edit is complete I will color correct the entire film and add any special digital effects.

More to come...

All Material Copyright © 2004 Cabbola Productions, Inc.

Current News

July 25th 2005

Premiere was a huge success! Thanks to all those who attended. The Chosen is a wrap.

June 13th 2005

Announcement! The premiere of "The Chosen" will be taking place on Saturday July 16th. The pre party, screening and after party will be held at the "Where House" location in Miami. Anyone is welcome to attend. We will be providing free "The Chosen" merchandise and DVD's.
RSVP HERE

June 7th 2005

Screen tests have begun for "The Chosen". So far the reaction has been very positive and we are moving to the final stage of editing. Music is 75% complete and the film should be complete in a week to ten days.

We are now shooting for a July premiere as key people will not be available un till mid July.

Happy birthdays go out to Brandy Wilcox and Lilly Brawner for June 6th & 7th.

May 26th 2005

The Chosen is finally nearing completion. Just a few audio tracks to loop and a some final tweaks. We will set a date for the premiere very shortly and then start submitting to festivals. A weekend at the end of June is the likely date period for the premiere. Once again I just wanted to say what a fantastic job everyone did and since the composer and I are the only ones who have seen it so far, I am looking forward to seeing peoples reactions to the finished film. Current run time of the film is 22 minutes, a fifteen percent reduction in running time form the last edit. Just to give everyone an idea. We shot six hours on "A" camera and 3 hours on "B" camera, a total of about 540 minutes. The total running time is 4 percent of the total footage shot. That's about a 25 to 1 shooting ratio.

May 10th 2005

"The Chosen One" the song by our very own composers Laura Duncan & Emmett Hart. Listen to the MP3 here.

May 9th 2005

The project continues! The delay in post has been mostly due to the audio. Most of it will have to be Looped. The edit is complete. Only tweaking now - running time approx 26 min's.

March 19th 2005

See the trailer.

720x480 5.1 Surround (large)
360x240 Stereo (Small)

Requires Windows Media Player 9.

March 13th 2005

See the production photos here.

March 12th 2005

"The Chosen" is finally a wrap. After serious production loss in the way of tape malfunction, much rescheduling and the commitment of the cast an crew got us that day back and we wrapped up saturday the 12th. Thanks all.

March 1st 2005
It pains me to post bad news but unfortunately one of the tapes from the second weekend was damaged. So we will be doing re shoots in the near future. We will cant act all involved. In the mean time keep up to date with post production below.

Feb. 28th 2005
The second weekend of shooting was a complete success! Thanks to our fantastic and lucky last minute location.

Feb. 20th 2005
The first weekend of production went well. We captured over six hours of footage at the warehouse location. Everyone did a bang up job.

Feb. 12th 2005
Casting was a total success! The cast is great and we only have a few roles still to fill.

Jan 20th 2005
Production starts in February. Casting in the first week and shooting kicks off on the 19th of Feb.. with a 4 day shoot spread over 2 weekends. Post production will be complete some time in mid March. The movie should run about 20 minutes but the feature script is being finished as you read this.