More Experiences on a Set of Anna's Choice

Wow I still can't believe that it all worked out. God IS good and he does answer prayer. It seemed like this movie was not going to get finished but it did. I was the boom mic holder and it is rough. If you moved your hands just a little bit it messed up the entire shot so I got yelled at A LOT by Erica and Kate. It was my first movie so I learned about editing and filming from Matthew. I think the hardest part of filming was not playing in it. I didn't know how hard acting was but then they didn't know how hard it was to hold the boom mic when you have to hold it above your head and the mic extended all the way. It starts to hurt your arms. I got some muscles that month (JK) but it was fun and I would like to do another movie. We all are like family now after tons of bumps and bruises, no thanks to the mosquitos and about 10 cans of bug spray still didn't help. The fire didn't help either. The smoke got in our eyes and ruined A LOT of shots. Oh well! At least we had fun! God bless!

-Caleb Whetstone

Experiences on a Set on Anna's Choice

The production draws to a close! Anna's Choice is finally coming together after weeks and months filled with preparation, filming, and peanut butter cookies (thanks, Mrs. Whetstone!) We are so amazed at God's faithfulness throughout this production and so thankful to all you guys out there who have helped our hopes for Anna's Choice to become a reality. We have been so blessed by your prayers and support and are excited to see God's hand on this film. All of us will admit, though, we really did need those prayers on most of the days of filming! We are glad to have it over with, but also a little sad that the filming days of Anna's Choice are over. Onset it could get a little hard to keep with it. At the homeschool convention in Indianapolis, Nathan Webster, a filmmaker, told Erica that after this film we would all be like family because of the things we would experience together. At first we thought we already felt like family, but none of us dreamed how tough this could get when nine or so kids with amazingly different personalities each wanting to have it exactly how they had individually imagined it would be—something we have now learned not to do. Filming a movie—even a short one—is not easy. There are so many little things that can get under our skin. It was just like family. There might be a few—or many—things that we disagree on, but we just have to look on the bright side and get used to them. For example, let's go back to a normal day onset. It has just rained last night, so the campground looks (and feels) soggy. We are running out of time to film (and patience!) and things are getting really stressful. It can get so chaotic on a day like this. Worst of all—the disagreements. Matthew and Erica (cameraman and director) stand literally yelling over their scripts at each other. Yes, yelling. Wait! Which scene are we supposed to be filming? Peter Starr sits on a log, laughing with Bethany Whetstone and John Jordan over some cheesy lines in the script. Caleb Whetstone (boom operator) is fake sobbing, crying,"My baby!" (meaning the boom mic, which he got very attached to during filming) in his horrible "English" accent, which sounds more Australian than anything else. Kate Starr, stirring cream-of-wheat over the fire, says to Caleb, who is getting on her nerves, "I will smack your baby." Onset helpers are yelling at the cat, dropping extra scripts into the mud, swatting at the numerous mosquitoes, or joining in the arguments. Yep, we sure needed your prayers and support—and we are so grateful to everyone for their help; I don't know how we would have survived without you! And we are so thankful for the Lord's many blessings and for guiding us throughout this film. Thanks!

-Rachel Jordan

A Need for Prayer

Anna's Choice is currently being completed within the next couple of days. Please pray for the editing and everything involved with it. Also that the movie would finish on time and everything happening after that would also go well. Thank you all and we hope to share Anna's Choice with you real soon. God bless!

Movie in Final Stages!

The movie is almost done! The editing will be finished in about two weeks. We will most likely put it on YouTube by the end of November. We want to give a special thanks to all those who were involved in any way with this project. Without you Anna’s Choice would not be the same. If you have any questions or comments, email us at handsandfeetstudio@gmail.com. More exciting news will be coming in the future, so stay tuned! God bless!

September Studio Update

The music has been recorded and is now being worked into the movie. We’ve been greatly encouraged by the interest expressed by all of you in this project and in Hands & Feet Studio. A great many things are being discussed right now as Anna’s Choice nears finish. Things like possible future projects, more people getting involved, as well as quite a few other things dealing with Hands & Feet Studio. As far as when to expect this movie, it really depends on how fast the editing goes. (It has slowed down quite a bit since the start of the school year.) The movie should easily be out before next year, though. If you would be interested in helping with any future productions, we’d love to hear from you (no promises, but we would like to know how much interest is out there). You can email us at handsandfeetstudio@gmail.com. New projects may come sooner than any of us think, but right now we’re focusing on getting Anna’s Choice finished. Exciting news will be coming in the future, so stay tuned! A good way of doing this is by signing up to be notified whenever our blog is updated. You can do so by clicking here. God bless!

August Update

The filming of Anna’s Choice is finished. There are a few scenes that we might consider re-filming. A blog is coming soon. The postproduction is now rolling along at full steam. This includes editing, music, producing, etc. We are looking forward to sharing the movie with you hopefully around the beginning of October at the earliest through YouTube and possibly a public screening. Details will come later. Thank you for visiting our site, and please sign up for email updates concerning this movie. You can do so by clicking here. God bless!

Day-by-Day Overview of the Filming of Anna's Choice

Okay this is a quick overview of the filming of Anna’s Choice. The first day was the most difficult. I had things planned and then I found out that the Starrs were going to have to leave earlier than expected. So then it was really rushed. We were able to get one scene done, but that was it. We also couldn’t find the tent we were going to use so instead we used a sheet and it looked really bad. So Matthew tried to cut as much of it out of that scene as possible. We had to refilm part of it in the end. That was by far one of, if not, the worst day of filming.

The second day was not bad at all. In fact we all had a blast. This was nice because we were really discouraged from the first day. None of us got to bed before 11:00pm the night before, and I didn’t know who else was awake besides me. We just finished praying, and when we finished going over lines we packed up the vehicle and hit the road. We filmed the scene at the river and got to splash around between shots. Peter and Matthew found a perfect spot for that day’s filming. It’s time to use one of my favorite words—we had a “conundrum”. I didn’t write any script for when we come out of the woods because I thought we would just show a clip of that. It wouldn’t have been bad except none of us are pros at acting, and adlibbing isn’t my strong point. But it all worked out, and we had a blast filming.

The third day Kate Starr came over, and we did the scenes with just her (Natalie) and me (Anna). It went as smoothly as a stressed and stretched day can go. I lost part of my costume, and it took a while to get the new one to look as similar as possible. So we couldn’t start as early as planned. We had ‘till 2:30 to film, and on top of getting started late, the cars didn’t seem to care that we had limited time. Well, God was definitely trying to teach me patience. We filmed a good deal of the remaining script; I think it was a total of five scenes. I wish we had had more time to film each scene. It would have looked a lot better, but I am just glad we could film at all.

If I thought the last filming day was stressed…. Day 4 we had to get all the scenes done with David in them because Peter was probably not going to be able to come back. And the Airport thought it was a good day for “touch and goes” as well. (Note to anyone thinking about filming: DO NOT film next to an airport or busy road.) I needed that note six weeks ago! Well I am learning all about filming, just not all of it the easy way. The filming went pretty smooth though. We filmed about five scenes and did a few touchups on them. All in all it was a good day. We were able to get all that we had planned done.

The fifth day of filming didn’t go so smoothly. Peter was not going to be able to come back to film because he was getting his hair cut and school was starting. So it was a really rushed day of filming, and the cars were worse than ever (along with the airport doing touch and goes), but we still got a ton done. I am very thankful to God, and proud of the actors as well as the camera crew for the work they did that day. We made it through, getting all the scenes done except for two. You can imagine the frustration that came with having only two scenes left and having to stop. But Peter was very understanding and decided to wait to get his hair cut so that we could film the last two scenes with him on Sunday.

So Peter was able to come back one more time (Day 6), so the two scenes we needed to finish with him had to get done that day, as well as the scenes with Eliana, Joshua, and the car. Things are going a lot smoother that day than they had been. And we even brought in my stunt driver, Mrs. Starr;) We got a lot done including the scene when the boys and Eliana come back and see Anna and Natalie. All the filming went really well until after Peter left. Then the traffic started to pick up and it was really messing with the boom mic’s audio. We were unable to get everything we had planned done.

Before Day 7 of filming we went for a loop. Life started getting really busy and we were unable to film for a week, but God was faithful, and things slowed down enough for us to start filming again.

On Day 7 we filmed with just Kate. We got the scenes done with her in them and then did the ending scene which included some new cast, Craig and Amanda Smiley. That scene was a blast. A new thing we did was to bring in a family pet. We got to work with Cuddles, the Smiley’s dog, so that put a super fun twist on things. After that we were done with the filming. We are thinking of refilming one scene, but we haven’t totally decided.

Right now we’re in the process of editing and recording music so the work’s not done yet. Thank you for all your prayers, feed back, and encouragement during this film. God Bless!

-Erica Whetstone (Anna)