Barry Kaplan using the new Sony HDV camera for our documentary coverage for the Special Olympics. The new Sony HDV system has allowed us to get images that would have cost us several thousands dollars more just a few months ago at a fraction of the price. In edition the new camera works with our Final Cut Pro System, and allows to edit in real time.

Dante's Salvation is now ready to be placed on DVD. We will start work on designing a DVD menu and a extra's reel for the disc. We should have disc made and ready by late July. We will un till then send copies out to distributors in the hope that they would like to pick up the film themselves.

We are also starting production meetings for up-coming projects this month. Our firs meeting is on Friday April 15th, and we will be discussing summer projects, current and on-going works and future feature scripts. I will post the meetings minuets once I have them.

Financial reports will be sent out to investors at the end of this month.

April:

I just don't know how to thank everyone. All of you did so much. I am honored to have been privileged to work with each and everyone on this project.

Now, with the film complete and screened here in Boston, the next step is to take it the film market and to to get it distributed, via US or International DVD sales.

We are also in the process of developing new story ideas, including smaller scale projects and another feature. We hope that regardless of what people think of "Dante's Salvation" that they will see how we turned a no budget movie into a full feature film. We know how to use the tools and have learned extensively from "Dante's Salvation" and we wish to put that experience to work on new projects.

March

'Salvation' in Saugus
By Stephanie Southworth/ ssouthwo@cnc.com
Friday, March 11, 2005
It was 7 p.m. last Thursday night and a line snaked through the lobby of the Revere Showcase Cinemas all the way to the concession stands. You would have thought a major motion picture, or future blockbuster had just been released. And you would have been wrong.
     The line was for the first screening of the independent film, "Dante's Salvation," produced and directed by Saugonian Joseph Prezioso and co-directed and co-written by Andrew Cardinale, also of Saugus.
     The screening, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. and sold out to 357 people, was the first of two that night.
     Prezioso, dressed in a black suit, stood by the door of the theater chatting with volunteers manning the press table. Nerves had gotten the best of him throughout the day and he was anxious to ensure the night would run smoothly.
     A few minutes after the film began, he and Cardinale sneaked into the theater and sat in one of the first rows. Throughout the showing, they whispered back and forth critiquing their work. Occasionally, Prezioso glanced a few rows behind him to gauge the audiences reaction and listen to their comments.
     "It was like I was there, but I wasn't there," Prezioso said.
     He was awestruck at the amount of people in attendance at the screening. Originally, he thought it might just be him and 20 other people - if he was lucky. And lucky he was.
     Since the screening, many who were there have given constructive criticism that Prezioso and other members of the production company, Highway 51, have appreciated. But Prezioso thinks most appreciate the film for what it is - the best they could do on a $30,000 budget.
     "In a perfect world, you could have seen the whole movie as it was intended to be," Cardinale said.
     But in reality, the company ran out of money and had to cut portions of the script during filming this summer. After the screening during a question and answer session, Todd Badolato, who played FBI agent Buster, joked that a quarter of the script was written when they started filming and half of the script was written when they finished.
     The hour long "labor of love," which is what those involved are calling the film, was an ambitious project for the young filmmakers, who are in their early 20's, to taken on. They shot most of the film in a two-week span, often working from 6:30 a.m. into the early hours of the following morning.

     Crew members often became actors, actors often became crew members, everyone had a hand in making the film and everyone's roles interchanged throughout the process. When actors didn't show up, others stepped. "Dante's Salvation" was a team effort from beginning to end.
     On location
     Guilt-ridden assassin and terminally ill Dante lays on the floor of an abandoned warehouse. Above him Crime lord Serge stands pointing a gun at his head, "Dead is religion. Dead is morality. Dead is hope."
     What has taken Dante from his hospital bed to this scene is a visit from an angel who offers Dante penance: kill those who forced him to remain in a life of crime. But Virgil, an FBI agent who as a child idolized Dante, is fast on his trail. With help from Virgil, Dante receives his salvation.
     Shot on location in and around the North Shore, those from the area who watch the film will recognize places like the North End, Revere Beach, Harborside Hotel and The Rack in Boston. Although shooting on location was an experience, Prezioso said it wasn't without problems.
     "I think every day something happened," he said.
     The first day of filming parts of the camera equipment were missing. They couldn't get it to work and to make matters worse they were on set, outside in the middle of June. Other days, Prezioso said, actors didn't show up and they had to recruit people on the spot.
     SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know the ending of the film, don't read any further.
     While shooting the ending of the film, the actress who played a Samari couldn't do her reshoots, requiring an alternate ending.
     "That was probably the biggest disaster. The ending that you saw was not the original ending," Prezioso said.
     Thankfully, the Essex County SWAT team volunteered to come down and shoot the final scenes. The ending of the film was shot in three different days and none of the actors in those scenes were ever actually together in the same room.
     But thanks to editing, no one would ever have known that.
     Festivals
     Everyone in the film, except for the one actor who is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, worked on a differed payment. No one will get paid until the film either sells to a distributor or Highway 51 pays for DVD copies of the film and tries to distribute it itself.
     To help make the former happen, Prezioso and other members of the production company will head to Los Angelos today for an independent film festival. There distributors will view a screening of the film.
     "It's not the largest festival but we're using it to get our feet wet," Prezioso said.
     The film has also be submitted to the New York International Video and Film Festival, as well as Houston World Festival and Boston Independent Film Festival. Prezioso hopes to hear back by the end of March.
     "We know it's going to be hard to get the film picked up by a distributor but we're not worried. It's our first film," he said. "We think people will see what we could do with a film if we had a larger budget."
     Quotes from the movie:
     Buster (actor Todd) to Virgil (Walt) : Well tell him to cross his legs. We're running out of nails."

February: Well, we are finally finished. It took a full year, but we are now done. We are holding a private screening for the film on March 3rd, 2005 at Showcase Cinema in Revere, Ma. Seating starts at 7:00 p.m. and the film will start at 7:30 p.m. All tickets must be purchased in advanced, no one will be admitted unless they are on the theatre's list. All cast and crew have free admission, while all guest will have to pay the ticket fee of $10.00.

If you would like to buy tickets or get on the cast/crew list, please send me an email or letter with the number of seats needed and a check made out to Highway 51 Productions LLC for the correct number of seats you wish to purchase. All seats must be paid for by February 25th.

ADR sessions complete.

1/6/04: As of Dec. 25th, all ADR sessions have been completed and we are now recombining the new audio tracks with the existing film, We have also completed the main score of the film and are timing that as well to fit the film. All in all we are coming to a finish very quickly. We hope to have a premiere for the film as soon as it's completed, so keep checking back here for updates.

Sound Editing has started.

10/29/04: Sound editing has started at Noise Floor Recordings under the direction of sound editor Gene Williams. The plan is two have a clean edit of the film by Mid November, from there the decisions will be made on what scenes need to be voiced over or changed by adding sound effects. Other than the normal audio cleanup, Noise Floor will also be adding the many sound effects needed to create the illusion of real gun fire.

The scoring of the film will also take place at Noise Floor. It will be a combination of music form their own extensive library, as well as from new artist and guitarist Luigi Grasso. The film now rounds out at 60 minutes. While the sound edit is being completed, scene transitions and color correction will continue to take up considerable amounts of time here at Highway 51. Hopefully by the time the sound edit is completed, the film will be at its master cut stage, and ready for AC-3/DTS encoding.

"There still a good amount of work left to be done, but I feel confident that we will be ready for a 2005 spring festival release," said Producer Joseph Prezioso.

9/10/04 Shooting has wrapped! On Sept. 10th 2004. shooting was wrapped on Dante's Salvation, leaving the film in the post-production stage and editors many hours to work.

The film will be transferred by the Panasonic HD Deck, which retails for over $20,000 to the two Lacie 500gig firewire 800 drives. Once there the film will be edited on the non-linear Final Cut Pro HD editing sweet on a Power Mac G5. Editing will be done mainly by Prod. Joseph Prezioso and Dir. Andrew Cardinale. The two plan to have a master cut ready in time for Christmas, and for the spring festivals admissions deadlines.

"We have over 10 hours of footage to go through," said Prezioso in response to being asked how long it would take to achieve a master release cut. "We believe the film should be in the vicinity of about 70 minutes long," said Cardinale. "We have a lot of work to do, not just in the video edit, but in the scoring of the film itself, " said Prezioso. The scoring of the film will involve the use of new original music composed for the film by artist Luigi Grasso, as well as music selected from Noise Floor Recording studios, based out of Winchester, Ma.

The last scenes to be shot included re-filming the films end, and a few key developmental scenes in East Boston, Ma.

Rogue Jedi premiered on Nov. 3 2004

11/4/04: Rogue jedi opened up at to a crowed of thirty students this past Wednesday night. Although we expected more, we were quite happy with what the audience we received. We credit the small crowed to short notice and not enough advertising around the campus. The good news is that everyone enjoyed the film, and wants to see a sequel. Only Time will tell. Highway 51 Productions wishes to thank everyone involved with the screening and all those who attended.

10/26/04 Star Wars Night, will be held on Nov.3 2004, it will be the first time a Star Wars Independent Fan Film will be shown at Salem State College. The film will be shown on an eight foot screen by a digital projector, insuring everyone in attendance a great view of the film. The Program Council will be providing food and drinks to attendees, including popcorn. Due to licensing issues, only Salem State students and Faculty, and members of the films production will be allowed in, sorry.

Directly following the 7:30 showing of the 20 minute film will be a question and answer period where students and faculty can ask the filmmakers any questions they might have. The question and answering period will be followed by the showing of the original Star Wars film, Star Wars IV A New Hope.

"If all goes well, we should get over a hundred people to attend, and hopefully be able to hold more independent film based activities on campus, as well as another Star Wars Night," said Joseph Prezioso.

Click here to see the poster.

10/23/04: The Program council at Salem State College has agreed to hold a Star Wars night at the campus. There is currently no set date or time, but there should be by Wednesday of next week. According to sources at the council, they are planning on acquiring pizza for the attendees.

9/8/04 The Star Wars fan film, "Rogue Jedi" is finally finished and ready for screening. Prod. Joseph Prezioso is currently trying to arrange a screening location and time to show the spoof. Prezioso is also planning on showing the original Star Wars after his 15 minute short.

"People are not going to want to travel upwards half an hour on a Tuesday or Friday night just to see a 15 minute short, there needs to be more. That's why I see no better time to show the original Star Wars film," said Prezioso.

"We also plan to show the trailer for "Dante's Salvation" before Star Wars. We're hoping to get a large opinion on what we have created from people other than ourselves and the crew, and why not during a film screening. Everyone loves the coming attractions," said Dir. Andrew Cardinale