Street Souljas Productions

A New Year For Street Souljas

2009-01-11T23:19:00.002-05:00

As the new year rolls around, Street Souljas is finally getting a few things accomplished. "Dixie Times" has left our hands and has apparently found its way to another editor. While this is slightly disappointing, it has opened up the time to finish up some other things we have been working on, such as some much-needed pre-production for "The Brook." You can see the progress we have been making on the official production blog at www.thebrookmovie.com.

In the world of "Lonely Love," while we were really hoping to have the flick done and off to festivals by now, we very regrettably had to put off the release due to several issues with the post production. I won't get into all of the problems we ran into, but basically, we were incredibly unhappy with what we ended up with, so we just took everything back to square one, sat down, and reworked our way back through the entire film until we finally reached a point where we felt like we had a film that we were ready for people to see. Although we still aren't 100 percent satisfied, we feel like the film is now the best it can be, or at least we certainly hope so since just this past Friday, we mailed off the finished version to enter it into the 2009 Atlanta Film Festival.

So, needless to say, the film is finally finished, and we will be planning a cast and crew screening soon. For everyone else, hopefully you will be able to catch a screening at a local festival sometime in 2009. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned for updates on "The Brook"!

Summer Update

2008-09-03T16:09:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago we finally wrapped on the film we were working on with our good friend Ken Wheeler, "Dixie Times," and we are slowly but surely recovering from the month and a half of grueling filmmaking. I served as cinematographer for the film and I am now taking on the job of editing as well. Randall also came up and helped out a few days here and there. Basically, other than Ken and I, we had an ever-changing crew - no joke, I really had a different first AC almost every day. And although it was a long, utterly stressful, mostly sleepless shoot, it was a very fun experience, and we can only hope the finished product comes out as well as we have hoped. We have a temporary trailer up for the film:

In other news, "Lonely Love" is now in its final stages of post, as all we have left to do is reassemble the scenes we've fine-tuned and finish up the DVD. The long-awaited premiere should be soon now. Thanks to everyone involved for being patient with us as we have been knee deep in "Dixie Times" in the last few months.

Street Souljas on Atlanta Shorts

2008-06-23T19:13:00.006-05:00

Today we swung by PBA to do some interviews for the TV program Atlanta Shorts. Our friend Pat Clark started it about a year and half ago, and it has been gaining popularity ever since. They are going to air three of our shorts on it soon: "31 Degrees," "Mike & Danny," and "Dissociation." We aren't sure yet when they will actually be aired, but as soon as we know, so will you. If you can't wait and you want to view the shorts online, you can see them all unedited on our website!

Also, the great comedian George Carlin died at age 71 yesterday. We will all miss him.

"The Signal" is on DVD

2008-06-22T00:46:00.002-05:00

For anyone who hasn't already ran out to Best Buy to pick up "The Signal," this is your reminder to do so. If you've been living under a rock in the Atlanta film community, "The Signal" is a film that was shot locally by a bunch of local guys, namely David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry, all of whom directed a portion of the film. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it was picked up by Magnolia Pictures for national distribution. It was released on DVD a few weeks ago on June 10, and I'm sure there's still a copy somewhere waiting for you to pick it up and support your fellow local filmmakers.

Whistling Dixie

2008-06-16T13:49:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday, we met with a good friend of ours, Greg Savage, and a friend of his, Michael Bailey. Michael, who has written several scripts and short stories, had just recently begun producing and directing one of them entitled "Brother's Keeper." However, due to some problems out of his control, he had to abandon production after a few days of shooting. The cast he got was really great, and we have actually worked with several of them before. We met with him Saturday about possibly resurrecting the project and shooting it for him, and with the cast and most of the locations already in place, it is a very enticing deal. We have a copy of the script (can't give any real details on it right now) and we are going to read through it and make a decision soon as to whether or not we feel we would be the right people for the job.

The next day, Sunday, we ventured back up to Cave Spring to help Ken Wheeler shoot a few quick scenes for his upcoming film, "Dixie Times." Along with us, he rented out a RED ONE camera for the day, and we had a downright amazing experience shooting with it. Folks, this is the same camera that films such as Jumper, Game, some of the new film Wanted, two of Steven Soderbergh's new films, and Peter Jackson's Crossing the Line were shot on. The crew was very skeletal considering it was just us, but next month the project will be in full swing.

Oh, I Wish I Was In Dixie...

2008-05-19T22:37:00.006-05:00

Well you still could be - this weekend we helped our friend Ken Wheeler cast for his hopefully upcoming film Dixie Times. We ran into the likes of Stephen Caudill (End of the Spear, Dance of the Dead, Dangerous Calling), Mark Oliver (Dance of the Dead, Prison Break, One Tree Hill), Justin Welborn (The Signal, The Other Side), Chris Durant (Atlanta Homicide), and several other big names in the Atlanta film community, as well as a few old friends of ours. Right now the film is in the hands of CMT, and apparently, after a lot of convincing, they gave Ken the go-ahead to cast the film on his own down here in the south to see how he could do (as opposed to taking the script and casting off on the west coast somewhere). I think we've got a really good chance with it; the script is awesome and hilarious and the story is really good.

As far as Lonely Love goes, we have a trailer up now:

Pre-Post begins for Lonely Love

2008-05-05T10:36:00.004-05:00

(Yes, that is meant to be oxymoron.)

Yesterday was our final day of principle photography for "Lonely Love"! Well, almost...we still have a few things to shoot for post (inserts, pick ups, and a small news report), but as far as our lead talent is concerned, we are done! This week will be the "official" start of post, but the truth is, I've been editing most of the scenes as we go along, so most of the raw editing is done already, which leaves us with mostly sound editing, visual effects, and scoring left to do before we have a first draft ready to be viewed by test audiences.

Lonely Love Principle Photography Almost Done

2008-04-28T10:15:00.006-05:00

Hey folks, I'm excited to say that as of right now we are less than a week away from our last shooting date for "Lonely Love." What started out as scheduling issues back in March soon escaladed to one of our lead actor's backing out because of other commitments. We didn't waste any time, though - we recasted the role (selecting Jeremy Harrison, a great actor and a great guy) and picked up shooting and reshooting the very next week. Ultimately, the little snags we have run into along the way have turned out to be worth it; there is definitely much better chemistry on screen from the two leads and overall great performances from everyone involved. We only have two more reshoots to do and then we dive into post. Yippee.

In other news, our film for this last RiM 50-Hour Film Festival, called "Dissociation," was a great experience for us as well. We worked with Melissa Lowe, who is also our other lead in "Lonely Love," and Greg Savage, another actor and a very cool guy. We filmed at Georgia State University, since one of the required elements was that the film including something quintessential to Atlanta, and we finished up at our house in Fayetteville. Greg was slightly rushed since he was also set to act in another team's RiM film that same day, but he didn't let it affect his performance at all and I think he even ran a little late for us. The film didn't get the audience award or enough wildcard votes, but we were happy with the finished project.

As we continue working on "Lonely Love," we are slowly getting our ducks in a row for one of our ancient scripts called "The Brook." Our producer, A.J. Blizzard, has been working on pre-production for the film for almost a year now, contacting location managers and attorneys and the such. Just last month, we registered the script with the Writer's Guild so that we can begin shopping it around as we meet with potential investors and try to get this project out of the attic and into the light.

Stay tuned for more updates on "Lonely Love" and "The Brook"!

2008-02-27T09:07:00.003-05:00

Everyone look out, Street Souljas is in RiM again, and we are locked and loaded. Hopefully we can do better than last time - our film "Falling Ashes" didn't make it in the actual voting or the wild card voting.

Production on our current feature "Lonely Love" has come to a screeching hault due to some last minute scheduling problems, and we hope to pick back up with it in the next few weeks. Aside from the obvious put-offs, productions has been going extremely well - the actors have all been giving incredible performances, the energy has been high, everyone is having fun, and it is all coming across great on camera. Hopefully we will be able to continue like this all the way to the end.

We also have several other scripts in the workings, including scripts entitled "Where Soul Meets Body," "Requiem," and the ever reappearing "Bobby Danger." Stay tuned, and we will keep you updated on everything from RiM to "Lonely Love"!

Production for Lonely Love Begins

2008-01-26T23:32:00.000-05:00

Today we began priciple photography for our newest feature film "Lonely Love," and we got off to a great start. The two lead actors, Melissa Lowe and Chris Britt Coats, met for the first time, and they got along great, which played well on the screen. We filmed at a ranch where our friend Chuck helped out the actors and trained them on how to work with the horses. We got everything knocked out on schedule and Chris stayed with us to review some of the footage.

Tomorrow we are filming two more scenes, and next Saturday we make the trek up to Rome to shoot for the entire day. Hopefully, everything continues to go smoothly like today, and by March we should have a great feature film in post production.

Long Needed Update Part II

2007-12-13T16:44:00.000-05:00

Well, once again it has been several months since I've been able to log onto this blog and update things. Apparently the switch to everyone using Google accounts screwed everything up. But nevertheless, we are back on track now.

Our short film from the 48-Hour Film Project, "Mike & Danny," starring Matthew Cornwell, ended up winning second place in the contest this year, along with awards for Best Directing, Best Use of Character, and Best Use of Prop as Character.

We also made another short film for the second installment of the RiM 50-Hour Film Festival this year entitled "Falling Ashes." You can view both of these films on our website.

Film festivals aside, we just recently finished casting for our second feature film "Lonely Love." We are still in pre-production, but principle photography will start in January and go through February. Hopefully we will have a finished project by Spring 2008.

Long Needed Update

2007-06-30T22:33:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a VERY long time since I've updated our blog, mainly because we have been sooooooo busy lately. We entered the 48 Hour Film Project this year and had the wonderful opportunity of working with Matthew Cornwell, a very respected actor and film producer with MAVIN Productions. Although we did not win the audience award, we got really good responses from other filmmakers and people who viewed the film, and we are still awaiting to hear who gets the jury awards.

As for the future, we are working on several scripts, like always, but right now the most prominent are "Lonley Love" and a revised script of our first short film "Bloodline." We have plans to get both of these films on the road this summer.

RiM Results at AFF

2007-04-27T13:37:00.000-05:00

Well our screening at the Atlanta Film Festival went well - we did not come home with anything, but our good friends at MAVIN Productions won Best Picture with their film "The Midguard Serpent." A few other winners were chosen, and they will screen again on Saturday. Our film is now available to watch on our website, so everyone go check it out!

On another note, we have already got our registration in for the 48-Hour Film Project, the original, more widespread festival, which will be taking place the weekend of June 8. Hopefully we will keep up with the good work! Fortunately for us, MAVIN won't be participating in the festival, so we are hoping to get to work with them on this one. Stay tuned for more updates!!

Screening at Atlanta Film Festival

2007-04-13T12:11:00.000-05:00

Our film that we made for IMAGE's Rapid "I" Movement, 31 Degrees, will be screening with the other finalists on April 23 at 7:00 PM. To view the official listing, you can follow this link:
http://atlanta.bside.com/2007/?_view=_filmdetails&filmId=14229376
To order tickets, follow this one:
https://www.movietickets.com/purchase.asp?house_id=958&movie_id=59005&perfd=04232007&perft=19:00

31 Degrees voted to finals!!

2007-03-22T00:22:00.000-05:00

It's about 1:30 AM and they just posted the results of tonights screenings - and our short film "31 Degrees" was voted in the top 3 of our group and will advance to the finals, which will be screened at the Atlanta Film Festival on April 23!! This is huge for us and we are all so excited right now that we can't sleep! The other two films who advanced in our group were also great films - "Between a Rock and a Stone" by Easy-G, and "The Midguard Serpent" by our friends at MAVIN Productions. We are looking forward to being in the AFF and we hope everyone can come out to the screenings to support us!!!

RiM Results

2007-03-20T08:34:00.000-05:00

Well sorry it has taken so long to post our results but we've been trying to catch up on all the sleep we missed. We had the script finished Friday night, like I said in the last post, and we were able to get all the filming done on Saturday. Saturday night we edited the whole thing and Hunter Williams came down to help us score the film, and we got done with that about 5 AM Sunday morning after we ran into some problems recording. Sunday morning, after getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep, we put the music to the film and burned a DVD of the first draft. 3 DVDs later we had our film ready to submit, and we were the second team to turn it in.

We got to check out the Plaza Theater in Atlanta where the movies will screen Tuesday and Wednesday. Ours will screen Wednesday in group C (7:30 - 9:00), so anyone who can come out and support us, please do!!

For more information on the screenings and to get directions to the Plaza Theater, you can check out their website:
http://www.plazaatlanta.com/

31 Degrees

2007-03-17T00:53:00.000-05:00

Well we are about halfway through our first night of working on our project for the R.I.M. 50-Hour Film Festival...it's about 2 AM and we just finished a full first draft of the script. The film is titled "31 Degrees," in correspondence with the fact that the number "31" had to be incorporated in the film somehow. We can't give away anything other than the title right now, but as far as casting goes, we are almost reliving The Bridge. A few people that we had lined up could not make it and we began looking for any option we had, and luckily, thanks to Jonathan Touchton, we were able to et all of the roles filled. We plan to get a few hours of sleep and start shooting around 8:30 tomorrow morning. If everything goes to plan, we will film the entire movie tomorrow and start editing tomorrow night, and if possible, start working on the music. Everyone wish us luck as we have already run into several problems with transportation as well, and although things may not have started out as good as we could have hoped, we're praying that the finished product will be worth it.

Getting ready for RiM

2007-03-12T08:59:00.000-05:00

Well we are officially one of the 50 teams signed up to compete in this year's R.I.M. 50-Hour Film Festival, and we're hyped up and ready for this Friday. We will get all the information we need to start between 6:00 and 7:00 Friday night, and we have until 9:00 Sunday night to have the completed film on their desk. So far we've got the crew lined up - of course A.J. Blizzard, Randall Blizzard, and Raymond Wood to lead the team with the production and directing; our partner in crime Chris Piner will come by Friday night to help us with the writing, but he has to work Saturday so we'll have to get by without him; Hunter Williams and Raymond Wood will be scoring the film; and as for the actors, we are trying to get as many people lined up as we can to be on call for the whole 50 hours. Of course we won't know for sure who we will need until we get a completed script, but we have to be ready. Our film, provided we get it all done on time, will screen the following Wednesday at 7:30 PM. We will keep you updated on our progress probably after the festival.

For more information about the 50-Hour Film Festival or other IMAGE Film & Video projects, check out thier site:
http://www.imagefv.org/