Doesn’t that cat look happy?

That’s pretty much how I feel after our pre-prod trip to Ohio. Every single person we met with from the Mayor of Coshocton to the director of the local film commission was so positive and welcoming and helpful.

We started our week meeting with Coshocton’s leadership, kicking off with the Mayor and also meeting with the county Sheriff and then some local business leaders. As the week progressed, we met with local theater and art community leaders and a foundation that may also prove to be a valuable relationship.

The thing that strikes me, though, is that every single person we met with was incredibly professional and beyond courteous. Not that I’m surprised that they would be…I suppose one would just expect even a little opposition to such an idea. The contrary is true. Everyone so far has been incredibly supportive and some even excited about this. We’ve even already secured a few donations to the project.

In addition to meeting with people in Ohio, we also conducted a handful of interviews for our available Director of Photography position. We’ve been lucky to meet some incredibly talented and experienced individuals, and every one of them has expressed interest in working with us even with our tiny budget. This decision is not going to be an easy one.

The bottom line is that this trip was more positive and productive than I think any of us as producers expected it to be. We know that this will be a long road with its share of difficulties, but the momentum generated by this past week can’t be denied.

So now we’re on to some script rewrites and various pre-production busy-ness. Remember that you can always contact us if you’d like to be involved in any way.

Yes, I know, I know. I said these would be video from now on. Unfortunately I’m up to my neck in preparations for our upcoming production meeting in Ohio and just don’t have the time to script, shoot, then edit a vlog. It will happen though. Oh yes, it will happen.

The good news is that we’re really close to selecting our Director of Photography. If you’re not involved in film/video production, the Director of Photography (DP) is essentially a camera guy, but he/she is actually so much more. The DP is THE visual artist on the set of a production. He works directly with the Director in developing the look, composing shots, and executing camera moves. If a film looks great, it is often due largely to the efforts of the DP.

Bottom line, this is a crucial member of our production team.

We placed an ad on Craigslist a few weeks ago to get the party started (and it kept getting flagged down for no apparent reason…so I just kept putting it right back up), and we’ve had a ton of qualified guys apply. No gals, incidentally. Where you at, female cinematographers?

Last night, the producers met and we went over the demo reels and resumes of everyone who applied and have narrowed it down to a select few we plan on interviewing next week when in Ohio. Everyone is so talented and the experience is varied. Selecting just one person is going to be difficult. But we really want this to be a great fit all around and who’s to say the other talented people we’re meeting wouldn’t be good for another project down the road?

So I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated and keep you all posted on how this plays out.

So if nobody’s said it already, welcome to our site. It’s new, just like us, so it’s just a baby…but feel free to make yourself at home! I’m Redhouse’s Executive Producer and Director, Dan.

I decided to form this production company a few years ago when discussing the possibility of making our own movie with a few friends, and here we are three years later, actually doing it. It’s surreal actually.

The movie only has a working title: Jon the Baptist. No, it’s not about the character of biblical fame. It’s a story about coming home after being gone for a long time and rediscovering yourself in the process. I’m personally really excited about the story and can’t wait to shoot it!

We’ll be shooting in a small town in Ohio and are on track for a release in the second half of 2010. Currently, we’re in the pre-production stage, and are recruiting our department heads for the shoot. If you’re interested, you can check out our Classifieds section for available positions.

I plan to document the process here on this blog. I know that some people are curious about how a film is made from start to finish, so I’m going to try and track that a bit here; maybe lift the veil on the “magic” of moviemaking…at least a little. The truth is, this is our first time too. So maybe we can learn some stuff together, right?

Please keep checking back on the site. More information about Jon the Baptist (working title) will be available very soon.

Oh, and if you’d like to be involved in the production in any way, you can contact me here. or check out the Participate section of this site. I’d love to hear from you!