Sweet.


Got nothing in the email. Gmail address for me.

fail

Sounds like a lot of good, hard, work going on.  Or is it really work if you're doing what you really want to be doing?  

I just hope I get the chance to have some part in the actual production.  Getting to be in the first trailer was an absolute blast!

The car crash was more than 'violent' - it was insane.  That was me shooting at the car as it crashed the gate.  Jack took the full hit and flew 80' (landing on his back/neck).  I got smacked by the green truck - shot out the back window as I went through it, and then got flung about 50' out of the truck.  Then Jack and I had to get up and manage the scene.  He cut the stunt driver out of the crash vehicle while I put out the fire with fire extinguishers.  

The EMTs called for backup after seeing the crash, because they literally thought we were dead after that hit.  When we got up and started walking (limping?) around - the EMTs and firefighters thought we were zombies or something.  They were really freaked out.  Turns out they're used to cleaning up the scene AFTER an accident, and they've never actually seen one before.  They actually took all the footage and the cars and use that scene in their EMT/firefighter training to this day (the wrecked cars sit outside their training center).  

Here's a BTS shot of that hit:



Here's Jack about to land on his back while I'm starting to come back out of the truck:

We had this problem last time, didn't we?  The email went to your gmail address at 10:55 a.m. this morning  

Honestly, this is a frustrating kick in the rear right now.  I'm cranking about 100+ hour weeks to fund the beast, and while coming up with story ideas is fun - it's fairly grinding work.  Every time I finish a movie I swear to my family I'll never do it again.  Within 12 months, though, I always seem to find another one .  We have a few hard months of work ahead of us before the fun really starts.  To me - working with cast, constructing sets and getting gear, wardrobe, storyboards and other things done is where the fun starts, and I'm really looking forward to that.  

You'll get to be as big of a part of the project as you can handle!  The trailer wasn't really organized well.  In the future we'll have several dedicated weaponmasters/propmasters (who will NOT be running around in the field too), and I'd love to have you on that team.  We're going to need many more tables

Holy shit Hardcore stunts. I bet ya'll feel that every morning.

I may take you up on that. Have some school work to do so not sure of my schedule yet.

 

Yeah - Jack and I spent a little time in the ambulance after that.  Jack obviously took a hit on his hip and back.  He was supposed to jump over the car as it got hit, but we missed our queue.  I remember seeing Jack flying through the air out of my peripheral vision right as I was going through the truck and thinking "sucks to be Jack!"  Then it was my turn.  The right side of my head dented the top of the truck door going in, the left side dented it going out, and then the back of my head hit the ground when I landed.  My hip and back took the worst of it going through the door.  I definitely didn't drive or operate any heavy machinery for a few days, and Jack sent some pictures of bruises that were pretty exciting.  Nothing compared to what our guys overseas are going through, but I kind of wish I had worn a helmet .  

It was kind of surreal watching the footage later and see my friends start to cry.  Our director told us to either act hurt or play dead after the crash, but we kind of underestimated the psychological impact of that on the bystanders.  A lot of the spectators actually left crying.  It was nuts.  But it was good footage!!  My wife, on the other hand, was not amused....

My girlfriend expects me to come home with a injury if I go anywhere with my friends.
Sent a PM

Holy shit, that looks like a party!

Holy shit, Travis.    You need to find a job in film that doesn't mean nearly killing yourself.  

Keep us informed! I had a great time doing the trailer.

I bought 3 copies of the book.  Glad I could help.

Hmmm - were you at the Lakeland FL expo in late '13?  I remember you if so....

Bought the kindle version so its easier to read on the airplane.

Here's a little shout out to our friends at BlackPoint Tactical.  We'll be using some of their gear in the movie series.  We're still trying to nail down specifics, but I expect Mark will carry one of their holsters along with some of the Silver Hills and Promise Point crews.  BlackPoint sent us a few holsters to start using as we start getting wardrobe and weapons together for our characters.  Here's one of their holsters for a Glock 19 with streamlight TLR-1s:



Nice personalization on the inside:



Lots of other sponsor/gear announcements still coming, but that's the least of what we'll be talking about in the next few months.

Saw this on facebook and liked it. Looks like a well built product!

Trying to find the fine line between regular updates and overdoing product placement.  I heard everyone loud and clear about regular updates!  The problem is that this business moves slow - and we can't publicly talk about much of what we do (at least not until well after it's happened).  At this time the one thing we can always do is thank our sponsors.  Just give the word if we're overdoing it, though.  

In the meantime, I want to send a big THANK YOU to our friends at Liberty Safe.  Our crew already had a few mid-sized Liberty safes, which will be used for Jim and Silver Hills. We acquired two Liberty FatBoys to use in the New Age Ranch armory scenes, though. Our weaponmaster crew is already putting them to work!

Wooohooo!   It's good to hear that my own personal choice of safe is also endorsed by the big leaguers at New Age Ranch.LOL  I feel snottier already!

Thanks for the updates!  Keep up the great work!

Ha.  Liberty are pretty good people.  You're in good company .

If you haven't checked out their new Safelert sensors, check them out.  You mount them inside the safe, and they connect to your wireless network.  They tell you (either via email or text) every time motion is sensed, a door is opened, a door is closed, or internet connectivity is lost.  I'm still getting the kinks worked out, but I'm REALLY impressed with a system that texts me every time something happens with my safe.  It also tells me temp and humidity in real time.  I'm using their extended antennae's (that's the tape and wires on the top right of each in the pictures), which still aren't working 100% with my wireless system.  We're getting there, though.  The fact there are no monitoring fees is a huge plus.  Again, I'm not pumping any product here.  I've just found it pretty handy....

I have been thinking about it.  Now I'm going to check back with you some months from now to see what your longer range impressions of them are.  You can be a trustworthy guinea pig.  I have quite a few sensors in that area already, but it'd be nice to have their sensor running separately too.  I'm running a cellular system now, and it wouldn't hurt to have something over the wifi just for the heck of it.  It'd make me feel a little more at ease before "Lights Out" happens.

Delta Airlines and Mother Nature saw fit to strand me in DFW airport earlier this week so I had the time to read through the scripts. I could see right away that there is a LOT of work that went into those.

It seems counter-intuitive to say that it takes work to trim a book down to a screen adaptation or layout a story in a script format, but I tried to do it with one page of the script and it took me 4 hours lol.  It reminded me of pruning a big tree. You cut and cut and cut until there is a huge pile of branches on the ground. When you're done it still looks like a big tree if you did it right. Of course you could horribly butcher the tree too, that isn't the case here.

I was concerned that the story would be infected with Hollywood-itis and stray too far off the path, but fortunately Travis has kept it intact. There are some extra bits and pieces in there, but don't worry,  they only shore up the story and don't derail it. From what I can see, the things that were trimmed from the original book aren't things that could translate to screen very well or they would being very boring, although I'm sure Travis would add them for a special director's cut edition if we'd scratch up few more million dollars.

I can really see where splitting this into 3 movies was the right decision. There is way too much going on for this to be a single 2-hour movie. Heck, A TV mini-series might even be better. There are as many characters in here and parallel story lines as I've seen in many TV series.

I can start to see some of the characters take shape and actually envision who could play some of them...I'd dare say that a couple of those parts were written with specific actors in mind.

There is still plenty of action and gunplay along with douchebag (and neckbeard) bad guys.

I'm still slacking on the reading. Actually had to work for once...

Looks like my garage!

So...where are the splits going to be for the movies??

First and foremost - thank you Miker84!  Great feedback, and I appreciated all your notes.  



Do you mean where the story is split between each movie?  Jon departing SH is end of movie 1.  The pipeline easement battle and return of Mike end of script 2.  Hope that makes sense!  

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Finally finished going over the new scripts... I was blown away.

I normally can find something to bitch about or change in any book or movie I read but I couldn't while reading this.
There are some creative people converting this to a movie and it shows. I can't wait to see how it comes out.

Thank you - I greatly appreciate your reaction to the scripts!  We obviously can't give them out to just anybody, so hopefully those that can't read them get it that we're putting a TON of working in to every step of the process, and doing it right.  Right now it's tough to show much else as an example.  Hopefully your experience with the scripts gives everyone else a sense that we're tackling this project with a focus on quality.  It is definitely taking more time than I had hoped it would, but that's not unusual when you're focused on the end results.  Hang in there everybody!!  I really hope to have more updates soon.  

I, for one, appreciate the effort to produce a quality product. Thank you.

from the little time I've had to read....I too have been impressed with the level of writing and staging the story! <*insert B&W clapping dude gif*>

How do I get a copy of the scripts to read thru?

Congrats on completing the script and good luck!  I'd love to be in this movie in some way but it's not realistic unless you do some casting/shooting in NY.

Where can we see the footage of the car crash?  It looks amazing.

It was restricted to a few to keep copies from getting leaked.

I don't know that there is a video clip of the crash scene, but it is in the movie Remnants which is available for purchase/instant on Amazon.

Hey gang - I know an update is long overdue, and apologize for that.  We're kind in in an awkward spot right now, which is why I wasn't really saying much. We are working and are moving forward.  We're in one of two 'dead spots' on the project where there's not a lot to talk about, though.  

I traveled to Atlanta a few weeks ago to meet with potential partners who operate production companies.  We haven't been able to lock anything in with any of them, though, so we're essentially on pause until we do that.  We're on a push to get 'investor ready' - which involves casting, production breakdown/budgeting, some pre-production and overall readiness.  That may involve producing a new trailer using existing footage, a new website, and generally a more polished appearance.  Our preliminary casting/attachment conversations have gone very well.  Wish I could say more!  I'm really trying to avoid proceeding too far without partnering with a director and production company, because generally - they'll want to rework anything we do without them.  

So, we're in this awkward spot which will take some time to navigate.  Conversations with potential partners continue.  In the meantime, I'm pushing to refill the coffers a bit.  To get a few of our cast attached to the project we'll need to put significant funds (six figures) in escrow.  We'll also need to pay the production companies to do the work outlined above, and none of that is cheap.  We don't have investors yet, so finances definitely limit our progress forward at times.  The good news is that my business is very seasonal - with the peak leading up to year-end.  As a result, I'm devoting a lot of time to replenishing the Lights Out banking account in anticipation of these partnerships happening over the next few months.  I'm disappointed things aren't happening faster, but it feels like it's better to let this happen naturally rather than forcing it.  The selection of a partner on this project is hugely important, and not to be rushed.  We'll also need additional funds to move forward anyway, so we're focused on getting that in place.  It's funny how saying "we're funded" changes the conversation with potential partners too .

Anyway, wish I had more as way of an update.  That's where we're at!  Thanks again for all the support from the group here.  I'll update you as soon as I have more news....

   - Travis

Thanks!!

As Miker said - Remnants is available in several places.  I feel like I have to say this every time, but please understand these are VERY different projects with different leadership, budget and direction .  With that out of the way, you can see the crash in slow motion on the trailer at the Remnants website.  We actually had to slow it WAY down so it would make sense in the trailer.  I think the hit in the movie is closer to real speed.

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Thank you Mike!  I think Bama fixed this one so it won't archive, but it's a good reminder for me to post an update if nothing else

Going in to this I knew there were 3 main pieces to tackle before getting the green light: crew then cast then investors.  We actually made great headway with cast already, and think we'll have a very good pitch for investors once we're ready for them.  Where I've stumbled, though, is finding the right crew.  Usually you would think if you have money in hand and want to hire someone to work - you'd have no problems right?  Wrong .  I need people with enough experience that they're good (if not very good), but haven't had a big hit yet.  I need people who at least are not diametrically opposed to our message.  And I need them to work for indie rates and hours (if we even get to that part of the conversation).  I'm struggling.  The search continues for the right director, creative and production teams.  In the meantime, the focus is on replenishing the bank account, getting gear together, scouting locations, fine-tuning scripts, etc. so that we're ready when we find the right people.  

So one bit of good news is that all of our custom-made Promise Point gear has arrived from our friends at 5.11 Tactical.  We also have a stack of ARs from our Megan, Tanya and friends at Noveske Rifleworks, roughly 20 suppressors coming from Nick and our friends at AAC, a box full of optics from Mark and our friends at Vortex Optics, 3 big boxes from Drew and the team at Magpul, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting at the moment.  We have weapons going in to hydrodip/cerakote as I type, and gear is slowly but surely coming together. Here are some teasers of the 5.11 gear that arrived this weekend.  We worked with them to create an entire new product line, including 7.62 mag pouches and a lot of new multicam gear, and it's worked out very well:

Sweet gear. Wish I was local and could be an extra!

You should send me some of that for field testing.

Will let you know when I come back to GA!  I have 24 sets of armor, battle belts, packs, multicam clothing and Noveske ARs, and they all need to be "distressed"

I can "distress" the armor for you and send you some pre-distressed Multicam.

Hmmm - the only thing more fun that puking up soda and peeps might be doing it while wearing a 25 lb plate carrier

It would certainly get everything 'distressed' wouldn't it?

Yep. You coming?

Needs distressed noveske's

Id run Cola Warrior in a plate carrier in the spirit of distressing gear.