January 1, 2009 - by Nate Q

With the foundation of the Triple Short laid down, all efforts were focused into the pre-production of Sons of Lemuria. And thus would begin the grim realization of just how much work went into even a small production. It was also during the pre-production of SOL that Brandon decided that the production end of film wasn't an interest for him, and he resigned from the production end. He had still written and would star in Sons Of Lemuria, and it would be his first starring role in film.

Fight choreography, one of the larger undertakings for the film, was started June 24th, 2007 with Nathan, David and AJ Paratore. AJ was one of several people who showed up to audition for a sword fighting short film that they knew next to nothing about. Of the 12 or so who auditioned, we chose 5 to be the fighters in the film. Practices would be held sporatically (1-3 times a week) for the next few months to try and convert 5 non-fighters into film fighters, as well as to put together good fight scenes. Scheduling became a nightmare and so far as memory serves there was never a practice with all the fighters together. At many practices both Nathan and David would play multiple parts and need to teach the new choreography that was created to those who weren't at the previous practices. One fighter dropped out of the film 1 month into practice (he had never shown to a practice but we choreographed a part for him anyway). There were orignally 5 fighters for Zarrius to take on at once. We continued to look for a replacement for the knife thrower and continued choreography.

Locations were also very important to the film. It is a fantasy period style short, so there had to be no visual signs of modern people, including car noise, lawnmowers, etc. Not an easy task when living in the second largest city in the state. David and Nathan scouted all around the places we knew in Rhode Island. Nathan hit a bit of luck when some local parks came to his aid and allowed him to film, of course after a few weeks of trying and negotiating, almost begging for help.

Eventually after 2-3 months of pre-production for Sons of Lemuria, it went into creation. August 11th,2007 at 7:00 am the dream began on the road to reality. The first day went from sunrise to sun set. David (who was on set as a producer and assistant) left with sun poisoning. Nathan left with heat stroke and sun burn, and many other cast members also became very lobster like by the end of the day. Despite all the pain, the first day was completed and filming would carry on.

The second chunk of filming was Zarrius traveling through the forest on his quest to find his Brother. Scheduling conflicts gave only a 2 hour window to try and film the scenes in. The three got together and went out to film. When they returned to Nathan's house after filming to review the footage, they made a horrific discovery. Zarrius was not wearing his arm guards that he had just put on in the scene before it. OUCH! Those scenes would never be fully refilmed. Brandon and Nathan went out one night for an hour or so right before sun down and filmed what they could. Some scenes in the film are actually from when he did not have the arm guards on, but it isn't very noticable.

The multi-fight scene shoot would come next. Again out of pure luck the perfect location for it was found. Nathan had been out location scouting with his brother. On their last stop of the day they scouted Goddard State Park to no avail. Before leaving Nathan's brother needed to use the restroom, so while Nathan waited, he took a short walk up a path off the end of the parking lot. A whole 1 minute later he found himself in the perfect spot to have the fight scene. It would be a few weeks before permission was granted, but it was.