After taking a few days to recover from the Party… (believe me, I needed it) I just wanted to thank everyone again for all their hard work! The party was AMAZING and I have to give a special shout out to the people who made it possible!

To Jen, Giovanni, Tamika, James, and Jose… we couldn’t have asked for a more enthusiastic, helpful, or hotter staff!

To DJ Sho… thanks for the jamz that kept us dancing and partying all night long!

To Alex, Jem, and Ernesto…. thanks for risking life and limb to make the space one of the hippest party spots I’ve ever seen! I’m in awe of the way it turned out and I can’t wait to see what you guys do on set!

And last but not least… To Justin and Reynier… I have to thank you guys for all the blood, sweat, and tears (the tears were mine). You guys put your heart and soul into everything you do and I’m so excited to make this film with you!

And now… onward….. casting awaits!

I’m extremely happy to say that the STRAIN Fundraiser Party went really, really well! And I had a freakin’ BLAST!! The place looked fantastic, art directed to look like the style of STRAIN (post apocalyptic sci-fi). We even had displays with some prototype props and concept designs from the film. Both the inside and outside areas were beautifully lit and we had some kick-ass music! And the kicker? We had sooo many really, really wonderful people come out to show their love and partied all night!!

So I wanted to give a really big thanks to everybody that partied with us on Saturday! It was wonderful to hang out and dance with all of you!! I feel blessed to have the support of so many amazing people!! I can’t wait to get you guys together again to watch the completed film!!

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole experience was working with STRAIN’s creative team to launch this party. Anna produced the party (with help from Justin, once he returned from shooting in Italy), Alex art directed the shit out of the space, Ernesto came in and designed the lighting, John Charter (our AC and DIT) loaned us an HD projection system, and just about everybody involved with the film itself helped make the party a success. It was truly a team effort!!

I want to give a special shout-out to my friends Aram and Zadik Zadikian who loaned us their art studio for the party. Zadik was so gracious about providing us with everything we needed — he even moved all of his art and furniture out of the space so we could have maximum room for people to dance. They were incredible!

And a big, big thanks goes out to the amazing DJ SHO, who spun for us all night long. I asked him to play an eclectic mix of music and he delivered in spades — from MJ to ACDC, there was something for everybody! It was really great to see so many of my showbiz peeps dancing up a storm! And on top of that, DJ Sho was just a super friendly dude. I’m so glad he came out to support our production!

I’ll leave you with a few behind-the-scenes photos that I shot (unfortunately, I forgot to grab some of the actual party, since I was too busy having a good time)! Once I have a little time to decompress, I’ll get cracking on the video I shot. The next episode of Behind The STRAIN will show a bunch of the misadventures we had while getting this party off the ground, including: Alex’s ENCOUNTER with some toxic chemicals, Justin’s flair for breaking the law (aka, Operation Portapotty) and our battle with a mountain of garbage…. STAY TUNED!!

Hey all! Back from a month as 1st AD on a really awesome feature in Italy. While I was gone, Anna Moon came on board and has been kickin’ serious zombie butt! I wanted to personally and publicly thank her for bringing “A” game to the project. It’s great to come back to so much movement on the project. People have been donating to the project, which is getting us closer and closer to our final budget number, and to all those people I sincerely thank you for the support to STRAIN. Reynier and I will be meeting this week to discuss casting and many other things around the film, so that we can get cracking on this. The team is excited!!! I wanted to share a few pic’s from Italy. Enjoy. The location, a city that is hundreds of years old (and that has been abandoned for 50 years)  was amazing!

In this episode of Behind The STRAIN, Anna talks about an upcoming fundraiser she put together for the production. This party is going to be CRUCIAL!!

STRAIN Fundraiser Party
Saturday June 12th @ 8pm
FREE Admission / Cash Bar
Featuring DJ SHO

Enter through back alley:
5271 W Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016

I was just interviewed by FWD:Labs about some of my work on STRAIN. Check it out:

Director Reynier Molenaar is knee-deep in making his most involved film yet. STRAIN follows two survivors of the zombie apocalypse who must travel across ground zero — an abandoned Los Angeles — to deliver important biological samples. According to Molenaar, “it takes an emotionally realistic view of a genre classic. Basically, if you were to breed an action sci-fi with an indie drama, STRAIN would be its spawn.”

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Hey Everyone! I’m so excited to be working with such a talented group of people. As executive producer, one of my first duties was to make sure the upcoming fundraising party would be kick-a**. So, I got the generous people over at Heineken to donate 30 cases of beer!

This was no easy task.  I cold called different beverage companies and distributors for weeks with no avail….. but then, Mark and Marcelo over at Heineken made all the hard work worth it.  After explaining what our film is about and what we are trying to accomplish, they agreed to help us by donating all the beer we would need for the fundraiser!

Now it’s up to each and every one of you to join us on June 12th and celebrate! Can’t wait!

We’re throwing a big party on Saturday, June 12th to help raise money for STRAIN! It’s FREE to get in and we’ll have dope music and a cash bar!

This will be a REAL party with a crucial DJ — I’m tired of all these Hollywood mixers where people just trade business cards! This is going to be a PARTY for us to let loose and celebrate the spirit of indie film!

So bring your friends and come ready to PARTY!

STRAIN Fundraiser Party
Saturday June 12th @ 8pm
FREE Admission / Cash Bar
Featuring DJ SHO

Enter through back alley:
5271 W Jefferson Blvd, 90016

I’m going to do another stills shoot to build my production storyboards. And to prepare, I’m pre-storyboarding the whole film so I know exactly what to shoot stills of. So basically, my process for this film is as follows:

1) Rehearse with Actors/Brainstorm on angles to find the voice of STRAIN. This is what we were doing in the very first episode of Behind The STRAIN: Test Shoot

2) Draw rough sketches/pre-storyboards to plan what to shoot in step 3.

3) Shoot final storyboard photos with the actors.

4) Convert the photos into drawings/storyboards for cast and crew to use during production. The reason I convert the stills into drawings is because I believe it allows people to use their imagination more than photos.

Anyway, here are some of my sketches. As you can see, they’re really, really rough! I would never use these to express my vision for the project — that where the photoboards come in. And as an added bonus, I threw in a shot of some toys I use to help me come up with ideas for staging:

I’m very happy to announce that an art director has just joined STRAIN!

When Jem came on board as production designer, he brought a few people with him, including our new art director, Alexander Delgado. You can get a taste of Alex’s talent and enthusiasm when he talks about his prototype prop in the last episode of Behind The STRAIN.

The funny thing is, I’ve already worked with Alex before! Alex was an art director/set dresser on a few Dove commercials I directed back in December, so I’m very happy to get the chance to work with him again!

And while Justin and Jem are in Italy working on another film, Alex has stepped up to art direct our upcoming fundraiser. Stay tuned for the official announcement — this is going to be good!

Alexander Delgado (art director) was born and raised in Southern California. He started his film career working in the property department on film and television productions, most notably SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS (Dir. Mark Ruffalo) and as Prop Master on MOTHER’S LITTLE HELPERS. Currently Alex is a Los Angeles based art director who works on a variety of projects ranging from music videos to film. Notable projects include a campaign for LG, as well as videos for Chris Brown, and Usher.

Here’s an inside look at the making of my upcoming short film, STRAIN. In this episode of Behind The STRAIN, I sat down with production designer Jem Elsner and art director Alex Delgado to review a new prototype prop!