The students/filmmakers/storytellers behind this long-running project are proud to finally announce:
“Story of a Sleeping Man” is no longer a dream, idea, project, or in-the-works piece of art. It, our entrepreneurial friends, is a finished film!!
We would like, once again, to thank all of you for investing in our dreams and helping to bring this project to life! To properly thank you, we’re sending off the backer gifts promised to you within in the next few weeks, and are cordially inviting all of you to the official premiere of “Story of a Sleeping Man”!
Parking is available to the north of the library, with additional street parking nearby. No need to keep it formal on a college campus, so dress is casual, and there are plenty of spots, so feel free to tell anyone you like, and bring those you really like.
Again we appreciate everything you guys have done, and want to thank you especially for sticking with us and seeing this project through. We look forward to seeing you all at the premiere, and will continue to keep you posted when more news arises. (Festival announcements are in our near future!)
The Director and Producers would like you to know that principal photography is finished!
Well folks, as some hippie probably said at some point in time, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” As of about 4:00 p.m. on April Fool’s Day of 2012, we are happy, proud, honored, humbled and tickled pink (didn’t even have to use a thesaurus) to announce that principal photography for Story of a Sleeping Man is officially WRAPPED!!!
It’s been quite a long journey these past 8 months, but with a versatile, dedicated crew, the most hands-on, passionate and talented producers around, and a cast that makes the ensemble from 12 Angry Men look like the cast of Drive Angry, production for Story of a Sleeping Man is right on schedule!
Last Sunday saw the shooting of the “Zombie scene”, which was the last scene to be shot for the film. I realize that it’s impossible to bring up zombies without giving you all a quick look, so here you go!
All in all, we would like to sincerely thank everybody involved in the funding, production and execution of this film. Without your support, our love of filmmaking and desire to have it be seen would probably go unfulfilled. We’re overjoyed to have the opportunity to share our work and vision with you all!
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More updates will be posted as we move through our post-production schedule and begin submitting to festivals, so be sure to keep up with us by following us on Twitter @SleepingManSIU for live updates!
For now, though, we’ll leave you with this: behind-the-scenes footage of Aaron Mager, Director of Story of a Sleeping Man, running (albeit, masculinely) from our zombie.
If you're under the impression that the cast and crew of Story of a Sleeping Man are going to take any guff from a tornado, I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken.
If there’s one thing to be said about Friday’s shoot in Cairo, IL, it’s that we learned what the lesson that all of our favorite childhood movies from the 90’s have tried to teach us: sometimes, a rag-tag team of misfits can work together against all odds to accomplish something awesome.
Despite tornado and thunderstorm warnings, a power outage, and incredibly windy weather, we are proud to report that Friday’s shoot went off without a hitch. Actually, there were a lot of hitches. I don’t know why I said that. The point is, the majority of our war scenes are filmed and look fantastic.
This was one of the biggest, dirtiest, fake blood-shooting-est shoots of the film so far, and to be perfectly honest, we all had a blast.
While leaving Carbondale, IL in the morning, we knew that there was a 40% chance of rain for Cairo, IL, our destination and location for our battle scenes. What we didn’t realize was that conditions in Southern Illinois would be perfect for thunderstorms and tornadoes–simultaneously.
Here’s a quick glimpse of the behind-the-scenes wackiness that was Friday afternoon’s shoot:
After arriving on set, rehearsing and blocking scenes and prepping our actors, we began shooting the first scene. 20 minutes afterward, we got word that there was a tornado warning issued for Cairo. Regardless, we kept on shooting, though cautiously, knowing that the recent disaster in Harrisburg, IL occurred in weather conditions similar to the ones we were in.
The crew got a few scenes shot just as it was reported that a tornado was seen in Makanda, IL, about 30 miles away from us. One power outage and a warning siren later, we decided to put filming on hiatus for the time being.
Then, the weather cleared up almost hilariously: the clouds all but disappeared and the sun came out for long enough to allow us to shoot our remaining scenes. It was a push, but we shot the majority of our scenes and managed to clean up the equipment just before we were kicked out at 5 p.m.
Wish you could’ve been there with us? Check out the gallery below to get a little taste of the goings-on:
For all the snags, we successfully got another major group of scenes shot and in the can. This was an incredibly intense day of shooting, and our cast and crew performed exceptionally. We are all really starting to fall into and embrace our crew roles, and each shoot seems to be a vast improvement on the last one.
Though we’re still on pace to complete the movie by the end of May, to paraphrase Bugs Bunny in Space Jam, “We need your help!”
There are 6 days left on our Kickstarter campaign, and we are still about $1,300 shy of our goal. Now that time is bearing down on us, we humbly ask our fans and supporters to please (please) do us a favor and send our Kickstarter page to anyone (or everyone) you know that would be interested in helping us. Direct them to our Twitter feed (featuring live, on-set tweets!), Facebook page and photo galleries, etc; we’re in this for the long haul now.
Thanks once again to everybody that’s been helping us get this project off the ground, and stay tuned for even more updates as we move through our production schedule!
This shoot was so epic, I didn't even Instagram this picture; it's lit by the gusto of the cast and crew alone.
After last Saturday’s demanding 12 hour shoot at SIUC’s Student Health Center, we are happy to report that we have a major group of scenes shot and ready to go!
With this group of scenes in the can, we have made a major dent in our production schedule; we can only hope that our upcoming shoots go as smoothly as last weekend’s did.
We are now roughly one-third of the way through shooting, just about on schedule to have the film finished by mid May. More updates will be posted as we progress through the remaining shoots.
Want to take a gander at the cast and crew in action? Check out the slideshow below. It chronicles the events of the day’s shoot. Keep an eye out for our makeshift wheelchair/skateboard dolly rig, some excellent makeup work, and a few of the film’s producers pulling double duty as crew members.
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SPOILER ALERT (kind of):
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at a rehearsal of one of the major scenes in Story of a Sleeping Man.
Finally, if you haven’t done so already, please check out our Kickstarter page.
We’ve got 18 days to go, and are almost halfway to our $3000 goal! Show it to your friends, family, and wealthy relatives. We’ve updated our “rewards” section, too; now, donating just $1 will get you listed on the “Backers” section of this site (once funding is completed).
As always, thanks very much for your support and please “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @SleepingManSIU for up-to-the-minute updates!
After months of pre-production, test shoots, auditions and location scouting, funding for Story of a Sleeping Man is now in full swing.
It goes like this:
Though we have already begun production on the film, we still need funding to finish it.
To do this, we’ve set up a Kickstarter page in which we are offering all kinds of unique rewards for pledging money.
Ever wanted an Associate Producer credit on a film? Pledge $500 and get the credit, a Special Edition DVD of the film, posters, personalized “thank you” cards, a prop from the film and more!
Are your parents hounding you because you haven’t become an Executive Producer yet? Pledge $1000 and get not only the aforementioned rewards (in addition to premium prizes), but finally win your parents’ love, too!
Obviously, we can’t all afford to be Robert Evanses, so we’ve put together a number of excellent rewards for $100, $50, $25, $10 and even $5 pledges, too.
These include:
DVD copies of Story of a Sleeping Man
Digital Copies of the film
Mentions on all of our sites (WordPress, Twitter, Facebook)
Special Thanks in the film
An invitation to the première of Story of a Sleeping Man
And More!
Any and all donations and pledges will help us fund this film and are immensely appreciated, but if you can’t afford to donate monetarily, please help us speed the word about Story of a Sleeping Man by turning people on to the Kickstarter page, following us on Twitter, and “liking” us on Facebook. Anything you can do, no matter how insignificant it may seem, will help us make this film.
Story of a Sleeping Man 