We apologize for the week off, we had something to take care of…which lead to this picture.
(Left to right) Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, Kevin Smith and Brian Sarvis.
And what script does Kevin Smith’s have in his hands??
Well, it’s a feature film script that WAS titled “Help Wanted”, now it’s called…
And that’s all we’re gonna say about that.
Catch ya at the next post.
Welcome back to the construction blog of Brian Sarvis and Joe Carabeo’s newest feature film, Help Wanted (Working title)
I’m gonna keep it real simple for this post.
Here’s is our diner set.
Of course it needs some decorations and some dressing to make it complete, but there is still something very off about it. We looked back at the photos that we’ve had on this blog (which has now become a picture reference for us) and decided that we don’t really like the aluminum in the background.
It was a half punch so to speak and we wanted a full punch. We felt that if weren’t gonna have a full back wall of shiny aluminum, that maybe we shouldn’t have that one piece of aluminum there at all. It was sorta of a tease.
So we decided to tear that sucker down and put up a matching chalk board.
VIDEO – Brian scrapping away at the left over glue.
Well, you know what’s next.
We gotta make another chalk board. (And I just wanna make a movie!)
VIDEO – So how do we get this all to fit in the truck??
VIDEO – It actually fits!
BELOW – We can only look so cool doing this.
Below – Back to the measuring
BELOW – Back to the cleaning
VIDEO - And of course back to the cutting. (Feels like we’ve done this before)
Again, the creation of the frame.
The stain
and the black board…
But in all seriousness.
There was a big decision that had to be made. A decision that would change the landscape of everything that you’ve been following.
This name has to change.
And we’ll tell you why at the next post.
Thanks for checking out our progress and following us through this journey so far.
Time to start placing bets.
Some people were wondering if there was “actually” a script to our feature film, Help Wanted (working title)
Well, here it is in all it’s bloody color glory.
If you’re interested in investing in our film or reading the script, please contact us at astrayproductions.com – our contact info is on the bottom of the page.
Thanks for checking out today’s blog post. Catch you next Wednesday.
Welcome back the Help Wanted (working title) feature film construction blog!
For those of you who haven’t checked out the past works of Brian Sarvis and Joe Carabeo, check out Astrayproductions.com
Now just before we head back into the door business from the last post, we have one last thing that’s been waiting forever to get done.
The Front counter.
VIDEO – Brain tells Joe to hold this.
VIDEO – Finally, the trim!
Back to the door adventure.
So we talk to our main executive in charge of the grounds, Robert Guva, about the dilemma of the door. And of course being the extremely nice person that he is, said that he possibly has a door that’s not being used in one of the scary barns. He said if it’s not being used, we can put it to use. Awesome.
So we took a look.
BELOW – The search begins.
BELOW – Maybe up here!
There were a few doors after all.
And this guy was the one. But how are we gonna get him down?
Oh we’ll just drop him out the barn.
Plan worked. The easiest thing we’ve had to do this whole construction period.
VIDEO – Brian can carry anything!
BELOW – So now we have a solid wood door. It’s pretty snazzy.
But now the challenge of trimming it down starts again.
Can Joe be up for the task?
Let the sawing begin! (again)
VIDEO – Once more, you must be perfect, Joe.
Guess what we were talking about?
VIDEO – The second cut.
Well there you go. A lot more mess, but we got the door that fits.
BELOW – God is surely shining down on us on this day.
After Brian attached the door it was time to test it out.
VIDEO – Brian is the first one to test the door.
BELOW – The glorious mess.
The sunsets are so beautiful on the lot.
VIDEO – One last look
Now we celebrate our victory like only we can.
With slurpees!
Thanks for checking out the blog. Hope to see you at the next post.
Good evening everybody, welcome to the construction/production blog to Joe Carabeo and Brian Sarvis’s newest feature film, Help Wanted (working title)
We’re gonna reveal to you all the magic that we make.
In this episode, we work during the night.
Which gives us the perfect opportunity to try out the newly installed overhead booth lamps.
VIDEO- The booth lamps in all their glory.
We’re very happy with the waythey turned out. But now it’s time to get to finishing up some unfinished business, like doors all types of doors.
First, we had to install the fake cabinet doors that would be placed on the fake cabinets by basically screwing them in from the back of the cabinet that doesn’t even exist.
Once these were screwed in and secure, the Hollywood cabinets would then be leaned against the back wall with the hopes of someone, someday, attempt to open them and become frustrated.
Now it was time to have at the main door.
Our goal was to have a double swinging door. So the first thing that needed to happen was strip everything off that stopped that from happen for us.
While we were in the area, Brian and I also decided it would be the perfect time to start creating the illusion of our kitchen. Which first meant that we have to block out the windows. So that’s what we did.
Once all that was done, it was time to take a journey back to our “favorite” place on earth, Lowe’s.
Time for some door shopping.
Just like everything else, this is where the trouble starts. We thought, ” OH yeah. They’ll have all the doors in the world for us to choose from”. So not the case. After taking the measurements of the doorway that were dealing with and then going to the store. We found out the hard way that there’s no such door with our measurements. This then lead the discussion of, “Maybe we should saw the door” or “Maybe we should just keep looking on other places”. As fun as all those options were, if we were to keep looking we would lose lots of time and possibly still not end up with something that we could use. But if we were to cut the door, Joe’s skills will be truly put to the test for cutting a completely straight line with a table saw. Both risking money and time in the process. So, of course, the executive decision was for Joe to put everything on the line. No risk no gain, right?
VIDEO – Lets balance the door on Brian’s Head.
So there’s the door. One of the biggest concerns that we had was that our door would be hallow on the inside. If this was true, when Joe trims the edges of the door, the door would then reveal to have just a big hole in the inside because the door is not solid wood, but pieced together. Making the door completely unusable. Lets find out the hard way.
First thing, lets see if this door fits.
Of course it doesn’t. So now it’s time to begin the trimming.
BELOW – Brian begins the the measurements.
VIDEO – The First cut.
VIDEO – The second cut.
And that’s what we were afraid of.
That opening on the ends would continue to happen because was just to big and we could only trim so much before just having two pieces of wood left.
But for the hell of it, we rigged that door with hinges in place just so we could see how it would feel like to have a door installed.
But still. The adventure continues…
Thanks for tuning in. See you next post.
Got any help for us, leave a comment below.
Hello again, welcome back to the adventures of Brian Sarvis and Joe Carabeo, as they try to get their feature film (Working Title) Help Wanted, made. Right now we’re at the construction stage. A lot has been done so far, but now our heroes must deal with the winter cold, lack of electricity, dying spirits and now…
a broken boom box.
Besides that, everything is coming together with hard work and inspiration.
But on this day, a deal was struck.
Electricity is coming!
Now it’s time to clear everything that didn’t need to be there , so that in the process of the electricity coming through, we don’t set the whole place on fire. Just in case.
So it’s time to clean up.
Good bye to all of our fine art.
Below – Where did these pans come from?
Below – This is how the cabinets will look like, but imagine it sitting up.
Below – Another view next to our blue corner.
It’s time to get that chalk board up. We start by places the braces.
Then Brian lays in the final touches, cleaning up little sections of glue.
And up it goes!
Not bad.
I can’t wait till there’s electricy, then we can put the over head lights in.
Anyone want to buy some stools, they really are for sale. Just contact us or leave a message below.
Below – The chalk board.
I also can’t wait for the set dressing to come in and really make this place a full character.
Below – The on lookers
Below – The look of the diner with the sun coming in.
A lot is gonna happen in these booths. Watch and see.
Still going. See ya next post.
You’re not gonna believe this, but chalkboards don’t exist any more.
How do we know? Well, basically we thought that the task of buying a chalk board was gonna be the easiest step for us. Nope. We searched in ever single store that we could drive to, in the normal driving vicinity, and guess what? They were no where to be found. We couldn’t find chalkboards anywhere. Ether that, or we really are in the middle of no where.
But in truth, it’s hard believe that in this day and age chalkboards do NOT exist.
So we found us a sink instead.
But back to the chalk board.
So basically what had to happen is the same exact process that seemed to happen with everything on this project.
We had to make it ourselves.
Below – Brian creates the frame for the what would be the size of the chalk board, which is gonna be placed on the wall as our menu.
With that frame done, it was now time to make the black board section of our chalk board. It amazed me that you can really just buy the material for a chalk board and lay it down anywhere, then boom, you have a place to write with chalk.
Below – Brian lays down the black of the black board.
At the same that Brian was putting the works on the chalk board, it was also time we finished up the cabinet doors that were gonna be placed on the back counter. This would be another bit of fakery for the sake of movie making, because there is not gonna be any cabinet’s, just the door. But these doors needed color though. So what batter color than the awesome blue that we’ve been rocking the whole time.
Below – Brian has finished the black board section of the chalk board.
Below – The back cabinets getting their coat.
Below – The cabinet doors with their new coat of blue.
Below – The doors now with their knobs.
And now it’s dark outside.
Which means its time to stop working cause we can’t see, and it’s very cold at night time.
Below- Our only warmth is this working light.
It’s so nice.
Tune in next time as there’s a possibility that our hair styles will change even more!
Look what happened!
I wish there was a story to tell about this, but there really isn’t. We rode up to the set like we usually do and…
There it was.
Long story short (I guess) I’m just gonna say that I wanted that thing knocked down anyway.
Below – The Diner so far. Now with it’s newly created stools. I dig.
A real cool thing came with the stools when we bought them, AGE!
You really can’t buy that type of age anywhere. We just thought it was a cool incentive. In the ad it said that the stools came with 60 years of history. I wonder what type of people have sat in these stools in the past 60 years? Who’s butts have glided across leather, what stories their asses can tell, where did they go, who they’ve met. Where are they now??
I bet they didn’t know that 60 years later that they would be in a feature film by two crazy film makers.
But we did.
The stools still had to be melded together to complete the illusion, but that could wait.
Below -After a lot of rubber mallet hammering, we have the beginning looks of the wall slot. Soon will come the kitchen set dressing behind the wall and then we can slide plates of food across it all day long. That should really put it together.
Below – Ohh spacious.
Below – A view from the “kitchen”
We also took some aluminum and connected it to the wall. Will it stay, will we take it off, time will can only tell.
Below – Things are getting messy again.
Below – Another view of the stools, the booths and our floor. Where do we go from here?
I know that some of the stools are gonna go to a stool hospital. Their heads have fallen off.
It’s also about time to start thinking about what the outside of the diner is gonna look like. We have the ideas, but stay tuned to see what we actually do.
Yay! Jacob Pulliam is back!
So we arrived in the Diner set today and found something staring right at us.
A dolly!
What fun!
Some of us use dolly’s to make a living, but here we are face to face with a rouge one. Apparently this single dolly found his way into our diner set and decided to take a nap. But not on our watch, no one falls asleep while on set. So we woke him right up and immediately started testing out how smooth our new diner floor is with the newly placed tiles. Jake did the honors.
And oh it was so smooth!
But then we found something…
A script!
And not a page from the Help Wanted script ether…
It was to another movie!
Does that mean while we were out that another film crew slid in and filmed in our unfinished diner set before we could be have a chance at doing so ourselves?!?!?
I think so…
Heartbreaking…
Below – Even worst, they left a calling card!
Three big scratches on our beautful new floor!
Was this from them or someone else, we would never know. But the sight of it almost brought a tear to our eyes. But we held it in.
It’s best for me to keep in my anger. This is just how the business works sometimes. Besides, it adds to the “Set Design”
So here we are again. More tiles to be placed on the ground. This time they were would be placed underneath the red booths. Which is why Jake came along, lifting these booths is definitely a two person job.
Bam! And the tiles are laid.
Below – New tiles with red booths on top of them. Looks good.
Below – Jake is excited about the progress.
One final thing had to be done before we leave.
We have finally found a set of stools that we thought matched the look that we were going for. Something with a chrome finish. So yes, yet again we have new stools to be placed into the diner. But the colors matched perfectly and the chrome was already aged like it’s been around for 60 years. It was a good price so we couldn’t pass up on them. But it does pose a new question. The amount of money that we spent on the stools so far, would that equal buying completely new original soulless stools. The would never know. But I believe character wise that these are the stools that will take us into the movie.
I bet your asking. “But what would happen to the other stools, the black ones?”
Well, since you’re asking…They’re for sale!
Just contact Astray Production if you’re interested in buying stools that have never been used. Images can be seen in postings before this one. I bet they would fit perfectly in any place you wanna put them. They can also be mounting into flooring. The sky is the limit! We only have 8, so offer only stands until we run out. Buy one or buy them all! It would be ground if you could pick them up, but I bet we can figure out shipping in some form.
WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
You may have noticed that the stools that we have in place now are a bit short. Well, we have an idea, and it could fit back to the original theme that we were working on before.
Stay tuned…
So at this point, Brian and I have been taking turns, at random times, laying tile at the diner. There’s no real reason for both of us to be there if we have the free time to just stop by for a few hours. SO we chose to just come in whenever we’re free and chip away at all the tile laying. It has now become a nice place to gather our thoughts and think about the problems of our real life while we still conjure up ideas about this on going project.
Pretty soon we’re gonna start audition for this film and bringing in more people to help us out, so the alone time really helped set things into perspective and on what we have to look forward to in the incoming future. Which is a lot more work. But someone might see this and miraculous be THE right person, you never know. Everything is luck and hard work. We got the hard work and now it’s luck’s turn.
But on the day that I chose to come into the studio, the sun set was amazing.
I loved how the light came into the diner, it was perfect, almost romantic. I could really envision this being real.
Below – This is how the sunset looked outside.
Below – More interior sunset light coming into the Diner.
It was really a calming moment to have. Usually at the diner we would just fear the sun going down like as if it were the dinosaur age and predators were gonna kill us at night. But the moment I stepped outside and saw the entire sky a shade of cloudy gold, it was a heavenly feeling, and it was only me and my camera.
It was truly a Smallville moment.
Below – Our sign is now gold
So when I continued to walk out into the field in front of the diner, I turned around and was instantly taken back by the hugest rainbow that I have ever seen in my entire life. It was the whole entire sky. I’m not a rainbow person, and I might now start losing my street cred for saying this, but damn it was nice…
At one point the rainbow attached from the diner to the sound stage. These words and pictures will never come close to the experience, but I still wanted to share it with you.
On the way back home it rained like crazy. That was cool too.
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