Movie Magic: On Location with Carmina

GIGABYTE Notebooks is proud to be the technical sponsor and an executive producer on Carmina the movie. AERO Brand Ambassador, Mark A.J. Nazal assumes the role of director and VFX supervisor on this project, using the AERO 17 HDR for post production work; which finally begins now that all filming is complete!

Over the past couple of weeks we've been on set with Mark, the cast and crew of Carmina catching behind the scenes action on location and in the studio. As we mentioned in the article "Making Movies on a Laptop", we were on location for the final 13 hours of filming. 13 hours in the dead of night, in forty degree weather, on location in the sleepy town of Maricopa, California.

Director Mark Nazal runs through the scene with actor Chad Bianco (Keith)

To experience a location shoot in the middle of the night dealing with paranormal thriller subject matter is it's own kind of story. There was an air of magic on set, cast and crew alike feeling the pressure to complete the shoot on time, yet everyone carried themselves with grace. No matter how cold, how tired, or how ready to go home people were, the level of professionalism and camaraderie was outstanding.

Erica Juliet (Carmina) gets ready under the artful skill of Kate Oja.

The location set was an old trailer in Maricopa, California, home to the main characters. In poor repair, with not a lot of breathing room, the cast and crew retreated to an RV which served as office, make up room, media room and a place to sneak a snack or power nap.

Multiple points of view... different angles caught the scene for use in the final cut.

There wasn't a bad take, each was better than the last with Carmina (played by Erica Juliet) and Keith (played by Chad Bianco) giving gut wrenching performances. Even though everyone knew the script, each performance on every take left us all breathless.

Close up for a suspenceful scene.

The paranormal thriller had it's on set moments, the kind that make for good stories later. From the real life creepy trailer with it's own secret ghosts whispering in corners to the classic red truck which seemed to eat a prop causing a nerve-wracking delay. Cast and crew searched furiously for the missing key prop for the scene (sorry can't tell - no spoilers), watching the precious minutes tick by as they raced the dawn to finish filming in time. There was a lot of filming to do, and Mark is an incredibly focused director, the crew disciplined and the cast on their marks, and in a feat of incredible good fortune the shooting wrapped up just as the purple light of dawn began to cast through the open door of the set. As if by magic, movie magic, the last day of location shooting was a wrap.

Cast and crew of Carmina were asked to sign the truck that ate the prop... only in the movies

Up next... Behind the scenes peek at the last photo shoot which involved a blue screen, fake blood and wind machines. Don't all good studio sets?