The beginning of the end... or the end of the beginning?

First of all hello to everyone and welcome to our production blog for the independent horror movie 'Paradise Ranch' - shooting on location in Arizona/Nevada/California.

So far we have shot in Las Vegas, Rachel, Tonopah, Boulder City, The Hoover Dam and good old Los Angeles (with a short stint in Hollywood) and will have soon headed off back to London to shoot the interior scenes... boo hoo!

It has been a hell of a journey up until now and over the next few weeks we will be telling the story of the principal photography of the film and posting progress reports on the post production process.

So if you are interested in the film as an actor, producer, distributor or just as a film fan please join us on here regularly and enjoy the ride!

What happens in Vegas....

...stays in Vegas. Or so the saying goes...

We arrived early in the afternoon and after a pretty smooth transition through customs, we left the airport by stretch Limousine. It cost as much as two taxis so was within our budget and we did arrive in style for our first port of call, the Stratosphere Hotel.

For those of you not familiar with this Vegas Landmark (or who haven't played the Fallout game), it is a giant (over a thousand feet high) observation tower, the tallest building on the strip that dominates the skyline, giving the guests an amazing view of the entire Las Vegas region and into the mountains beyond. It also has cheap, spacious rooms and a large pool with an amazing location for our first production meeting in Las Vegas; the hot tub - which was a hell of a draw for six sun starved Brits who had recently escaped the chilly confines of the UK.

Nathan was in like a shot, Michael & Robin dangled their feet as Normski entertained everyone and particularly a  rather elderly female guest at the other side of the pool with a frantic excited sun dance, warm weather in January being an impossibility in Scotland this time of year. After a brief interlude, it seemed he might have instantaneous sun stroke, but thankfully that was not the case and the happy lady's applause was gratefully recieved by the sun worshipping Scot.

As night fell, it took a few hours of settling in but pretty soon we were ready to head out and shoot the first scheduled scene of the film - a scene which involved drinking, partying and a healthy dose of debauchery.

To find out if we achieved all three you will have to wait for the film to be released but safe to say most of what happened in Vegas will probably stay there, isn't that right Normski ?...

Watch the skies!

When you wake up at 7am in the morning and get this to look at... you know you must be doing something right. There was a morning chill but with the sun rising over the hills from Callville Bay on the Nevada side, we were soon warmed up.

After a night in Boulder at the Lake Mead RV village where three of the crew (Nathan, Robin & Michael) slept in our grand caravan, two more (Andrew& Simon)in our 3 man tent & one brave soul (Normski) slept in the open air; awake half the night gazing at the numerous unseen stars in the crystal clear sky.

We then headed down to the shore line for the first day of exterior shooting on the low road next to Las Vegas bay on the shores of Lake Mead.

The results were fantastic, culminating in a low angle mounted car shot that defined the word 'epic'.
We shot for most of the day, both in the hills and outside the Haceinda Hotel Casino near Boulder, shooting some plate shots in the parking lot before heading up the long road to Rachel, stopping only to refuel and feast our eyes on some amazing metal sculptures by the side of the road.  After we cleared Vegas once more the fun really began, as we took the junction to Alamo, climbing several thousand feet an hour in the cold dark night ...

The Road to Rachel

After several days in Las Vegas and one amazing night and day shooting in Boulder, we set out for Rachel, the small Nevada Town where we would shoot most of the movie. 

Braving the treacherous mountain roads and the driving antics of our Scottish mad Max plus all the creatures of the night (including near invisible giant cows) and fighting the urge to rip out our sat nav (which was set to chinese for most of the start of our journey) and shoot it to pieces, we finally reached our destination just after midnight and settled down for a beer with our good buddies Ryan & Ken at the Little Al'e'Inn.  After a truly freezing night (everyone forgot/was too tired/drunk to turn on the heating) we rose bright and early for the first shooting day of the Rachel Locations. 

Expecting the desert sun, we were in for a shock and a very swift lesson in the way the weather can change pretty fast when you are 5000 feet up...

Area Fifty Whaa?

Following a hearty breakfast of frozen milk and cereal, we gathered our equipment, cameras, props and winter woolie's then packed the car and drove down to the first location, the Old Fallout Mine just outside Rachel (courtesy of Bob and Penny thank you again!).
  As mentioned previously, the sun and sand we had expected was replaced by sleet and snow and after consulting local weather experts, (Pat, Ryan and Betty) the bar keepers at the Little A'le'inn, we knew we had to make a choice - wait a few days and risk running out of time, or embrace the new weather and work around it... We chose the the latter and a few minor tweaks to the script later, we were shooting in the snow.
 We also met with our new cast member; a character actor we affectionately call 'The Hillbilly'.
The results of the morning were fantastic, other worldly even. It was mentioned by
Andrew, our director & A Camera operator, that had 'The Thing' not been remade so recently we could have had a great snow themed horror movie on our hands... but that would have been too easy. There were many more surprises to come.

The Gate that Lets You In

The first surprise of the day was that rather than thinning out - the snow just got thicker and thicker ...

Deciding once again to embrace this strange phenomenon, we continued the next stage of shooting where the boys actually made it to the back gate of the Area 51 base just a few miles away from Rachel, Nevada.

Before we began, we prepared the location, careful not to leave visable footprints in the fresh snow, this being a difficult shoot strategically as our set could only be accessed a few times before there would be too many prints in the supposedly 'isolated' area.

After several hours at the location, the snow eased up leaving a heavy and spectacular carpet of mist across the desert floor.

Gradually, as we shot the later scenes the mist cleared until, by the late afternoon, we were in brilliant sunshine for the first time in Rachel.

We shot for the whole day by the old windmill and then headed back to the Ale'Inn for a bit of a room reshuffle and the first production meeting in Rachel.

Then it was sleepy time. Or so we thought.....