Pete, Summer, Zach, and Kevin (Jey Reynolds, Monroe Cline, Nicholas Harsin, and Dale Van Slyke) look over their heist plans.
Calm Palm security guards Jesse (Zachary Zarvos) and Jose (Enrique Oseguera) talk shop.
Park officer (Glenda Suggs) chases down a pesky skateboarder.
Kevin (Dale Van Slyke) talks with Rita and Riley (Vanessa Conlon and Chelsea Murphy) as the festival unfolds around them.
Detective Hayward (Cazimir Milostan) surveys a car as it passes by the festival exit.
Pete and Summer (Jey Reynolds, Monroe Cline) look out over a gloomy Los Angeles morning skyline.
2020 was rough, but there’s no reason 2021 can’t be better. This year we’re looking forward to less stress, more kindness, and much more indie cinema. With that in mind, we’re proud to announce that we are officially finished with this movie.
Our next step is to begin submissions to film festivals. We hope our audience will continue to support us as we put together and release our marketing materials like posters and an official trailer.
Happy new year.
We are so close to having our rough cut done it’s crazy. Five more scenes separate us from a full narrative storyline, and then the fun can really get started. When our rough cut is completely done, things like graphic effects, soundtrack/score, opening introduction, and end credits can begin to be crafted to fit the style we’re going for.
We’re getting super excited to not only see things begin to come together, but also because we’re beginning to see glimpses of what the final product will look like. Check back with us next month to find out more about our film!
Clear direction
Don’t always stick
to the script
Take your time
and be
efficient
Find a clear way
to communicate
your goal
Spend time
wisely
Avoid fights
on set
Stay hydrated
Respect and
Take Care of
Your Team
Our rough cut is coming along great, but we still have some time before the movie is ready for audiences. In the meantime, enjoy some of our favorite behind the scene photos!
It’s been exactly a month since we finished up the filming of Yucca, our first feature film. We’ve been hard at work ever since, and we’re happy to report that all media has been converted, organized, renamed, backed up, and backed up again and again. Our first two acts worth of media is now completely in sync, and the third act is well on it’s way.
We’ve also started our rough cut, the first cut of our film to establish pacing, beats, and the basic story of the edit, as well as deciding what effects should go where. We’re excited to say that we have 4 of our 42 scenes completed, putting us a couple weeks ahead of schedule!
We’ll be focusing our time on creating the rest of the rough cut first, then transition over to a trailer edit while we find a musician to help create our soundtrack. After we’re done with our trailer, we’ll take our rough cut and begin smoothing it out, adding effects, and getting it ready for picture lock.
We may not have hit our goal for fundraising, but we’re still plugging away trying to make the best possible movie we can. Any funds donating beyond this point will help us pay for sound editing, and a composer to give us great quality audio and music to go along with our fantastic footage.
Yucca is in the can! Between the rain, the wind, a bit of snow on a mountain top, and tons of sunshine, we did it! We filmed what will be a great movie when all is said and done, and we can’t wait to get started on the post-production process. It will still be a while before the project is done, but a gigantic hurdle has been passed in the filming process. We’ll still be doing updates to this page, but the frequency will be going down as we enter into our rough cut. Check back for more!
On Wednesday May 8th our team officially begins production on Yucca. Even though we didn’t hit our goal, we still feel confident in our ability to deliver a great end product. Our actors are beyond dedicated, our locations are incredible, and we have some of the best humans ever on our crew. We’ll try to share as much behind the scenes stuff as we can, but with our rushed schedule, we may just be posting stuff after we’ve wrapped. Follow us on Instagram @meddle.media for the most up to date postings.
Thank you so much for all of your support on this project, we can’t wait to get started.
While writing this story. I found it necessary to create fictional companies. Among those created for Yucca were Cholla Whiskey and Calm Palm Luxury Camping. Take a look at some of the logos created for the film below.
Chelsea Murphy may be new to the world behind the camera, but she’s no stranger in front of it. Murphy attended the Renaissance School of Arts before moving to New York to study at the New York Film Academy. Chelsea then moved to Los Angeles and studied at Playhouse West School of Meisner and Repertoire, where she also took a film labs course. She wrote and starred in her first short “Itanglish”, which had a successful festival run, including screenings in Japan and Italy. Yucca will mark Murphy’s directorial debut.
“Never work with animals or children,” great advice passed from one generation of filmmakers to the next. There is, of course, a plethora of films, television shows, podcasts, and much more that go against this advice, and many are better for it. Yucca is no exception. Additions like a drugged out cult centered around a small dog, and the emotional impact of a conversation had with a Shepherd bring out the weird emotional core of Yucca. Red and Shiloh may not have had more than a few scenes between them, but as we all know; there are no small parts, only small(er) actors.
This is Shiloh, a six year old black Shih Tzu. Although not really a desert dog, Shiloh thrives in his mostly indoor environment. Preferring a life of leisure, Shiloh’s dog cult leader status was tailored made for him. When he does go out, Shiloh loves adventures, people, and meeting people on adventures, but mostly he can be found lounging around the meddle studio or chasing after his favorite blue ball.
Meet Red. Red is an Australian Shepherd, and the only one at meddle who’s a Californian native. Before moving to Joshua Tree, meddle was run from a tiny house in the San Bernardino mountains. This was an environment that Shiloh could handle, but an Australian Shepherd could not. A few weeks after purchasing 2.5 desert acres, the search began for a puppy, and a few weeks after that, Red was exploring his new home. Since then, Red’s become the ruler of his little kingdom, spending most days exploring in the sunshine, or napping under the shade of a Eucalyptus tree.
You can catch both Red and Shiloh in the film when it’s released. Keep an eye out for them when you see it!
