By Mattson Tomlin I'm a 19 year old film major attending the State University of New York in Purchase. Solomon Grundy is a poem by James Orchard Halliwell from 1840. I've always been rather drawn to it so working with a few actors I shot a proof-of-concept film based on the poem’s opening lines: Solomon Grundy/Born on a Monday. That was well received so I began to adapt the rest of the poem’s lines: Solomon Grundy/Born on a Monday/ Christened on a Tuesday/ Married on a Wednesday/ Took ill on a Thursday/ Worse on a Friday/ Died on a Saturday/ Buried on a Sunday/That was the end of Solomon Grundy I took each line as another ten minute 'episode' in a world with these characters. Over the past few weeks I've had great success raising money for this project via the funding platform website Kickstarter.com. Connecting with people through Facebook and Twitter I've managed to raise $6 000 out of a proposed budget of $10 000. I have until April 24th to complete the project. The film was shot on a Sony PMW EX1 camera and a second unit used a Sony HVR-Z5U. We used two sound inputs recording sound with a Tascam audio recorder and shotgun mic with two other mics wired to the EX1 and Z5U as backup. Our lighting set up was extremely rough around the edges. Two Lowell Totas placed on either side of the set with light just blasting down on the actors’ faces. Knowing the technology I was about to push on this project I was able to completely change the feel from the original lighting to something much more matched to the tone of the scene. I'll be editing through both Final Cut Pro and the Avid as I learn to integrate the special effects technology Grundy will need in the long run. All of the editing will be done in New York City as will the film shoot itself. Upon completion several things will happen. First I'll be delivering the promised boxed sets to everyone who has donated to my Kickstarter. There will be several premiers in theaters on the East Coast and from there I'll be submitting both the individual shorts and the full piece with all of the shorts combined to festivals in the US. I would love to make it available to everyone who wants to see it and will be tackling some means of distribution to make sure everyone can see what I've been working on. Click here to view the proof-of-concept movie on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ymHIJfC5I
