EXCELSIOR: Ever Higher - Behind the Scenes

Two yeas ago today, the cast and crew wrapped up principle photography for EXCELSIOR: Ever Higher, a co-production of Bartlett Productions, Daystar Productions and CK Stunts. It was our maiden voyage into the area of dramatic film, and really our first serious project. It was also a tremendous learning experience for the entire crew, and it helped us gain another level of experience and quality.

In memory of the film, we are pleased to release the behind the scenes featurette that was originally produced for the special edition DVD. Enjoy!

-The Excelsior Team

EXCELSIOR: Ever Higher - Behind the Scenes

One Year Anniversary

Hello everyone, we just wanted to put up a short post commemorating the first year anniversary of the filming of Excelsior! Even though we notice many of our own glaring mistakes, we can still see that God's hand was helping and guiding us throughout the production of Excelsior, and He taught us many lessons along the way. We are SO thankful for the time the Lord gave us to make memories together through filmmaking!

Don't forget to check out our YouTube page and old posts on this blog. Also, you can still purchase a copy of Excelsior at www.gloryandgrace.com and see the complete photo gallery here.

We would also like to give a shout-out to our composer Benjamin Dawson, who is producing his own short film right now!! Please check out his blog to keep up on the progress of My Dear Ralph!

Thank you all for your support during the production of Excelsior - we look forward to seeing what God has in store for the future!

God bless,
The Excelsior Team

 

SAICFF

Dear Excelsior followers,

We wanted to let you know that Excelsior: Ever Higher did not make it into the 2012 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (which is February 23rd-25th). However, we know that God works all things out in His timing, and we were glad for the opportunity to be pushed into doing our best by entering! We have SO much yet to learn, and we are looking forward to what God has planned for the future!

We would also like to congratulate those who did make it in this year - it looks like a very excellent and competitive turnout. Great job, everyone!

Sincerely,

The Excelsior Team

 

 

Excelsior BTS - The Music

A BIG thank you goes to Benjamin Dawson for composing the great music for Excelsior. He really portrayed the right emotion in each scene. We would definitely recommend Benjamin to other filmmakers looking for a composer!

You can contact Benjamin here, or go to his website: http://www.composerbenjamin.blogspot.com/

Here are a few of pieces of Benjamin's music:

Excelsior - Opening Scene by benjamindawson

Doug's Decision by benjamindawson

Check out Benjamin's Sound Cloud page to hear more of his music: www.SoundCloud.com/BenjaminDawson

Also, here's a short clip of his interview from the Behind The Scenes Featurette:

Excelsior BTS - The Logo (Video)

In this video, Andrew Bartlett explains how he made the Excelsior logo.

Exclesior Giveaway Winners

Now that the Excelsior DVD Giveaway has officially ended, it is time to announce our winners.  Since we must declare a draw for first place, free DVDs will be mailed to both:

Aubrey Hansen

Lulu Maggie

Congratulations! Please send your mailing addresses to info@excelsiorthemovie.com.

Our Second Place winner is Andrew Bornemann, who will recieve $0.25 off when you order the DVD.  Thanks for participating, Andrew!

For everyone else, you can still see 8 minutes of the Behind the Scenes Featurette free with the post of the Excelsior trailer once or more.  See below for details. 

To purchase the DVD directly, send a check for $10 (including s/h) to:

Excelsior the Movie
6200 230th St S
Hawley, MN 56549

Get Free Exclusive Online Access to BTS

NEW: Any person who posts the Excelsior trailer at least once will receive exclusive password-protected online access to the first 8 minutes of Excelsior's Behind the Scenes (BTS) Featurette!  Just send an email to info@excelsiorthemovie.com after posting your link on the Giveaway blog post.
Enjoy!
-The Excelsior Team

DVD Giveaway and NEW Trailer!!!

The Excelsior Special Edition DVD is now available for sale! Praise the Lord for His faithfulness throughout production. In addition to the actual 15 minute dramatic short film, we have also included a detailed 30 minute Behind-The-Scenes featurette, a revealing commentary on the entire film, outtakes, deleted scenes, and an instructional video on how to make your own camera dolly. 

To celebrate, we decided to host a DVD giveaway.  Here's how it works:

1. Watch the NEW trailer (below).

YouTube


Vimeo


2. Copy the html code and post this trailer in as many unique locations as you can: blogger, facebook, twitter, your website, etc.

3. For each place you post the trailer, comment on this announcement with a link to where we can find it.

4. The person who posts the trailer in the most places by October 10th wins a free DVD!  (A $10 value)

5. The two runner-ups will receive a $0.25 credit toward the DVD for each place they posted the trailer.

To purchase the DVD directly, send a check for $10 (including s/h) to:

Excelsior the Movie
6200 230th St S
Hawley, MN 56549

The Excelsior Production Team

Excelsior Road

When my dad and I were traveling to Baxter, MN last week, we just HAD to stop and take a picture of this road sign!

Also, I wanted to announce that we have an exciting giveaway coming up, so be sure to keep an eye on this blog! :-)

Behind the scenes of the Behind The Scenes

Lately I (Andrew) have been busy working on editing the Behind the scenes for the Special Edition Excelsior DVD.

Me working late...

A screenshot.

Filming Peter's interview.

I'm in the "Cutting" stage. It is about an hour long right now, but we are going for a half hour. So that means something has to go!

Andrew

Excelsior Behind The Scenes Teaser (Video)

Right now we are working on the special features for the Special Edition DVD, coming September 2011!

Working on Excelsior Behind the Scenes Interviews (Video)

New Excelsior Poster

Feel free to share this poster with your friends!

 

EXCELSIOR: Ever Higher - Official Trailer

Exciting Update

The Excelsior crew has been very busy as of late.  After the San Antonio Christian Film Festival moved the early entry deadline to August 15th, we decided to buckle down for some serious editing and finish the movie in time to have it postmarked by that date.  Well, I have news to tell you.  It looks like we made it by the deadline!  Praise the Lord!

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity.  Hundreds of emails going back and forth, Skype meetings, special effects, color correction, last minute audio recordings ...  But the most important development was the finalizing of the original soundtrack by our composer, Benjamin Dawson.  We are very, very pleased with the result!  It definitely takes a dedicated team to make a film.

We look forward to posting a trailer to the movie very soon.  Until then, I remain,

Jonathan Bartlett
Co-Producer

Excelsior Behind the Scenes - Editing

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the process of editing Excelsior!

Excelsior Behind The Scenes - Working on Automated Dialogue Replacement

Take another look behind the scenes of Excelsior!

In this video, Andrew Bartlett is working on compiling the Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) of Tim Johnson's lines for a farm scene.

Excelsior BTS - Automated Dialogue Replacement

Take a look behind the scenes of Excelsior the movie!      

Excelsior BTS - Doug's Apartment Scene

Last weekend Caleb and I (Hannah) drove to our friend's house to film the last scene needed for Excelsior. This was an important scene in Doug's apartment bedroom. A big thank you goes to the U. Family for allowing us to use one of their bedrooms!

It's amazing how long a scene can take to shoot. This particular scene is only about 2 1/2 minutes long edited, but it took us 5 hours to get everything set up and filmed. We couldn't have done it without especially Maria, Lydia, Anna, Clara, and Yenta helping out with the lighting and all of the other little details!

Here are some behind the scenes shots from our photographer for the day, Clara.

 

We experimented with using pillow cases to dim the lighting when it was too harsh. It worked pretty well!

 

For the beginning of the scene, Doug is on the phone, so we had Lydia U. saying the person's lines on the other end of the phone to help Caleb act and remember his lines.

 

 

 

 

My brother Daniel made an amazing curved dolly after Andrew gave him all the instructions on how to do it! Wow - it adds so much quality to the shot!

Some over-the-shoulder shots. :-)

Caleb did a great job acting, and we're so thankful to the Lord that all of our scenes are shot and everything went considerably well! Now, to continue our work on post-production . . .

Have you seen any of these in your area?



:-) Andrew - Director of Excelsior