TO EVERYONE AND ANYONE WHO HAS WATCHED THIS MOVIE...

mebeSOL -

So glad you checked it out... not only that, but you then bought it AND watched the special features??? Wow. A true fan, I guess.

I'm sure I can speak for everyone that worked on the film when I say "thanks" for sharing the film and for helping us get the word out.

All the best.

Shaun

Thanks for watching it on Netflix and THANKS SO MUCH for buying the film...

It means so much to everyone who worked on the film to have your support.

S

I actually saw this movie the same way. I was browsing indie films on netflix that were watch instantly and had decent ratings because I wanted to find good movies I hadn't seen before. I loved this movie. It reminded me a lot of me and my ex-girlfriend. Of course there were a few differences between my situation and the movie, but Dakota reminded my of my ex-gf and her bf in the movie definitely reminded me of her ex-bf who she was with when I met her.

Hey. Thanks for watching the film.

Traditional film coverage works in a pretty specific way... You start with a Master (a very wide shot to give your audience of the geography, or setting and your characters placement within that space), then you move in closer for what is called "coverage." Coverage is where you "cover" your actors in a two shot or maybe a single (two shot is both of your actors in frame, while a "single" is one actor in frame). There is also a shot called an "over" in which you might catch just the shoulder of one actor on the the others coverage - the term refers to shooting over the shoulder of one actor onto another.

In the question you're referring to, one of the car scenes, a filmmaker could cover it several different ways. On our film, we didn't have a ton of resources, so the actors were actually driving in the scene. On bigger films, the actors are usually on a tow rig called an "insert car," or in the case of stunt sequences, the chassis of the car is placed on a rig known as the "Go-Mobile."

Anyway, in answer to your question, yes. The actors did that scene several times. Sometimes, we'd cut between takes and others we'd just do as a series - meaning that we never cut, we just roll into the next take and continue the scene from the top. So. We rigged the camera onto the drivers side of the car, raking across Ian Nelson as "Jonah" and getting Eileen's coverage. We'd do the scene all the way through a few times that way. Then we'd return to our basecamp and rig the camera onto the other side of the car raking across Eileen onto Ian. Again, we'd do the same scene a few times until the director got what he wanted.

As for the sound... well. The driving scenes in "Dakota Skye" were very difficult for us. Road noise and other ambient sound can often be a problem for indie films and I know our director had a really hard time smoothing out the rough edges on these scenes. What is basically done is that a Mixer in Post-Production takes chunks of the sound that fall between the dialogue (the ambient or "room tone"), loops the sound and layers it under the entire scene.

I don't recall how much of the dialogue was ADR'd or Looped, but we may have done a bit. If I recall correctly, most of the dialogue in these scenes is from the production track, meaning it was mixed on set. As a matter of fact, "Kevin's" SUV in the film was pretty loud, so JB Ghuman, Jr. did a bit of ADR on his driving scenes with Eileen. ADR is Additional Dialogue Replacement (or Automated Dialogue Replacement, depending on who you talk to).



Sorry of this is information overload. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have about the process or to clarify anything I explained already.

Best regards,

Shaun O'Banion
Producer, "Dakota Skye"

Hhfarm -

Thanks for the post.

I think the director and screenwriter would be better suited to address most of your notes, but I will mention one on behalf of them: Our screenwriter (Chad Shonk) is a HUGE history buff - and I have noticed (over the years) several books on Thomas Jefferson on his shelf. I never asked him, but knowing his knowledge of history, I'd always just assumed that the true history of Jefferson was that he did, in fact, free only five slaves ("all blood relatives.")

I could be wrong, like I said, I never asked - it could be a bit of playfulness on his part.

For the record though, I think the original music in the film (written by Bay Dariz) is really good stuff and the score, I think is sweet - it is, as often happens, slightly influenced by music we temped in and enjoyed in other films (like "I Heart Huckabees"). But yeah. We were very happy with what composer Seth Podowitz brought us.

I don't know if the director or screenwriter will chime in here, but either way, I'm glad you were able to look beyond the few problems you had and still enjoy the film as a whole. Your comments were thoughtful and your praise of the film is most appreciated.

I suppose I begin to sound like a broken record here with all the "thank you" stuff to people, but it's viewers like yourself that are giving our film a life out there and it's pretty amazing for those of us involved who were just making a little film with friends.

Best regards,

Shaun O'Banion
Producer, "Dakota Skye"

So glad you like the film... Let us know when you get one of your movies out there in the world! We'll check it out!

Wow! So glad to hear that the film made it all the way there!

You thanked us for making it and we thank you for watching it. The film didn't truly exist for us until we put it out into the world for it to be found and watched and discussed... so like I wrote before, good or bad, it's just nice to read comments on here.

Hope you find your "Jonah" someday.

S

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you but I've been busy with another film...

Guess I need to check into the comment page more often.

In answer to your question: I'm not exactly sure how long it took Chad to write the screenplay, but I don't think it took very long. "Dakota Skye" is, by far, his most personal script (if you watch the special features on the dvd, he kind of explains the genesis of the idea).

What I can tell you is that he had the script for something like 5 years before we made the film... and that once John decided to make it, there were a few re-writes (one of which changed the setting which had been Atlanta).

So, the actual writing was fast... but the journey to the screen was long.

S

Just caught this on NetFlix instant. I enjoyed the story. I really liked when she starts to take control of her life instead of letting things happen to her. She seems to come alive then. The red hat that she puts on at the end, to me, is significant. It was the first time I noticed her wearing a bright color, like she wanted to be seen.

Anyway, good job.

Wow, man.

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Again, I apologize for taking so long to respond... but above all...

T H A N K Y O U F O R Y O U R S E R V I C E.

It is pretty amazing to me that the movie found it's way all the way to an Army base in Iraq and I can only hope that our little movie will give anyone who finds it there a little sense of home.

I wish you all the best, Zack, for a safe tour and hopefully a safe return home.

Regards,

S

Thanks so much. Glad you liked the film - and please tell your friends about it!

All the best,

S