The final day of shooting for The Forest Eater ended Sunday, January 24. Now it’s on to editing and post.

It’s been a genuine pleasure working with some of the finest actors, craftsman, photographers & artists I’ve ever had the honor of working with. It wasn’t always easy; there was rain, cold weather, a truck stuck in a ditch, late nights (aka early mornings), location issues, electrical issues, gear issues, chainsaw issues (!), creature issues (!!). But if it were easy everybody would do it, right? And it wasn’t always fun (the one late night/early morning when we wrapped at 4 am, went to bed by 6, and then woke to heavy rain 3 hours later on a major shooting day), but it was often hilarious, inspired, adventurous, and felt like the way you did when you were 8 years old running through the woods playing ‘Army’.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Special thanks to all involved (in no particular order):

• Our INCREDIBLY generous IndieGoGo supporters!
• Steve Pitre (my OMG amazing DoP who shot INSANELY sweet footage!)
• Evan Dumouchel (aka lumberjack Jon Romero)
• Josh Thies (aka ‘The Suit’, aka Kotodama)
• MacLeod Andrews (aka lumberjack Ray Carpenter)
• Carl Chamberlin (aka Tommy Craven)
• Alan Vance (the man who lit it all up, beautifully, on our night shoot)
• Ian Reinhard (aka as poor MacFarland — you’ll see!)
• Joan Lluró (Mr. Gimbal and Focus man, the Man with a Plan and a Steady Hand)
• Stacy McClanahan (showed up on Day One to help me cast ‘The Suit’!)
• Mike Dacko (PA for one day and provided photos)
• Mike Dacko’s girlfriend (who helped Mike — and me!)
• Derek Beecham (the master of sound)
• Jeremiah Stewart (who provided fantastic, custom stickers!)
• Dana Nachman (who led me to my amazing DoP!)
• My lovely wife Lisa, who patiently puts up with my wild creative urges!
• Jay Farrington & the guys at Chater Camera, Berkeley (thanks Jay!)
• Tim Partridge, Greg Maloney and Sean House at 32Ten Studios, San Rafael
• Ryan & Whitney (Sean Foley’s neighbors, who provided our night location!)

And finally, the master of disaster (at least, in terms of creature design), Mr. Sean Foley, my partner in crime from the earliest discussions on this, who interpreted my vision for this creature and this project, who supplied a few witty lines of dialogue, who basically motivated me to soldier on, on those days when I felt like this was all too complicated based on what little budget I had, who sweated and slaved, who stayed up late (often out in the cold, working through the night) and woke up early . . . all of this to create a little slice of cinematic beauty. Sean, I really couldn’t have done it without you, bro.

From Sunday (January 24), the final (and blessedly short!) shoot day:

Check out these stills from earlier in December:

And these behind the scenes shots:

 

Thank you all again. Your participation means the world to me!

 

Rob Simmons

Director

The Forest Eater