A Walk Through Time With Baxter Smalls

Volunteerism, dedication, and hard work for the love of the art--exemplified!! Yep, that's what happened this weekend and several of our illustrious forum members were in top form.

Whisky Tango Productions and director Marcus McCollum shot footage for a 3-minute mini-pilot for "A Walk Through Time With Baxter Smalls", a comedy series about a time-traveling documentary filmmaker. Baxter Smalls, played by Tom Konkle, an actor seasoned with the likes of Monty Python and who studied in London under the tutelage of Dame Judi Dench, was a pleasure to work with. His amazing improvisational comedy skills and incredible dialect range, as well as his professional approach to the work (unpaid!) was truly inspiring!

Shooting took place in the Antelope Valley and Temescal Canyon areas to portray exotic locales such as ancient Egypt and Iceland.

Our very own QC portrayed an ancient Egyptian slave. Actually, thanks to some very special effects by top-notch effect specialist Mike Smith, QC will be playing several slaves because his image will be digitally reproduced several times throughout the footage. Initially slated to be very deep in the shot, QC's enthusiasm and ability to take direction landed him far more camera time than initially intended.

AMAZING Viking costume pieces were provided by several sources, most notably Renegade Studios in Hollywood, where they've produced iron and leather combat gear for movies like Gladiator. Steve, the premier leathersmith at Renegade and expert on all things Viking and Nordic, was overjoyed to entrust Keltron, one of our stylists for the shoot, with irreplaceable, handmade pieces. The helmets and shields alone were valued in the tens of thousands of dollars! Keltron had the opportunity to work on set with veteran union stylist Susan Ninninger, who is also an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.

Kara designed and applied facial hair (beards, mustaches) and a Viking wig as well as makeup for the shoot. Record-high temps and remote locations proved challenging, but fun.

The incredible mix of amateur and professional talent on this shoot was nothing short of inspiring, and spoke volumes about what great work can be achieved when everyone is looking toward the same goal. Well done, EVERYONE!

Thanks for the compliments Kara!! I thought you and keltron did a fantastic job with making the actors look great. Tom is easily the funniest person I have ever met. I'll be posting photos I took from the shoot as soon as I can get around to them.

I had a great (and exhausting) time getting to participate in a whole slew of different things on set. As an actor, photographer, water boy, precarious mountain logging road driver (8 times!), cattleherd, tent engineer, and numerous other roles for the shoot, I got to meet everyone involved and see the production from all sides. For my first time at a professional filming, it was an interesting introduction to the art!

Call me for the next one Kara!

Wow! Sounds like a lot of fun! Call me for the next one, too!!!! Love to help out!

Awesome, Melster-
It's being edited (and edited, and edited, and edited...).
Has anyone seen my husband??

It's coming along quite well. Talk abounds regarding a possible entry at Sundance (shorts).

Fingers crossed!

Keep us posted on the developments!!!

Good luck!

(also crossing fingers)

Hello, All!

Thought I'd post the happy announcement that our homegrown production of A Walk Through Time with Baxter Smalls is officially edited and the first several copies have been Fed-Ex'd off to various major film festivals for consideration in the "Short Films" categories. Woo-hoo!
For those of you wishing to meet Baxter and see clips from the film, you can visit the official Baxter Smalls website at www.baxtersmalls.com. Some minor glitches are still being worked out by our illustrious but completely overworked computer whiz. But if something is just waaaaay off base on the website, please tell me about it.

QC, you may be regretting letting Keltron put you in that Egyptian slave costume. I have a feeling this may end up being really big...

Enjoy!
Kara