Monday, August 31, 2009

Police on the scene



Gaffer Dan Slemons sneaks behind our Police officers for a sucker punch...



...and they promptly arrest our Lead actor Conrad "HeadRoc" Clifton.




Thanks to our Assistant Director Dave R. Watkins (top L) and actor Philip Covin (top R) for taking the time and care to making the police officers look credible. I was going to settle for "detectives" :)

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Lenny's is wrapped


Director Laron Austin, Gaffer Dan Slemons, and Producer Martin Kelley on the set of Battle.


Well, we worked with Taurean Blacque on Saturday and we shot our opening club scenes at the famous Lenny's Bar on Sunday.

And I still am working from week 1 and 2 photos...really, new ones coming soon.

Anyway, a little about Lenny's Bar for those uninitiated.


Lenny's hosts national and local music acts each week from Rock to Hip Hop, Country to Mashup's.

And how's this for synergy...Lenny's is the venue for The Mighty Mighty Beat Down Producer's Battle the 1st and 3rd Thursday each month...which is hosted by Battle's own talented Dres Tha BeatNIK.

It's a great place to see a show and a nice place to film a movie as well. We're glad we were able to shoot at Lenny's because the scenes we shot were actually written with Lenny's in mind.

So, art imitated life again Sunday as Dres hosted our "battles" and another enthusiastic group of extras really helped create a nice hip-hop club vibe for the actors. Thanks to all the folks who came out on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

.
Now, on Saturday we worked with the talented veteran actor Taurean Blacque and he couldn't have been more gracious to us...I'll definitely talk about that day in detail in a future blog...Yes with more pictures


I should note the following Shake-up on the crew...Onira Tares became impatient with how the film was being shot and she took matters into her own hands much to the chagrin of Director Laron Austin (see below)


Of course I'm kidding...but Onira is playing a documentary filmmaker and she has shot some of the footage that will be used in the film.

Stay tuned as always...

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Taurean Blacque joins the "Battle"

Taurean Blacque joins ‘BATTLE’


Atlanta, August 26-- ReelOne Entertainment announced today that Emmy Nominated Actor Taurean Blacque joined the cast of “Battle,” the Laron Austin (“BeatMakers”) directed film stars Chris Burns (“The Lena Baker Story”, “Somebodies”) Onira Tares (“Jack Squad”) and Conrad “Headroc” Clifton. Scripted by Martin Kelley and Eddie Singleton. Executive Produce by Cassius Weathersby (You Got Served) Produce by Kelley and Singleton along with Kenno Rixson and Bennie Swint.

Taurean Blacque is best known for his role as “Detective Neal Washington” on the cop drama Hill Street Blues.

“Battle” is a coming of age drama about an unknown producer RIPPA (Clifton) who pursues his passion for composing music. He wants to produce music for the top rappers in the industry and be respected as a producer worldwide.

“Battle” blends the mood, vigor, and themes of “8 MILE” with the perseverance and edge of HUSTLE & FLOW” with the old school vibe of “JUICE”

About Reel One Entertainment

Atlanta based multi-platform content provider and Production Company, specializing in entertainment content, online Marketing, and Sales/Licensing. Reel One Entertainment creates and produces low budget, high quality, genre content that entertain, inspire and inform.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Behind the Scenes of "Battle"


Director Laron Austin gets ready for the next Scene.



Producer Kenno Rixson has one too many!

Monday, August 24, 2009

One more night at Eyedrum

Going into our final evening shooting at the fabulous Eyedrum Facility. They've been very helpful and certainly instrumental as a location partner for this film. Tonight we're creating a different atmosphere than we did last week and I'm excited that Reign of Terror's own DJ Dainja as well as Hylandaz' DJ Doc West will be making an appearance in the movie to represent Hip-Hop Deejays!

It's important to us to "get it right" in terms of the Hip-Hop Element in this movie and having real Hip-Hop Deejays in the place will certainly help us "get it right".

Don't have pictures from last week yet, but don't fret because when I get them in my hand, I'm going to go crazy with them and catch you up on all the production happenings thus far.

Was very happy to see a short article on the movie appear in The Hollywood Reporter last week and it reminds me that I've got to introduce lots of folks to all of you who've been following the blog.

Don't worry, I'll be working overtime on the blog when I'm not doing double duty between my daytime occupation as Clark Kent and my nights and weekends gig as SuperProducer for Battle.

Thanks for checking in and definitely stay tuned as there's a big casting announcement happening this week that we're all excited to share with everyone.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Getting WREK tommorrow



What a week we've had.

We shot a lot of performance scenes at the Eyedrum this week and I want to take a moment to praise all the extras who came out...you all seriously SHUT IT DOWN!

Amazing work by all of you. It really created the atmosphere we envisioned when we wrote the script. Thank you so much.

Also, special thanks to Dres Tha BeatNIK as well in the role of Mighty Mouth...it was a demanding week for him as he was in almost all the performance footage. Excellent work DRES! Hope he blogs well of the experience.

The best part is that I got to peek at some of the footage thus far...AWESOME stuff!

Eddie and I are very excited. Hope to get pictures up soon for y'all.

However, tommorrow we resume and at my alma mater, Georgia Tech at the famous WREK radio station.

Plus we get to work with up-and-coming Rapper TRIMM from the might Battery 5 camp.

If you're into an eclectic mix of music...check out the station.
http://www.wrek.org/

and as always, stay tuned...there's a lot more news to come.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Film Battle looks back at Hip-Hop

Big Daddy Kane looks back at a monster hit!



The reason you might find posts featuring artists or music that won't actually be featured in the film...because they relate to what we're addressing in the film.

Behind the Scenes of Battle



ACTRESS ONIRA TARES (LEFT) DIRECTOR LARON AUSTIN (CENTER) ACTOR HEADROC (RIGHT)

On to Eyedrum

Eyedrum
http://eyedrum.org/index.asp

Wow...it's already time for our most challenging and arguably important stretch of filming. The Batte scenes.

We'll have more cast and extras and crew in the next four nights than any other part of our shooting schedule.

I definitely just wanted to take a moment to thank the organization that has generously partnered with us to provide a crucial location for the film.

Eyedrum is a non-profit organization developing contemporary art, music and new media in its gallery space.

Check out their site above and visit them some time.

Also, if your a Hip-Hop fan, you can be part of the film this week only.

Contact teamreelone@gmail.com to confirm.

I will blog about our weekend soon. We've wrapped one location and had another terrific weekend of performances.

Special thanks to Michael D Friedman who was able step in as a last minute replacement and he did a great job on short notice.

The same goes for Philip Covin who worked Saturday and was able to be flexible as we caught up.

More pictures soon but we've still got a lot to do as we're On to Eyedrum.

Stay tuned...

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Thursday, August 13, 2009

What it's all about?




Director Laron Austin works with actor Courtney Gates on the scene.



It has been brought to my attention that we're operating a blog about a movie but we haven't discussed what the movie is all about yet.



Good point. This is what the movie is:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battle

LOGLINE:
A struggling producer dreams of winning a national beat battle contest to gain respect and possibly start a career as a producer.

This is a Hip-Hop film in the vein of “8 Mile”, “Hustle & Flow” and even harkening back to the likes of “Beat Street”.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's hard to quantify a movie though with just one sentence (or two like I have above) but basically, that's what the movie is about.

Of course that doesn't underscore enough that it's way more than that to the team involved. The writers (myself and Eddie Singleton) have been wanting to do a movie about Hip-Hop, our first artistic love as Hip-Hop group Reign of Terror for many years now. So now that we're actually in production it's been hard not to smile, Even when we're sweating logistics and schedules and oh by the way, Money. I've looked over to Eddie and seen him just cheesin' as the characters are embodying our take on the music we grew up living to create and perform.

So, just bear in mind that this movie is (to steal a line from our main character before y'all get a chance to see him perform it so well) "Hip-Hop in its purest form."

That's the reason you might find posts featuring artists or music that won't actually be featured in the film...because they relate to what we're addressing in the film.

Weekend 2 starts tommorrow and we've got some other news coming very soon as well about cast and partners, etc.

Stay tuned...

In the mean time, here's another picture for you.



Director Laron Austin (L) lines up a shot while Producer Martin Kelley (R) checks the schedule.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

1st Weekend went well

The first weekend on any small film production is always daunting. You don't know when you're going to get the first shot off. You don't even know if everyone will even show up.

I have to give credit to our excellent crew for really making the first weekend go as smooth as possible.

Dave Watkins as the AD had a good schedule plan going in, which we promptly re-arranged right away due to conditions on the ground on Night 1. However, we were sensible about every change and actually found ways to make up ground after initially feeling we were getting behind.

Dan Slemons, as always, has tools at his disposal that nobody else has thought of that prove invaluable at tackling the "odd" problems that often arise on a film set.

Great catering from Eddie's wife Nicole as well as my wife Christina came on time and ready to eat. Plus we had Grape AND Orange soda on hand for that little extra flavor one needs at times on set.

The actors HeadRoc, Onira and Chris all did good work and the first round of supporting players really added some nice moments on Sunday as well.

Of course this being a relatively controlled set relative to many we're going to be using during the shoot probably helped matters immensely as well.

All in all, we made our days on time, even early, and did not miss a planned scene. So you can't ask for much more than that from a first weekend.

Thanks everybody,

Martin Kelley
Producer, "Battle"



Wardrobe Stylist Jenique and Camera Assistant Bashiri look on during the 1st weekend of "Battle"

Monday, August 10, 2009

Mitchell visits the set of "Battle"



E. Roger Mitchell (left) and producer Bennie Swint laugh it up on the set of "Battle"



E. Roger Mitchell (Left) visits the set and chats with producer Eddie Singleton.

Production starts on "Battle"



Lead Actor HeadRoc (Left)talks out a Scene with Director Laron(Right)



Onira Tares discovers lots of Vinyl on the set of "Battle"

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Meet some cast

Chris Burns, Clifton "HeadRoc" Rogers and Onira Tares take the lead in Battle



Errol Sadler as Maestro in Battle

Monday, August 3, 2009

New Reel One Logo



It's the new style...Reel One Entertainment - Atlanta

Production starts in 4 days.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle