Scott Ganyo and Tom Sparx

“Soldier’s Song” is a film based on  the real-life experience of an injured soldier returning from Vietnam. Greg Raubins (Tom Sparx) has been paralyzed from the waist down and is in incredible pain. He struggles with his injuries, his family, his roommate Rick (Scott Ganyo), and an uncaring VA Hospital Staff.

Scott Ganyo

The film was shot over a four day period, March 20-23 2009, at the Magichouse studios in Logansport Indiana. The studio is owed by Mark Racop, who servered as Technical Director on the shoot. “Soldier’s Song” was written and co-directed by Michelle Gusow.

Director of Photography Nate Savidge films Tom Sparx and Scott Ganyo

The cast and crew were a joy to work with.

There were many of the usual Magichouse crew: Mark Racop, Mike Williams, Eric Ridge, Megan Werle, and myself (Chuck Budreau).

There were some great additions this time including Director of Photography Nate Savidge and Tom Johnson from Inverted Staircase Productions. Kate Chaplin, Melinda Labita, Stacy Mayo, Neal Werle, Gina Caroway, Nate Caroway, and our latest generation “The Pirates!” Josh and Justin Robbins of “The Dread Family Robbins!”

The Cast was also top notch. Tom Sparx, Scott Ganyo, Micheal Harris, LaDonna Pettijohn, Michelle Gusow, Angela Plank and Doug Bolton.

Sorry for anyone I left out of this list, the long hours of this shoot is leaving me a little scrambled.

Everyone worked hard, did a great job and we all had a great time bringing this tragic story to life. I know many new connections have been made through this film. I had worked with just about everyone before, but getting these people together has been a long time goal for me. I knew that the talent and dedication of these individuals would really shine when they were teamed together. Kate Chaplin asked me this weekend if I’m ever tired of always being right… not this time Kate.  Thanks to everyone for proving me right, you guys are the tops and I look forward to our next shoot.

photos by Nate Caroway

Need a new car?

How did you spend your weekend?

I spent most of Saturday shooting commercial for an old friend of mine. Mark Racop makes the best replica’s of the 1960′s Batmobile you will ever likely see. It’s his day job. The original car was a modified 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. The modifications were done by George Barris, the King of Custom Cars. Mark fell in love with the car when he first saw it… during the original run of the Batman TV series… he was three years old at the time, but he knew he wanted one of those cars.

Not a Monte Carlo

I met Mark in high-school, we hung out and started making movies together.  One day we were looking at the wreckage of his mother’s 1974 Monte Carlo (really good story in itself), and he started drawing up plans to convert it into … a Bat Replica. That Monte was too badly twisted in the wreck… (yes I was driving)… so he found a 1975 Monte Carlo to work with instead. We started the long work of converting it in the spring of 1983. Both Mark and I met our wives while building that car. Chicks love the car.

Heading off for the shoot...

Fast forward about 20 years… Mark is still in love with that car…(and his wife too). He goes to the trouble and expense to rework the Monte Carlo based car we built in the 80′s, with help from our friend Bill Mollencupp,

This really gets Mark thinking… He acquires a full scale mock-up of the original Lincoln Futura (proof you can buy anything on ebay). He repairs the body, pulls molds  and replicates all of the modifications George Barris did to the Futura to create the TV show Batmobile.  Mark and his partner Jeff Sandburg went into business creating these beautiful cars. FiberGlass Freaks is Located in Logansport Indiana.

Seeing Double?

Mark Racop is also the founder of MagicHouse Productions. A production company that has shot several feature films and helped produce many short

films, industrial videos and music videos. Having a commercial to shoot and already having a film crew on hand it seemed the natural thing to do. Mark drew up the shot list, we packed up the equipment, fired up the engines on two amazing cars, and headed for the highway… after calling the local law enforcement agencies to let them know what we were up to… they’ve gotten to know us pretty well. They used to call anytime something strange was happening in the area, just to make sure we were not shooting another film.

I say-a Boom!

A few years ago a couple we knew lost their home when the state decided to build a bypass through it… (hitchhikers reference intentional)… So it seemed like

this stretch of highway owed us one.  The Hoosier Heartland Corridor goes from Logansport to Ft. Wayne. the part that we used, doesn’t get a lot of traffic… perfect for what we needed to do Saturday.

It’s not normal to have two of these cars completed at the same time. It literally just turned out that way. That’s when Mark decided it was time to shoot some footage.

Our camera opps  were Greg Fauvergue and Eric Ridge.

Say Cheese!

Eric has some of the coolest toys… and the best ones he built himself.  Case in point. His camera crane… it’s too cool to be called a jib. It extends about 25 feet into the air and the head is remote controlled.

It’s always a blast working with the MagicHouse crew. I’ve know all of these people for longer than most of us would like to admit. Doing what you love to do, with good friends can hardly be called work.

I spent most of the day as a traffic jam creator. I would drive a few tenths of a mile back from the cars and camera truck and hold back the other traffic.  I’m sure I was called some very unpleasant things by those other

Eric and Greg talk about the shoot with Mark.

drivers… It wouldn’t be the first time, I’m sure.

We started shooting at about 9:00am and didn’t wrap until about 5:00pm. Afterwards Mark treated the crew to Chinese at China Lane. yum!

At the end of the day the our ‘Stars’ had an opportunity to pose original Monte Carlo replica.

Action!

Greg gets some close-ups

Triplets

Photos by Chuck Budreau & Eric Ridge