Nightmare motels, hidden caves, and breakfast logistics

But we were eye-ing some AirBnB’s as our primary shooting location and lodging for the team anyway, so we set out for those the next morning.

Unfortunately, when we scouted them out – both options turned out disappointing.

For various reasons they just didn’t live up to the hype of the AirBnB photos. Plus both were too small to host our entire team anyway, so we would have been split up, creating logistical annoyances.

Luckily, by asking around town, we found a better hotel nearby. Cozy, clean, everyone could have their own room, and they had an on-site café willing to discuss catering the film. Huge win!

But then, we found something even better.

A private ranch with multiple cabins on-site—cheaper and more flexible. We could rent the whole place and use it as basecamp, while filming some scenes right there on the land. House the whole team in one location. It was exactly what I didn’t know I was looking for.

Only catch: no built-in food plan. So we’re now figuring out how to source prepped meals locally or stock up and cook at the cabins for some meals.

Uber Eats is not an option out there so we have to plan ahead.

And we have EARLY starts during this shoot, but the area doesn’t seem to do breakfast before 8am unless we want to feed everyone McDonald’s every morning.

We’ll most likely work out a deal with a local cafe to cater breakfasts for us.

☁️ Shooting in the Wild PNW

Mornings up there were pure magic, with fog drifting over the mountains and pines, coating everything in atmosphere. We’d wake up before dawn and get scouting—chasing blue hour and golden hour.

A lot of our exteriors need to be shot in blue or golden hour, since we won’t be doing much lighting up there.

But as we started discussing scheduling, we discovered another big problem…

Up there in summer, the sun rises around 5:15am and doesn’t set until 9pm. Since we can’t work our team 18 hours a day, that means we’ll only get one blue/golden window per day—unless we did split days, which would wreck the crew’s sleep and violate turnaround rules (you’re supposed to get 12hrs from wrap until the next day’s call time).

We compromised by scheduling a single “emergency” split day at the end. Fingers crossed we don’t need it.

🐾 Nature’s Production Value

The biggest win of the trip was finding the hardest location of this whole film – the cave entrance.

All the struggle felt worth it as we rounded the hill to the most storybook mine/cave entrance you could imagine, complete with a waterfall spilling over mossy fallen logs.

However, it’s a two-mile hike with steep elevation gain and some slippery terrain. Getting gear up there will be a challenge, but worth it. Fortunately there’s a few more shots we’ll be picking up on that trail.

Elsewhere, we found wild riverbanks, massive moss-covered boulders, and tree limbs that look like they were designed by Dr. Seuss.

📡 No Signal, No Problem

Cell service was rough out there – we had coverage maybe 25% of the time. No good for coordinating a team of people.

We’ll be using wireless headsets for close-range comms out there, and likely investing in some long-range walkie-talkies and maybe even using Starlink to have a reliable hotspot.

Also: we’ll need bear spray. And bells.

Did I mention they have bears?

💡 Next Steps

We took our time—two and a half days this time instead of a frantic 24-hour trip—and I’m so glad we did. We asked locals for tips, hiked through constant rain, and finally saw the story start to materialize in these real locations.

Now that we’ve locked down these spots, we’ve been able to start building a real budget and schedule.

As of today, we’ve got eight weeks until we roll camera, which feels fast considering how many pieces of the puzzle still need to come together.

But back in L.A. now, the momentum is picking up. Armed with shoot dates and a rough budget, I’m making calls, sending emails, and making progress.

I’ll try to continue documenting this process for YouTube… but fair warning: the next few weeks might be quiet while I get my head down and focus on making this thing real.

Likely all the making-of videos will be quite delayed from when they actually happened.

That’s all for now, but thanks for coming along for the ride.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent

PS – I’ll be at NAB in Las Vegas next week! Come say hi at the Hollyland booth Mon & Tues 🙂