Now that you’ve watched the film, we also created a behind the scenes step by step process on how the film was made! Grab some snacks and a comfy seat and enjoy!

Pre-Production

“Believe” is a incredible example of showcasing collaboration at it’s best. This project came together so quickly and wouldn’t have been possible with out everyone involved.

Jay came up with the concept for “Believe” after hearing the title song by Night Fevers. It was one of those weird moments where the idea just hit him and it hit him hard. It was so different than other film ideas he has had. He usually goes with the dark and moody vibes with his films or tries to go energetic or epic. This though.. this was different. This was just a feel good story. No crazy effects or transitions. Just a really great story.

Because he knew the story so well and had it all pretty locked in with the characters and the concept, pre production was actually kind of a breeze for us!

Locking in the Locations

Ok we needed a school with a gym.. but it had to look older. Easy task right?? Wrong! Most schools either have updated facilities or are simply newer schools. Luckily, Jay knew a guy who knew a guy that got us a school that was built in the 70s with minor updates. Boom! School was locked in. What about the gym?? Well, that was updated. Crap. Ok back to the drawing board. Jay’s friend Josh Coe worked for a church and offered the gym at his church. He showed me a photo and our mouths dropped. It was incredible! It had EVERYTHING we ever hoped for to create Jay’s vision!

Last little obstacle. The house for the lawn mower scene. In Phoenix there are so many new builds and cookie cutter houses. However there are some really great houses in central Phoenix that are a little older with a lot of great character. Luckily, one of Jay’s closest friends Mike Olbinski (He’s kind of a big deal.. Emmy winner, his footage is in Thor, and so much more), has a house just like that! The text message went like this “Hey Mike! Can I use your house to bring my buddy over to do a dance on your lawn?” His response, “Uh sure! Why not!?”

Casting

Again!  Jay knows people!  His buddy Seth Dunlap (also kind of a big deal) texted him saying he was getting into acting and asked if we had any projects that we might have a need for with him. INSTANTLY we could see him as playing “Max” for this film.  We asked him if he could do a choreographed dance and the rest was history.

The other characters were a bit tougher. We needed the love interest for Max and we also needed a bully. We know a pretty amazing casting director, we have known him for a long time; we used him for other projects as well and hit him up to see if he could find anyone. Enter in Brantun Hensley and Taylor Mcglone. Dang we cannot say enough amazing things about these two. Brantun truly owned the character and delivered far past our expectations. Taylor knocked it out of the park and was so sweet as the love interest.

Styling

Where the heck are we going to get 80’s clothes? That’s where Risa came in. Risa is a stylist that we’ve been able to work with on other projects. She is truly talented at hearing a vision for outfits and making it come to life. Risa just so happened to know a vintage shop that provided the prom dress, all of Taylor’s outfits for the school scenes, most of Seth’s and Brantun’s outfits. We hit the jackpot with that shop.

Seth’s suit was actually just a cheap suit I bought on Amazon, Amazon for the win!  We bought two suits in two different colors.  The other one was a light blue and we all agreed that it wasn’t a good look.

Production

Everyone has been asking about the shoot itself.  Let’s start by saying it was unreal.  We were so humbled by the community of friends and people in the industry who just wanted to help and be a part of something. We couldn’t have done it without them.

House Filming

After Seth flew in, we pretty much went straight to Mike’s house to film the lawn mower scene. He got into character and danced his heart off on that grass. What was great though was this scene was sort of in the middle of the film. It’s when Max is gaining confidence but still learning the dance.

Starting with that scene really helped ease Seth into his character. Seth is already a fun and energetic guy so getting him started with just being fun and goofy set the tone well.

The Dance

We don’t even know where to start with this. Four hours… thats all we had to set up, film and clean up. Most of that time was spent on set up. Once people started showing up, we all delegated task after task after task to anyone and everyone. Whether it was blowing up balloons, setting up streamers, or running to the store for extension cords, there was always something needing to be done.

Because of time, we only set up half of the gym. Which made things interesting with filming. We needed the gym to look full. So it was just a matter of playing around with angles.

Once we were all set up, we had a haze machine going to give some atmosphere in the gym. Seth did the dance about four times and really only messed up once. Actually the last time he did the dance he ripped a hole in the crotch of his pants. When filming the dance, Jay had the DJI Ronin 2 set up with the RED Epic-W along with an Easyrig. However, after the second try he ditched the Easyrig and toughed it out holding it for the entire sequence.

The School

After filming at the church gym, it was clean up and head straight to the school. We only had three hours to film five scenes. Needless to say, time was of the essence. However, since we were all in that mindset already with the gym earlier, we were in a groove of acting fast on the fly.

With a lot of our extras leaving after the dance scene at the gym, it made creating a full classroom and hallway tough. We pushed all the desks aside and filled up two rows of seats and shoot from really only one angle. For the hallway, it was just a matter of staggering people to make it look full.

Added Scenes

We knew there needed to be more. There just wasn’t enough to make this a full story. So we all kept an open mind. The first day Seth was in town, we finished the lawn mower scene, got some food, did a little shopping and BOOM! An EPIC sunset. Arizona is kind of known for consistent epic sunsets. Since light moves fast, Jay knew an area with an open field right next to my house. So we drove over there, jumped out, and did a silhouetted shot of Seth practicing the dance.

Other scenes we added in last minute were the shower scene where Seth is singing and dancing in the shower. The bike scene where we drove around central Phoenix to find an older neighborhood to fit with the time period. An open field mid day to practice the dance. Lastly, the dodgeball scene…

We asked Brantun (the actor who played the bully) if he was down to film one more scene with us. We bought some matching short shorts, socks, and head bands and dressed them up for P.E. When planning the dodgeball hit, Seth asked Brantun to just hit him hard with it. After a few tries, Seth got smacked pretty good in the face. His reaction was a real reaction in the film! Thanks Seth for taking it like a man.

Post Production

After the second day of filming, we just had to start putting this together. Seth, Clayton, Chelsea and Jay got some beers and within about two hours, most everything was put together for a rough cut. We still had some filming to do obviously but about 70% of it was there and looking incredible.

Doing that actually helped us see what was missing and what we could add in the next day before Seth had to leave. Thats where we came up with the dodgeball scene, shower scene, and the mid day open field dance scene.

Once things calmed down it was time to really start editing this film.

Sound Design

Always one of our favorite things to do. Jay called Seth and asked him to record breathing sounds and grunting sounds for when he trips in the dance scene and is breathing heavily.

We added in sounds of shoes on the ground squeaking. The sound of the old bike when Seth is riding it to Prom. The shower sound, the whispers from the crowd when Seth enters the gym, the sound of people talking in the hallway, and so many more sounds.

Coloring

This was colored in a very goofy way. Clayton was really getting into Davinci Resolve and wanted to color it. So we went back and forth. Jay liked some of it, and didn’t like some of it. So half this film was colored by him while the other half was colored by Jay. I will say, the scene with Seth dancing, was colored beautifully. Clayton freaking nailed that coloring without using LUTs!