Our Story

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Work on  "The Beacon" began almost 2 years ago in 2015. Starting with an outline and some concept art, Chris Staehler (Director) pitched the idea to Chris Purdy (Director of Photography) and before long, their team had grown exponentially. During the Fall and winter of 2015, the Chris's worked on developing the story with Co-Writer, David Quandt into a full fledged short film. In May 2016, pre production was full throttle. Costumes were being made, casting was being decided on and scheduling began for a 12 day shoot at the beginning of July. Filming for "The Beacon" began July 11th, 2016 at Laurel Canyon Stages. Shooting lasted 4 days with a daily crew of up to 40 people and included some of the most complex staging and lighting gags of the entire shoot. After Laurel, the production took a day off to relocate to Anaheim, where we set up shop in an AirBnB for a quick 2 day shoot covering the opening of the film. A second day off followed our AirBnB shoot as we once again relocated and prepared for our final stage of shooting at Chapman University. Utilizing the sound stages and the prop/set department, we concluded our shoot in a 4 day hurricane of activity. Nearly 3 of these days took place on a green screen stage which proved to be a fun but challenging experience for both actors and crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Over the next several months, work began on editing the film down to a reasonable size. In January 2017, we began to approach a near locked edit and started the lengthy process of post production and visual effects. The film has over 240 visual effects shots including some that are entirely CGI. With only a handful of artists, we completed the visual effects in the Summer of 2018. 

 

We are immensely proud of the film we have been able to make on so little. We sincerely hope you enjoy it as we take it around to festivals. Keep up to date on screenings and more information through our social media pages. 
 

We are very excited to share the Beacon with you and hope you enjoy not only the final product, but the story of our journey as it unfolds.

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