I started working on Roland's Film in 2016 (when it started production) which took place not just in Brockton Massachusetts, but all over New England, including Rhode Island, Connecticut, and I think there's people that worked on the film from New Hampshire, New York, Maine, and possibly other spots. I met soooooooo many people working in film, television, SFX, VFX, GFX, Makeup, Playwrights, theatre, academia, Popular Music Industry, Indie Creators, and the Art World.  

It's normal to have a variety of different talents and styles working on "Indie" Films, and opinions of what makes something "Indie", or Independent can vary greatly.

I went to Art School/Film School, so I tend to lean towards quality, beauty, marketability, and sometimes even more Commercial or Refined, but when when I minored in Cinema Studies at UMASS Boston around that time, the edgy rough styles were very popular again, and old Troma Pictures' work comes to mind.

Let's just say that when working on a film, any number of random changes can happen. The leading roles were recast MULTIPLE TIMES, and even getting anyone to commit to that roles were like pulling teeth. The 2 main roles were the main character The Islamic Rabbi With The Cross & Moonbeam. There was also a reincarnation version part for Moonbeam which also posed a number of conundrums.

I actually lost count of how many actors were cast as the Main role, because the final one moved out of the country for like 2 years, then returned. This is part of the Reason why Dionysus (Played by Papa Joe) was written as the Storyteller, because we had different actors shot in different scenes on different sets, in different years, and some of those sets could NEVER be reshot again because they were GONE. This was supposed to explain why he looked like different guys, because we spent so much time, money, effort, labor, etc. on the film for years, and it needed to be finished.

The 1st Actor was actually pretty impressive, and he was also a cameraman himself, but he had friction with the DP at the time, also didn't like some of the footage he was was shot and claimed it "it looks like a Terrorist Taliban Sleeper Cell". So, already we have some stylistic style disagreements. But, he up & quit on the spot, and he was also a professional camera man.

After the original actor for the main role quit, the director's friend played the role out of kindness. He was also rather good, but he was so exhausted and he was shifting his life into a new direction, and I think how was studying to be an EMT, or some kind of training or education to further his life's income needs. So, he was strapped for time, was tired, busy, and even tho he did a good job, the weight of all of it showed in his performances. I often felt divided over over it, because he was actually a decent guy, actually was a decent actor, but he wasn't right for the part, and he also had no enthusiasm at all to play the role, and reluctantly did so out of his respect for his friendship with Roland. This film meant EVERYTHING to Roland.

We even had to get other men to shoot parts from BEHIND because we just couldn't always get him to set, because he just couldn't. Also, I think he went through some traumatic life situations in his family life as well.

Then, by the Autumn of 2017, the DP Flew The Coop and FIRED HERSELF, and went down in flames doing it. I have zero interest in picking on her at all, but she had to go to rehab. Well, you gotta take care of yourself. So good on her! The Director & Myself actually really liked the original DP a lot, but for whatever reason, she self destructed, and she was so mean about it, as if she was offended by us caring about her problems & being sympathetic about her since we valued all the many many talents she had; and when she was in a good mood she was so lovable, likeable, and a pleasure to work with and be around. But, she was so mean, harsh, visceral, cruel, rude, and combatitive that she intentionally crossed some lines, specifically to force us to NOT forgive her, thus sabotaging all of it. I get it, she needed to "get clean", but she broke our trust, and it was so painful. She bullied the Director so badly because she just really didn't want to be forgiven, and some people punish others as a way of punishing themself. It's all so very complicated. And, that DP was also highly intelligent, and knew what she was doing.

This was how I became the DP for several years, and the majority of the Film.

The Main Character "The Islamic Rabbit with The Cross" is actually 2 different actors in this cut. You can see that the actor actually does have talent, but he was so exhausted, and playing the role out of kindness & duty as a friend to the Director, which shows how great of a guy he was in Real Life.

However, we eventually cast someone else, whom was an actual thespian, whom was supposed to be more readily available at the time.

As you can tell, the footage shot here was NOT shot by me, but it is my edits.

This footage was either shot by the original DP, whom fired herself, USUALLY ON MY DSLR EOS CAMERA (CANON 70D) or it was shot by The Director himself on his CANON Camcorder, or it was shot by the DP on the Camcorder.

Some things to note are things like EXPOSURE, and Stylistic choices in lighting.

These shots tend to found less on composition, lighting, and exposure, and have that very Generation X/1st Wave Millennial vibe typical of late 1990s & Bush Era content that's meant to seem "edgy", "Reality TV", Old School Y2K "Indie" which in some ways does fit to the themes n the film. However this caused all kinds of problems in editing, including consistency, eye-lines, and was so much of a puzzle to piece together is if by puzzles from other puzzles.

Another issue with this filming location (Mostly in Glenn Park Rhode Island) was THE NOISE! The Airplane traffic was NONSTOP constantly on most filming days.  The Horse riders, pedestrians, and dog walkers constantly getting into the shot. The area was highly prone to cloud cover. All of this consonantly made people irritable, and for whatever reason, the specific days WE shot there would be 98-100 degrees even in October.

I know the feeling of being a Filmmaker and having worked so hard on something, and spent so much time, and the footage is not good enough to use. The Ego DOES NOT want to let it go, and you will TRY SO HARD to salvage everything you can! But, with so many setbacks & problems, eventually you just need to start over, and reshoot everything.

The music I made for the film was meant to sound like the 1990s & also the 2000s, but especially 90s & Y2K. The 90s were a heavily theme in the film.

I heavily referenced the 1990s styles of House Music, Dubbing, UK Garage Music, and "New Age" including "sampling" and "dubbing" but I did all of mine digitally.

I spent easily 2 weeks just referencing music structure/format compositions in work by Enigma, Schiller, Dido, Maduro, Beats Antique, Waterbone, Amon Tobin, Solace's Remixes, Mosavo, Shinnobu, Auditory Canvas, Dakini Records' Tribal Matrix & Tribal Matrix 2 Projects, and spent hours sourcing beats & samples to build an audio library with which to compose the music. I studied music as a child in Elementary & Middle School in New Jersey, and even played violin as a child, as well as dabbled a lot in DJ mixing. But, I'm hardly a pro, and more of a HACK. Keeping it real.

I don;t remember an exactly specific single song I was referencing as a song structure, as far as House Music Goes. But, I wanted a feeling more like Enigma's 1st 3 Albums from the 1990s, as well as the vibe from Waterbone's work, but I also like the structure of songs off Beats Antique's 1st 2 albums, especially their 1st Album, and some aspects of Dido's use of audio in mixing & arrangement.

But, I'm pretty sure the biggest arrangement influence of how I structured the song was a track on Maduro's Album called "Qanundrum" or Beats Antique's 1st Album, however, mine does NOT have the DARK ETHNO GOTH INDUSTRIAL vibe.

The Point of the Music was to evoke the dedication of "The Islamic Rabbi with The Cross" to search for The Holy Maple Tree, to convey the passing of time, but also to hint at the Spiritual Inspiration of this character, while also feeling like that 1990s-2000s Hippie vibe of "The New Age" which meshed modern with the old, and the nostalgic. This was also why I wanted to sound somewhat like "Enigma".