Kickstarter Projects

What We Want to Do: Aerial Footage Capture
This summer (2013) we will capture B-roll shots including aerial footage of the Navajo Nation reservation landscape using the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. The Great Southwest offers surreal landforms, vivid colors, and complex textures. We hope to offer our audience a diversity of beautiful, sweeping shots of the southwest region.

"Not many people take in those subtle moments of appreciating the beauty of landscapes." - Anonymous
Please enjoy our video previews i.e. behind the scenes, etc. Don't forget this whole film production is done using mobile technology; all footage captured using the iPhone 4. With the advent of quality mobile technology hardware, the average user can now share creative film and still photo projects.

Risks and challenges
We started this project as an idea. This idea turned into more research and the start of a historical novel. Then my brother, Robert, who is in the New Mexico film industry said, "Hey I think you have a great short film on your hands. Let's make a film."

The novel quickly transformed into a screenplay and with the support of our production crew (ALL VOLUNTEERS!) we did capture truly amazing film footage. Our friends and families believe in this project and we hope to offer our youth the opportunity to see a true American Indian perspective, a perspective from our oral stories that they hear from their bedside, at the dining table, and at family reunions.

If we do not get funded we simply will use ground level B-roll shots.

Visit our Kickstarter project here.

Behind the Scenes "The Great Chacoan Escape" (2012 Trailer)

Three young Dine girls escape being captured by Ute trackers and oncoming U.S. military cavalry "The Great Chacoan Escape" (Pictured: Lawana Castillo, June Winters, and Lavencie Cayaditto).

Ute warrior poses (Pictured: Christian Walters).

Ute tracker searches for Dine families and leads U.S. military to homesteads (Pictured: Andrew F. Begay).

Dine female character reacts to warriors advancing up a trail (Pictured: June Winters).

1864 area militia join the U.S. military on the Navajo Long Walk campaign (Pictured: Lee Johnson).

1864 area militia join the U.S. military on the Navajo Long Walk campaign (Pictured: Lee Johnson & Manuel Ornelas).

Pictured: Manuel Ornelas

Pictured: Manuel Ornelas

Pictured: Lee Johnson

Pictured: Andrew F. Begay, Director/Writer Kialo Winters, Producer Allison Tachine

Two warriors collide during a choreographed fight scene (Pictured: Christian Walters & Robert Tsinnajinnie).

Female character preps for a scene where she is shot in the shoulder (Pictured: Director/writer Kialo Winters & Lavencie Cayaditto).

Male character returns to the seet after lunch break (Pictured: Robert Tsinnajinnie).

Female character poses before her scene (Pictured: June Winters).

Male character humors everyone with his zombie take (Pictured: Christian Walters).

The two tangle clan brothers exchange production notes for the day (Pictured: Robert Tsinnajinnie & Kialo Winters).

Cast and crew take lunch break (Pictured: Co-Producer - Allison Tachine, grip Elden Morgan, Robert Tsinnajinnie, Seamstress - Novalene Castillo-Meyers, Christian Walters, Kialo Winters, Andrew F. Begay).

Ute warrior tracker aims and fires at a Dine warrior (Pictured: Andrew F. Begay & Harriet Otero).

Female Dine character is prepped for a scene (Pictured: Harriet Otero).

Characters rehearse their scene (Pictured: Director/writer Kialo Winters, Lawana Castillo, and Robert Tsinnajinnie).

A Dine female character and Ute warrior fight during a choreographed scene (Pictured: Lavencie Cayaditto & Christian Walters).

Choreographed fight scene with actors.

Director/writer Kialo Winters captures the point-of-view of the Ute Warrior.

Choreographed fight scene with actors.

Set location, Ojo Encino, New Mexico USA

Kialo Winters going through production expectations and safety procedures.

June Winters and Lavencie Cayaditto pose for a photo-op.

Kialo Winters helps with actor outfits.

iPhone 4S HD Video Recording

Apple, Inc. introduces the new iOS5 and dual-core A5 chip into the iPhone series of phones calling it the iPhone 4S. Besides having the same design as the iPhone 4 it is very different inside and gives notice to a lot Apple fans....like myself. Most notably the HD Video Recording continues on the 4S and it relates to my current project of self-directing a short film. Yes, you heard it here, I will be filming my short film off an iPhone and seeing the iPhone technology evolving does good timing for me to say the least.

I currently have the iPhone 4 which has HD 720p with a 5-MP built-in camera and is optimal for some of my projects, but the new 4S has HD 1080p with 8-MP! Will I upgrade to the new 4S? Probably, but I am leaning towards the other features of iCloud and the new voice assistant, Siri, to be my new companions everyday.

The idea of filming from an iPhone occurred to me when recording my 4-yr old learn to ride her first bike. I immediately started searching other projects that used an iPhone to create film pieces. I came across some rough looking pieces showing hard transitions and bad audio.

Then I found a nice clip telling the story of a grandfather and his granddaughter window shopping through their small town. They come upon the shop with an antique train and grandfather recollects his own childhood experience with his own train set. The transitions looked pretty smooth and I was impressed with the angles of shots. What really caught my attention was how the iPhone was small enough to be attached to the model train. It meandered around the tracks and we see a point of view that was pretty neat. Seeing this work I strapped my iPhone 4 to my RC helicopter. Unfortunately, I misplaced the remote antennae, so once I get another one from my local Radio Shack I'll post "flight simulation videos".