The Cross for Seditiosa

Our campaign has grown a bit and that growth has made it possible for us to think about the most important props for the first Big Budget Production film about a Female Christ, Seditiosa.

There are a number of things that have to be fulfilled before we can even start, not to mention that the funds we are raising for the film will not be available to us until after the 8th of December.

We normally build the props considering the location where those props will be set. That means we have to find the location. When we made Justine, there was a big prop to be built, The Wheel. We knew the location, the same we used for Maleficarum and Le Marquis de la Croix, but we did not know if it was available. After we found out that it was, we made the deal with the owners, paid an advance to rent it and then, and only then, began to work on the props, specially The Wheel.

May I suggest you put a priority on getting the crosses made and some rehearsal shots done so they can be posted before the Indiegogo campaign expires. If folks see what the final product is truly going to look like, there may be a surge in contributions and pre-buys. I know you folks have other stuff in the works, but the Indiegogo campaign ends in 50 days. Need to get something out there before then.
wanttoknowmore

As I was saying, to build the crosses properly we need to know the exact location where we’ll be putting them. That is very important. We have to know what is around, what kind of vegetation if any, are there any trees? Big, small, medium? Is it a desolate hill without any signs of life? Is it a rocky place, will we need special equipment to dig nice and deep enough holes for the cross posts?

A very nice location was used in Romana Crucifixa Est. It was near enough for Jac and Amy to get there by car, work all day, and take the cab back. Done. And it look pretty, and there was a nice looking tree there that they used. The same location was used for two other films, one of them Maleficarum, where Amy is put to the fire. Unfortunately that place has become a suburban neighborhood with fancy houses it’s no longer a great location.

I’m reminded of the dirt road Amy traveled down at the beginning of Dead but Dreaming. I feel that rocky terrain might be ideal. Was that location in La Paz?
Jimbob

All the locations in Dead But Dreaming are in or around La Paz, including the ancient pre Inca ruins at the TitiCaca Lake, which are a bit far, so we had to stay there for a couple of days to shoot the scenes where beautiful Vero is sacrificed to the gods, she becomes a vampire instead and turns Asar into one as well.

The location you mention is very near the city and there are other great locations around that area. The idea is to pick the one that will have the better conditions for a fantastic crucifixion.

Here is a picture that covers a large area of where we shot the scene mentioned, with the horse, in Dead But Dreaming. The big mountain there is called La Muela Del Diablo, (Devil’s tooth) and the rocky road is the one where Amy rode her horse closely followed by Vero.

We are also considering another area with a very intriguing name, Valle De Las Animas, (Valley of the Souls). It is a beautiful place with many possibilities that cannot be seen in one picture, but we’ll make a video of it when we go location scouting to the place sometime soon.

The location is just one of the issues we must look into before we begin to build those crosses.

The other important subject to take into consideration is the look of the cross beams, are they going to be rough looking, like a normal log? Like in Justine?

Or are they going to look like the one used in The Last Temptation of Christ. It would be rough and heavy looking; but not too heavy because the women are not super strong.

We have to find the appropriate kind of wood for a cross beam like that, which is not very easy to do and it would have to be worked in a way that it can be set on the long post, which has to be made as well and under specific conditions, one of them is the length of it.

It seems like the campaign is picking up steam. Yay! I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t had time to check back on here recently, but I just added a contribution. Will try to add more going forward as well as continuing support here of course. On another note, the cross from Olalla looks great. It looks substantial and imposing and like a well-used instrument of torture and execution that has seen many victims. It doesn’t give the impression of something flimsy that was put together ad-hoc. I think the crosses of Seditiosa should look similar.
cruxlover

The cross in Olalla was made in two separate pieces, the post and the crossbeam and we took them both from La Paz to the far away location in Cayara, an all night trip by bus with the entire cast and crew. The post was very long and it didn’t fit in the luggage section of the bus, they had to arrange it in a way that it would go over the compartments of the luggage.

The plan was to set up the cross someplace in the countryside, on some hill, like a traditional Summit Cross you see everywhere in these parts. But when the owner of the Hotel Museum we were using as the location saw it, and determined the quality of the wood, he was very impressed and told Jac he could set it up in front of the colonial chapel at the museum, and even better than that, he would hire people to do the job. And so he did. The cross is part of the museum now.

And with substantial crosses like that maybe it becomes possible to raise the crosses with the ladies already nailed to them, as I believe it would have been done. If the cross has a stable base for the raising (which I think can be hidden with clever camera angles) the risk of it falling over should be nonexistent.
cruxlover

To raise the entire cross with a person on it is extremely complicated, really, and time consuming, particularly because there are three of them. And then there’s the cost of doing it, plus the insurance… just in case. If we had a million bucks to make the movie, then anything is possible because there are ways and there are ways.

The one time I saw the raising of a cross that way was in an episode of Xena. Quick, effective shots, lots of green screen, and nicely done and very fast. Every shot screamed the high cost of it. Not to mention the insurance they probably had. Most Hollywood movies about Jesus don’t do that. They go through elaborate set ups.

That was precisely the issues we had when we were working on the Via Crucis of Camille videos way back. The intention of those videos were to see how it was possible to depict a crucifixion in doable terms and with available means. In that particular case, just One person to be crucified and another to do the whole job of doing the crucifixion. It was obvious that the best way to accomplish the task was to raise the crossbar up the post and that’s the way it was done in all of our movies from then on. It was very dramatic, sexy and allowed for a lot of breathtaking and painful looking movements.

We will be scouting for the locations and searching for the proper wood and the artisans to build those crosses soon. It will cost some money, of course, we’ll have to buy the wood for three crosses, pay transportation expenses to the locations and things like that. Unfortunately the money we’re raisin for the film is not coming directly to our hands… so… we would need to raise a few hundred dollars, up to at least 1000 to work on that.. and one way to do it is if some nice people buy our movies for 29.90 a pop. Ten people buying a film each already means a lot to us. How about it?

Download our films

https://movies.redfeline.com

A friendly reminder, if 1000 people pre-buy the DVD for 30 bucks or the download for 25… we have the funds for the film! If one person puts 25,000 on the table… we have the funds!

It’s that easy!

I will be happy if by the end of the week at least 100 people pre buy a download for 25 bucks right now! Instead of paying 35+35 when it finally comes out. I would be even happier if 5 people contribute 500… or a combination of the two… or…

We have 49 days left for the campaign and still at 16%… let’s move it up to 20%!