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Tampa Bay model Lisa Marie Lowrey photographed by Tampa Bay photographer C. A. Passinault during a photography session for Tampa Bay modeling resource site Independent Modeling in 2003. Photography by Aurora PhotoArts photography and design Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay Film Festival PictureTampa actress and model Sarah Bray photographed poolside in Tampa Palms (New Tampa) by Tampa Bay photographer C. A. Passinault in 2002. Photography by Aurora PhotoArts photography and design Tampa Bay A Dancer in a Tampa Bay event photographed by Tampa Bay photographer C. A. Passinault. Photography by Aurora PhotoArts photography and design Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay Film Festival PictureTampa filmmaker Chris Woods headshot by Tampa headshot photographer C. A. Passinault, Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design.Tampa Bay model, dancer, and choreographer Melissa Maxim photographed with Lance, a nightclub dancer, in a Ybor City nightclub by Tampa Bay photographer C. A. Passinault in 2002. Photography by Aurora PhotoArts photography and design Tampa Bay Tampa model and actress Roxanne Kowalska (right) and singer Michelle pose for a pre-production shoot of the short indie film “The Pledge”, in a preproduction photography session with the original cast by C. A. Passinault. Both Roxanne Kowalska and “Lowie” Laura Narvaez (not pictured) were scouted for the film at a Passinault audition. Casting crew for Passinault Entertainment Group conducting auditions for the Reverence feature film.Tampa audition photograph of actresses reading roles from the Reverence feature indie film project by Dream Nine Studios.Two actresses read during an audition for the Reverence feature film, a Passinault indie film.Tampa actress and model Harmony Layne poses for pictures to be used in the Tampa indie film, The Quiet Place. Photograph by Tampa photographer C. A. Passinault, Aurora PhotoArts Tampa photography and design.Tampa singer, model, actress, television host, pageant title holder, and entertainer Ann Poonkasem serenades an audience near Brandon, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area. Photograph taken by Tampa photographer C. A. Passinault, who was sitting in the front row judging the beauty pageant with a camera and a long, 300 MM lense.Tampa actor Rob Mussell headshot by Tampa headshot photographer C. A. Passinault. Tampa model and actress Sarah Bray during a modeling shoot with Tampa modeling portfolio photographer C. A. Passinault in Riverview, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area.Scream At The Wall Cameraman at the Horror and Hotties film festival in Tampa, Florida.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault

My Return To Making Films Begins This Week

This Friday, I will be picking up my new DV camera and my filmmaking rig. I will also be converting Aurora PhotoArts The all-new Reverence short film - A new script, new characters, new story, and new cast. To be filmed and released in 2009!lighting technology which I developed for indie filmmaking use.
It was quite an investment, but nowhere near the $10,000.00 for an HD rig, which was what I wanted to spend. The larger amount of money will be used instead for equipment requirements for Aurora PhotoArts, Eventi Events, and Eventi Stage.
The filmmaking gear which I have invested in is excellent quality, but the bare minimum required for making indie films. It should be sufficient to make feature-length, DVD quality films, but that is not what I will be using it for. I will be using it to build a portfolio of short indie films and experimental indie films. That portfolio will be necessary to sell more ambitious feature film projects to investors, at which time I will invest in top-end, HD indie filmmaking equipment. I have my eye on a certain jet-black Canon XL-HD DV camera which will cost me over $8,000.00 for the camera alone. 24p, interlaced HD... Ah, I can dream, for now, while I work toward obtaining that equipment and building the computers which will be needed for post production of HD content.
For now, I can work with what I will have. The camera system which I am investing in is a lower-end Canon DV camera with 480p resolution, and the capability to shoot in 16:9 widescreen (I may be booking a shoot on Thursday, and if I do, I may step up to a HD 1080p DV camera with a 24p interlaced capture mode, and also with 16:9 capabilities, which would be preferable). Such a system is capable of making films which could be shown at film festivals and blown up on large screens, but it will really be perfect for showing on the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival.
My Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival will become very important in the promotion, marketing, and sales agendas of my Tampa indie film projects. All of my films will be featured on the online film festival in one form or another.Yes, I believe in what I preach, and in my online film festival, so much that I will practice it. All my films, including my future feature-length indie films, will be shown on my online film festival, with links to higher quality, expanded special edition versions which can be purchased and downloaded. There will be some flexibility there, where I may elect to debut a film at one of my Tampa film festival events, and then make the films immediately available on the online film festival right after the debut. Two such indie film shorts in the can for 2009 are now slated for this type of release. Both Reverence, and my end-of-the world short film, will debut at one of my film festival events this year, and then will be available for viewing on the online film festival right after the film festival event. Other indie film shorts slated for production and release this year will debut exclusively on the online film festival. There will be several, and the first one should be finished and playing on the online film festival sometime in February 2009. I want to, at least, complete six indie film shorts this year, as well as some films projects which will be highly experimental. I already have tremendous production resources available, including more connections with professional actors and talent than any indie filmmakers in Florida, or any Florida modeling and talent agencies (I continue to refer great actors to worthwhile indie film projects. The Quiet Place - despite what became of it - obtained their lead actress, Harmony Oswald, from me. I just referred another one of my actress friends, Sarah Bray, to a film project that Chris Woods and his Icon Film Studios are working on). I suppose owning and running the top Tampa actor headshot photography company and some of the top indie talent resource web sites in the United States does give me an advantage. Oh, and I will also return to acting this year, too, appearing in many of my films, as well as good indie films done by others.
This is a picture that I took for the original cast of the Renegade Films short "The Pledge". I contributed actresses Lowie Narvaez, and Roxanne Kowalska, to this film project, and this began a long trend of me referring good actresses to worthwhile Tampa indie film projects. Some of you may be wondering about the Tampa film festival event which I mentioned. Is this Tampa film festival event the long-awaited Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series? Well, no, it’s not, although the debut of the Tampa Film Showcase would not be far behind this film festival event, and the film festival would be used to promote the imminent debut of the Tampa Film Showcase, in this case. The film festival which I am referring to would be a new type of film festival altogether, optimized for a certain genre of indie film, and catering to film fans, as well as potential film distributors looking for hot film properties to sign. On that note, that is all that I am at liberty to talk about, for now. I can say, however, that I activated two of my event teams last weekend for this project, have already secured a venue, and already have most of what I need to do it, including staff and equipment. If nothing changes between now and then, look for it around October 2009 (and once a year after that), and I am looking into debuting the Tampa Film Showcase in early 2010.
Many Tampa filmmakers have asked me why I have delayed my Tampa film festivals. Well, the main reason is that I wanted some of my own films to be available to be shown, and I also had to set up additional support infrastructure, too. Everything is now falling into place. Besides, with me, it is never a question of if. It’s always when, and although it does take me a while to get around to doing things, it is always worth the wait. I tend to go the long route to getting things done, and don’t take the shortcuts that others are so fond of.
One thing is for certain. Both Tampa Bay Film, and the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival, are very important to me. I have big plans for those properties.
So, what about all those short indie films that I will be shooting in the Tampa Bay area this year? While I am not at liberty to discuss most of them at this time, I can write about one. That short film is Reverence.
The original Reverence film project was an ambitious feature film project envisioned back in 2000, with filming scheduled for 2002. Its roots went back father than that, however.
The idea for Reverence came back in 1993, when I was working on Tampa indie films, working on television series, and acting on television.
From the official Reverence web site, circa 2002:

It all started back in 1993. Writer and Director C. A. Passinault, who was studying directing, television production, camera operations, and editing through the University of Tampa, was in the process of working out the treatment for a television series called Futura. During the creative process, he came up with an idea for a custom music video based around Princes' hit 80's song "Let's go crazy." He toyed with it, but did little to go ahead with production of the video. In 1994, while waiting on his brother to return home, he killed some time by walking through a graveyard, looking at the names and pondering the lives of people long forgotten. On that day, he had discovered not only a premise for his own life, but one for a movie, too.
Reverence started out as a small film which would have only been fifteen to twenty minutes in length. Called Bloody Mary in 1994, it would have been about a group of sorority girls spending the night in an abandoned house, a house that was in the middle of a graveyard. Of course, the fraternity guys would pay them a visit, too, and the ghost of Bloody Mary would wreak havoc with all of them after the girls unleashed her from a closet with an old mirror. A classic B movie set up, the story would have been simple, and if filmed in that time would have been shot on 3/4 inch video tape.
The idea, of course, was shelved, to be dusted off in early 1999. In 2000, a new treatment was underway, and the story grew. The first thing to go was the abandoned house, which would have been more appropriate as the caretakers residence in the old C. A. Passinault story "Grave Digger". Without the house, the idea of a mirror, and even Bloody Mary, no longer made any sense. With the discovery that another indie film production company, Renegade Films, was doing a film called Bloody Mary, and the confusion that it almost caused in the local entertainment community as work continued, the film treatment was renamed Reverence in 2001. Major overhauls were done to the story line.
One of his few projects that were more hard work than inspiration, Reverence took on some elements that would make it a very unique film, if not overly ambitious for a debut project. Realizing that the format of sending a group of girls to a graveyard to get killed was both shallow and overdone, major elements were added. The politics of the sorority were added, along with a larger back story that eclipsed the initiation-gone-wrong. Another element was taking responsibility for what happened in the storyline, which is often neglected in most films. With another philosophy of well-developed characters, and virtually no minor character roles (see the story section of this site for another angle), the script was shaping up to be a massive effort.
Ultimately, Reverence took over a year to write. It was clear to the first team of actors to read the 170 page Beta 3 draft that this was a different breed of horror movie, written in the vein of a psychological thriller. The script did not include any exploitive elements or contexts, making the endeavor career-friendly, and the ending of the story proved to be both original, and controversial.
Reverence was the first horror film for the thinking person, and catered to intelligence as well as emotion.
Dream Nine Studios, the motion picture production company of the Passinault Entertainment Group, had a real challenge finding good actors to fill the character roles in the script. So, in mid 2001, the Passinault Entertainment Group came up with the tough R2 audition series for all of its many companies and projects. After three auditions, the best actors in Florida were cast to portray some very special characters, and you'll get the chance to get to know these remarkable professionals within this site.
Welcome to the official Reverence motion picture web site. While we won't give away any story secrets, or trade secrets, we have included tons of information that no one has seen before. We hope that you enjoy the site as much as you will enjoy the movie when it is released. Feel free to use the menu at the top of this site to explore its many secrets.

Feature film projects such as Waveform will soon become possible. I had fun shooting this promo poster for Waveform back in the day. My friend, pictured here, is actress and model Roxanne Kowalska, and she is about to throw wet beach sand at me and my expensive camera. This was a fun day, in those days before the modeling scam wars and the present Tampa indie film war, both of which I am winning.This is what the original Reverence was all about. After five auditions, most of the sixteen principle roles were cast. After several drafts, the script was edited to over 115 pages. Reverence would have been a feature film clocking in at over two hours.
There was one problem, however. I didn’t have any cameras or editing equipment, and was entirely reliant upon a third party to help with production of the film. After going through two production companies, and stuck with a production estimate of over $45,000.00 to do the film, I finally had to cancel it.
I like the original Reverence script, although it is long, and had way, way, way too much dialogue (one actress, Roxanne Kowalska, slated to play character Amanda Emerson, balked at all of the lines, and said that the script was better suited as a novel than as a screenplay). I also like the premise. During preproduction of Reverence, I didn’t want to leak the script out, but still wanted to demonstrate some of the story techniques that would be used in the script. So, I wrote a short story called The Point, and began to turn it into a screenplay after the story received a lot of praise and favorable reviews. To this day, I have not ruled out making The Point into a short film. Now that I have a DV camera and the gear, I may consider it, although the story that it would be based on has been out for years, and it’s hardly a secret.
The new Reverence film would be a reboot. It would be a short film running under thirty minutes, and would only have a principle cast of three all-new characters (although I would add a fourth character if I opt for an alternate storyline which I am presently toying with). The film would be shot in black and white, much as the original Reverence would have been. The new story would be based upon the first act of the original Reverence, with elements on The Point utilized. The new film would be shot over a weekend in the spring, and would be completed by the summer. It would debut at the film festival in the fall, and would be available for viewing on the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival the day after its film festival debut.
The story for Reverence is still a work in progress, but most of the major elements are already in place. I should be done with the screenplay this month, and already have it cast. I also have the art direction for the poster, promotional material, and the marketing campaign completed, too.
Reverence will make a great short film, and I have some interesting twists planned. It’s just that, even after I get myAh, Principle, one of the feature films in my "Exploitation is not art" trilogy. This feature film project is still planned, and will focus on what's wrong with Tampa indie film, and how to fix it. As you can see, some of these projects, envisioned over seven years ago, were way ahead of their time. equipment on Friday, that a feature film project at the scope of the original Reverence is still beyond my capabilities. A feature film at 480p? It’s 1080p HD, 24P interlaced, 16:9 widescreen for feature films, and that’s the rule, although the camera gear that I am getting now approaches the capabilities of the expensive DV camera that we would have used back in 2002 (If I book a shoot and decide to pay double for the HD camera, it would greatly exceed the capabilities of the original Canon XL-1). In theory, it’s possible, but I would seriously wonder about the marketability of a feature film produced with limited technology. I’d also have to have a damn good script, at least another level better than the original Reverence script, for me to become bogged down in a huge feature film project.
For now, it’s short films for me. I can’t wait until Friday. I may have to take the new camera out into the wilderness and get some footage on day-one (unless I’m stuck shooting models this weekend, again). It’s been a long time since I made an indie film or used a camera for filmmaking purposes. The last time that I ran a movie camera was ages ago, and it was a $60,000.00 professional camera running on 3/4 inch tape. I miss those days, but a new era is now here.
Ah, another entry in my "Exploitation is not art" series. Net Worth is another feature film project which is close to my heart. The film version is a drama, but there is a stage play version which will be a musical black comedy. Both will work well.Ten years ago, I launched my first web site. We all know how many web sites that I have, now. A few short years from now, I will have an indie film portfolio with more films than any other Florida filmmaker, and all those films will be at the quality of the work that I am famous for doing. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and it is my hope that my films will inspire other filmmakers along the way.
LATE UPDATE: I completed the storyline for the new Reverence short film this morning, and added that fourth character. It’s good, although there will be some disturbing content. I will begin writing the screenplay tomorrow. Also, the more that I think about the 1080p HD DV camera with 24P and 16:9 aspect ratio, the more that I want it. Could you imagine Reverence shot with such a camera? Oh, and regardless of which camera that I pick up, Reverence will be shot in black and white, just like the original would have been.
Reverence will probably be my first short film of 2009, and I will probably shoot it over a weekend in March or April 2009. Still photography would be done by me during that weekend, and the poster and DVD cover would be shot at the same time. There will be a lot of behind the scenes documentation, and much of how it will be made will be published on the Tampa Film Blog (actually, much of this Tampa Film Blog in 2009 will focus on my indie film production work).
I will be taking my time in post production. For Reverence, I will be the director of photography, still photographer, director, writer, audio engineer, foley artist, and the editor.
Well, I have to get ready to begin work on the Reverence screenplay, which should be done by February, when it will be given to the actors as we prepare to shoot the film.

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UPDATED 01/01/11

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