E. Roger Mitchell still in a "Battle" movie

Check this spot out...saw it on TV last night...around 30 second mark you start to hear a familiar voice "...these aren't meteors.." and soon you'll see our "Step Off" star E. Roger Mitchell.

http://www.movieweb.com/movie/battle-los-angeles/tv-spot

So, despite the name of our movie changing from "Battle" to "Step Off", E. Roger Mitchell can be seen in another movie called "Battle"..."Battle: Los Angeles" that is opening 3/11 just a couple days before "Step Off" comes out on 3/15.

Great work from a great actor!

Martin Kelley
Producer, "Step Off"



"Yeah, I gotta go help save the world from aliens right after this shoot. So don't make me late."

It's now time to...Step Off March 15th!

I'm going to do something unheard of on this blog. What is it?

Well, I'll stop talking about "Battle" now.

Why? Well, the distributor (Lion's Gate) has changed the title of the movie to STEP OFF ...so please remember it!

Now you may OFFICIALLY look for it March 15th! Hopefully, it'll be EVERYWHERE like they say

Okay, here is the new trailer from Lion's Gate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDPZS-dBbB4




You say "Battle" is called WHAT now?



"Step Off" man!

We'll keep you in the loop as usual.

Thanks,

Martin Kelley
Producer, 'Step Off'

The Score and Music is Set!!

Okay, we've set the music for the film. It was a task and a half.

I just want to thank all the following artists who contribute music to the film.


SAMUEL ABRAHAMSEN (Composer)
MIDICHLORIAN
MIGHTY NETWORK
DJ GRUMBLE
CONRAD "HEADROC" CLIFTON
GSHARP
GREEN TEA
CHAPTER 13
MADDMANN
SHIN B
LORD KAYOS
MR. BOZ AKA DADDY FAT CRATES
L.I.V.E.
DIRTY DOLLAR$
REIGN OF TERROR
KING KATALOGAS
DAN PEDERSEN
WES P
MARVIN “CYLENTSOUNDS” LABRANCHE
SADIYQ BOOKER
MR. MORRIS
and
DJ DAINJA
with vocal contributions from
STEVE "B-RIGHT" GUZMAN

We're proud to have had these artist collaborate with us on the film.

I can't wait to let everyone else hear their talents when the movie unspools.

More announcements will be forthcoming sooner than you think, trust me :)

Thanks for continuing to follow "Battle",

Martin Kelley
Producer, "Battle"



Sarah Cooper and Muta'Ali Muhammad approved this list (presumably).

What gives?

"What's taking so long?"

I know that's the question on many people's minds with regard to the completion of Battle.

The answer is that there's a lot going on in post that is taking longer than we expected. So, we underestimated the post-production time-table.

However, the good news is that a lot of exciting announcements will be forthcoming soon.

So, please stay tuned and you'll find out here...like, Third...but 1st and 2nd are the filters prior to posting on the blog.

Thanks for your continued interest,

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle



"I can't believe it takes this long to put a few songs on a sound track...do you?"

BATTLE:THE MIXTAPE is Out!

Finally the Mixtape has arrived!

Hosted by DRES Tha BeatNik

Mixed by DJ Dainja

Here's the track list:



Available FREE for download from the official site:
www.battle-movie.com

Jammin' with Taurean Blacque on "Battle"

Jenique Mincey gets "last looks" before Taurean Blacque performs a scene at Circle Sky Records.


I told you that I'd post more about Taurean Blacque's visit to our little movie and now I finally can do so. First of all, let's not forget that Mr. Blacque was an Emmy-Nominated regular on arguably one of THE BEST television shows of all-time (yes, ALL TIME) in "Hill Street Blues". If you've never seen that show...well, let's just say in that unlikely scenario, you may have seen him in one of his countless guest appearances over the years on television or if you're a Sci-Fi/Horror or Nia Peeples fan (and who isn't right?) you may remember him from Deep Star Six. I wanted to ask him if he remembers working with Atlanta's own make-up effects Wizard Toby Sells on that one but we had a shoot day to get to in an open record shop no less.


So, as we're pre-lighting, Eddie (the Producer) keeps asking me if Taurean has called for directions yet...despite it still being well before his call time. He hadn't, but I tell Eddie not to worry as if that's going to stop him. Anyway, 5 minutes before his call time, Taurean arrives to the set...IN WARDROBE. We'd given him the script and character description and had asked for him to bring some wardrobe possibilities himself and we'd choose from whatever he had or whatever we had (yes, we had wardrobe choices available...we're ultra-low budget but not without some things handled), well, one less garment for Jenique to have to worry about getting wrinkled because his take on 'Blue' was perfect. He had two major wardrobe sets for the scenes he was shooting and he had great choices for both, complete with hats :)




AD Dave Watkins watches as Director Laron Austin lines up a shot.

So, after he meets our crew and chats with our lead HeadRoc, we're ready to rehearse the first scenes.

Taurean is off-book and at first just going easy to feel out the rhythm of the scene with HeadRoc.

He asks some questions of Laron and they discuss more about the characters and the scene. The rehearsals get sharper and more energized as we go. Still within a few minutes of our targeted start time for the scene.

Finally, we start rolling and don't stop til we're done with the day's shoot. Taurean brings 'Blue' to vivid life in front of us and everyone on set is "jazzed". Taurean kept getting better with each take and the important swing in the storyline is accented perfectly by the performances we got that day.

Even the customers of the store cooperated and they all wound up being extras in the different scenes that we shot that day. Just wanted to share the experience even though it's been a little while since this shoot day and of course finally share a few more images from the shoot.

HeadRoc and Taurean Blacque perform scene in Battle.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Never Enough Thyme

If ever there was a phrase apropriately describing life on an indie film shoot, this is it. Never enough it seems.



I have to say we've been pretty lucky and blessed thus far on the shoot.


And one of the blessings is coming up this weekend as we partner with the wonderful Diner Never Enough Thyme to shoot some scenes for the film.


You can find their wonderful menu and hours of operation here:
http://www.neverenoughthyme.net/


Atlanta consistently ranks high among film-friendly towns in America and great folks Like Michele Doyle are the reason why. She is helping us tremendously by allowing us to film in her establishment. It's not just a nice place to eat, it looks like it will be a great place to shoot.

We've got a heavy load to get through this weekend but having access to a great location is really a terrific jump start to getting it done well.

So, come visit Michele's place and then you can say "hey, I've been there!" when you see Battle in 2010!

Stay tuned....

Group Hug!! L- R: Muta'Ali Muhammad, E. Roger Mitchell, Sarah Cooper, that guy, Conrad "HeadRoc" Clifton, and Onira Tares on the Eyedrum Set of Battle.

Muta'Ali Muhammad and Sarah Cooper on the set of Battle

Martin Kelley

Producer, Battle

Police on the scene

Gaffer Dan Slemons sneaks behind our Police officers for a sucker punch...



...and they promptly arrest our Lead actor Conrad "HeadRoc" Clifton.




Thanks to our Assistant Director Dave R. Watkins (top L) and actor Philip Covin (top R) for taking the time and care to making the police officers look credible. I was going to settle for "detectives" :)

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Lenny's is wrapped

Director Laron Austin, Gaffer Dan Slemons, and Producer Martin Kelley on the set of Battle.


Well, we worked with Taurean Blacque on Saturday and we shot our opening club scenes at the famous Lenny's Bar on Sunday.

And I still am working from week 1 and 2 photos...really, new ones coming soon.

Anyway, a little about Lenny's Bar for those uninitiated.


Lenny's hosts national and local music acts each week from Rock to Hip Hop, Country to Mashup's.

And how's this for synergy...Lenny's is the venue for The Mighty Mighty Beat Down Producer's Battle the 1st and 3rd Thursday each month...which is hosted by Battle's own talented Dres Tha BeatNIK.

It's a great place to see a show and a nice place to film a movie as well. We're glad we were able to shoot at Lenny's because the scenes we shot were actually written with Lenny's in mind.

So, art imitated life again Sunday as Dres hosted our "battles" and another enthusiastic group of extras really helped create a nice hip-hop club vibe for the actors. Thanks to all the folks who came out on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

.
Now, on Saturday we worked with the talented veteran actor Taurean Blacque and he couldn't have been more gracious to us...I'll definitely talk about that day in detail in a future blog...Yes with more pictures


I should note the following Shake-up on the crew...Onira Tares became impatient with how the film was being shot and she took matters into her own hands much to the chagrin of Director Laron Austin (see below)


Of course I'm kidding...but Onira is playing a documentary filmmaker and she has shot some of the footage that will be used in the film.

Stay tuned as always...

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Taurean Blacque joins the "Battle"

Taurean Blacque joins ‘BATTLE’


Atlanta, August 26-- ReelOne Entertainment announced today that Emmy Nominated Actor Taurean Blacque joined the cast of “Battle,” the Laron Austin (“BeatMakers”) directed film stars Chris Burns (“The Lena Baker Story”, “Somebodies”) Onira Tares (“Jack Squad”) and Conrad “Headroc” Clifton. Scripted by Martin Kelley and Eddie Singleton. Executive Produce by Cassius Weathersby (You Got Served) Produce by Kelley and Singleton along with Kenno Rixson and Bennie Swint.

Taurean Blacque is best known for his role as “Detective Neal Washington” on the cop drama Hill Street Blues.

“Battle” is a coming of age drama about an unknown producer RIPPA (Clifton) who pursues his passion for composing music. He wants to produce music for the top rappers in the industry and be respected as a producer worldwide.

“Battle” blends the mood, vigor, and themes of “8 MILE” with the perseverance and edge of HUSTLE & FLOW” with the old school vibe of “JUICE”

About Reel One Entertainment

Atlanta based multi-platform content provider and Production Company, specializing in entertainment content, online Marketing, and Sales/Licensing. Reel One Entertainment creates and produces low budget, high quality, genre content that entertain, inspire and inform.

One more night at Eyedrum

Going into our final evening shooting at the fabulous Eyedrum Facility. They've been very helpful and certainly instrumental as a location partner for this film. Tonight we're creating a different atmosphere than we did last week and I'm excited that Reign of Terror's own DJ Dainja as well as Hylandaz' DJ Doc West will be making an appearance in the movie to represent Hip-Hop Deejays!

It's important to us to "get it right" in terms of the Hip-Hop Element in this movie and having real Hip-Hop Deejays in the place will certainly help us "get it right".

Don't have pictures from last week yet, but don't fret because when I get them in my hand, I'm going to go crazy with them and catch you up on all the production happenings thus far.

Was very happy to see a short article on the movie appear in The Hollywood Reporter last week and it reminds me that I've got to introduce lots of folks to all of you who've been following the blog.

Don't worry, I'll be working overtime on the blog when I'm not doing double duty between my daytime occupation as Clark Kent and my nights and weekends gig as SuperProducer for Battle.

Thanks for checking in and definitely stay tuned as there's a big casting announcement happening this week that we're all excited to share with everyone.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

Getting WREK tommorrow

What a week we've had.

We shot a lot of performance scenes at the Eyedrum this week and I want to take a moment to praise all the extras who came out...you all seriously SHUT IT DOWN!

Amazing work by all of you. It really created the atmosphere we envisioned when we wrote the script. Thank you so much.

Also, special thanks to Dres Tha BeatNIK as well in the role of Mighty Mouth...it was a demanding week for him as he was in almost all the performance footage. Excellent work DRES! Hope he blogs well of the experience.

The best part is that I got to peek at some of the footage thus far...AWESOME stuff!

Eddie and I are very excited. Hope to get pictures up soon for y'all.

However, tommorrow we resume and at my alma mater, Georgia Tech at the famous WREK radio station.

Plus we get to work with up-and-coming Rapper TRIMM from the might Battery 5 camp.

If you're into an eclectic mix of music...check out the station.
http://www.wrek.org/

and as always, stay tuned...there's a lot more news to come.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

What it's all about?

Director Laron Austin works with actor Courtney Gates on the scene.



It has been brought to my attention that we're operating a blog about a movie but we haven't discussed what the movie is all about yet.



Good point. This is what the movie is:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battle

LOGLINE:
A struggling producer dreams of winning a national beat battle contest to gain respect and possibly start a career as a producer.

This is a Hip-Hop film in the vein of “8 Mile”, “Hustle & Flow” and even harkening back to the likes of “Beat Street”.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's hard to quantify a movie though with just one sentence (or two like I have above) but basically, that's what the movie is about.

Of course that doesn't underscore enough that it's way more than that to the team involved. The writers (myself and Eddie Singleton) have been wanting to do a movie about Hip-Hop, our first artistic love as Hip-Hop group Reign of Terror for many years now. So now that we're actually in production it's been hard not to smile, Even when we're sweating logistics and schedules and oh by the way, Money. I've looked over to Eddie and seen him just cheesin' as the characters are embodying our take on the music we grew up living to create and perform.

So, just bear in mind that this movie is (to steal a line from our main character before y'all get a chance to see him perform it so well) "Hip-Hop in its purest form."

That's the reason you might find posts featuring artists or music that won't actually be featured in the film...because they relate to what we're addressing in the film.

Weekend 2 starts tommorrow and we've got some other news coming very soon as well about cast and partners, etc.

Stay tuned...

In the mean time, here's another picture for you.



Director Laron Austin (L) lines up a shot while Producer Martin Kelley (R) checks the schedule.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle

New Reel One Logo

It's the new style...Reel One Entertainment - Atlanta

Production starts in 4 days.

Martin Kelley
Producer, Battle