The unique premise and setting of these stories gave us the opportunity to get really creative with our production process and utilize a number of different resources throughout Los Angeles. After developing a visually stimulating concept, casting the perfect actors, and selecting seven different locations, we dove right into shooting across four jam packed days.

First day of shooting at El Matador Beach

Characters Gemma and Alex share a romantic moment

Capturing a scene where characters Harper and Alex make a grisly discovery

Sirens: Penn, Thea, and Lexi make their first appearance

Reviewing playback

Making it rain on evil siren, Penn

Working hard on the green screen sound stage

Characters Harper, Marcy, and Alex trying to get to the bottom of the mystery

A private harbor in Marina Del Rey served as the "Anthemusa Bay" dock from the story

Setting up for our underwater shoot

Gearing up for siren action

Main character Gemma discovering something startling during one of her swims

Face to face with a siren in her element.

Steve Roth working his camera magic underwater

TOH crew member, Abby testing out the mermaid tail

Master rigger, Adam stealing the show, as always

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The shoot lasted three days across four different locations. Check out the behind the scenes featurette below:

We scouted several luxurious mansions throughout the greater Los Angeles area, before finally selecting the perfect spot in Bel Air.
Brothers Steve and Chris Roth gearing up for action.
Adam Gross and Chris Custodio balancing the jib arm (plus a sneak peek of our BTS photographer Jared Votel).
Chris Roth demonstrating the proper way to move a glass with shear mind power.

For a scene in which Wendy and Finn take in the view of Förening, TOH brought out their visual effects wizards for some tracking, rotoscoping, background replacements and bird flock creation.

TOH shot some key scenes on a green screen sound stage, filling in the backgrounds later in post.

Amber Votel, Chris and Steve Roth, and Lara Ravdjee filming some birthday party pick ups.

Actress Heather Ann Davis posing in her most glamourous gown, styled by Amber Votel.
Our equally alluring TOH production crew.

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In addition to creating the thrilling trailer above (which has been airing on jumbo-trons in Time Square and Herald Square in New York city thru the new year), we also spearheaded the physical production portion of 77shadowstreet.com, a unique interactive website featuring state of the art 360 degree video technology. The online experience, which was built by InTheMo Interactive, allows visitors to virtually explore the ominous apartments within the vast Pendleton building, the fictional setting of the novel. The Other House tackled the logistics of the video shoots as well as the post production effects needed to bring the paranormal happenings to life. The ominous sound design was concocted by Darian Zahedi.

Silas's Desk - The main menu of the online experience

After exploring maps, photos, newspaper clippings and more, an online visitor is free to explore a total of 27 rooms in the virtual Pendleton building. Within each room, the user is able to freely control the direction of the camera with their mouse or trackpad. In order to achieve this immersive effect, The Other House employed a state-of-the-art 360 degree video camera. The camera, with its unique spherical design and 11 lenses, captures video simultaneously in all directions at once. When viewed in the proper web player, the video format allows users to manually “look” in any direction with their mouse or touch pad during playback.

The Senator's Bathroom - A user can move the camera in any direction during the experience

The unique 360 degree camera outputs to a wildly distorted video format known as “equi-rectangular” footage. The idea is reminiscent of the way a map of the globe can be peeled off a sphere and viewed within a flat rectangle setting. This format provided a host of challenges when it came to implementing special effects in post production phases as many conventional motion tracking tools cannot properly interpret the distorted geometry of the 360 degree video format.

Through vigorous testing and research, The Other House developed a host of new tricks for working with the footage, including techniques which would allow various parts of a room to be “un-distorted” temporarily for digital manipulation, and then later “re-distorted” back to their original format.

Sophia - makes an appearance from a distant past

In addition to the on-location room captures, The Other House shot on a green screen sound stage in downtown Los Angeles to film some additional nightmare creatures and apparitions featured in the story. The unsettling manifestations were later composited into various rooms throughout the 360 degree experience.

Sally has a particularly nasty experience in her kitchen

Cale Thomas assisted once again with his killer make up skills, turning actor Vinnie Van Hinte, into a ghoulish figure. Check out the time-lapse of parts of the make up process and shoot below!

To achieve the size, scope and opulence described in the novel The Other House captured 27 different interiors across seven unique locations in the greater Los Angeles area. Each room provides numerous visual effects allowing viewers a glimpse of the terrifying events that unfold in full for readers of 77 Shadow Street.

A before and after of the Pendleton Elevator. Mirrors were replaced with bird murals created by John Votel, as described in the book.

The novels of Dean Koontz have sold more than 400,000,000 copies to date. Thirteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. His books have also been major bestsellers in coun­tries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.

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Many of the fledglings and villains are marked with detailed tattoos on their faces and various parts of their bodies. This provided to be quite a challenge and a race against time to get so many characters tatted up in time to roll. With the help of talented effects makeup artists, Cale Thomas and Chelsea Bayouth, we were able to recreate the intricate tattoos, which were painted on each actor by hand.

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Link to the article on LATimes.com

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We often storyboard our live action spots before shooting them. The boards provide a glimpse at the planned edit as well as a reference during production. Below are a few side by side comparisons of some of the initial storyboard frames and the final shots from the commercial.

Below is a quick video showing the before and after of some police shots we shot in our own yard.

To maximize a conservative budget, we utilized some practical locations in our home office in scenic Topanga, CA. It was a fun challenge to work within our own space to create some unique and pivotal scenes for the spots, and who can complain about working from home!? Below is Eve’s basement forensic lab. Set dressing by Amber Votel.


A clay head prop sculpted by Mike Damski.

Steve Roth and Alex Anam setting up for the next shot.

Moss, smoke, and some dynamic lighting were used to create the look of a Louisiana swamp.

Shooting another take of the swamp scene.

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The story takes place in Las Vegas where Abigail, a lethal vixen raised by Daimons, is on the prowl seeking revenge on Jess “Sundown” Brady, a strong, sexy, outlaw cowboy turned Dark Hunter.

If you know the work of Sherrilyn Kenyon, then you know she has an epic collection of colorful characters. Our creative director and stylist, Amber Votel crafted distinct looks for each of these characters ranging from rustic Native American warriors to classical Grecian deities and everything in between. But before the real fun begins, everything first starts with a script and some storyboards. Below are a couple side by side comparisons of some of the boards and the final frames from the commercial.

Chris Roth, our Director and head animator did all the post vfx effects work. Below are some examples of the raw footage next to the finalized shots with all the backgrounds and post magic implemented.

The production was shot over two days entirely on a green screen soundstage in Los Angeles. Our amazing cast and crew made this shoot extra fun over the holiday weekend. Check out some behind the scenes photos below.

Chris and Steve glued to the monitor

Sundown Brady getting a touch up

Shooting Sundown Brady's closeup

Shooting Artemis

Amber and Quinn making Artemis's gown flow

Setting up for a dolly shot

Chris directing Abigail

Shooting Abigail's closeup

Prepping the water light effect

Resetting for another take

Shooting Sundown Brady and Sasha

Lara overseeing a lighting setup

Adam fine-tuning the whirly-gag

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The time lapse video below condenses the entire 7 hour shoot into a 1:42 long video.

We found a fantastic Downtown L.A. location which provided a great deal of creative freedom for the look of the commercial. Our Director of Photography, Steve Roth, filmed a birds-eye shot from the roof to really drive home the drama of this mysterious murder investigation.

To achieve the desired look of the spot, colorization and lens flare enhancement in post played key roles.

Rizzoli and Isles have just arrived and are checking the scene for evidence and clues.

Don’t mess with the men of the law.

Pick up shots taken in LA’s Chinatown were used as background imagery in the commercial.

And some more production photos:

The Roth brothers at work.



Balancing the Steadicam.

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“May 12th, 2011 – TOH is featured on TalentHouse.com.”

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After receiving final approval on our script, we began casting our talent. Over the course of two audition days, we saw over 60 individuals until finally settling on the seven who appear in the final 30 second spot (not counting extra demons).

In a similar process to The League, our entire production took place on a green screen sound stage in downtown LA, over the course of three days. A great deal of attention was placed on the lighting, which can make or break the final outcome when other elements and backgrounds are added to the scenes in post.

[above] an example of the many layers and elements that can go into each shot, this one had over 40.

The story takes place at the infamous “Sanctuary” -a fictional bar in New Orleans where all of the super human individuals tend to hang out. Starting with a picture provided by the author (below), I was able to achieve our opening shot by working some “day for night” magic, and adding other elements, such as sky, street, lights and fog into the scene.

For the shot of Dev in front of the bar, we opted to use a practical set piece. This was necessary in order to capture the headlights from the motorcycle accurately as they played across Dev and the entrance to the bar behind him. The signage and bar interior were added in post.

For a scene in which Chi, Samia, and Nick are cornered by a group of approaching Daimons, we broke the shot up by shooting the heroes separately from the bad guys. In post, they were then placed together and combined with various photos and textures which were lit virtually.

A screenshot of a typical day in the world of Adobe After Effects.

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