2021 RECAP
As we say goodbye to 2021 and bring in the new year we just wanted to say a huge thank you to all our backers and supporters this past year. Our Kickstarter journey began just before 2021 and it has been an incredibly busy and exciting year bringing this project to life. We couldn't have done it without all of your support and patience as we've battled with the ever-changing COVID restrictions which has had a knock-on effect for all of our crew and cast. Despite this, we have had an incredibly successful year and have nearly finished filming, with only a few scenes to complete in the new year we will then be moving into the post-production phase.
We are very aware that we have not provided many updates recently and that our social media presence is not as active as it was in the beginning. Rest assured, this is only because we are so busy that we are struggling to find the time. To make up for this we have tried to summarise 2021 to let you know exactly where we are at right now.
Sunray 2021 Summary
Q1. The start of 2021 was dedicated to pre-production, finalising scripts, budgeting, scheduling and casting the incredible acting talent that bring the characters of Sunray to life. As the pandemic restrictions loosened we brought the cast together for a table read day, here we heard the scripts being read for the first time by the people that would deliver the lines on screen giving us a unique opportunity to make changes and discuss ideas with the cast. This also gave us an opportunity to try costumes and allowed us to give a weapons training day to those actors that would need it. We then moved straight into location scouting and ended up securing many quality locations in which our story plays out.
Filming commenced with the first scene being slated on May 20th at a yoga studio in Portsmouth. With a bit of creative set design we transformed this space into our therapists office. We then filmed for 4 more days during this block getting many scenes locked in early. Additional locations included a DIY store, a brewery back office and a caravan in the middle of a field.
Q2. A month after shooting our first 4 day block we were back at it again. On June 26th we commenced filming once again over an extremely long and exhausting weekend in an abandoned warehouse where we got some of the key ECHO team action scenes filmed.
Q3. During the hot summer of 2021 we shot the main bulk of Sunray over a two week continuous shooting schedule which enabled us to lock in the majority of the series. This block saw us filming in a wide range of locations from a takeaway shop, a local pub, a house party, a hotel, a church and a manor house (to name a few!).
Q4. At this point having shot 80% of the series the remainder of the year has been a period of consolidation and review. Being unable to schedule shoot dates due to busy personal schedules the final block of shooting was pushed to Jan/Feb 2022. This gave us the opportunity to review and edit some of the footage that we had filmed so far, needless to say we are so excited to share the results.
Lastly, we are very pleased to announce that in the past few weeks we have joined forces with executive producer Gareth Jones (Boiling Point, Acres & Acres, Renegades) who will be helping us finish the series to the best quality possible and distribute to the biggest audience we can.
2022 - What's next?
We hope to finish filming the outstanding scenes in Q1 2022, concurrently we are already editing what we have shot so far. Once filming is complete we will be looking to achieve picture lock with a final edit towards the middle of the year so we can let our composer work his magic. Unfortunately we still can't provide a release date as this depends on what avenue of distribution we go down in the coming months. We will however keep you updated with any updates when we get them.
We hope this small behind the scenes preview is enough of a teaser and we thank you all once again for your continued patience and support. Sunray is being created in our free time and on holiday leave periods between demanding full time jobs for all involved and we want to make sure that we deliver a quality end product without compromise.
For those of you that are still waiting for posters or if you filled in your survey after the deadline, the next shipment of Kickstarter rewards will be sent out in Q1 of 2022 so keep your eyes peeled for updates. If your shipping address has changed please email us with your pledge details and new address at info@sunrayseries.com or DM us on social media.
For regular updates please don't forget to check out our social media channels @sunrayseries and our website: www.sunrayseries.com
The Sunray team
