After nearly 4 years, Declaration of Independents, the first feature film project produced and directed by UE producer, Chad Haufschild, is finally nearing completion. Chad is currently in the last stages of post production and has promised an early November premiere to be held somewhere in Lincoln, NE.

“This project has been the best kind of film school,” said Chad about the long production schedule. “I’ve learned so much during this shoot, and not just about the art of shooting, but about the business of shooting.”

Declaration was shot in standard definition DV using the JVC GY-DV500 camera on sets and locations all over Lincoln, NE. This comedy chronicles the struggle of an aspiring indy filmmaker who desperately wants to prove his talent by making a feature film but feels as though his efforts are being thwarted by everyone around him.

“This film is not at all autobiographical!” Chad jokes. “Really it’s a caricature of what it feels like for a lot of low budget filmmakers who struggle to overcome the pressures from those around them and their own fears of failure. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ever felt the way my lead does.”

Chad wrote the film with his good friends and long time colaborators Steve Jackman and Jared Minary, both of whom took on main roles in the movie. “It was Steve’s idea based on the old saying about writing what you know,” Chad said about the script. “This is what we knew as entry-level filmmakers, and that concept plays a big part in the story. And it made sense to cast Jared and Steve in two of the key roles. I knew I could trust them to be there over the long shoot, and the characters are based on us anyway.”

“We brought Dorothy (Booraem) on early, too, as a script consultant and producer.” Chad added. “Dorothy is one of my closest friends and we’ve worked together on several projects before this one. Really we just seems to inject ourselves into each other’s projects. I guess that’s why we’ve finally made it official with UE.”

Dorothy also rounds out the cast taking the third main role. “Her part was pretty much written for her. She tried to convince me once that I should use another actor that auditioned for another role to take her place. I wasn’t having it. No one else could have played it the way she did.”

The project was scheduled as if it were a series of short films, each set shot as a short film. This allowed the producers to cast each set, schedule, and shoot the set before moving on the next set. With only a few exceptions, the supporting characters are only seen on one set making their commitment less intense then the three main roles.
“It was a great theory that worked only fairly well,” Chad commented about the schedule. “Once we were shooting it worked great. It was the time between sets that got out of hand. That was my fault. But my cast and crew were all really understanding and supportive. And even with the long schedule, there were no real issues with continuity. I’m the only one who got fat.”

Declaration of Independents will run just under 90 minutes and will be presented in wide screen format. Unfiltered Entertainment plans on a dual premiere with UE’s first HD short film Manna of the Damned, a zombie-comedy written and directed by Dorothy Booraem.