DEFIANT

First off, let me say that this book is incredible. Amazing. Wonderful. Gut wrenching. Insanely good. Pamela sent it to me a few months ago to read, and I just loved it. The story is beyond anything I could have imagined, because she is SO good with history and painting a beautiful image on a hardcore backdrop. A love story during the French and Indian War? YES. That happened. This is the third, to date. And it is brilliant.

To say I’m in love with these books would be mild. The characters are so rich and passionate, every one of them. She fleshes out every man in the book, not merely the hero and his heroine. The secondary characters, by right of being fully realized, add SO MUCH to the overall story that you feel a PART of it. It is a very intense reading experience. One that is difficult to duplicate, and really I haven’t seen from very many authors. Anywhoo.

A year ago Miss Clare brought the idea of a book trailer up with me, we talked about doing something for SURRENDER 2.0 the reissue of the first of the MacKinnon stories. As we were both insanely busy, it never really got off the ground. We also chatted about it for UNTAMED, but again, life, as it does, got in the way.

Then a new model, Karl, walked into my studio and I saw MacKinnon. I couldn’t NOT see Connor MacKinnon. He was standing right in front of me. Over six feet tall of brawn and braids. OK his hair wasn’t yet in warrior braids, but I certainly saw them there in his shoulder length hair. I texted Pamela, sent her a pic, and all I said was Connor? That was Sunday, by Wednesday I was location scouting and Benjy was storyboarding. By Thursday Brown Bess the beautiful F&I era musket was delivered, and on Saturday we were at a lake, shooting for the trailer.

I did get to put the warrior braids in his hair. The best part about all of this is Karl is a great guy, well, if you know me you know I only work with amazing people. And he fits into the fray perfectly.

After the lake scenes we headed into the woods, shot a few frames there.

Then went to location 2, which was overcrowded, so we headed for a 3rd location. It was PERFECT.

Pamela put Connor’s tattoos on and we were off shooting the wild scenes. We had two pick up shoots after this long day, one in studio and one back up in the wild, and it was truly amazing.

I’ll just let you peruse the production stills.

But now, for the world premiere of the DEFIANT live-action trailer, directed and edited by Benjamin Alexander of Reel Films, in conjunction with Illustrated Romance.