Shooting GAVE UP THE GHOST in One Weekend

The Gift of Ghost Giving Measuring THE JULIAN YEAR Before It M...

Shooting GAVE UP THE GHOST in One Weekend

Ordinarily, I devote quite a few blogs to the production of any movie I direct. In the case of Gave Up the Ghost, I posted a few blogs during pre-production, and now production is already over: we shot the whole thing - 19 1/8 pages - in two days, so this will be my sole production blog. When Mike T. Lyddon asked me if I wanted to direct a segment for his upcoming horror anthology film Creepers, I proposed I direct an adaptation of a Jeff Strand story and he agreed. Jeff and I settled on his comic tale "Gave Up the Ghost," which would require only two locations, and Jeff wrote the screenplay. He and I were slightly concerned the story wouldn't meet the minimum running time requirement (16 - 23 minutes), so he added several scenes which will probably get the biggest laughs. Thanks to these additions, I got to direct my first zombie, cannibals, mummies, sparkling vampires and Big Feet.

creepers final blue teaser

"Gave Up the Ghost" is a comedy about an aspiring novelist, J.T., who loses his novel when his computer dies (I found this setup all too familiar to real life). J.T. calls a computer repairman, Barry, to his home to try to rescue his lost file. Barry turns out to be a repairman-medium whose solution to J.T.'s predicament is to summon the spirit of J.T.'s computer. Ego crushing hilarity ensues (the ghost should join Buffalo Ball Busting - https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBallBusting).

Jeffand Drew

Jeff surprised me by saying he and his wife Lynne Hansen would try to attend the filming. They live in Florida, and had just visited Buffalo in November for Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival when we screened the short He's Not looking So Great, which Lynne wrote. Any chance to see them is a plus, so I scheduled the shoot for when they were available to travel. Jeff's script runs 19 1/8 pages (for production purposes, screenplays are always broken down into eights), and my initial breakdown was for three days of shooting: two days at my house, and a third day for a computer repair shop and green screen effects. I ultimately decided to try to shoot the entire thing in one weekend, which meant creating a computer repair shop in my house, but that's the magic of movie making. At one point, the computer repair shop, green screen setup, and dining room "set" co-existed in the same room, like a miniature sound stage. My revised schedule did not mean fewer setups. Nine and 1/16 pages is a lot; I typically shoot six pages a day on my features (but Chris Olen Ray shoots 12 pages!).

Jesff and Paul

This was my first time directing someone else's script. I decided early on to let the actors sell the story, so there are no crazy over-stylized camera shots; my job was to serve the story. When casting a film, I like to stay in my comfort zone, working with people I know I can rely on to deliver good performances, show up when needed, and stay as long as the shoot requires with no ego trips, complaining or nonsense. This is why I tend to write characters with actor friends in mind, and why I hate auditioning people. I cast Paul McGinnis, the screenwriter of Killer Rack, to play the ghost and John Renna as the computer repairman. For the lead role, I did something different: I cast a film student named Drew Bialy, whom I only knew from Facebook posts, a brief meeting, and a short film called Road Test, which I loved. All three guys have demonstrated comic timing in the past, and I knew I made the right call with our fist reading. Sam Qualiana did a great job as my Director of Photography on Dry Bones, but he's also an actor, and even though we've worked together on a bunch of films, I've never used him as a thespian, and wanted to do so. I felt he looked too young for J.T. (even though he's not all that young anymore...), so I cast him and Jessica Zwolak (who appears in Dry Bones and will essay the lead in Killer Rack) as the couple who appear in the added scenes, and made him my Assistant Director. Alexander Sloan McBryde rounded out the cast as the computer repair shop dispatcher; it's always a pleasure to have him around. My daughter Kaelin and A.J. Petrie played kids in an exterior shot (A.J. made sure to insist he get to speak)/

barry

I mixed things up a little with the crew. Rod Durick has been one of my go to guys for special make-up effects, but he's decided he would rather play with cameras than latex and goo, so I made him my DP. Nick Anderson volunteered to help Rod, and served as Assistant Camera and 2nd unit cameraman; we did have two units going at the same time a couple of times. Arick Szymecki has usually been part of a special make-up effects team, and this was his first time handling the gags solo. In these stills, the ghost looks somewhat like a kabuki performer; this is so that when Arick comps the green screen shots of Paul into the scenes with Drew and John, we'll get a cool effect. I brought Chris Rados on as Lighting Director, and added Scotty Franklin to help him. Chris Cosgrave is new to our group and fit right in: he recorded audio on set, and will be editing the film. Jeff, Lynne and Tamar helped as production assistants, and Lynn, Arick, Tamar and Kaelin played demon hands. Out of nowhere, Kelly Wahl offered to cater for us and did a bang up job. I can't count the number of my films when worrying about food has distracted me from what I needed to concentrate on.

mummies

Shooting was scheduled for 7 am - 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday at my house. We "made our day." meaning we shot what we were supposed to and didn't fall behind, on both days; we finished 15 mins late on Saturday and 28 minutes early on Sunday. The cast and crew were all on time and were models of professionalism. It's a great feeling when you don't have to wait on lighting, and when everyone gets along and can have fun while working hard. Most of these folks had shot in my house before, and we used Rod's PVC dolly for a number of shots. For some voice overs, I enlisted Paul, Jeff, Lynne, Arick and Drew's girlfriend, Stacy Kirchmeyer. I didn't give any of them advance warning, just called them over to the table on the spot, that's how I roll! John developed intestinal trouble late the first day which led to some delays and jokes, but we never fell behind. Not surprisingly, the one thing that we couldn't predict - the weather - caused us to re-shoot on Sunday, when it snowed, some shots we did Saturday, when it rained. We did one dolly shot of Drew sitting in front of my picture window, and each take ranged from no snowfall to light snowfall to no snowfall to heavy snowfall. That's so Buffalo.

cannibals

Other than John's intestines and the weather, everything went according to plan and ran like clockwork, so I don't really have any interesting stories. A chair broke under Sam during one take. My deaf cat ruined a couple of sound takes yowling. Kaelin ruined a couple of sound takes moving around in her bedroom, which we had turned into Arick's make-up room. Heavy production drama!

bouncing light

Everyone did a great job, we shot 19 pages in two days, and I'm confident we have a funny film on our hands. It was great seeing everyone, especially Jeff and Lynne. The only socializing I do tends to involve my productions or Buffalo Dreams. We ate well, and now Chris C can get start the preliminary editing, and then Arick can start the visual effects.

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