| Q: |
That
was an ambitious short film. What kind of challenges did you have
making it? |
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| A: |
We
shot for seven days, with another three days of pickups. We have
some pretty good war stories. One thing that happened was that we
found out after finishing principal photography we were missing
two and a half days of production sound. A lot of the film is non-verbal,
but of course all the dialogue scenes were done during those two
and a half days. As a result, more than fifty percent of the film
is ADR. Also, the schedule was extremely tight. Too many long days. |
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| Q: |
What
was the budget? |
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| A: |
In
the neighborhood of $40,000. We had lots of favors and freebies. |
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| Q: |
A
question about the scenes in the rain. Did you shoot because of
the rain, or in spite of it? |
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| A: |
There
are two sequences with rain---one exterior and one interior. We
chose rain for the romance of it. For the exterior, the fire department
agreed to come out with their pumper truck. They raised the snorkel
over the house and made it rain. But they had to aim from a distance
to keep it out of the shot, which turned out to be tricky. For the
interior, the grips rigged up something that would dribble water
over the window continuously. It took a while to shoot that sequence,
because there's a time dissolve---we needed it to be dark outside,
then light outside. The next morning we found out we'd flooded the
downstairs, which was an antique store. Our insurance bought us
a ceiling, and some antiques. |
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| Q: |
Talk
about the casting. And what was your rehearsal period? |
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| A: |
The
three leads---John Barnes, his buddy Seth, and the woman in the
green dress---were all LA actors. SAG actors. We got a waiver so
we could use them. The rest of the cast we found locally, either
in Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis, or Chicago. For some of the bigger scenes
where we needed a lot of extras, we had production assistants on
the street outside our locations, talking strangers into sparing
an hour to come and be an extra. Believe it or not, we got a lot
of our background actors that way. In terms of the rehearsal period,
it was almost nil. It was a rough shoot, logistically, and I let
the rehearsal period get shortchanged. It was mostly confined to
the hour prior to shooting, while the set was being lit. It's one
of the things I will do differently on the next project. |
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| Q: |
Did
you storyboard your film? |
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| A: |
Yes.
The D.P. happens to be a pretty good sketch artist, but we ended
up using computer software rather than hand-drawn panels. It's neat
because you can scan your location photos and use them as backdrops.
Of course on the set, we trashed a third of them for the sake of
time. But when you've done your homework, you know the best way
to consolidate when the crunch comes. |
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| Q: |
What
program did you use? |
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| A: |
Storyboard
Artist. |
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| Q: |
In the credits you have a list of people with military titles.
Were they technical advisors, or are they listed for another reason? |
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| A: |
Both.
We shot at a working military base---Camp Atterbury, south of Indianapolis.
We chose it because it's an older base and has some vintage barracks
buildings. The people there gave us advice on certain period military
questions, but we also used them in the cast. One of the sergeants
you see drilling the soldiers is actually the colonel of the base.
We asked him on the spot to play that part. We gave him a vintage
shirt to wear, and scotch-taped some stripes to his sleeve. He looked
at them and said, "It's been a while since I've worn Sergeant's
stripes..." He was a one-take wonder. |
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| Q: |
How
long did it take the lead actor to learn to assemble that gun blindfolded? |
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| A: |
I
think two or three hours with an M-1Garand expert in Los Angeles.
He also cheated a little. You can see through that blindfold. |
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| Q: |
Was
it hard to get permission from the Army? |
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| A: |
For
a while, they were neck-and-neck with SAG for the most red tape.
But when it was approved, the people at Camp Atterbury bent over
backward for us. They enjoyed witnessing the process. One story
is that when we wrapped our first day there, the camera department
wandered over to another part of the base, where a group of soldiers
were doing artillery exercises. Apparently they let our 2nd A.C.
fire off the Howitzer. She came back that night beaming and said,
"That was THE coolest thing I've ever done in my life."
The producer and I just looked at each other, and I know we were
thinking the same thing---"We've already had to tell our insurance
company we flooded an antique store and blew tires on two equipment
trucks---how in the hell would we have explained a Howitzer accident?" |
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| Q: |
What
was the price for the use of the short story? |
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| A: |
Max
gave it to us for free. The challenge was in convincing him and
his people to let us do it at all. It was an incremental process.
I had to write the script to get them to say "maybe,"
then outline the production and potential distribution scenarios
to get them to say we could do it. The final part was that Max had
to see the finished film to grant his name. Somehow we put it all
in a one-page agreement. Max seemed to understand that short films
are basically a labor of love, so he was very kind to us. |
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| Q: |
How
long was the original story? |
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| A: |
Seven
or eight paragraphs. Mainly just that end scene in the train station,
with a couple sentences of set-up. We kept the same structure, teasing
the ending at the beginning, then playing it out fully at the end.
That's already in the short story. |
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| Q: |
Why
did you choose this story? |
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| A: |
I
was looking for material---either a short or a feature---and was
visiting my hometown in Indiana. I went to church with my now wife
and in-laws, and the minister related this story in the sermon.
The twist at the end got me. It made me question whether I would
have passed the test that the hero is put through. I thought it
would be great to make an audience feel that. |
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| Q: |
What's
the message of the film? |
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| A: |
It's
about how love and beauty fit and don't fit together. For me personally,
the message was also to pay attention in church.
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