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DAY 3: Monday, May 24, 2010
By the time we get to the third day of filming on the Southlan-Films production of the Friday the 13th fan film The Man in the Lake, writer/director Ron McLellen has already put together a preliminary edit of all the scenes thus far filmed. This is not unusual considering the amazing turnaround time we had when we filmed the Halloween fan film Return of the Sandman last year. It was interesting to be able to view these scenes prior to going out and filming scenes that linked to the scenes thus far filmed.
Today is planned to be a light day as we are going out to Roland Force’s property once again to film the scenes where the Sheriff (played by Jim Adams) encounters Ralph (Dave R. Watkins) on the side of the road and Jason Voorhees (this time played by Kyle Thrasher) drags Ralph into the woods and kills him. The scenes where the Sheriff chases after Voorhees and is himself killed were filmed on Day 1 but now we will be filming everything that leads up to his death. We are also scheduled to go back to the Pop Stop (from Day 2) and film the exterior filler scenes of Ralph riding away on his bicycle (which we didn’t have on the original day of filming). By the end of today we should have two whole sequences of the film done.
Adding Thrasher to the film is a big coup for the production. After having played the iconic Michael Myers in McLellen’s Return of the Sandman, Thrasher is even more adequately cast as Voorhees. There is a slight difference in body type between Thrasher and Nathan Standridge (who is also playing Voorhees). Standridge is taller but Thrasher has the bigger and more muscular body frame giving him the Voorhees look of Parts 6 & 7 of the original series. Despite two actors playing the role I doubt that the regular audience members will even be able to tell that the role was played by two separate people. For Thrasher, this role is also preparation for his return as Myers in the proposed sequel to Return of the Sandman tentatively called Revenge of the Sandman which will film later this year before McLellen takes a break from his fan film trilogy of terror.
The location of filming on the Force property should be familiar to fans of the Southlan-Films production Bad Land as we filmed on the same spots used in that film. It was a great bit of homage that made filming that much more fun. It was an extremely hot day and we were plagued by the presence of ants and various other insects but that didn’t stop us from having a good time killing Watkins’ character Ralph, in fact, killing him was more exciting than killing the Sheriff (shoot me, I like to see people die in a horror film).
Although today was a short shoot it was a very eventful one as should be on the set of a horror film. Now that some of the easier scenes are done we will be able to more on to the real “meat & potatoes” of the film, which is killing everyone else!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
MAN IN THE LAKE - Production Diary DAY 2
DAY 2: Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The second day of filming on the Southlan-Films production of the Friday the 13th fan-film The Man In The Lake is also the first day that the whole cast will get together for the very first time. Unlike most writer/director Ron McLellen’s previous films, there was no script read-through with the cast, so, today is the first day that McLellen has even met some of his cast members. I cast several of the actors on this film having worked with them on previous films but during the course of time between the first draft of the screenplay (which I wrote) and the final shooting draft (which McLellen wrote) there were a lot of cast changes and a lot of roles that were cut from the final shooting script. Although I am not 100% satisfied with the final shooting script, I was well aware of many of the changes that would eventually happen due to the fact that I wrote and over ambitious film that probably would’ve been more a feature and less a short film like what the director wanted. I also wrote my script with no regards to budget or limitations, which is a big factor when you’re doing a film in which you will never recoup any costs, so, I’m not surprised of the changes to my original script.
I also was writing the script based on what I would want to see in a Friday the 13th film mixed with the fact that I was bridging my script with McLellen’s previous film Return of the Sandman creating what would ultimately end in a “what if?” Jason fought Michael Myers type film. Over ambitious is probably putting it mildly.
The scenes we are filming today introduce all the characters as they stop at a gas station to fill up on supplies prior to going to the camp grounds. In the scenes are the actors – Lynn McArthur, Cesar Aguirre, JM Finnel, Andrew McClure, Chris Whitley, Jim Adams, Dave R. Watkins, Josephine B. Lawson, and several extras. We had the luck of finding a location perfect for the film. It was an old “Pop Shop” that had the look of having been built in the ‘50s and was still operational. McLellen found this location due to the fact that he knew the owners and they were very accommodating to the film’s needs. This location is rich with character and even though the scene, as written in the script, is only a few minutes long I wished that we could have spent more time at the excellent location to really use it in the film.
I’m really glad I was able to get McClure and Finnel on board this film as they had such great chemistry in the Blank Stage production No Experience Necessary, which is where I first met both of them. Today was the first time that either had ever met the director McLellen so I was a little nervous on how the day would play out. All the other actors in the production McLellen had already worked with before so I knew they would be fine with McLellen’s filmmaking style, whereas McLellen’s style is very different than director Brent (No Experience Necessary) Brooks mainly because McLellen edits his own films and therefore only films the shots he’ll need to make the film look good. McLellen is very lax with clap boards and shooting “masters” and frequently shoots handheld to put the audience directly in the action of the film. Although there were a few shots done handheld a lot of what was filmed was done of the dolly because McLellen is using this scene as the intro to all the characters of the film and is building up to the impending chaos of the film later to come. All the actors did a wonderful job and elevate the film above the typical “teenagers in the woods” horror film (although that is still the type of film that this is).
Today is great for me as I get to see all the actors together and to get a cast & crew photo (the first one of hopefully many) which is something we’ve so rarely been able to do on a Southlan-Films production. Today just went 100% according to plan not to mention that we actually finished filming early despite having to endure noise problems when we shifted production to the exterior scenes of the location (something you just have to get used to on a low budget production).
The second day of filming on the Southlan-Films production of the Friday the 13th fan-film The Man In The Lake is also the first day that the whole cast will get together for the very first time. Unlike most writer/director Ron McLellen’s previous films, there was no script read-through with the cast, so, today is the first day that McLellen has even met some of his cast members. I cast several of the actors on this film having worked with them on previous films but during the course of time between the first draft of the screenplay (which I wrote) and the final shooting draft (which McLellen wrote) there were a lot of cast changes and a lot of roles that were cut from the final shooting script. Although I am not 100% satisfied with the final shooting script, I was well aware of many of the changes that would eventually happen due to the fact that I wrote and over ambitious film that probably would’ve been more a feature and less a short film like what the director wanted. I also wrote my script with no regards to budget or limitations, which is a big factor when you’re doing a film in which you will never recoup any costs, so, I’m not surprised of the changes to my original script.
I also was writing the script based on what I would want to see in a Friday the 13th film mixed with the fact that I was bridging my script with McLellen’s previous film Return of the Sandman creating what would ultimately end in a “what if?” Jason fought Michael Myers type film. Over ambitious is probably putting it mildly.
The scenes we are filming today introduce all the characters as they stop at a gas station to fill up on supplies prior to going to the camp grounds. In the scenes are the actors – Lynn McArthur, Cesar Aguirre, JM Finnel, Andrew McClure, Chris Whitley, Jim Adams, Dave R. Watkins, Josephine B. Lawson, and several extras. We had the luck of finding a location perfect for the film. It was an old “Pop Shop” that had the look of having been built in the ‘50s and was still operational. McLellen found this location due to the fact that he knew the owners and they were very accommodating to the film’s needs. This location is rich with character and even though the scene, as written in the script, is only a few minutes long I wished that we could have spent more time at the excellent location to really use it in the film.
I’m really glad I was able to get McClure and Finnel on board this film as they had such great chemistry in the Blank Stage production No Experience Necessary, which is where I first met both of them. Today was the first time that either had ever met the director McLellen so I was a little nervous on how the day would play out. All the other actors in the production McLellen had already worked with before so I knew they would be fine with McLellen’s filmmaking style, whereas McLellen’s style is very different than director Brent (No Experience Necessary) Brooks mainly because McLellen edits his own films and therefore only films the shots he’ll need to make the film look good. McLellen is very lax with clap boards and shooting “masters” and frequently shoots handheld to put the audience directly in the action of the film. Although there were a few shots done handheld a lot of what was filmed was done of the dolly because McLellen is using this scene as the intro to all the characters of the film and is building up to the impending chaos of the film later to come. All the actors did a wonderful job and elevate the film above the typical “teenagers in the woods” horror film (although that is still the type of film that this is).
Today is great for me as I get to see all the actors together and to get a cast & crew photo (the first one of hopefully many) which is something we’ve so rarely been able to do on a Southlan-Films production. Today just went 100% according to plan not to mention that we actually finished filming early despite having to endure noise problems when we shifted production to the exterior scenes of the location (something you just have to get used to on a low budget production).
MAN IN THE LAKE - Production Diary DAY 1
DAY 1: Saturday, May 15, 2010
Discounting all the preproduction work, the teaser trailer, and the pre-visual photos, today is the first day of filming on the Southlan-Films production of the Friday the 13th fan-film The Man In The Lake. The original story is by Ron McLellen and me with the final screenplay by McLellen, who is also producing and directing, among other jobs. The film is designed to be a short film the same as McLellen’s previous fan-film Return of the Sandman (based on Halloween) and the shooting schedule is only suppose to be just south of ten days.
The first day of filming McLellen decided to start things off right by killing one of our main actors. Of the actors on set today are Jim Adams (as the Sheriff) and Nathan Standridge (as Jason, although two people will play the iconic character throughout the film because of scheduling). The Sheriff is in much of the beginning of the film but it’s always good to start production on a horror film right by killing someone. Adams is in good spirits as today’s scenes require him to run through the woods, a lot, before being dispatched by a train spike through the head by Jason. It’s as good a way to go as any in a Friday the 13th movie.
We are once again filming at the home of Roland Force, an actor frequent in McLellen’s films (Jack O’Lantern, Hell’s End, Bad Land, Return of the Sandman) but his home has also been used in many of McLellen’s films including Bad Land, Jack O’Lantern, Return of the Sandman, and now this film. Force’s land is so vast that we could probably never see any of the same spots in any of McLellen’s films no matter how many times we return.
We are light on crew today as this first day of filming was meant to be fairly easy on all of us not to mention the production itself. In addition to McLellen and me, Eric Forest Burton is also on hand. He came aboard on the Southlan-Films team during the production of Return of the Sandman (not only as crew but as an actor as well) and returns on this film as well. On this production I am the production manager and still photographer (and generally anything else that needs to be done).
One of the reasons why we are keeping cast and crew down to a minimum is the fact that this is a “fan-film” which means we can never sale, distribute, or otherwise make a single penny on the production because the characters and rights all belong to someone (or some company) else. It would be against the law for us to ever make a dime off this production. We are making this film simply because McLellen has a need to produce this film not only for him but for all the other Friday the 13th film fans out there. It is also a good way to advertise the talents of all the people involved as well as meet other people who are enthusiastic about the same subject matter.
I’m not a Friday the 13th film fan. In fact, I don’t really care for many of them but I do understand why the franchise has so many devoted fans. I’m a huge fan of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and I have a huge collection of related memorabilia. The same can be said of McLellen and several of the people involved in this production. My number one reason for doing this film is because there is such a huge following for this franchise that doing a film based on it just seemed like a lot of fun and 80% of why I do low budget (or no budget as this film suggests) is because it’s a whole lot of fun.
That’s what this first day of filming was like – a whole lot of fun and it wasn’t just me that had a lot of fun it was everyone from Burton to Adams to Standridge and most of all from McLellen who was like a kid in a candy shop and wouldn’t you be if you got to kill off someone on the first day of filming? Every film production should be so lucky as to have as productive a first day as this day was.
Discounting all the preproduction work, the teaser trailer, and the pre-visual photos, today is the first day of filming on the Southlan-Films production of the Friday the 13th fan-film The Man In The Lake. The original story is by Ron McLellen and me with the final screenplay by McLellen, who is also producing and directing, among other jobs. The film is designed to be a short film the same as McLellen’s previous fan-film Return of the Sandman (based on Halloween) and the shooting schedule is only suppose to be just south of ten days.
The first day of filming McLellen decided to start things off right by killing one of our main actors. Of the actors on set today are Jim Adams (as the Sheriff) and Nathan Standridge (as Jason, although two people will play the iconic character throughout the film because of scheduling). The Sheriff is in much of the beginning of the film but it’s always good to start production on a horror film right by killing someone. Adams is in good spirits as today’s scenes require him to run through the woods, a lot, before being dispatched by a train spike through the head by Jason. It’s as good a way to go as any in a Friday the 13th movie.
We are once again filming at the home of Roland Force, an actor frequent in McLellen’s films (Jack O’Lantern, Hell’s End, Bad Land, Return of the Sandman) but his home has also been used in many of McLellen’s films including Bad Land, Jack O’Lantern, Return of the Sandman, and now this film. Force’s land is so vast that we could probably never see any of the same spots in any of McLellen’s films no matter how many times we return.
We are light on crew today as this first day of filming was meant to be fairly easy on all of us not to mention the production itself. In addition to McLellen and me, Eric Forest Burton is also on hand. He came aboard on the Southlan-Films team during the production of Return of the Sandman (not only as crew but as an actor as well) and returns on this film as well. On this production I am the production manager and still photographer (and generally anything else that needs to be done).
One of the reasons why we are keeping cast and crew down to a minimum is the fact that this is a “fan-film” which means we can never sale, distribute, or otherwise make a single penny on the production because the characters and rights all belong to someone (or some company) else. It would be against the law for us to ever make a dime off this production. We are making this film simply because McLellen has a need to produce this film not only for him but for all the other Friday the 13th film fans out there. It is also a good way to advertise the talents of all the people involved as well as meet other people who are enthusiastic about the same subject matter.
I’m not a Friday the 13th film fan. In fact, I don’t really care for many of them but I do understand why the franchise has so many devoted fans. I’m a huge fan of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and I have a huge collection of related memorabilia. The same can be said of McLellen and several of the people involved in this production. My number one reason for doing this film is because there is such a huge following for this franchise that doing a film based on it just seemed like a lot of fun and 80% of why I do low budget (or no budget as this film suggests) is because it’s a whole lot of fun.
That’s what this first day of filming was like – a whole lot of fun and it wasn’t just me that had a lot of fun it was everyone from Burton to Adams to Standridge and most of all from McLellen who was like a kid in a candy shop and wouldn’t you be if you got to kill off someone on the first day of filming? Every film production should be so lucky as to have as productive a first day as this day was.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
My Review of the (as yet unreleased in the USA) [REC] 2!
Watching the sequel [REC] 2 just this past week reminds me of how timid and inept modern American horror has become. The original [REC] was an amazing camera-POV film most closely resembling the films MAN BITES DOG, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and more recently PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and DIARY OF THE DEAD. [REC] is the story of television reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman who follow two firemen on what should have been a routine call to a tenement building. The situation goes to hell fast when they realize that they’ve been quarantined from the outside world and they now find themselves trapped in a building not only with the building’s residents but with a highly contagious disease that may become the death of them all.
Most American audiences were unable to see the original [REC] until its American remake QUARANTINE had gone through its theatrical run and DVD release. The two films are virtually identical except the origin of the outbreak/disease (QUARANTINE decided it was easier to make the disease a highly contagious form of rabies).
I was lucky enough to get a hold of a Region 0 version of [REC] (from ebay no less) prior to the theatrical release of QUARANTINE and I was immediately taken back by the sheer terror and vitality of the film. The film was a fast paced tour de force of suspense and terror. This was a feeling I thought was missing from the current slate of American horror films. Although I enjoyed the American remake QUARANTINE, its biggest flaw was having familiar actors in the film. [REC] was more suspenseful and terrifying because I was unfamiliar with any of the actors, whereas, QUARANTINE was littered with actors and character actors familiar from both television and film. This is the biggest problem of all modern day American horror films. They are always cast with rising stars and television actors rather than “unknowns” like horror films of the ‘70s to mid- ‘90s.
The reasons why I like [REC] are why such films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY work so well (and even the similarly executed film CLOVERFIELD). When I heard that a [REC] 2 had been produced I was a little apprehensive (kind of like hearing about THE DESCENT 2 and DOG SOLDIERS 2 and CABIN FEVER 2). The first film was so good that I didn’t think there could ever be a way a sequel could match the original. Boy was I wrong. When I heard reviews from advance previews and festival screenings that the film was actually really well received.
[REC] 2 takes the simple concept of the first film and turns it on its head. The sequel takes place just moments after the events of the first film in which a SWAT team enter the building with a medical official for the purpose of recording and documenting what happened in the building and how to prevent the disease from spreading. The situation gets more complicated when the SWAT team encounters the infected and realize that the medical official knows more than what he is revealing. To reveal the medical official’s purpose in the building is to reveal the true nature of the outbreak/disease and it really needs to be seen to be believed. Writers Jaume Balaguero & Manu Diez have crafted a smart new chapter in this horror saga that is far from predictable. Balaguero and Paco
Plaza, as co-directors, also change the style of the film as the camera-POV goes from one SWAT team member to the next creating an even more suspenseful film especially when the story starts to unfold.
Like the first film, I got a hold of [REC] 2 as a Region 0 version from ebay (which means you should all go out there and find a copy) mainly because I believe American distributors are slow when it comes to foreign films. I’ve picked up the following films as Region 0 from ebay prior to any American release – RED CLIFF PART 1 & 2, THE HOST, 4BIA, DEATH BELL, DEAD SNO, [REC], MULAN, Jet Li’s WARLORDS, and numerous others. I normally wouldn’t recommend this as I’m a huge supporter of watching films theatrically but the sad fact is that fewer and fewer foreign horror films are going theatrical and the lag time between when I hear about these films and when they actually get an American release has been way too long for me to actually continue to wait. If I had waited to see the original [REC] until its American DVD release it would have been almost two years after its original International release and almost eight months after the release of the QUARANTINE remake.
[REC] 2 is set for a limited American theatrical release this July 9 before eventually getting a DVD release and I’ve been hearing about this film for almost a year now. I just couldn’t wait, especially considering I bought the film for only $14.99 on ebay which will be about the amount of a movie ticket. When the film is released theatrically, I’ll probably still go see it (if it plays near me) since this is one of the few horror films I’ve seen in the last year that is actually worth seeing theatrically. I just hope that amid all the other dredge of American sequels and remakes that this film does not get lost or buried.
Most American audiences were unable to see the original [REC] until its American remake QUARANTINE had gone through its theatrical run and DVD release. The two films are virtually identical except the origin of the outbreak/disease (QUARANTINE decided it was easier to make the disease a highly contagious form of rabies).
I was lucky enough to get a hold of a Region 0 version of [REC] (from ebay no less) prior to the theatrical release of QUARANTINE and I was immediately taken back by the sheer terror and vitality of the film. The film was a fast paced tour de force of suspense and terror. This was a feeling I thought was missing from the current slate of American horror films. Although I enjoyed the American remake QUARANTINE, its biggest flaw was having familiar actors in the film. [REC] was more suspenseful and terrifying because I was unfamiliar with any of the actors, whereas, QUARANTINE was littered with actors and character actors familiar from both television and film. This is the biggest problem of all modern day American horror films. They are always cast with rising stars and television actors rather than “unknowns” like horror films of the ‘70s to mid- ‘90s.
The reasons why I like [REC] are why such films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY work so well (and even the similarly executed film CLOVERFIELD). When I heard that a [REC] 2 had been produced I was a little apprehensive (kind of like hearing about THE DESCENT 2 and DOG SOLDIERS 2 and CABIN FEVER 2). The first film was so good that I didn’t think there could ever be a way a sequel could match the original. Boy was I wrong. When I heard reviews from advance previews and festival screenings that the film was actually really well received.
[REC] 2 takes the simple concept of the first film and turns it on its head. The sequel takes place just moments after the events of the first film in which a SWAT team enter the building with a medical official for the purpose of recording and documenting what happened in the building and how to prevent the disease from spreading. The situation gets more complicated when the SWAT team encounters the infected and realize that the medical official knows more than what he is revealing. To reveal the medical official’s purpose in the building is to reveal the true nature of the outbreak/disease and it really needs to be seen to be believed. Writers Jaume Balaguero & Manu Diez have crafted a smart new chapter in this horror saga that is far from predictable. Balaguero and Paco
Plaza, as co-directors, also change the style of the film as the camera-POV goes from one SWAT team member to the next creating an even more suspenseful film especially when the story starts to unfold.
Like the first film, I got a hold of [REC] 2 as a Region 0 version from ebay (which means you should all go out there and find a copy) mainly because I believe American distributors are slow when it comes to foreign films. I’ve picked up the following films as Region 0 from ebay prior to any American release – RED CLIFF PART 1 & 2, THE HOST, 4BIA, DEATH BELL, DEAD SNO, [REC], MULAN, Jet Li’s WARLORDS, and numerous others. I normally wouldn’t recommend this as I’m a huge supporter of watching films theatrically but the sad fact is that fewer and fewer foreign horror films are going theatrical and the lag time between when I hear about these films and when they actually get an American release has been way too long for me to actually continue to wait. If I had waited to see the original [REC] until its American DVD release it would have been almost two years after its original International release and almost eight months after the release of the QUARANTINE remake.
[REC] 2 is set for a limited American theatrical release this July 9 before eventually getting a DVD release and I’ve been hearing about this film for almost a year now. I just couldn’t wait, especially considering I bought the film for only $14.99 on ebay which will be about the amount of a movie ticket. When the film is released theatrically, I’ll probably still go see it (if it plays near me) since this is one of the few horror films I’ve seen in the last year that is actually worth seeing theatrically. I just hope that amid all the other dredge of American sequels and remakes that this film does not get lost or buried.
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