The movie that ended up taking more than half of our senior year at high school to complete, was originally intended to be the first of 3 short movies Scott and I planned to make during the year. People had continuously been asking the pair of us, because of the success of "The Duel", when we would make our next project. Scott and I decided we would resurrect an old story we had once thought up as a creative writing project for Scott.
I began to write the script. Our initial plan was to make a 20-minute film. As more and more people said they wanted to be in it, I found myself adding scenes to make room for more characters.
By mid-October 2007, the script was already 50 pages, and I suspected the movie would now run close to 40 or 50 minutes. Scott and I initially aimed to release it by December.
The audition process began, and what a process it was. Interest in the movie was not as high straight away as we had anticipated. I knew I wanted Scott to play the lead, he agreed, but filling the other parts was far tougher. Most of the actors who initially showed to audition were all female. And we had several male parts that required filling.
Most parts, we simply gave out to people we thought would fit the bill. This is how Amanda Robinson and Mike Lucio came to receive their characters. Although I specifically had Greg Sobotka in mind for the part of Carter, he gave a reading anyway, and that matter was settled. Mark Inga was similarly just given a role, but he became one of our players who could never meet the requirements of our scheduling. His replacement would be Pat Pait, a man we collected on the spot, the day his scene NEEDED to be filmed.
Filling the part of Niki, lead character Jack's wife, proved most difficult. All the actresses vying for the role were too young or did not quite possess the right attitude needed. Eventually the choice came down to 2 very different actresses: Emma Dellagatta and Eugenia Codjoe. Scott, Matt Arnold (our co-producer) and I decided to role with Emma. After 2 months into the shoot, she had had too many scheduling conflicts with our desired shoot and we had to regrettably let her go. Eugenia was given back the role.
As to the part I had most worried over, that of the second lead, betrayed hit man Sam, Scott and I were given a blessing. It was just one of those random chance acts, that are never quite explainable, that Joe Stark came seeking an audition. Initially, I was unimpressed with his reading, but from his first day on set until the film's opening, Joe was the movie's consummate scene-stealer. His high energy, charisma, and ability to instill terror and menace into the simplest of gestures (the click of a lighter; something that became infamous in the school after the movie debuted), played well with Scott's quiet, brooding persona. It was Scott who insisted to me that Joe get the part, and this move paid off in spades.
As production rolled on, more and more scenes became added, the release date was further pushed back, and Scott went through great lengths of trouble to get us the proper locations required for filming. Another recast was required when we substituted Matt Arnold for Greg Sobotka (who luckily helped a great deal with our cinematography towards productions final days), and John Chichin for Frank Disoma.
Well that's all for now people. Part IV will come, when I get some free time!
Peace,
Topher-Liam
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