BEHIND THE SCENES: EXT. STREET - NIGHT

This entry was posted on 10/16/2006 9:51 PM and is filed under production

Filming exteriors at night costs way too much money when you're making a no-budget feature. But we couldn't let a lack of money take away any of the production value that our film demands. There's no such thing as "impossible" when you can always come up with a creative way over, around or through a problem.

First, we needed to film on the streets of Downtown Tucson and that meant getting a permit. In Tucson, those are free, once you have production insurance. But it didn't end there, we needed to block off a street with barricades and that costs even more money and more time with the red tape of getting "detour" routes approved by the City. That has a fee attached to it too. Then you need to rent enough lights to fill the entire street plus rent the generator to power all of those lights. Now, we're looking at a night that might cost you over a thousand dollars, American. Another hitch in the plan was that only hours earlier, the City of Tucson made a major revision to the permit process to film. My Producer, Gabriele Andres managed to navigate the new process within an hour with the help of Peter Catalanotte, of the Tucson Film Office and got us the go-ahead for the night shoot.

Since we don't happen to have an "extra" grand in our budget, we had to get creative. How we solved that problem was to find a downtown street that was already blocked off with barricades set up for another construction job. We found one right outside an old mortuary. Is that too perfect, or what?

But how do you get around renting movie lights and a generator? All that lighting and power cost us less than a hundred dollars by renting a construction light tower that has a diesel generator at its base. It's several times stronger than anything we could afford to rent and it lit up half the city. We hitched the whole thing to the trailer ball on the step bumper of my Ford Explorer and off we went to film.

The results we got look exactly like a feature film is supposed to look, but without the hefty price tag.

 
Special Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra sets up his mutant factory in Area 51.
Security Officer Rico Valdez and Actress/Stuntwoman Dominique Borrego in the staging area.
Actor Julio Garcia in partial makeup.
Actor Roy Patterson and James Arnett going over Lionel's escape from the "Diseased" scene.
Security Officer Frank Valdez with Assistant Director Michael Distel and Actor Roy Patterson.
Special FX Makeup Artist Danny Hernandez transforms Actress/Stuntwoman Dominique Borrego from beautiful young woman into a diseased mutant.
Special FX Makeup Artist Danny Hernandez puts the finishing touches on Dominique Borrego.
Special Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra puts Actor Fausto Olmos through his transformation.
James Arnett moving the equipment onto the outdoor filming set.
Special Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra and Actor Fausto Olmos with Special FX Makeup Artist Danny Hernandez in the foreground.
Special Makeup FX Artist Danny Hernandez tacks the hair of Actor Julio Garcia with glycerin.
Artist Danny Hernandez  tacks the hair of Actor Julio Garcia with glycerin.
Actor/Stuntman Robert Linden and Actor Julio Garcia alarming tourists and pedestrians on their way to the exterior mortuary set.
James Arnett defines the "no-cross" safety lines to Actor/Stuntman Robert Linden and Actor Julio Garcia for the swinging meat cleaver scene.
James Arnett defines the "no-cross" safety lines to Actor/Stuntman Robert Linden and Actor Julio Garcia for the swinging meat cleaver scene.
Stuntman/Actor Robert Linden in makeup outside the old downtown mortuary.
Actor Julio Garcia offsetting the meat cleaver impact point to protect Stuntman/Actor Robert Linden.
Actor Julio Garcia playing "Victor The Butcher" and Stuntman/Actor Robert Linden given their "no-cross" safety lines by James Arnett.
Actor Armando Franco and Actor Fausto Olmos in costume and makeup.
Our Assistant Director for the evening was Michael Distel, field promoted from the ranks to do a fantastic job, as well as managing the diesel light tower.
Actor Fausto Olmos taking direction.
Actor Armando Franco and Stuntman/Actor Robert Linden taking direction.
James Arnett calling the shot.
Actress Sandy Smith-Distel put through the transformation process by Special Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra.
Actors Sandy Distel, Dominque Borrego and Roy Patterson on the outdoor set of Lionel's escape scene.
James Arnett filming Actors Rebel Gentry and Sandy Distel on the outdoor set of Lionel's escape scene.
Security Officers Frank and Rico Valdez on the outdoor set, keeping the peace.
Actors Sandy Distel and Rebel Gentry rehearsing in the staging area of Area 51.
Actors Sandy Distel and Rebel Gentry rehearsing in the staging area of Area 51.
Actor Armando Franco going over his lines in the staging area of Area 51.
 

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