Trail Cam

Too Many Hats

This movie was simply a fun project created with a group of friends for the hell of it.

Because of that, we were playing with almost no budget and just seeing what we could accomplish with the resources we had.

I ran things exactly the same as I run a fully crewed up set… except a lot of the times we were doing multiple rolls on set.

The three of us that put this together, we're all wearing multiple hats every day.

The funniest part is we would make mistakes that would normally be second nature in our normal job onset. Little things, but noticeable to us as professionals.

It quickly became a joke that we were wearing too many hats.

Practical Effects

One thing director Chris Canfield was certain of early on was that we had to do everything as practically as possible.

There were a couple of reasons for this…

First, we both love practical effects. It's part of the movie magic. To create something and have it happen right there on screen because you thought through it and planned it.

Second, we knew we could control the practical effect. If we have a vision for something that requires a lot of visual effects that adds a significant cost that is hard to quantify without a VFX supervisor… which adds cost and complexity.

Now, that's not to downplay what VFX people do. In fact, they often make my life tremendously easier on set.

But on a project like this, we didn't have the budget and didn't want to risk inflating the budget in post based on a vision we had when filming.

So we did everything for real.

It was a challenge and a tremendous amount of fun.

Cold Overnights in the Black Hills

One thing that made this movie so accessible to us is our connections to private property in the black hills where we can film, multiple, looks and landscapes, all within a few minutes of base camp.

The unfortunate thing about our timing in filming this is that we found ourselves doing overnights in a valley deep in the black hills toward the end of October.

That meant that our crew was going to have to bundle up because many of the nights were in the 20’s.

And one particularly chilly night had us in the low 30s, but drizzling rain all night.

Thankfully, everybody had prepared and we had a cabin nearby where people could warm up and be comfortable.

We had to get a great cast and crew who took on the challenge and made that night such a fun time despite the physical discomfort.

And we served stew to warm everybody up.

On and Off Screen

When we first conceptualized this movie, it was going to just be four of us out in the woods making a fun little project as a challenge.

The heart of it remained, but the crew got bigger and the cast got bigger as the story evolved.

This meant, though, that we had written ourselves parts in the movie.

So the director and I would often be switching and running things while in costume, or right after or before a performance.

For me as a producer and AD it meant that I had to turn that part of my brain off once I called rolling on the camera and then had to switch for a moment and really think about what is next, what is required and what needs to happen.

It also meant that my tablet case was often hidden underneath me or next to me on camera so that I could reach for it to pull up a shot list or a schedule in between each take.

It was ridiculous and fun.